Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c21.13

c21.13

There are also a few facts worthy of mention in this connection. Akbar was the son of a learned father who was remarkable for his literary tastes, and as became such a father and the responsible head of the imperial household, the education of the heir-apparent came to be the care of the State at the earliest possible moment. As soon as "consciousness" dawned upon the child, there was appointed a regular tutor to take charge of his training. Maulānā A'ẓamuddin was engaged in 1547 when Akbar was only four years, four months, four days old—the customary age with the Muhammadans for beginning education. He was succeeded in his office by Maulānā Bāyazīd, who was again followed by a number of teachers. Mīr 'Abdul Laṭīf, Pīr Muḥammad Khān and Ḥājī Muḥammad Khān were some of his tutors at different times, whose names we know. There were, besides, the military tutors, *e.g.* Munī'm Khān charged with the duty of training up the future Emperor in the art of war to which he owed his extensive conquests. [For the references, see pp. 140-142 of this work. The Urdu work, *Darbār-Akbarī* (by Maulānā Muḥammad Ḥusain Āzād, Professor of Arabic, Government College, Lahore) mentions, at pp. 112, 113, the first four of the aforesaid tutors, and adds one, Maulānā 'Abdul Qādir. As no references are found in it to the authorities upon which the statements are based, it cannot be of much help to me for the present purpose.]