The controversies, the scene of which is placed before the throne, or rather tribunal, of Akbar, obtain the imperial sanction: Muhammedism is condemned. Indeed, the emperor abrogated several practices of that religion to which he had been devoted in his first years; he confined the cultivation of science, as taken from the Arabs, to astronomy, geography, medicine, and philosophy, and wished to prevent the waste of life in futile and useless studies. At last, in the month of December, A. D. 1579, twenty-six years before his death, he substituted for the common profession of the Muhammedans the new: “_There is no God but God, and Akbar his khalif_ (or deputy).” He received from a great number of Amirs and distinguished persons the voluntary agreement and consent to four conditions, namely, the sacrifice of property, life, reputation, and religion, by entering into the new religious pact, called _Ilahi_, “divine.” Moreover, he introduced in lieu of the former, a new era, to begin from the death of his father Huinayún, that is from the year of the Hejira 963, (A. D. 1555): it was to be called _Ilahi_; the months were regulated according to the mode of Irán, and fourteen festivals established in concordance with those of Zoroaster’s religion. It was to this ancient Persian creed, that he gave the preference, having been instructed in its sacred tenets and practices by a learned fire-worshipper who had joined him; and from books which were sent to him from Persia and Kirmán. He received the sacred fire, and committed it to the faithful hands of _Abu’l fazil_, his confidential minister: the holy flames of Zardusht blazed again upon the altars of _Aria_, and, after a separation of many centuries, Persians and Indians were reunited in a common worship. As a proof of Akbar’s expansive mind, directed to all subjects which may interest mankind, I shall mention his having sequestered a number of children, before they could speak, from all communition with the rest of society, in order to know whether they would form a language. After fourteen years of seclusion, it was found that they were dumb: “which made it evident,” says Mohsan Fani, “that language and letters are not natural to man――that language is of a long date and the world very ancient.”[175]