Islam • 125own faith. Had he done so, his empire would not have sur-
vived. The Muslims were a small ruling minority in a coun-
try that had never attempted to impose religious conformity.
Each Hindu caste had its own religious practices, and Bud-
dhists, Jacobites, Jews, Jains, Christians, Zoroastrians, Sunni
Muslims and Ismailis had all been allowed to worship with-
out hindrance. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
Hindus of all castes and even a few Muslims had joined
forces in establishing a spiritualized, contemplative form of
monotheism, which forswore sectarian intolerance. The Sikh
religion, founded by Guru Nanak (d. 1469), had grown from
these circles, insisting on the unity and compatibility of Hin-
duism and Islam. There was, however, always a possibility
of aggressive confrontation. Universalism was firmly estab-
lished in India, and an intolerant polity would run against
the grain of Indic culture. Muslim rulers had long been
aware of this and had employed Hindus in their armies and
administration. Akbar accentuated this tradition. He abol-
ished the jizyah tax that the Shariah prescribed for dhimmis,
became a vegetarian, so as not to offend Hindu sensibilities,
and gave up hunting (a sport he greatly enjoyed). Akbar was
respectful of all faiths. He built temples for Hindus, and in
1575 set up a "house of worship" where scholars of all reli-
gions could meet for discussion. He also founded his own
Sufi order, dedicated to "divine monotheism" (tawhid-e ilaht),
based on the Quranic belief that the one God could reveal
himself in any rightly guided religion.
Even though it was certainly true to the spirit of the
Quran, Akbar's pluralism was very different from the hardline
communalism that had been developing in some Shariah cir-
cles, and it was light years from the bigotry of the recent
Sunni/Shii conflict. But any other policy would have been
politically disastrous in India. Akbar had courted the ulama at
the beginning of his reign, but he was never very interested in
the Shariah. His own bent was towards Sufism and Falsafah,