Excerpt from Akbar, Emperor of India: A Picture of Life and Customs From the Sixteenth Century A closer observation, however, shows that the contrast is not quite so harsh between what according to our hypoth eses Akbar should have been as a result of the forces which build up man, and what he actually became. His predilec tion for' science and art Akbar had inherited from his grandfather Baber and his father Humayun. His youth, which was passed among dangers and privations, in flight and in prison, was certainly not without a beneficial in fluence upon Akbar's development into a man of unusual power and energy. And of significance for his spiritual development was the circumstance that after his accession to the throne his guardian put him in the charge of a most excellent tutor, the enlightened and liberal minded Persian Mir Abdullatif, who laid the foundation for Akbar's later religious and ethical views. Still, however high we may value the influence of this teacher, the main point lay in Akbar's own endowments, his susceptibility for such teach ing as never before had struck root with any Mohammedan prince. Akbar had not his equal in the history of Islam