EMPIRE OF THE MOGHUL : RULER OF THE WORLD

Keep your enemies close, and your sons closerthe story of the third great moghul emperor, akbar, leader of a triumphant dynasty which contained the seeds of its own destructionakbar, ruler of a sixth of the worlds people, colossally rich and utterly ruthless, was a contemporary of elizabeth i, but infinitely more powerful his reign began in bloodshed when he strangled his treacherous milk-brother, but it ended in glory akbar extended his rule over much of asia, skillfully commanding tens of thousands of men, elephants and innovative technology, yet despite the unimaginable bloodshed which resulted his empire was based on universal religious tolerancehowever, akbars homelife was more complicated he defied family, nobles and mullahs to marry a beautiful rajput princess, whose people he had conquered; but she hated akbar and turned salim, his eldest son, against him whats more, as any moghul prince could inherit his fathers crown and become emperor, his sons were brought up to be intensely competitive and suspicious of each other: to see eachother as rivals for the greatest prize of all and, as salim grew to manhood, the relationship between father and son became tainted by rebellion and competition to be the greatest moghul of them all

Alex Rutherford is Diana Preston and her husband Michael.