... a Muslim community. The Sufis sect consists of mystics that worship through song and dance. They are gentle, tolerant, pacifist Muslims and many Indian Hindus converted to this Islamic Sect during c700 - c1206. Sufis spoke to the heart of people (Spear, 1972). Orthodox Muslims were sceptical of Sufis mainly due to their tolerance and compassion towards people of other religious beliefs. Akbar was not a "bad Muslim", as some orthodox Muslims may have suggested. The city he built, Fathpur-Sikri, is said to be the location where a Chisti (an order of Sufi) holy man weaved magic on Akbar's wife to successfully assist Akbar in obtaining an heir after fourteen years of reign without a son (Lane-Poole, 1970). Fathpur-Sikri is a symbol of syncretism of Hindu and Islam (Murphy, 2002b). Akbar experienced "conflicting religious influences" (Banerjee, 1974: 404) throughout his life. His father was orthodox Muslim, his mother and guardian were ...

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