No sooner had His Majesty obtained this legal instrument, than the road of deciding any religious question was open; the superiority of intellect of the Imám was established, and opposition was rendered impossible. All orders regarding things which our law allows or disallows, were abolished, and the superiority of intellect of the Imám became law.

But the state of Shaikh Abulfazl resembled that of the poet Hairatí of Samarqand,* who after having been annoyed by the cool and sober people of Máwaral-nahr (Turkistán), joined the old foxes of Shí'itic Persia, and chose ‘the roadless road.’ You might apply the proverb to him, ‘He prefers hell to shame on earth.’

On the 16th Rajab of this year, His Majesty made a pilgrimage to Ajmír. It is now fourteen years that His Majesty has not returned to that place. On the 5th Sha'bán, at the distance of five kos from the town, the emperor alighted, and went on foot to the tomb of the saint (Mu'ín­uddín). But sensible people smiled, and said, it was strange that His Majesty should have such a faith in the Khwájah of Ajmír, whilst he rejected the foundation of everything, our prophet, from whose ‘skirt’ hundreds of thousands of saints of the highest degree had sprung.”

“After Makhdúm ulmulk and Shaikh 'Abdunnabí had left for Makkah (987), the emperor examined people about the creation of the Qorán, elicited their belief, or otherwise, in revelation, and raised doubts in them regard­ing all things connected with the prophet and the imáms. He distinctly denied the existence of Jins, of angels, and of all other beings of the invisible world, as well as the miracles of the prophet and the saints; he rejected the successive testimony of the witnesses of our faith, the proofs for the truths of the Qorán as far as they agree with man's reason, the existence of the soul after the dissolution of the body, and future rewards and punishments in as far as they differed from metempsychosis.

His Majesty had now determined publicly to use the formula, ‘There is no God but God, and Akbar is God's representative.’ But as this led to commotions, he thought better of it, and restricted the use of the for­mula to a few people in the Harem. People expressed the date of this event by the words fitnahái ummat, the ruin of the Church (987). The emperor tried hard to convert Quṭbuddín Muhammad Khán and Shahbáz Khán (vide List of grandees, IId book, Nos. 28 and 80), and several others. But they staunchly objected. Quṭbuddín said, “What would the kings of the West, as the Sulṭán of Constantinople, say, if he heard all this. Our faith is the same, whether a man hold high or broad views.” His Majesty then asked him, if he was in India on a secret mission from Constantinople, as he shewed so much opposition; or if he wished to keep a small place warm for himself, should he once go away from India, and be a respectable man there: he might go at once. Shahbáz got excited, and took a part in the conversation; and when Bír Bar—that hellish dog— made a sneering remark at our religion, Shahbáz abused him roundly, and said, “You cursed infidel, do you talk in this manner? It would not take me long to settle you.” It got quite uncomfortable, when His Majesty said to Shahbáz in particular, and to the others in general, “Would that a shoe­full of excrements were thrown into your faces.”

“In this year the Tamghá (inland tolls) and the Jazyah (tax on infidels), which brought in several krors of dáms, were abolished, and edicts to this effect were sent over the whole empire.”

In the same year a rebellion broke out at Jaunpúr, headed by Muhammad Ma'çúm of Kábul, Muhammad Ma'çúm Khán, Mu'izzul Mulk, 'Arab Bahádur, and other grandees. They objected to Akbar's innovations in religious matters, in as far as these innovations led to a withdrawal of grants of rent-free land. The rebels had consulted Mullá Muhammad of Yazd (vide above, pp. 175, 182), who was Qází-lquzát at Jaunpúr; and on obtaining his opinion that, under the circumstances, rebellion against the king of the land was lawful, they seized some tracts of land, and collected a large army. The course which this rebellion took, is known from general histories; vide Elphinstone, p. 511. Mullá Muhammad of Yazd, and Mu'izzulmulk, in the beginning of the rebellion, were called by the emperor to A´grah, and drowned, on the road, at the command of the emperor, in the Jamnah.

In the same year the principal 'Ulamás, as Makhdúm ul mulk, Shaikh Munawwar, Mullá 'Abdushshukúr, &c., were sent as exiles to distant provinces.

“Hájí Ibráhím of Sarhind (vide above, p. 105) brought to court an old, worm-eaten MS. in queer characters, which, as he pretended, was written by Shaikh Ibn 'Arabí. In this book, it was said that the Çáhib i Zamán* was to have many wives, and that he would shave his beard. Some of the characteristics mentioned in the book as belonging to him, were found to agree with the usages of His Majesty. He also brought a fabricated tradition that the son of a Çahábí (one who knew Muhammad) had once come before the prophet with his beard cut off, when the prophet had said that the inhabitants of Paradise looked like that young man. But as the Hájí during discussions, behaved impudently towards Abulfazl, Hakím Abulfath, and Sháh Fathullah, he was sent to Rantanbhúr, where he died in 994.

Farmáns were also sent to the leading Shaikhs and 'Ulamás of the various districts to come to Court, as His Majesty wished personally to enquire into their grants (vide IId book, A´ín 19) and their manner of living. When they came, the emperor examined them singly, giving them private interviews, and assigned to them some lands, as he thought fit. But when he got hold of one who had disciples, or held spiritual soirées, or practised similar tricks, he confined them in forts, or exiled them to Bengal or Bhakkar. This practice become quite common.* * * The poor Shaikhs who were, moreover, left to the mercies of Hindu Financial Secre­taries, forgot in exile their spiritual soirées, and had no other place where to live, except mouseholes.”

“In this year (988) low and mean fellows, who pretended to be learned, but were in reality fools, collected evidences that His Majesty was the Çáhib i Zamán, who would remove all differences of opinion among the seventy-two sects of the Islám. Sharíf of A´mul brought proofs from the writings of Mahmúd of Basakhwán (vide above, p. 177), who had said that, in 990, a man would rise up who would do away with all that was wrong* *.* And Khwájah Mauláná of Shíráz, the heretical wizard, came with a pamphlet by some of the Sharífs of Makkah, in which a tradition was quoted that the earth would exist for 7,000 years, and as that time was now over, the promised appearance of Imám Mahdí would immediately take place. The Mauláná also brought a pamphlet written by himself on the subject. The Shí'ahs mentioned similar nonsense connected with 'Alí, and some quoted the following Rubá'í, which is said to have been composed by Náçir i Khusrau,* or, according to some, by another poet:—

All this made His Majesty the more inclined to claim the dignity of a prophet, perhaps I should say, the dignity of something else.”*