108 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
Akberry because it is a work of great repute and of 
extreme accuracy, written by no less a man than the 
celebrated Abul Fazil, vizier or prime minister of 
Akbar’s court. He was the Burleigh of his age, and 
contemporary with that eminent statesman. He wrote 
the history of his sovereign’s reign down to the forty- 
seventh year, at which period he was assassinated by 
a band of robbers, on his return from the Deccan, 
whither he had been on some mission of importance. 
His History was published under the title of Akber- 
nameh, to which the Ayeen Akberry is a sort of sup- 
plement, although in itself a complete work ; and 
perhaps there has been none ever produced in any 
language which supplies such a marvellous quantity 
of information relative to the immediate period of 
which it treats, as this to which I am now referring, 
and from which I have so largely quoted. It places 
before the reader, as in a mirror, the whole economy 
of the Emperor’s regal, political, and social life. You 
behold the royal hero in all his striking transitions of 
character, various in its external aspect but never in 
its positive consistency, as if you had direct inter- 
course with the living man. In my judgment, it is 
by far the most valuable book ever written upon the 
subject of Akbar s reign, and certainly contains more 
information in a given space than any similar produc- 
tion with which I am acquainted. As it is a work 
not accessible to general readers, I have had the less 
scruple in making the numerous extracts, from which 
I trust the reader has received no less amusement 
than information ; and such as can command access to 
it, I beg earnestly to refer to the work itself. 
