Akbar the Great could not read a single word, yet he assembled one of the largest libraries in the sixteenth-century world and had scholars read to him for hours every day. The illiterate emperor who conquered most of the Indian subcontinent was also the man who abolished the jizya tax on non-Muslims, hosted theological debates between Hindus, Christians, Muslims, and Zoroastrians, and attempted to create an entirely new syncretic religion.

This episode traces Akbar from his childhood enthronement at thirteen through the military conquests that unified Mughal India, the religious tolerance that set him apart from every other ruler of his era, and the Din-i-Ilahi experiment that tried to merge the world’s faiths.

• Akbar’s accession to the throne at thirteen and the regent he had to overthrow to rule
• The military campaigns that expanded the Mughal Empire across most of the Indian subcontinent
• The abolition of the jizya, the interfaith debates, and Akbar’s unprecedented religious tolerance
• The Din-i-Ilahi — Akbar’s attempt to create a new syncretic religion from Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity