Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/332

 280 AKBAK'S RELIGIOUS VIEWS Gujarat were placed in the royal library, but were sub- sequently brought out and distributed by the emperor among learned and pious men. One night the vein of the neck of the chief theologian of the age swelled up in anger and a great outcry and tumult arose. This annoyed his Majesty, and he said to the humble writer of these lines: " In future, report any one of the assem- bly whom you find speaking improperly, and I will have him turned out." Thereupon I said quietly to Asaf Khan: " According to this, a good many would be expelled." His Majesty asked what I had said, and when I told him, he was much amused, and repeated my saying to those who were near him. In the year 983 A. H. (1575 - 1576 A. D.), Hakim Abu-1- Fath Gilani, Hakim Humayun (who subsequently changed his name to Humayun Kuli and finally to Hakim Humam), and Nur-ad-din, who is known as a poet under the name of Karari, arrived at the imperial court. These three were brothers and came from Gilan near the Caspian. The eldest of them obtained an extraor- dinary ascendency over the emperor by his subservi- ency, flattering him openly and adapting himself to every change in the religious ideas of his Majesty, so that, by thus pushing forward, he soon became one of Akbar's most intimate friends. Shortly afterward, Mulla Mohammad of Yazd came to court, whom they nicknamed Yazidi [" devil-worshipper "]. He attached himself to the emperor and concocted the most extrav- agant censures against the Companions of the Prophet (the peace of God be upon them!). He told extraor-