Excerpt from Akbar, the Great Mogul: 1542-1605The other authorities for the reign of Akbar are surprisingly numerous and copious, a large number being contemporary. The subject is of so much interest from many points of view that it is astonishing that nobody in any country has yet thought it worthy of serious critical treatment. The one German attempt at such treatment is so defective that its existence does not invalidate the statement that no tolerably adequate critical biography or history of Akbar is to be found in any language.The authorities comprise (1) a considerable number of histories and memoirs in Persian, mostly contemporary, (2) a long series of writings by observant Jesuit missionaries who resided at the court of Akbar, (3) the notes of early European travellers and authors, other than Jesuits, and contemporary to some extent, (4) later European books, which contain various traditions and certain facts based on earlier documents (5) the archaeological evidence, com prising the testimony of monuments, inscriptions, and coins and (6) contemporary portraits, drawings, and paintings.Details of all these six classes of authorities will be found in the Bibliography, Appendix D.In this place my observations will be confined to pointing out in general terms the evidential value of each class of authorities.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.