ennoble the limitation of this most separatistic of all religions into
a true religion of humanity."[4]

[Footnote 4: A. Müller, II, 416.]

Even the external appearance of Akbar appeals to us sympathetically.
We sometimes find reproduced a miniature from Delhi which pictures
Akbar as seated; in this the characteristic features of the Mongolian
race appear softened and refined to a remarkable degree.[B] The shape
of the head is rather round, the outlines are softened, the black
eyes large, thoughtful, almost dreamy, and only very slightly
slanting, the brows full and bushy, the lips somewhat prominent and
the nose a tiny bit hooked. The face is beardless except for the
rather thin closely cut moustache which falls down over the curve of
the month in soft waves. According to the description of his son, the
Emperor Jehângir, Akbar's complexion is said to have been the yellow
of wheat; the Portuguese Jesuits who came to his court called it
plainly white. Although not exactly beautiful, Akbar seemed beautiful
to many of his contemporaries, including Europeans, probably because
of the august and at the same time kind and winsome expression which
his countenance bore. Akbar was rather tall, broad-shouldered,
strongly built and had long arms and hands.

[Footnote B: Noer, II as frontispiece (comp. also pp. 327, 328); A.
Müller, II, 417.]

Akbar, the son of the dethroned Emperor Humâyun, was born on October
14, 1542, at Amarkot in Sindh, two years after his father had been
deprived of his kingdom by the usurper Shêr Chân. After an exile of
fifteen years, or rather after an aimless wandering and flight of that