Mughal India and the Islamic world in transition

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Akbar's policy of 'peace with all' — religious tolerance and coexistence between Hindus, Muslims and other faiths across the Mughal Empire.

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1564 — a deliberate act ending the tax historically charged to non-Muslims, aimed at winning Hindu loyalty.

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Akbar's system ranking officials and commanders by number, fixing their salary and the troops/horses they owed the emperor, based on merit and loyalty rather than birth alone.

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Todar Mal, Akbar's finance minister; it measured land quality and average harvests to set a fair, predictable cash tax, replacing arbitrary demands.

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Akbar's purpose-built capital city (1571–1585) near Agra, blending Hindu, Jain and Islamic architectural styles — abandoned within his lifetime after its water supply failed.

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Babur, after defeating the Delhi Sultanate at the Battle of Panipat in 1526 using cannon and matchlock guns.

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The Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires (c.1450–1650), whose expansion and power relied heavily on cannon and firearms.

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The Ottomans were Sunni Muslims and captured Constantinople in 1453; the Safavids made Shia Islam their state religion in Persia from around 1501 — the two were frequent rivals.

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He married Rajput princesses and gave Rajput lords high military and administrative rank, turning former rivals into loyal generals and governors.

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He reversed Akbar's tolerance, reinstating the jizya tax and favouring Islam more strictly, showing that the 'transition' toward tolerance later ran in reverse.

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Mughal India stayed open to trade, cross-cultural exchange and diverse faiths; Tokugawa Japan enforced sakoku isolation and crushed Christianity after Shimabara (1637–38).

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A small court faith proposed by Akbar in 1582, blending ideas from Islam, Hinduism and other traditions — symbolic of his tolerant outlook, though it never spread widely.