Page 181 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

66 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

The Mughal Emperor Akbar.

(rank) that comprised two separate grades: The
first denoted a nobleman’s personal status and
the second indicated his obligation to recruit and
command a certain number of cavalry for impe-
rial service. A mansab holder’s financial needs
were satisfied by the state through assignments
of nonhereditary and nontransferable land
grants that were rarely retained for more than
three years.
Akbar targeted the powerful Islamic religious
establishment after the 1570s. He did this in sev-
eral moves: He reformed the system of state-
issued land grants that provided the religious
community with financial support; he asserted
his own power of judgment over doctrinal deci-
sions and diminished the importance of the
head of the judiciary—who usually also served as
chief spokesperson for the religious establish-
ment—within the Mughal administrative frame-
work. He exiled—and occasionally murdered—
religious opponents and promoted the Sufi
orders as a counterpoint to the orthodox reli-
gious establishment. He also evolved a theory of
universal kingship that obligated the emperor to
favor all his subjects equally, regardless of their
within his own extended Mughal clan.Among them were religious affiliation.Accordingly,Akbar ended the practice
the distantly related Mirzas (early 1560s) and his half- of forcibly converting non-Muslim prisoners of war to
brother, Mirza Hakim (1581). Akbar also asserted his Islam and lifted various discriminatory taxes on Hindus;
power over the fractious Mughal nobility in a multi- his most significant gesture came in 1579 when he abol-
pronged process that unfolded between the 1560s and ished the poll tax, or jizya, on non-Muslims. Although
the 1590s. He broke the power of entrenched Turkish the Islamic establishment generally opposed Akbar’s reli-
and Uzbek clans that served under his father; diversified gious initiatives, it was forced to accept the new dispen-
the ranks of the Mughal nobility by recruiting from alter- sation after a massive religio-political revolt against Akbar
nate groups such as Indian Muslims, (Hindu) Rajputs, was crushed in 1581. Akbar’s reformist agenda largely
Afghans, and Persians; fashioned elaborate rules of con- survived until its reversal during the reign of his great-
duct emphasizing discipline and loyalty to the Mughal grandson, Aurangzeb (reigned 1658–1707).
dynasty; and emphasized both his divinely ordained After the 1560s Akbar moved to transform the zamin-
right to rule and (more controversially) his own semidi- dars (superior landholders) into a quasi-official service
vine status.The most important tool in Akbar’s attempts class. Control over the zamindars was important to
to control the nobility, however, was the mansabdari sys- Akbar as they gave him access to the agrarian wealth that
tem implemented after 1574–1575.Within the mansab- paid for the Mughal imperial enterprise. The zamindars
dari system every nobleman was assigned a mansab were notoriously refractory, and gaining their monies