________________
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
TO THE
INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION.
PAGE 17.
THE EMPEROR AKBAR.
As the Emperor Akbar may be considered the first who ventured on a comparative study of the religions of the world, the following extracts from the Ain i Akbari, the Muntakhab at Tawarikh, and the Dabistán, may be of interest at the present moment. They are taken from Dr. Blochmann's new translation of the Ain i Akbari, lately published at Calcutta, a most valuable contribution to the 'Bibliotheca Indica.' It is but seldom that we find in Eastern history an opportunity of confronting two independent witnesses, particularly contemporary witnesses, expressing their opinions of a still reigning Emperor. Abulfazl, the author of the Ain i Akbari, writes as the professed friend of Akbar, whose Vezier he was; Badáoní writes as the declared enemy of Abulfazl, and with an undisguised horror at Akbar's religious views. His work, the Muntakhab at Tawarikh, was kept secret, and was not published till the reign of Jahángír (Ain i Akbari, transl. by Blochmann, p. 104 note).
I first give some extracts from Abulfazl :
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