Akbar the Great

The Mughal visionary who sought to find a "Divine Faith" (Din-i-Ilahi) that could unite the fractured religions of his Indian empire. Though a conqueror, Akbar was a seeker who held nocturnal debates between Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Jains, believing that "the pursuit of reason" was the only path to true governance. He represents the ruler as the Great Synthesizer, the one who realizes that a throne built on a single dogma is a throne built on sand. He is the emperor of the open mind.