And
still we cannot call its establishment an absolute failure, for the
spirit of tolerance which flowed out from Akbar's religion
accomplished infinite good and certainly contributed just as much to
lessening the antagonisms in India as did Akbar's social and
industrial reforms.
A man who accomplished such great things and desired to accomplish
greater, deserves a better fortune than was Akbar's towards the end of
life. He had provided for his sons the most careful education, giving
them at the same time Christian and orthodox Mohammedan instructors in
order to lead them in their early years to the attainment of
independent views by means of a comparison between contrasts; but he
was never to have pleasure in his sons. It seems that he lacked the
necessary severity. The two younger boys of this exceedingly temperate
Emperor, Murad and Danial, died of delirium tremens in their youth
even before their father. The oldest son, Selim, later the Emperor
Jehangir, was also a drunkard and was saved from destruction through
this inherited vice of the Timur dynasty only by the wisdom and
determination of his wife. But he remained a wild uncontrolled cruel
man (as different as possible from his father and apparently so by
intention) who took sides with the party of the vanquished Ulemas and
stepped forth as the restorer of Islam.
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