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system of a military government under the direct premiership of the
flulňn, Akbar pushed the frontiers further and the Mongol Empire
began to expand to include Hindustan, the Punjab, Malva, and the
Deccan. For his novelty of thinking, his desire for innovation, and
wish to build the Empire on a perfect model of society, flulňn Akbar
was indeed the king who turned philosopher. He merits be included
among Muslim reformers and Islamic intellectuals and thinkers.
The Intellectual Development in the Indian Subcontinent
In the Sunni Indian subcontinent, the wind of intellectual develop-
ment, and of reform, seemed to have blown much earlier than it
did in the neighbouring empires. The early development came from
the highest in the hierarchy, the shah of the empire himself. Realizing
the religious and ethnic diversity of the Indian community in his
empire, Shah Akbar adopted a policy of the equality of all religions,
and, in addition, castes and races, mhabat-al-kull.
From India came a welcomed, and a long waited for, change in
the writing of Muslim thinkers; Shah Wali-allah came with his hujjah
Allah al-baligha, a master piece in socio-economic and government
governance, which is also discussed below.
Shah Akbar and maœabbat—el-kull: the King Philosopher
Shah Akbar seemed to have been a pantheist who believed in the
equality of all religions. More important, he practiced what he
preached and adopted a policy in ruling his Mongolian empire in
India on this basis. To understand his policy it might be worthwhile
to link his ideas with that of Ibn-al-Arabi who was a flùfì Muslim
theo-philosopher and who introduced the idea of the equality of all
religions.
Muœammad ibn-Ali Muhyi-al-Dìn ibn al-Arabi, was a mystic thinker
who left his fingerprints on the work of some Muslim thinkers for
centuries to come. He was a Hispano-Arab who was born in Mursiyah
in 1165 and after growing in popularity in Seville until 1201–2 he
settled in the East until he died in Damascus in 1240. What con-
cerns us in his teachings is his conclusion that God and the universe
is one, and there is no real difference between God and His cre-
ation as His creation is part of His will. In conclusion, Ibn-al-Arabi
formulated his theory of the unity of the universe stating that God