Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/17

Rh seen in the abolition of all taxes upon religious non-conformity. The detested jizya or Muhammadan poll-tax upon unbelievers, was done away. In the eyes of Akbar's tax-gatherer, as well as of his God, all men were equal, and nothing was 'common or unclean.' To conciliate the prejudices of race, he employed native Hindús, Persian heretics, and orthodox Afghán and Mughal Sunnís impartially in the offices of state and in the army, and conferred equal honours upon each denomination. To form the leading men of all races and creeds into one loyal corps, directly attached to the throne, he established a sort of feudal, but not hereditary, aristocracy, called mansabdárs, who were in receipt of salaries or held lands direct from the crown, during the pleasure of the sovereign, on condition of military service. The dangers of a possible territorial aristocracy, into which this body of life-peers might have developed, were minimized by a rigorous system of inspection and a careful supervision of the rent-collectors. The system worked admirably so long as it was strictly carried out. For nearly a century Hindú and Persian nobles loyally served their common sovereign in war and in the civil government of the country. It broke down only when religious intolerance sapped its strength.

Akbar's son, Salím, who ascended the throne with the title of Jahángír, in October, 1605, at the age of