The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c15.59

v4.c15.59

This was the first fruits of Mīr ‘Abdul-Latīf’s teachings and the earliest indication of Akbar’s noble resolve to be a father to all his people, Hindus as well as Muslims, to be emperor of India, in short, rather than the commander of a small garrison, alien in religion, and to a great extent in blood, to the mass of the people. Shaikh Abu-’l-Fazl is sometimes wrongly credited with having directed Akbar into the path of religious toleration, on which he descants much in his own pompous and artificial style, but Akbar deliberately adopted the policy and pursued it for years before he had ever seen his famous secretary.