Akbar

Akbar was born in 1542 at Umarkot in Sindh while his father Humayun was in flight. He was crowned at fourteen on a brick platform in a garden at Kalanaur in Gurdaspur in 1556, on the news of his father's death, and soon after his regent Bairam Khan won the Second Battle of Panipat.

He built the Mughal empire into the greatest state in India. He abolished the jizya tax on non-Muslims, married Rajput princesses, gave high office to Hindus, and held debates on religion at Fatehpur Sikri. Sikh tradition says he visited Guru Amar Das at Goindwal and ate in the langar sitting on the ground, and granted land to the Guru's family.

From 1585 to 1598 he made Lahore his capital, rebuilding the fort and the walls of the city; the Punjab prospered. He died in 1605. His tolerance made the Gurus' work possible; it ended with his son.