ith majestic gravity to all that was said. Occasionally he
bestowed praises and presents upon the best speakers.

For many evenings the proceedings were conducted with due decorum. As,
however, the speakers grew accustomed to the presence of the Padishah,
the spirit of dissension began to work. One evening it led to an uproar;
learned men reviled each other before the Padishah. No doubt Abul Fazl
did his best to make the Ulama uncomfortable. He shifted the discussion
from one point to another. He started dangerous subjects. He placed them
in dilemmas. If they sought to please the Padishah they sinned against
the _Koran_; if they stuck to the _Koran_ they offended the Padishah. A
question was started as to Akbar's marriages. One orthodox magistrate
was too conscientious to hold his tongue; he was removed from his post.
The courtiers saw that the Padishah delighted in the discomfiture of
the Ulama with inconsistency, trickery, and cheating. The law officers
were unable to defend themselves. Their authority and orthodoxy was set
at naught. They were fast drifting into disgrace and ruin. They had
cursed one another in their speech; probably in their hearts they were
all agreed in cursing Abul Fazl.

By this time Akbar held the Ulama in small esteem. He was growing
sceptical of their religion. He had listened to the history of the
caliphate; he yearned toward Ali and his family; he became in heart a
Shiah. Already he may have doubted Mahomet and the _Koran_. Still he was
outwardly a Mussulman. His object now was to overthrow the Ulama
altogether; to become himself the supreme spiritual head, the pope or
caliph of Islam. Abul Fazl was laboring to invest him with the same
authority. He mooted the question one Thursday evening. He raised a
storm of opposition; for this he was prepared. He had started the idea;
he exerted all his tact and skill to carry it out.

The debates proved that there were differences of opinion among the
Ulama. Abul Fazl urged that there were differences of opinion between
the highest Mussulman authorities; between those who were accepted as
infallible, and were known as Mujtahids. He thus inserted the thin edge
of the wedge. He proposed that when the Mujtahids disagreed, the
decision should be left to the Padishah. Weeks and months passed away in
these discussions. Nothing could be said against the measure excepting
that it would prove offensive to the Padishah.

Meantime a document was drawn up in t