Abu'l-Fath Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar, popularly known as
Akbar I (, literally "the great"; 15 October 1542– 27 October 1605) and later
Akbar the Great (
Urdu:
Akbar-e-Azam; literally "
Great the Great"), was
Mughal Emperor from 1556 until his death. He was the third and one of the greatest rulers of the
Mughal Dynasty in India. Akbar succeeded his father,
Humayun, under a regent,
Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expand and consolidate Mughal domains in India. A strong personality and a successful general, Akbar gradually enlarged the Mughal Empire to include nearly all of the
Indian Subcontinent north of the
Godavari river. His power and influence, however, extended over the entire country because of Mughal military, political, cultural, and economic dominance. To unify the vast Mughal state, Akbar established a centralised system of administration throughout his empire and adopted a policy of conciliating conquered rulers through marriage and diplomacy. In order to preserve peace and order in a religiously and culturally diverse empire, he adopted policies that won him the support of his non-Muslim subjects. Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic state identity, Akbar strived to unite far-flung lands of his realm through loyalty, expressed through a
Persianised culture, to himself as an emperor who had near-divine status.