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Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar was born on October 15th, 1542 in Umarkot which is located in modern-day Pakistan. His father was Humayun, the second Mughal emperor, and his mother was Hamida Banu Begum, the empress consort. -
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About the time of nine-year-old Akbar's first appointment as governor of Ghazni, he was betrothed to Ruqaiya Sultan Begum, his first wife. She became the first of his three chief consorts. -
On Febuary 14th, 1556, Akbar succeeded his father as emperor of the empire at only 14 years old. Bairam Khan ruled on his behalf until he was of age. -
Hemu, a Hindu minster, had conquered Delhi and claimed the throne for himself. On learning of the loss, Akbar and his regent Bairam Khan marched to reclaim those territories. Mughal force defeated Hemu, thus ensuring Akbar’s succession. -
Akbar forced Bairam Khan to retire in 1560 and began to govern on his own. Initially he was still under household influences but soon he ruled as an absolute monarch. -
Akbar first attacked Malwa, a state of strategic and economic importance commanding the route through the Vindhya Range to the plateau region of the Deccan (peninsular India) and containing rich agricultural land; it fell to him in 1561. -
Akbar sought to conquer Rajputana's heartlands, which had rarely previously submitted to the Muslim rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. Beginning in 1561, the Mughals actively engaged the Rajputs in warfare and diplomacy. Most Rajput states accepted Akbar's suzerainty; however, the rulers of Mewar and Marwar, Udai Singh II and Chandrasen Rathore, remained outside the imperial fold. -
The second of his three chief consorts was his cousin, Salima Sultan Begum. She was initially betrothed to Bairam Khan by Humayun. After Bairam Khan died in 1561, Akbar married her in the same year. -
Raja Bihari Mal of Amber was threatened by a succession dispute. As a result he offered Akbar his daughter Mariam-uz-Zaman in marriage to which Akbar accepted. She became the third of his three chief consorts. -
An assassin shot an arrow at Akbar, which pierced his right shoulder, as he was returning from a visit to the Dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin near Delhi. The Emperor ordered the apprehended assassin, a slave of Mirza Sharfuddin, a noble in Akbar's court whose recent rebellion had been suppressed, to be beheaded. -
Akbar captured the historic fortress of Chitor in 1568, he massacred its inhabitants. Even though Mewar did not submit, the fall of Chitor prompted other Rajput rajas to accept Akbar as emperor in 1570 and to conclude marriage alliances with him, although the state of Marwar held out until 1583. -
Akbar visited a Muslim man by the name of Chishti in the village of Sikri. Chishti correctly foretold that Akbar’s wish for an heir would be gratified with the birth of a son; the child, Salīm, was born in Sikri that same year, and he would later rule as the emperor Jahāngīr. The grateful Akbar decided that the site of Sikri was auspicious and made it his capital. -
Akbar conquered Gujarat, an area with many ports that dominated India’s trade with western Asia. -
Bengal was difficult to rule from Delhi because of its network of rivers, always apt to flood during the summer monsoon. Its Afghan ruler, declining to follow his father’s example and acknowledge Mughal suzerainty, was forced to submit in 1575. When he rebelled and was defeated and killed in 1576, Akbar annexed Bengal.
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After severe fighting and heavy casualties, the Mughals defeated the Kashmiris in the Battle of Hastivanj and annexed the sultanate into their empire as the Sarkar of Kashmir. -
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On 3 October 1605, Akbar fell ill from an attack of dysentery, from which he never recovered. He is believed to have died on 26 October 1605. He was buried at his mausoleum in Sikandra, Agra, a kilometer next to the tomb of Mariam-uz-Zamani, his favourite consort.