ers as was
the house of Timur as a whole. Against this view we have the testimony
of the conscientiousness with which he daily performed his morning and
evening devotions, the value which he placed upon fasting and prayer
as a means of self-discipline, and the regularity with which he made
yearly pilgrimages to the graves of Mohammedan saints. A better
insight into Akbar's heart than these regular observances of worship
which might easily be explained by the force of custom is given by the
extraordinary manifestations of a devout disposition. When we learn
that Akbar invariably prayed at the grave of his father in Delhi[32]
before starting upon any important undertaking, or that during the
siege of Chitor he made a vow to make a pilgrimage to a shrine in
Ajmir after the fall of the fortress, and that after Chitor was in his
power he performed this journey in the simplest pilgrim garb, tramping
barefooted over the glowing sand,[33] it is impossible for us to look
upon Akbar as irreligious. On the contrary nothing moved the Emperor
so strongly and insistently as the striving after religious truth.
This effort led to a struggle against the most destructive power in
his kingdom, against the Mohammedan priesthood. That Akbar, the
conqueror in all domains, should also have been victorious in the
struggle against the encroachments of the Church (the bitterest
struggle which a ruler can undertake), this alone should insure him a
place among the greatest of humanity.

[Footnote 31: A. Mueller, II, 418]

[Footnote 32: Noer, I, 262]

[Footnote 33: Noer, I, 259.]

The Mohammedan priesthood, the community of the Ulemas in whose hands
lay also the execution of justice according to the dictates of Islam,
had attained great prosperity in India by countless large bequests.
Its distinguished membership formed an influential party at court.
This party naturally represented the Islam of the stricter observance,
the so-called Sunnitic Islam, and displayed the greatest severity and
intolerance towards the representatives of every more liberal
interpretation and towards unbelievers. The chief judge of Agra
sentenced men to death because they were Shiites, that is to say they
belonged to the other branch of Islam, and the Ulemas urged Akbar to
proceed likewise against the heretics.[34] That arrogance and vanity,
selfishness and avarice, also belonged to the character of the Ulemas
is so plainly to be taken for granted according to a