Akbar was the greatest among the Moghul emperors of India. He began in his fourteenth year a reign, environed by war and rebellion. After having vanquished all his enemies and established peace and security around him, he turned his attention to religion. He soon found it right to grant unlimited toleration to all religions in his empire. Called the “shade of God,” he took the resolution to realise in himself the otherwise vain title bestowed by slavish flattery upon all sovereigns of Asia, and to imitate, according to his faculties, him who bestows the blessings of his merciful providence on all crea­tures without distinction. This he declared to his fanatic son Jehangir, who did not conceal his dis­content about the building of an Hindu temple in Benares: “Are not,” said Akbar, “five-sixths of all mankind either Hindus or unbelievers? If I were actuated by motives similar to those which thou ownest, what would remain to me but to destroy them all?”

The inquisitive emperor was acquainted with the religious history of the Persian empire; he sur­rounded himself with men of all religions—Muham­medans of all sects, Hindus, Jews, and Christians, as well as with philosophers free from supersti­tion; he liked to question them all, and to encourage public polemical discussions in his presence. The Sonnites and Shiâhs reviled reciprocally the chief personages of their adherence, the three first kha­lifs and Ali; Muhammed himself was not more spared than his companions and successors. The errors of their doctrine, the vices of their character, and the irregularities of their conduct were freely exposed, severely blamed, and wittily ridiculed. If Muhammedism was treated in such a manner, other religions could not claim more indulgence. The dramatic form, which Mohsan Fani gives to the religious controversies, is certainly curious; we can scarce suppose his having known the dialogues of Lucian, nor is it in the least probable that a late French author ever saw the Dabistán and took from this book the idea of the twenty-first chapter of his celebrated work, entitled “Problem of religious contradictions.”* The object aimed at by these three authors was the same; but their compositions differ from each other as much as the genius and character of the Greeks, French, and Persians, in whose language each of them respectively wrote. In whatsoever point Mohsan Fani may yield to the Greco-Syrian, or to the French author, he cer­tainly, I will venture to say, equals them in force, boldness, and sincerity; and perhaps surpasses either in pointed application of truth. His objections are not vague attempts of witticism with the intention to ridicule: they are special and serious, directed to real and patent falsehood or prejudice; he does not fence with imaginary shadowy adversaries, but he strikes a present and tangible foe; his style, never tainted by affectation, is plain and blunt, such as becomes a reformer combating popular supersti­tion. The controversies, the scene of which is placed before the throne, or rather tribunal, of Akbar, obtain the imperial sanction: Muhammedism is condemned.

Indeed, the emperor abrogated several prac­tices of that religion to which he had been devoted in his first years; he confined the cultiva­tion of science, as taken from the Arabs, to astronomy, geography, medicine, and philosophy, and wished to prevent the waste of life in futile and useless studies. At last, in the month of December, A.D.1579, twenty-six years before his death, he sub­stituted for the common profession of the Muham­medans the new: “There is no God but God, and Akbar his khalif (or deputy).” He received from a great number of Amirs and distinguished persons the voluntary agreement and consent to four condi­tions, namely, the sacrifice of property, life, repu­tation, and religion, by entering into the new reli­gious pact, called Ilahi, “divine.” Moreover, he introduced in lieu of the former, a new era, to begin from the death of his father Humayún, that is from the year of the Hejira 963, (A. D. 1555): it was to be called Ilahi; the months were regulated according to the mode of Irán, and fourteen festi­vals established in concordance with those of Zoroaster's religion. It was to this ancient Persian creed, that he gave the preference, having been instructed in its sacred tenets and practices by a learned fire-worshipper who had joined him; and from books which were sent to him from Persia and Kirmán. He received the sacred fire, and committed it to the faithful hands of Abu'l fazil, his confidential minister: the holy flames of Zardusht blazed again upon the altars of Aria, and, after a separation of many centuries, Persians and Indians were reunited in a common worship.

As a proof of Akbar's expansive mind, directed to all subjects which may interest mankind, I shall mention his having sequestered a number of chil­dren, before they could speak, from all communi­tion with the rest of society, in order to know whether they would form a language. After four­teen years of seclusion, it was found that they were dumb: “which made it evident,” says Mohsan Fani, “that language and letters are not natural to man—that language is of a long date and the world very ancient.”*

In the third section of the tenth chapter, the author treats of the influences of the stars upon the nether world, a very ancient superstition, common to most nations. Every master of fame is said to have worshipped particularly one of the stars; Akbar also received divine commands with regard to them. We find, in a digression of this section, curious historical details respecting the person of Jangis khan, his adoration of the celestial bodies, epilepsy, and singular superstition of combs. The great conqueror addressed to his sons the most earnest admonitions to remain faithful to the reli­gion of the stars, to which their fortune was attached; but fifty-three years after his death one of his successors and a great part of his nation embraced Muhammedism.

The fourth section of the tenth chapter contains important information upon the administration of India. Akbar was the first of the Moghul emperors who considered India as his native country, and directed his best efforts to the amelioration of its condition. Exalted to the highest rank, not only by his birth, but also by his personal acquirements; assisted, besides, by a train of devoted and enlight­ened servants, he could promise himself duration of the new religion, which he had fondly labored to found. In vain: it disappeared with him. Pri­vate persons, camel-drivers, and robbers, emerging from obscurity, such as Muhammed, and others before and after that Arabian leader, effected more than an emperor, with every possible advantage united in and around his person! Human intellect was perhaps then satiated with religion; its measure was full: it could not receive any more. In fact, after Muhammed a number of sects, but no new religion, arose: in this sense he may, with some appearance of truth, be called the last of prophets, or the Khátim, “the seal of prophetism,”

Akbar died in 1605 A. D., eight or ten years before the birth of the author of the Dabistán. The latter passed his youth and manhood in India, under the reigns of that emperor's son, Jehangir, and grand-son, Shah Jehan, and great-grandson Aurengzeb; and was in personal connection with the latter's brother, the religious Darashukoh. Mohsan Fani had therefore good opportunities to be informed of the events of their days. The religion of the Ilahiahs is properly the last of which he treats; for what relates to the religions of the philosophers and Súfis, the subjects of the two last chapters, are rather selections of all creeds and opinions, than particular religions. It will be remembered that sir W. Jones supposed these two last chapters not to have been written by the author of the rest of the Dabistán, which I dare neither affirm nor deny.*