A Short History of the Mughal Empire (I.B.Tauris Short Histories)

by Fisher, H, Michael

  Concurrently, however, from his early youth Akbar also incorporated into his household, court and administration non-Sunni people, ideologies and practices, to an extent unprecedented for either his Mughal predecessors or Delhi sultans. During his lifetime and down to today, those who regard Akbar as an ecumenical man and ruler have seen early Shi‘i influences on him from his mother, his guardian Bairam Khan, and several other close companions. Commentators who highlight Akbar’s later heterodox beliefs find them inspired by charismatic and eclectic mystics, both Muslim and non-Muslim, whom Akbar chose to meet.

  Further, many of his policies from this period explicitly favored some Hindus and offended some orthodox Sunni ‘ulama. From 1562 onward, Akbar contracted political marriages with numerous Hindu Rajput brides and promoted to high rank many of his new male in-laws and other Hindus; although relatively few obtained major offices in Akbar’s central administration, many led or served in military campaigns and provincial administrations. Additionally, Akbar gave substantial financial support to some Hindu temples (although he evidently never worshipped in any), ended jizya and the pilgrim tax on Hindus, and prohibited the slaughter of cows and peacocks.

  But Akbar’s prohibitions on cow slaughter and temple destruction did not protect Hindus who openly opposed him. In 1572, Akbar sent forces north against Kangra, a kingdom in the Himalayan foothills. After occasional submissions and then revolts, Kangra’s Raja Jaichand pushed too far, so Akbar imprisoned him. Akbar then awarded Kangra in jagir to favored courtier, poet and commander Raja Birbal. When Jaichand’s young son, Badhchand, rebelled, Akbar sent an army under the current governor of the Punjab, a Turk named Husain Quli Khan. Seeking to dishearten and punish the defenders, Akbar’s commander assaulted Kangra’s prestigious Mahamai temple. Imperial soldiers reportedly slaughtered the temple’s Rajput guardians, Brahmin priests and hundreds of black cows. A contemporary recorded: ‘Some savage Turks … took off their boots and filled them with the [cow’s] blood, and splashed it on the roof and walls of the temple.’8 The defenders finally negotiated surrender and the Mughal commander erected a mosque near Jaichand’s palace. Akbar continued to honor and promote Husain Quli Khan, soon awarding him mansab 5,000 and successively two governorships. In contrast, local Hindus reportedly cursed the jagirdar, Raja Birbal, himself a Brahmin, for these desecrations. We do not have evidence about how Raja Birbal reconciled his devotion to Akbar with these events but they suggest how contingent were Akbar’s policies and relationships with diverse religiously identified communities.

  From Akbar’s early teens until his early forties, along with his patronage of orthodox Sunni traditions and increasingly (but not uniformly) of Hindu ones as well, he also sought out intense spiritual relationships with leading Sufi mystics, living and dead. Significantly, he gradually shifted his devotion from the more orthodox Sunni Naqshbandi order favored by his ancestors to India-based orders, particularly the Chishti, who embraced a more incorporative vision of Islam, and refrained from overt political engagement.

  From 1566, for 14 years annually, Akbar visited Khwaja Mu‘in-ud-Din Chishti’s shrine in Ajmer—including a 1570 pilgrimage on foot, some 360 kilometers from Agra. Additionally, Akbar’s devotion to Shaikh Salim Chishti took material form in Akbar’s new capital at Sikri.

  THE FATEHPUR SIKRI PERIOD, 1571–85

  During Akbar’s thirties and early forties, he was exceptionally innovative, designing and building at Sikri his entirely new court and administrative city as the embodiment of his own changing policies and widening personal religious beliefs.9 Babur had built a garden at Sikri celebrating his 1527 victory at Khanua. But Akbar located his new city directly in homage to Shaikh Salim, who died there in 1571. Over time, Akbar erected for Shaikh Salim an exquisitely carved white marble grave monument in the courtyard of the vast new congregational mosque. As Akbar expected, his courtiers and amirs constructed their own mansions and gardens around the many imperial buildings. Significantly, Akbar, now more securely on the throne, did not strongly fortify Sikri (although the entire city had a surrounding wall to regulate entry). Nonetheless, Akbar kept his armies active, with pitched battles every year.

  On Akbar’s south-west frontier lay Gujarat, long frustratingly hostile to Mughal forces. Like Bengal, Gujarat produced great wealth from agriculture, hand-manufacturing and overseas trade via European, Indian and Arab ships. The Gujarat Sultans had briefly succumbed to Humayun but then reasserted independence after his expulsion from India. In Gujarat during Akbar’s early reign, the Sultan, locally settled Abyssinians (often liberated slave-warriors) and rival Timurids all contested for power on land, while Ottoman and Portuguese fleets fought to control the sea coast and overseas trade.

  Tomb of Salim Chishti in Fatehpur, Main Mosque, c. 1581

  In 1572, one faction in the fragmenting Gujarat Sultanate appealed to Akbar, who personally led a military expedition from Sikri that seized the Sultan’s capital, Ahmedabad. After receiving submission from the Sultan and most local rulers, Akbar returned to his new expanding capital, now called Fatehpur (‘City of Victory’) Sikri. Almost immediately, however, revolts erupted across Gujarat.

  Early in 1573, Akbar led another lightning campaign (dashing 800 kilometers in 11 days) that ended in his bloody victory and retribution: ‘Nearly 1,000 [enemy] heads fell on that battle-field and the Emperor ordered them to make a minaret out of those heads, that it might serve as a warning to rebels.’10 This was the last time Akbar personally entered combat (although he commanded military expeditions until age 60). Akbar then directed Raja Todar Mal to assess the land revenues of those parts of Gujarat and adjacent regions under imperial control. Nonetheless, Mughal administration in Gujarat remained threatened by local uprisings and periodic incursions from Deccan Sultanates and the Portuguese.

  Eastern India also remained dangerous for Akbar’s officials. In 1574, the Bengal Sultan repudiated Akbar’s sovereignty. Akbar personally commanded the siege and capture of Patna fortress in Bihar, then sent Raja Todar Mal to defeat the Sultan. Punctuating repeated Mughal battlefield victories were resurgences by the Sultan and other local leaders. Eventually, in 1576, after a hard-fought victory, Mughal forces executed the Sultan and reconquered the region.

  Map 6: Fatehpur11

  Nonetheless, eastern India remained resistant to Mughal authority. Imperial officials pushing too hard for revenues or obedience led to armed resistance. The largest revolt occurred when aggressive governor Khwaja Muzaffar Khan Turbati provoked an extended popular insurrection (1579–82). The insurgents again evoked Hakim’s sovereignty, supporting his concurrent incursion into the Punjab. Further, the prominent Sunni Qazi of Jaunpur issued a fatwa (‘religious ruling’) legitimating for Muslims the rejection of allegedly apostate Akbar’s authority. In response, Akbar personally led successful expeditions west to Kabul in 1581 against Hakim and then east in 1582 against the rebels. In 1583, Akbar strengthened Allahabad fortress to secure the central Gangetic plain. Eventually, Akbar’s in-law and leading commander, Raja Man Singh, refortified Rohtas fortress in Bihar and then conquered Bengal, Orissa and Cooch Bihar by 1592. Given the relatively small number of Mughal officials and forces posted to Bengal and their fragile and limited support locally, the imperial administration there remained insecure. Each time Mughal forces reconquered, they had to re-establish virtually their entire administration; eastern India remained unsettled well beyond Akbar’s reign. Even as Akbar led or dispatched military campaigns, he continued to construct Fatehpur to reflect his shifting ideologies.

  During Akbar’s early years in Fatehpur, he continued to respect orthodox Sunni traditions. A central religious obligation for all capable Muslims is the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Akbar himself once dressed as a pilgrim and symbolically set out for Mecca, allowing himself to be dissuaded by courtiers concerned about such an extended absence. From 1576, Akbar officially subsidized the annual Hajj from Hindustan. Many of Akbar’s family, attendants and most dangerous enemies received his permi
ssion to pilgrimage to Mecca or settle there. Notably, Akbar approved the Hajj of at least one wife, Salima Sultana Begum (thereafter known as Hajji Begum), and his paternal aunt, Gulbadan Begum, which took seven years to complete. Typically Hajjis encountered various obstacles, including uncooperative Portuguese and Ottoman officials.

  Mughal pilgrims faced growing resistance from Ottoman governors of Mecca. They reported that Mughal visitors distributed so much charity as to disrupt the local economy, remained too long, did not respect Ottoman sovereignty, and were spying for a joint Mughal-Portuguese invasion of Yemen.12 Indeed, some Mughal officials did discuss an alliance with the Portuguese against the Ottoman Empire, although other Mughal officials in Gujarat also repeatedly clashed with the Portuguese.

  In 1581, Akbar ceased underwriting the Hajj. He resented the demeaning necessity to seek unreliable Portuguese protection while crossing the Indian Ocean (or uncertain Safavid permission for the more onerous overland route) and then submit to Ottoman authority once there. In 1582, Akbar wrote to the hereditary Sharifs of Mecca (who governed under the Ottomans) diplomatically apologizing for the absence of a Mughal Hajj party the previous year and also requesting written receipts for his lavish financial donations, which remained unacknowledged and unaccounted for.14 Despite this deferential letter, Akbar never sponsored another Hajj (although many courtiers went anyway). His personal and political policies by this time had largely shifted away from orthodox Islamic practices, as his Fatehpur palace complex reveals.

  Rare Partly Surviving Fatehpur Interior Wall Fresco (detail)13

  Akbar constructed about 60 free-standing structures, each reflecting his current ideologies and architectural taste. Some evidently served the same purposes as their counterparts in Agra, including a diwan-i am, diwan-i khas, ghusal-khana, harem, hamam and karkhanas. But in Fatehpur, some had distinctive architectural forms. About 40 structures remain standing (in remarkably good condition four centuries later and mostly unchanged by later reconstruction) and contemporary paintings and narratives described some of them. Nonetheless, Akbar was so innovative that today’s scholars cannot concur about which structure housed which function, with widely varied names now applied to many buildings. Further, while the red sandstone exteriors are mainly intact, most decorative and religious paintings on interior walls have faded, while the cloth and wood canopies, partitions and furnishings that shaped their use are gone.

  From Babur onward, many Mughal palaces and gardens featured sophisticated use of water, often perfumed and conducted over illuminated cascades. Some water could be heated for bathing. At Fatehpur, Akbar dammed a stream and constructed a dozen step-wells with complex hydraulic lifting-systems and piping to supply water for drinking, cooking, sanitation, bathing and pleasure.

  His distinctive Anup Talao (‘Peerless Pool’) was a square 3,000 cubic meter reservoir with four walkways leading to a nine-square-meter central pavilion. There Akbar sat coolly, while courtiers, musicians, dancers, or other entertainers performed across the water before him. Famously, Akbar once filled this reservoir with coins for distribution in charity.

  Nearby, Akbar constructed a remarkable square, central-columned, single-chambered, two-story building, measuring 175 square meters. This building also contained four walkways leading to a platform—a circular dais atop a single, intricately carved central column. Apparently, Akbar looked magisterially down over assembled courtiers below.

  Akbar had two elaborate portals, jharoka, from which he revealed himself. From one, atop an outer wall, he appeared daily to his subjects on the ground below, who thus reassured themselves of his good health, savored his latest sartorial fashion, or worshipped him. Akbar’s publicist described this as Akbar bestowing ‘the light of his countenance’ by giving darshan (Sanskrit for the ‘auspicious sight’ that a deity bestows on devotees).15 From this balcony, Akbar also observed spectacular elephant and other animal combats. Akbar had another jharoka looking into the diwan-i am.

  Around 1575, Akbar built in Fatehpur another highly controversial building, called the ‘ibadat-khana (Arabic ‘divine worship hall’). This building’s location remains uncertain but it housed fiery evening debates among leading religious scholars and leaders, over which Akbar arbitrated.17 At first, Akbar only invited prominent Sunni ‘ulama and Sayyids. Representing various Sunni legal and philosophical schools, they disputed bitterly, as Akbar moved among them listening and also setting contentious questions. One difficult issue he posed was how many wives a Muslim man may legally marry by nikah. Since he was unwilling to divorce any of his hundreds of nikah wives, he thus challenged these orthodox Sunni authorities either to dare rule against him or else find a legalistic way to justify his condition. Akbar reportedly punished Shaikh ‘Abd-un-Nabi and other prominent advocates of Sunni orthodoxy who refused to approve more than four wives. The Mughal clan and most Sunnis in India followed the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence but, after much debate, more compliant ‘ulama found Maliki rulings that could be interpreted as allowing multiple temporary marriages, nikah al-mut‘ah (Arabic ‘joyous marriage’), which were legally contracted for a fixed period in exchange for specified compensation to the wife. Shi‘i theologians (evidently not included in these early debates) also accept mut‘ah marriages. The inflexibility of some Sunni ‘ulama and the unseemly casuistry of others apparently reinforced Akbar’s shift from his earlier conformity with Sunni orthodoxy and spurred his religious search.

  Anup Talao with Columned Building in Background

  Columned Building Today and Transected16

  In 1578, amid a massive qamargha hunt, Akbar collapsed unconscious, to the consternation of his attendants: ‘suddenly all at once a strange state and strong frenzy came upon the Emperor …. And when news of this became spread abroad … strange rumours and wonderful lies became current in the mouths of the common people and some insurrections took place among the [peasants], but these were quickly quelled.’18 Earlier, Akbar had similar experiences, although contemporary sources are vague about their severity and duration since any weakness in the heir apparent or emperor would be perilous for the state. This time, after regaining consciousness, he suddenly ordered the enclosed animals freed rather than killed en masse as usual, he designated the site as sacred, and he had the top of his head shorn (reportedly to enable his soul to escape at death). Akbar’s publicist proclaimed this a transfiguring infusion of the divine spirit into Akbar. Most recent scholars doubt a supernatural cause. Rather some explain this physiologically, for example Akbar was epileptic. Others use psychology, that Akbar was undergoing inner struggle to reconcile his earlier orthodox Sunni beliefs with his growing crisis of faith and mystical searching.19 However, no further similar episodes were recorded and insufficient evidence exists for definitive diagnosis four centuries later.

  Akbar apparently felt empowered by this experience. He was already extending his own control over the orthodox Sunni ‘ulama, whose services Akbar’s administration still needed but whose authority he was questioning. Some subsequent innovations arose from Akbar and his close advisors. But others came from courtiers hoping to anticipate Akbar’s approval or wishing his patronage for their own ideologies or factions. Since the stakes were so great, many competing factions maneuvered, allied, conspired or strongly advocated policies that they favored or would favor them.

  Many Sunni ‘ulama, like other religious figures, had received or inherited revenue grants from earlier rulers or from Akbar. Periodically, but particularly after 1578, Akbar ordered the Sadr to investigate all these grants, reducing or confiscating many lacking documentation or where the current recipient appeared unworthy. Akbar then lavishly redistributed grants to Muslim and non-Muslim worthies who earned his respect and demonstrated loyalty (some grants were for uncultivated lands that he wished to make productive, thus extending and developing his Empire’s agricultural base). Many ‘ulama who lost grants, and even some who received renewals, resented being judged by the state instead of just recognized a
nd supported. Additionally Akbar added to his many titles Amir al-Muminin, ‘Commander of Faithful,’ asserting leadership over the Muslim community in Hindustan and globally.

  On Friday, 26 June 1579, in Fatehpur’s main mosque, Akbar publicly demonstrated both his sovereignty and also his right as imam (‘prayer leader’). A few earlier rulers had personally done this, but no previous Mughal emperors. Court poet Faizi composed a khutba which Akbar recited, calling down Allah’s blessing on the sovereign (Akbar himself):

  The Almighty God, that on me the empire conferred;

  A mind of wisdom, and an arm of strength conferred!

  To justice and to equity, He did me guide;

  Expelled all but justice, from my thought;

  His attributes beyond all comprehension soar!

  Exalted His greatness, Allah-o-Akbar!20

  The last phrase (which Akbar also minted on his coins) conventionally means ‘God is Great’ but also, controversially, ‘Akbar is Allah.’

  According to a contemporary advocate of Sunni orthodoxy, however, Akbar’s performance went awry: ‘His Majesty began to read the khuṭbah. But all at once he stammered and trembled, and though assisted by others, he could scarcely read three verses … but came quickly down from the pulpit, and handed over the duties of Ímám …’22

  A Square Silver Rupee of Emperor Akbar with ‘Allah-o-Akbar’ and ‘Jalal-ud-Din,’ 33rd Regnal Year, 996–7 H (1587–9 ce)21

  Nonetheless, continuing this trend of subordinating Sunni ‘ulama, in September 1579, a mahzar circulated at court; this was an ‘attestation,’ a religious decree whose authority was endorsed by all who signed and/or affixed their personal seals. The original disappeared and the actual authorship was unstated, but Badauni claimed the handwriting was Shaikh Mubarak’s—allegedly the only one of the dozen signatories who added that he fully and willingly approved the document. It asserted in part: