AKBAR, JELLALADIN MOHAMMED (1542-1605), the greatest and wisest of the Mogul emperors of India. He ceeded to the throne in 1556, but his position was not an enviable one. He was under the regency of Bairam Khan, a despotic koman noble, until in 156o he took the government into his own hands. The first seven years of his reign were entirely occupied by warfare; he established his authority in the Punjab and in the districts of Delhi and Agra. In 1567 he assaulted Chitor and quered Ajmere, and three years later he obtained possession of Oudh and Gwalior. In 1572 he conquered Gujarat and made the province a Mogul viceroyalty; his generals drove the Afghans from Bengal, and six years later Orissa was annexed. By Akbar had further annexed Kabul, Kashmir, Sind and Kandahar. Having now a far greater part of India under his sway than had ever owed allegiance to one ruler, he did not rest, but attacked the Deccan, seizing Berar.
Great as he was as a conqueror, Akbar is chiefly remembered for his wonderful administrative ability. In order that taxation should be on a sound basis, he instituted accurate surveys and fought extortion. He developed commerce and invented a feudal organization, whereby tributary rajas took their places by the side of his own Mogul nobles in military matters. He examined care fully all the religious beliefs of his varied subjects, and finally adopted for himself a pure deism which, so far from militating against individual creeds, embraced them all. He gained for him self the title "Guardian of Mankind" for his toleration and wide sympathies. A munificent patron of the arts, he established schools throughout the empire where, without discrimination, Hindus, Muslims and Parsis might study together. Abu'l Fazl (q.v.), one of the scholars surrounding Akbar at the court, wrote a splendid record of the emperor's reign (Akbar Nameh).
For the general history of his reign see INDIA, History; see also G. B. Malleson, Akbar, "Rulers of India" series (189o) .