Title of the Case study Paper:

Leadership of Jalalud-din Muhammad Akbar

Course Title: Business Leadership

Course Code: BUS-7303

Program: MBA (Professional)

Submitted to:
Professor Sheikh Mamun Khaled, PhD
Professor
Bangladesh University of Professionals

Submitted by:
Sadman Al Mahmud
ID: 2123033046
Section: B

Submission Date: 30th July 2022

Page 1 of 13
Table of Contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ………………………..................................................................................................................... 3
Akbar Coming into power ………...................................................................................................................... 5
Inclusive Society.................................................................................................................................................. 7
Taxation as a Tool for Unity............................................................................................................................. 7
Bridging Cultural divides……………………………...................................................................................... 7
Promoting Religious Tolerance......................................................................................................................... 8
Administrative Reform: ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Improving Accountability and Oversight ......................................................................................................... 9
Creating a More Inclusive Administration ....................................................................................................... 9
An Age of War and Peace ............................................................................................................................... 11
Centuries Have Passed; Similar Decisions Remain.......................................................................................... 11
Conclusion ……................................................................................................................................................. 11
Reference …....................................................................................................................................................... 12

Page 2 of 13
Abstract
The title of ‘Great’ is reserved for history’s most exceptional leaders. When in 1556 Abu’l-Fath
Jalalud-din Muhammad Akbar, a child of only 14, inherited the contested Mughal domains of the
north Indian subcontinent, there was little to indicate he would go on to expand, unite and enrich
such a divided realm. Over the course of his 50-year reign, Akbar built a vast multicultural empire,
marked by edicts that promoted inclusivity, unity and accountability. Akbar’s unprecedented
fiscal, administrative and cultural reforms bore the hallmarks of a great and visionary leader.

Introduction
Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar also known as Akbar the Great (1542 –1605) Born, Badr-ud-din
Muhammad Akbar, his name was changed to Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar and his birth date
was officially changed to October 15, 1542. He was the son of Nasiruddin Humayun whom he
succeeded as ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1605. He was the grandson of Babur who
founded the Mughal dynasty. On the eve of his death in 1605, the Mughal empire spanned almost
1 million square kilometers. Akbar, widely considered the greatest of the Mughal emperors, was
only 14 when he ascended the throne in Delhi, following the death of his father Humayun. He was
descended from Turks, Mongols, and Iranians — the three peoples who predominated in the
political elites of northern India in medieval times. It took him the better part of two decades to
consolidate his power and bring parts of northern and central India into his realm. During his reign,
he reduced external military threats from the Pashtun (Afghan) descendants of Sher Shah by
waging wars against Afghan tribes, and at the Second Battle of Panipat he defeated the Hindu king
Samrat Hemu Chandra Vikramaditya, also called Hemu. The emperor solidified his rule by
pursuing diplomacy with the powerful Rajput caste, and by admitting Rajput princesses in his
harem.
The year was 1564, the young 22-year old Emperor Akbar rides on horseback through Delhi,
returning from a visit to a local shrine. Suddenly the air is pierced by screams of panic and horror.
An arrow has struck the right shoulder of the Mughal Emperor - an attempt is being made to
assassinate him. Guards scramble through the stalls and shops of the surrounding bazaar in their
search for the culprit. In minutes, the man who shot the arrow from the balcony of a nearby
madrasa is caught and executed before the wounded emperor. The culprit is the slave of a rebel
noble in Akbar’s court. Akbar is safe, but the failed assassination attempt underlines the perilous
nature of the throne Akbar had inherited.
Eight years prior, Akbar’s father Humayun had died in a fatal accident. The Mughals at that point
only held a tenuous grip on power and Akbar’s ascension could not be taken for granted. The
fourteen-year-old Akbar was then in rural Kalanaur, hundreds of miles from the main centers of
power, but was quickly proclaimed the third Mughal Emperor. For his coronation, a simple throne
of brick and stone was hastily constructed to swiftly reinforce his authority. As the historian

Page 3 of 13
Page 4 of 13
Abraham Eraly writes, ‘Akbar’s inheritance … was precarious, his kingdom as rough and
temporary a construct as the throne on which he was crowned’.
The empire then stretched over an area covering parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, North
India and Bangladesh. The kingdom was situated on a complicated political chessboard of shifting
allegiances and surrounded by rival rulers. The threats facing the teenage emperor came from both
within and outside this empire. There were multiple challenges for the crown from close confidants
and blood relatives. The empire itself was sharply divided by religion, most notably between
Hindus and Muslims. These divisions, embedded in both law and culture, presented a persistent
risk of sparking violent conflicts.
Despite all these threats, by the end of his first decade as emperor, Akbar had consolidated control
of his ‘precarious’ kingdom and taken important steps to unify it by issuing edicts and abolishing
religiously divisive taxes. This unity, in turn, helped strengthen and sustain Mughal expansion. By
the end of his nearly 50-year reign, the Mughal empire had tripled in size to extend across most of
the Indian subcontinent.
Plenty of monarchs have enlarged their kingdoms, yet few ruled them with the tolerance, fairness,
and efficacy of Akbar. Akbar was an artisan, warrior, artist, armorer, blacksmith, carpenter,
emperor, general, inventor, animal trainer (reputedly keeping thousands of hunting cheetahs
during his reign and training many himself), lacemaker, technologist and theologian. His most
lasting contributions were to the arts. He initiated a large collection of literature, including the
Akbar-nama and the Ain-i-Akbari, and incorporated art from around the world into the Mughal
collections. He also commissioned the building of widely admired buildings, and invented the first
prefabricated homes and movable structures. Akbar began a series of religious debates where
Muslim scholars would debate religious matters with Sikhs, Hindus, Cārvāka atheists and even
Jesuits coming from Portugal. He founded his own religious cult, the Din-i-Ilahi or the "Divine
Faith"; however, it amounted only to a form of personality cult for Akbar, and quickly dissolved
after his death leaving his wife behind.

Akbar coming into Power

In 1555, Humayan died just months after retaking Delhi. Akbar ascended the Mughal throne at the
age of 13, and became Shahanshah ("King of Kings"). His regent was Bayram Khan, his childhood
guardian and an outstanding warrior/statesman. The young emperor almost immediately lost Delhi
once more to the Hinduleader Hemu. However, in November of 1556, Generals Bayram Khan and
Khan Zaman I defeated Hemu's much larger army at the Second Battle of Panipat. Hemu himself
was shot through the eye as he rode into battle atop an elephant; the Mughal army captured and
executed him. When he came of age at 18, Akbar dismissed the increasingly overbearing Bayram
Khan and took direct control of the empire and army. Bayram was ordered to make the hajj to
Mecca; instead, he started a rebellion against Akbar. The young emperor's forces defeated
Bayram's rebels at Jalandhar, in the Punjab; rather than executing the rebel leader, Akbar
mercifully allowed his former regent another chance to go to Mecca. This time, Bayram Khan
went.

Page 5 of 13
Although he was out from under Bayram Khan's control, Akbar still faced challenges to his
authority from within the palace. The son of his nursemaid, a man called Adham Khan, killed
another adviser in the palace after the victim discovered that Adham was embezzling tax funds.
Enraged both by the murder and by the betrayal of his trust, Akbar had Adham Khan thrown from
the parapets of the castle. From that point forward, Akbar was in control of his court and country,
rather than being a tool of palace intrigues.
The young emperor set out on an aggressive policy of military expansion, both for geo-strategic
reasons and as a way to get troublesome warrior/advisers away from the capital. In the following
years, the Mughal army would conquer much of northern India (including what is now Pakistan)
and Afghanistan. In order to control his vast empire, Akbar instituted a highly efficient

Page 6 of 13
bureaucracy. He appointed mansabars, or military governors, over the various regions; these
governors answered directly to him. As a result, he was able to fuse the individual fiefdoms of
India into a unified empire that would survive until 1868. Akbar was personally courageous,
willing to lead the charge in battle. He enjoyed taming wild cheetahs and elephants, as well. This
courage and self-confidence allowed Akbar to initiate novel policies in government, and to stand
by them over objections from more conservative advisers and courtiers...

Inclusive Society
For roughly 850 years before Akbar’s reign, a jizya tax had been imposed on non-Muslim residents
living under Muslim rule. Akbar, a Muslim, abolished that tax in 1564, the same year an attempt
was made on his life. A year earlier he had abolished a tax that had been levied on Hindus
whenever they made a pilgrimage to Mathura, a sacred site.

Taxation as a Tool for Unity

These would prove two of Akbar’s most significant law-making achievements, and signaled Akbar
understood he could rule a geographically vast, ethnically diverse empire – but not a divided one.
He later abolished taxes which had disproportionately burdened the poor – including those on
livestock, clothes, land, and fees paid to officials.
He even prohibited the enslavement of prisoners of war, ordering that they instead be treated as
subjects who deserved protection. Such moves were not only principled, they were pragmatic,
widening his base of support among those who had traditionally been overlooked or ignored.

Bridging Cultural Divides

These would prove two of Akbar’s most significant law-making achievements, and signaled Akbar
understood he could rule a geographically vast, ethnically diverse empire – but not a divided one.
He later abolished taxes which had disproportionately burdened the poor – including those on
livestock, clothes, land, and fees paid to officials.
He even prohibited the enslavement of prisoners of war, ordering that they instead be treated as
subjects who deserved protection. Such moves were not only principled, they were pragmatic,
widening his base of support among those who had traditionally been overlooked or ignored.

Though he personally had avoided formal education, Akbar sought to make it accessible for those
who wanted it, regardless of their faith or status. He reformed education practices so that Hindu
children could learn alongside Muslim children, and offered free schooling for those unable to
pay. He also extended educational opportunities to women.

Education is a tool that could have encouraged separation but Akbar sought to use it to bring unity.
‘Akbar showed his sympathies with Hindu culture by patronizing the classical Indian arts,

Page 7 of 13
providing scope once more for painters, musicians, and dancers of the old tradition’, writes S.M
Ikram, ‘Perhaps the most striking of his activities in this area is the creation of the post of kavi rai,
or poet laureate, for Hindi poets’.
Akbar even left a visible legacy of cultural cohesion, in the form of the red sandstone Mughal
capital he began to build – Fatehpur Sikri, near Delhi – which blends both Mughal and Hindu
design and architecture.

Emperor Akbar in conversation with Jesuit missionaries.

Miniature from the Mughal School, India 16th Century.

Promoting Religious Tolerance

Akbar’s stance on religion was tolerant and accepting. ‘No man should be interfered with on
account of his religion’, Akbar is recorded saying, ‘and anyone should be allowed to go over to
any religion he pleased’. Such a belief was remarkable for a leader at that time and was in keeping
with his principle of sulh-i kull, absolute peace for all.
In his court Akbar received Jesuits, Hindus, Muslim sects, Jains, Christians, and Zoroastrians.
Although he never renounced Islam, he took such an active interest in religion that Jesuit
missionaries once mistakenly believed Akbar was on the verge of converting.
Akbar had several wives, as was the custom at that time. One of them, Mariam-uz Zamani, was a
Hindu Rajput princess. He allowed Hindu women to practice their faith within the palace confines
and he personally celebrated the Hindu festival of Diwali.
He even sought to dissolve the hardened divisions between religions by creating his own belief
system: Din-i Ilahi, or Divine Faith. His goal, according to Eraly, ‘was not to challenge or displace
the existing creeds, but to establish a central point of convergence and concord in their midst, to
which all could subscribe even while remaining true to their own faiths’. It was controversial –
Akbar would be accused of apostasy – and Din-i Ilahi never gained the traction nor created the

Page 8 of 13
unity Akbar sought. But it revealed the lengths he was willing to go to try and bring people
together, and his refusal to allow faith to divide his people.

Administrative Reform
Akbar personally oversaw the reformation of the central administration that would run his empire,
and the financial system that would pay for it.

Improving Accountability and Oversight

Akbar reorganized tax-collection processes and improved how land revenue was assessed, tracked,
and recovered. This required structural changes: ‘By the side of each provincial governor (sūbadār,
later called nawab) was placed a civil administrator (dīwān, or divan) who supervised revenue
collection, prepared accounts, and reported directly to the emperor. As a further safeguard against
abuses, Akbar reorganized the existing network of news writers, whose duty it was to send regular
reports of important events to the emperor’.
Creating new positions within government – actually enlarging it – is seldom seen as a prescription
for efficiency today. Yet Akbar’s efforts created more accountability and transparency in areas
where governors had previously ruled with near-unchecked power, and helped ensure that his
edicts were actually implemented.
‘The detailed measures which Akbar took to build up an efficient system of administration are …
indicative of a great constructive genius’, writes Ikram. They enabled him to extensively ‘build up
an efficient administrative machinery, centralize administration, and unify the country.’

Creating a More Inclusive Administration

Animating this drive for a more efficient administration was Akbar’s secular approach to staffing
it. Nativism and nepotism traditionally guided how rulers filled key posts and he would have been
expected to appoint Muslim administrators. Akbar defied convention
by appointing a Hindu prince, Bhagwan Das, as his army commander. Two crucial posts –
Revenue Minister and the Viceroy of Kabul and Bengal – were also held by Hindus. This was ‘an
indication not of his desire to show his tolerance but his freedom to choose able associates
wherever they might be found’.
‘One of the notable features of Akbar’s government was the extent of Hindu, and particularly
Rajput, participation,’ Eraly writes. ‘He treated the rajas as trusted comrades in arms and as
esteemed members of the ruling elite … His government was as secular as any government could
have been in that age’.
Importantly, this meritocracy also applied at less-senior levels. Hindus – and non-Muslims more
generally – were appointed as tax collectors and financial officials. ‘He insisted on maintaining a
high level of administration, and for this purpose drew on talent from all available sources – the
Mughals, the Uzbegs, the Rajputs, and other Hindus … the Turanis and the Persians’ writes Ikram.
‘By a judicious selection of personnel, their training in different fields, and by providing suitable
opportunities to them, he was able to build up an efficient officers’ cadre’.

Page 9 of 13
Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan with their Ministers.

Page 10 of 13
A meritocratic administration was a more efficient one, which produced real benefits for the people
whom it served – including the former chieftains, who had once opposed him, who now benefited
from the devolved rewards of a growing Moghul imperial enterprise.

An Age of War and Peace

Not every aspect of Akbar’s reign was worthy of emulation. He was on the warpath for the majority
of his rule, as was the custom in an age of warrior kings. But if war was a necessity, slaughter was
not; after one particularly hard-fought victory, Akbar ordered a massacre at Chitor estimated to
have killed thousands who had taken refuge in the fort.
And Akbar’s empire, despite its progress and his progressivism, was not fully at peace. One
estimate counts at least 144 rebellions during his reign. Eraly places this in context: ‘The rebellions
… do not signify any weakness in Akbar, but are, paradoxically, an indication of the magnitude
of his endeavor and the radical nature of much of what he did. The harder the bow is drawn, the
more the wood complains’.

Centuries Have Passed; Similar Decisions Remain

The world in which Akbar led was so vastly different it can be tempting to conclude he has little
to teach leaders today. Akbar had no legislative body through which he had to shepherd new laws
or elections for which he had to campaign. But he did face choices that remain familiar to many
in power today, like whether to inflame differences or to seek to heal them. Akbar’s life and legacy
reinforce a number of surprisingly relevant lessons, such as the power of aligning personal actions
with public pronouncements, and the benefits of staffing an accountable administration with
capable cadres.
Perhaps most fundamentally, his life reveals how core principles and values can inform everything
from tax policy to personnel decisions, and that implementing those values often requires the
courage to break with convention.

Conclusion
Akbar’s success in unifying India under a single rule namely the Mughal Empire placed him
among the greatest leaders in Mughal history. In fact, his achievement is regarded as a great feat,
comparable to Emperor Asoka’s achievement during the latter’s rule in classical Indian civilization
era. The title Akbar The Great by Western historians was a recognition towards his achievement
ruling the empire bringing about excellence in various fields. Through military expeditions,
changes in administration policies and religious reformation, Akbar realized his dream of seeing
India united under Mughal unity. Nevertheless, some of his efforts were resisted and heavily
criticized, among them were the idea of Din-i-Ilahi and pro-Hindu administration policies. Even
though such policies were implemented in the name of people’s unity, his actions were met with
resistance by certain quarters of the people, citing deviation from Islam as the reason.

Page 11 of 13
Nevertheless, Akbar’s great achievement of conquering virtually the entire Indian subcontinent
will forever be remembered as pioneer work for Mughal Union even though his idea of Din-i-Ilahi
tarnished his credibility from the Islamic perspective. To understand the reasons for his
achievement, further research can be carried out to look into military actions and/or the
development of intellectual activities in India during his rule. Other research may include efforts
by other Mughal rulers in maintaining the integrity and strength of the Mughal Empire.
Akbar’s ambition was to gather the diverse peoples of the subcontinent under his benevolent
wings, to enable them, through religious and cultural syncretism, to live in peace and amity. In
this vision he was a thoroughly modern man, ahead of his time, and in some ways ahead even of
our time.

Reference
https://assets.website-
files.com/60e0f52304d215245a29ce69/6156764df35ad743967ae5d3_akbar-the-great.pdf
Eraly, A. 1997, The Mughal Throne: The Saga of India’s Great Emperors, Phoenix Publishing,
Great Britain.
Ikram, S. M. 1964, Muslim Civilization in India, Ainslie T. Embree, ed., Columbia University
Press, New York. Revised version accessible at:
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/ikram/part2_11.html
Irfan L., 2018, The Woman Whose Downfall Nearly Killed Akbar, The Wire, India.
Muntakhab-ut-tawáríkh by Abdulqādir Badāyūnī (1590-95), Volume II translated from the
Persian by W.H. Lowe. Published 1898, Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Sharma M. 2019, Allahu Akbar: Understanding the Great Mughal in Today’s India, Bloomsbury,
New Delhi
The Akbar Nama of Abu’l-Fazl: history of the reign of Akbar including an account of his
predecessors (1590-96), translated from the Persian by Henry Beveridge. Published 1902-39, 3
vols. Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Image Credits
Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Roop_Dey / Shutterstock.com
Akbarnama, miniature painting by Nar Singh, ca. 1605 / Wikimedia.org
The History Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

Page 12 of 13
13 of 13