AKBAR'S PERSONALITY TRAITS AND WORLD OUTLOOK 17 paper, I shall also be suggesting a reconsideration of some of the positions taken by Athar Ali in his paper on the character of Akbar's religious policy towards the end of his reign. The ensuing argument in this paper is presented by me in the following two parts. In the next section I have offered brief comments on some of Akbar's personality traits and his early religious beliefs and attitudes. The final two other sections would be mainly devoted to examining Akbar's world outlook in the post-1581 phase. II The textbook explanations for Akbar's natural inclination towards religious tolerance in terms of his being influenced by the broad mindedness of his parents and teachers of Sunni as well as Shi'a persuasions who had no use for sectarian bigotry, appeal to common sense. But in this regard it may be pointed out that the supposition of some of the textbook writers that Akbar's mother, Hamida Bano Begam, was a Shi'a3 has no basis. On the contrary, her brother, Muazzam Beg, becoming involved in 1546, in the assassination of Humayun's then wazir, Khwaja Sultan Rushdi, an Iranian and Shi'a, by the Sunni bigots, goes to suggest that he and possibly by the other members of the family as well, including Hamida Bano Begam, were Sunnis.4 It cannot, however, be denied that Akbar's tutors including Irani Shia's like Bairam Khan and Mir Abdul Latif Qazvini as well as a Sunni Turanis like, Mun'im Khan, were largely above sectarian prejudices. About Mir Abdul Latif Qazvini, it is asserted by Abul Fazi that for his rejection of sectarian prejudices he was condemned by the bigots of both the sects.5 So far as Bairam Khan was concerned, notwithstanding what some of the eighteenth century Persian chroniclers like Khafi Khan and Shah Nawaz Khan suggest about his sectarian partiality (t'assub), contemporary evidence present him without fail as a person who, seemingly, did not attach much significance to the Shi'a-Sunni divide.6 Similarly, it is known about Mun'im Khan, a Sunni, that he counted among his closest friends Ali Quii Khan who was well known for his Shi'a beliefs.7 It is, therefore, reasonable to imagine that the contribution of these teachers of Akbar to his natural inclination towards religious tolerance was not inconsiderable. In a discussion of the influences contributing to making Akbar's mind receptive to ideas promoting religious tolerance one must also take into consideration the cultural ethos of the Timurid polity down to Humayun's time. Timur is reported to have respected all the religions alike. This climate of religious tolerance appears to have by and large persisted in the Timurid polity down to the time Akbar came to the throne.8 The Timurid cultural ethos not favouring religious bigotry, perhaps, had something to do with the considerable influence that the