1869.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 83 



In his opinion of the Islam, Akbar was also influenced by- 

 several of his courtiers, as Hakim Abulfath of G-ilan, who came to 

 Fathpiir Sikri in 1575, Mulla Muhammad of Yazd, and Mir Sharif of 

 Anml, who arrived in 1576. They were Persian Shi'ahs, the two 

 former very bigoted, the third a man of no principles. Of Brahmins, 

 three are generally mentioned — Purukhotam, Debf, and Bir Bar. 

 Among the £ufis, Akbar esteemed most Shaikh Tajuddin of Dihlf, 

 upon whom people looked as the greatest Qiifi then living, though his 

 speculations often wandered from the path of religion. Of Hindu- 

 stani Sunnis, the most important were Shaikh Mubarik of Nagor, and 

 his sons Faizi, the second greatest poet of Hindustan, and Abulfazl, 

 Akbar's famous minister. They were waiting to see to what religion 

 Akbar would turn ; and in the meantime successfully tried everything 

 in their power to increase Akbar's dislike to the 'Ulamas and the 

 Islam in general. Abulfazl, who had been introduced at Court in 

 the beginning of 1574, owed his success to his argumentative skill, 

 and was immediately fixed upon by Akbar as the man who could teach 

 the proud Mullas a lesson of humility. 



Akbar's dislike of the learned and the lawyers, and their con- 

 stant defeats at the Thursday meetings, lessened considerably the 

 authority of the Chief Justices of the Empire, and might have pro- 

 duced serious difficulties, had not Shaikh Mubarik, by a clever stroke, 

 transferred the interpretation of the law from the judges to the emperor 

 himself. The Shaikh prepared a legal document, for which he got 

 the signatures of Shaikh Abdunnabi, cadr of the realm, of QazL Jalal. 

 uddin, the Qazi-lquzat of the empire, of Qadr Jahan, Akbar's crown- 

 lawyer, and of Makhdiimulmulk and Ghazf Khan, the leaders of 

 the 'Ulamas. In this document they declared that, in consequence of 

 the serious differences between the several expounders of Muhammadan 

 law, after due deliberation, they had found it necessary, to ask the 

 emperor to assume the office of Mujtahid, or infallible authority of the 

 age, and they had agreed among themselves to refer to him all differ- 

 ences in interpretation, and would hold themselves bound by his de- 

 cisions for ever. 



It is impossible to say whether this curious document was of any 

 practical importance. Akbar publicly assumed the office, and very 

 soon after considered himself the spiritual king of the nation. If it 



