A closer observation, however, shows that the contrast is not quite so
harsh between what according to our hypotheses Akbar should have been
as a result of the forces which build up man, and what he actually
became. His predilection for science and art Akbar had inherited from
his grandfather Baber and his father Humayun. His youth, which was
passed among dangers and privations, in flight and in prison, was
certainly not without a beneficial influence upon Akbar's development
into a man of unusual power and energy. And of significance for his
spiritual development was the circumstance that after his accession to
the throne his guardian put him in the charge of a most excellent
tutor, the enlightened and liberal minded Persian Mir Abdullatif, who
laid the foundation for Akbar's later religious and ethical views.
Still, however high we may value the influence of this teacher, the
main point lay in Akbar's own endowments, his susceptibility for such
teaching as never before had struck root with any Mohammedan prince.
Akbar had not his equal in the history of Islam. "He is the only
prince grown up in the Mohammedan creed whose endeavor it was to
ennoble the limitation of this most separatistic of all religions into
a true religion of humanity.
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