Islamic leaders, their biographies and accomplishments - Saul Silas Fathi

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Timur in 1405, the vast empire he had created began to rapidly disintegrate, thanks to his immediate descendants who fought each other for overall political supremacy: in the process they only succeeded in diving the Timurid Empire into several principalities. From Kabul, Babar launched raids into India and routed his opponents with great skill and determinations before establishing Mughal supremacy in 1526. Babar, the founder of the Mughal Empire, died soon afterward without fully consolidating his new kingdom. Humayun, his son and successor, was too romantic, fun-loving and indecisive to make much of an impact. He also died in his forties without securing Mughal rule. It was left to the genius of Akbar, the greatest of Mughal Emperors and one of the most influential rulers of Muslim India, to fully consolidate Mughal rule throughout the subcontinent.

      Abul Fath Jalal al-Din Muhammad was born in Umarkot in the northern Indian province of Sind (in present-day Pakistan). Akbar was born at a time when his father had lost much of his power to his opponents – including his own brothers – before he took military action in order to regain his lost territories. Since he had few supporters in Sind, he proceeded to Persia to ask the reigning Safavid monarch, Shah Tahmasp, for his political and military support. Backed by the Safavids, Humayun spearheaded military action against his rebellious brothers Kamran, Askari and Hindal. During this period of military campaigns, Humayun and his family were forced to move from one place to another, which deprived young Akbar of much in the way of formal education and training. For this reason, he failed to gain proficiency in literacy.

      Blessed with a prodigious memory and sharp intellect, Akbar learned and mastered a wide range of subjects including history, philosophy, religion, art and poetry with ease. He was only thirteen when his father suddenly died in 1556 and, as expected, he succeeded him as the ruler of the Mughal Empire. His accession to power was to mark the beginning of a glorious era in the history of Muslim India.

      After ascending the Mughal throne, Akbar instigated military action in order to regain the lost territories, and thereby restore political stability, social peace and security across the Mughal dominion. However, as Akbar began to tighten his grip on India, the aged Bairam Khan increasingly became a liability.

      Akbar was only eighteen when he became a fully-fledged Mughal ruler and military commander. Keen to expand Mughal rule further, he then took the fight to the rulers of the neighboring territories. Thus, from 1568 to 1569, he conducted military expeditions against the Rajputs of Rajasthan as they began to threaten Mughal interests. He took the capital of Gujarat without encountering much resistance and thus connected his empire to the Arabian Sea, thereby opening up a naval route to the rest of the world. Following this astonishing series of conquests, Akbar managed to establish Mughal power and authority throughout northern India. According to his son Salim (who later became Emperor Jahangir), ‘Although he was illiterate, so much became clear to him through constant intercourse with the learned and the wise in his conversations with them…’

      As an intelligent ruler, Akbar knew that brute force only breaks; it does not mend and fix. Since all the previous Indian Muslim dynasties had disintegrated within a few decades of their inception, Akbar was determined not to allow the same to happen to the Mughals. He decided to win the hearts and minds of his people – that is, particularly the Muslims and Hindus. He appointed provincial governors who were responsible for overseeing the affairs of their own provinces and regularly reported directly to him.

      As a fiercely monotheistic religion, Islam preaches the absolute Oneness of God (Tawhid), thus negating all forms of associationism (shirk). By contrast, the Hindus believe in multiple gods and goddesses, and also worship statues, idols and various animals. As such, these two religions are more diametrically opposed to each other than probably any of the other major world faiths. Akbar’s approach to inter-faith dialogue proved both inept and foolish. Far from uniting the two rival religious factions, this only served to make matters worse, because both orthodox Muslims and Hindus considered Akbar’s religious eclecticism very offensive.

      As a religious freethinker, Akbar was fascinated by religion and philosophy and regularly engaged in religious discussion and debate with the leading Muslim, Hindu and Christian scholars of his time, for he was very keen to discover the truth about religion. He accepted the authority of the Qur’an, but also believed in the spiritual unity of religions (that is to say, he believed that all religions were true and authentic in their essence, only their forms differed). This became the basis of his new religious synthesis, namely din-i-Ilahi (or ‘the Divine Religion’).

      Akbar’s long reign of forty-nine years represented one of the most glorious periods in the history of Mughal India. He also built some of India’s most magnificent buildings including the breathtaking Fatehpur Sikri, which is today considered to be one of the most beautiful sites in India along with the immortal Taj Mahal. As a ruler, Akbar was determined and ruthless, but also benevolent; his most famous motto was ‘Servant of all and master of none.’ He died at the age of sixty-three and was buried inside the mausoleum he had prepared for himself at Sikandra, located about five miles west of Agra, India.

      The third and greatest of the Moguls, who ruled India from 1555 to 1605. At 13 he inherited a fragile empire, but military conquests brought Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bengal, Kashmir, and the north Deccan under his sway. He introduced a system of civil and military service which ensured loyalty and centralized control, and made modifications to the land revenue system which reduced pressure on peasant cultivators. Akbar created the basis for Mogul control over India until the early 18th century, and also left a distinctive mark on Muslim-Hindu relations in India. Son of Humayun, who retook Kandahar and Heart in Afghanistan; Akbar claimed the throne at age 13; he moved the capital from Delhi to Agra; died in 1555 after entering Delhi, India.

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