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Akbar and His India. Edited by IRFAN HABIB. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987. ix, 316 pp. $32.00 (cloth).
The 22 articles comprising this volume result from a seminar held in 1992 celebrating the 450th anniversary of Akbar's birth. Akbar, the third Mughal emperor, who ruled from 1556-1605, is generally considered the greatest of all the Mughals, particularly in terms of his innovative political, religious, and cultural policies. Probing these very issues, the essays at times underscore traditional understandings of Akbar and at times open new windows on the mind of this complex ruler; during his fifty-year reign, he created the Mughal concept of state which lasted until 1858. It is a welcomed volume, for no recent work has given much attention to the subjects considered here.
The volume is divided into three uneven parts: 18 articles form the first section, followed by four brief essays based on unpublished original documents; part 3 consists of ten book reviews on the Mughals.
In part 1, five essays deal with important regional developments. Ahsan Raza Khan opens the volume with an essay considering Akbar's encounters with regional chiefs, arguing...