18 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Yasa-i Chingezi continued to exercise on the minds of the successive Timurid rulers (with the doubtful exception of Abu Sa*id Mirza) down to Akbar's time. According to *Alauddin *Ata Juwaini, the Yasa-i Chingezi required the ruler 'to consider all sects as one and not to distinguish them from one another*. It was in pursuance of this principle that Chingiz Khan, in Juwainfs words 'eschewed bigotry and preference of one faith to another placing some above others*9 The climate of religious tolerance promoted within the Timurid polity by the influence of Yasa-i Chingezi is for example also highlighted by the persecution of Shia's not being in evidence on any noticeable scale in the Timund principalities. This demarcated them so conspicuously from the post-Abbasid Turkish Sultanates—Delhi Sultanate being one—where the persecution of the so-called heretics was always so prominent. The increasing presence of Shi*a Iranis in the nobility after Humayun's return from Iran (1545)10 without giving rise to Shia-Sunni tensions in any appreciable measure is an eloquent testimony of the Mughal empire in Hindustan being, from the beginning, a very different type of state from Sultanates it replaced in different parts of the Indian sub-continent. It is worth noting in this context that before the induction of a large number of Irani Shi'as in Humayun's service, in no other state ruled by a Muslim dynasty did the Shi'as and Sunnis coexist in the nobility in such remarkable amity. The Safavid empire, where the rulers, claiming to be the imams of the Islamic community world over, severely repressed elements suspected of Sunni leanings was no exception to this rule. Thus it might be safely suggested that the influence of the Yasa-i Chingezi to the extent it survived in the Timurid polity till the middle of the sixteenth century, was an important element in Akbar's cultural heritage inducing him to be less intolerant towards religious beliefs not shared by him. Akbar's adopting an intolerant attitude towards the Shi'as and Mahdavis during the sixties may, however be explained with reference to, besides other factors, the gradual erosion of the influence of the Mongol tradition in the Mughal empire. For a proper appreciation of the way Akbar's world outlook gradually evolved and of his becoming, from around 1581 onward, strongly committed to the principles of sulh-i kul, it is also important to keep in view some of the traits of his personality recorded by contemporary observers. According to Monserrate, Akbar had *a somewhat morose disposition* to which he attributes the latter's excessive interest in 'various games1.11 That Akbar's extraordinary interest, during his early years, in hunt and elephant fights verged upon obsession is borne out even by Abul Fazl's account. Abul Fazi, it seems, finds it embarrassing to report Akbar*s senselessly endangering his life repeatedly in hunt or while witnessing elephant fights or tackling