40 K. D. Maclagan—Jeswit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. [No. 1, 
contemporary writers two historians who had exceptional opportu- 
nities for knowing the facts of which they wrote and who treated those 
facts from two entirely different points of view. On the one hand, we 
have ‘Abdu-l-qidir Badauni, the trenchant champion of orthodoxy at 
Akbar’s Court, whose Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh carries the history of 
Akbar down to the year 1595. On the other hand there is Akbar’s. 
abettor and favourite minister, Abi-l-fazl, the author of the Akbar- 
nama which contains a history of the same period down to the year 
1601. 
Badauni’s work first notices the introduction of Christian influence 
in treating of the year 1575, and according to that author the ra- 
tionalizing tendencies of Akbar’s Counsellors Abii-l-fazl, Abi-l-fath, 
etc., were due partly to the fact that ‘there came’ (presumably about 
that time) ‘a great number of Portuguese from whom they picked up 
doctrines justifiable by reasoning,’ ! 
The practise of Christian ritual followed soon after, for Badaduni 
tells us* that ‘the ringing of bells as in use with the Christians, and 
the showing of the figure of the cross, and the cunabula [kanabalan] 
which is their time of mirth, and other childish playthings of theirs 
were daily in practice.’ The words Kujfr shai’ shud, or ‘ Heresy became 
common,’ express the Tarikh’ (A. H. 985. A. D. 1577-8). 
The first Missionary at Akbar’s Court arrived in March, 1576, but 
the first organized mission was in 1580, and it is to this that Badauni 
refers in the following passage. In the course of his explanation of the 
reasons which led the Emperor to renounce Islam, he writes? :— 
‘Learned monks also came from Europe, who go by the name of Padre. 
They have an infallible head, called Papa. He may change any religious 
ordinances as he may think advisable, and kings have to submit to his 
authority. These monks brought the Gospel and mentioned to the Emperor 
their proofs for the Trinity. His Majesty firmly believed in the truth of 
the Christian religion, and wishing to spread the doctrines of Jesus, 
ordered Prince Murad to take a few lessons in Christianity by way of 
1 Bad. (Bib. Ind.) II. 211 (not 281, as printed in Blochmann) quoted in Bloch- 
mann’s Ain-i-Akbari I. 163. The fact is noted in treating of the year 1575, and if the 
Portuguese mentioned in the text came that year, they were probably private indivi- 
duals (artizans, &c), for there seems to be no record of a regular embassy between 
that of 1572-3 (Elliot, Hist. Ind. VI, 42) and that of 1578 noticed below. From 
Lowe’s translation, however, there seems no need to fix the arrival of the Portuguese 
in any particular year. 5 
2 Bad. (Bib. Ind.) II. 301 (304) quoted in Blochm. Ain I. 493. See also Blochm. 
Ain I. 618 and Progs. Beng. As. Soc., May 1870, p. 146. 
3 Bad (Bib. Ind) IJ, from Blochm, Azn I. 182. 
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