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OF THE EMPEROR AKBAR.
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complete. The author intimates his having incurred the Emperor's displeasure by remitting his personal attendance at court, and it is not impossible, that his perseverance in a sullen adherence to Mohammedanism may have cut short the Emperor's patronage, and the history together. His acquirements. however, his attachment to the Moslem faith, and his reasonable regard for his own security, if not his own interest, render him a very valuable testimony; and we may credit the aggressions on the Mohammedan system made by Akbar and his followers, as he details them, and may also conclude, that he would not venture to pervert or misstate the laws and enactments of the reformer king. We shall therefore extract from his work the substance of those passages, which relate to the new religion of Akbar, in the order in which they occur.
The bias, which Akbar felt in favour of innovation, is said to have commenced in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, and is with great probability ascribed to the discredit brought upon religion altogether by the acrimony of the polemical disputes, which took place amongst the expounders of the Law and the Prophets. In the year mentioned Akbar resided at his new palace at Fatehpur Sikri', and in the spirit of orthodox
Sikri was the name of the village where Akbar built a palace, and the town that was formed about it was named Fatehpur. The two names form the modern collective denomination of the place. It is about 24 miles from Agra. Extensive remains of the palace built of sandstone still exist, and the Mosque there dedicated to Sheikh Selim Chishti, which is kept in good repair,
