Akbar

1304 Words3 Pages

Akbar was one of the world's greatest conquerors and an even greater ruler in Indian history. He was born on October 15, 1942 and died October 27, 1605. In 1556, at the young age of 13, Akbar was forced to become ruler when his father, Humayun, died. He learned from mentors and began seizing land. By the time of his death, his empire was almost all of northern India. He was the greatest of the Moguls, the Muslim dynasty that dominated India between the early 15th and 18th centuries. Akbar had many contributions and had a major influence during his time.

Akbar controlled a lot of territory rather quickly and needed to create a system in order to govern it. He developed a bureaucracy, which was among the most efficient in the world. He had put military governors in charge of each region. He had personally picked all of these governors because he didn't want anyone to mistreat the people. If he found out that the governors abused their power or mistreated the poor, he would severely punish them or put them to death.

The most important part of the bureaucracy was tax collection. Akbar made several improvements. His tax, like all other states, was a land tax that amounted to one-third of the value of the crops produced on it each year. However, the tax was supposed to be collected by everyone, but the nobles rarely paid. He changed that by making sure he collected from every person and there were no exceptions. He also eliminated the tax assessed on non-Muslims. From the beginning of the Islamic expansion, non-believers were charged with a special tax called the jizya, and was bitterly resented all during the history of Muslim rule in India. In addition, Muslim rulers in India charged a

pilgrimage tax on unbelievers travelin...

... middle of paper ...

... abandoned forever shortly after.

The last few years of Akbar's reign were troubled by the misconduct of his sons. Two of them died in their youth because of alcoholism. The third, Salim, later known as Emperor Jahangir, was frequently in rebellion against his father. Asirgarh, a fort in the Deccan, proved to be the last conquest of Akbar, taken in 1599 as he proceeded north to face his son's rebellion. Akbar was extremely distressed and the tension may even have affected his health and hastened his death, which occurred in Agra in 1605. His body was interned in a magnificent mausoleum at Sikandra, near Agra.

Akbar was a great leader and was very fair to his followers. He tried to combined religions to make all of his people happy. He was very well educated and a patron of the arts. Akbar was one of the greatest Indian leaders and will forever be remembered.

More about Akbar

Open Document