Worksheet

Ranks, Lands and Taxes: How Akbar Ruled Mughal India

Grade 7 civics: how Akbar governed the Mughal Empire with ranked officers, rotating land grants, a measured land tax and religious tolerance, with two sources to weigh.

Grade 7Social StudiesInteractive · Printable

Aligned toCIV.7.3

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12 questions
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Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 7
Subject: Social Studies
Question types: Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students explain how Akbar used ranks, land grants and a measured tax to govern a large empire.
Students source an adapted court history and a merchant's report and weigh their reliability.

How to use

Read the passage together and discuss why a huge empire needs loyal officers and steady taxes, then have students source the two excerpts on their own before the final claim.

Curriculum

C3 Framework standard covered

CIV.7.3

Explain how large empires were governed, such as Justinian's Code, China's civil service exams and the Inca road and messenger system.

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Ranks, Lands and Taxes: How Akbar Ruled Mughal India

Read about the Mughal Empire, then source a court historian and a merchant's report.

Ruling a huge empire

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

How Akbar Governed

1In 1556 a thirteen-year-old named Akbar became emperor of the Mughal Empire. The Mughals were Muslim rulers whose family had come to India from Central Asia. During Akbar's long reign, which lasted until 1605, his armies conquered much of northern and central India. Historians estimate that his empire held about 100 million people, though estimates vary, and most of them were Hindus. They spoke many languages and lived under local princes, village headmen and old customs. Akbar needed a way to rule them all from his court.

2Akbar placed his officers on one ladder of ranks. Each officer, called a mansabdar, held a rank, or mansab, written as a number. The number showed his status and how many horsemen he had to keep ready for the emperor. Ranks ran from commanders of 10 up to 5,000 for the greatest nobles, and higher for princes. Only the emperor could appoint, promote or demote a mansabdar. A rank was not inherited: when a mansabdar died, his sons had to win their own places. Akbar gave ranks to Persians, Central Asians, Indian Muslims and Hindu Rajput princes, and some Rajputs became leading generals.

3Most mansabdars were paid with a jagir, the right to collect the land tax from a certain area. Jagirs were usually moved from one area to another every few years, so an officer could not build up his own power in one region. The tax itself was organized by Akbar's finance minister, Raja Todar Mal. Officials measured the fields and recorded the harvests and crop prices of the past ten years. From those records they set the tax on each field, often about one-third of an average harvest, usually paid in coins. Officials could lower the tax when floods or drought ruined the crops.

4Akbar also changed how the empire treated its many faiths. In 1564 he ended the jizya, a tax that non-Muslims had paid under many Muslim rulers. At his new capital, Fatehpur Sikri, he invited Muslim, Hindu, Jain, Zoroastrian and Christian scholars to debate in a hall built for the purpose. His policy came to be called sulh-i-kul, "peace with all." Some Muslim religious leaders at court objected to these changes.

Based on paragraph 2, why would a mansabdar most likely stay loyal to the emperor?

A. He was chosen for his post by the horsemen he led.
B. His village headman could take his rank away.
C. He had received his rank from his father at birth.
D. His rank could be raised or lowered by the emperor.

An officer has collected the land tax from a jagir in Bengal for four years. Based on paragraph 3, what would most likely happen next?

A. He would be given a jagir in a different area.
B. He would buy the Bengal land from the emperor.
C. The farmers of Bengal would elect a new officer.
D. His eldest son would take over the Bengal jagir.

Sort each policy by the main problem it helped Akbar solve.

Ranks given and taken away by the emperorFields measured and ten years of harvests recordedEnding the tax that non-Muslims had paidJagirs moved to a new area every few yearsA lower tax in a year of droughtDebates among scholars of several religions

Keeping officers loyal	Setting a steady, fair tax	Ruling people of many faiths

Why would officials set a field's tax from ten years of harvests instead of from this year's harvest alone?

A. To tax Hindu farmers more heavily than Muslim farmers
B. To let each mansabdar pass his jagir on to his sons
C. To keep the tax from jumping with one good or bad year
D. To tax the farmers on the best harvest of the ten years

Source the court historian

Read the sourcing table and Excerpt A. Then answer the questions.

Who Wrote the Two Excerpts
Excerpt	Writer	Written	Writer's position	Written for
A	Abul Fazl	1590s	Akbar's court historian	Emperor Akbar
B	Francisco Pelsaert	1626	Dutch company merchant	His company's directors

Excerpt A: adapted and shortened from a translation of the Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl (1551–1602). Abul Fazl was Akbar's close adviser and friend. Akbar asked him to write a history of his reign, and this part describes how the empire was run.
"The collector of the revenue should be a friend of the farmer. He should be honest and hard-working, and he should not take more than the amount that has been fixed. He should give the farmer a written receipt for every payment. When a village has lost its harvest, he should report it at once, so that the tax may be lowered. If a poor farmer needs seed or oxen, he should lend him money and take it back in small parts. His Majesty gives rank to each officer by his skill and loyalty, not by his birth."

Use the sourcing table and the note. How might Abul Fazl's position shape Excerpt A?

A. He may have guessed, since he lived far from court.
B. He may have shown Akbar's officials at their best.
C. He may have been unfair to Akbar to please the Dutch.
D. He may have written it long after Akbar's death.

Circle the sentence from Excerpt A that best corroborates paragraph 3's statement that the tax could change when crops failed.

He should be honest and hard-working, and he should not take more than the amount that has been fixed.He should give the farmer a written receipt for every payment.When a village has lost its harvest, he should report it at once, so that the tax may be lowered.If a poor farmer needs seed or oxen, he should lend him money and take it back in small parts.

Excerpt A is written as a list of things a collector "should" do. What is it best evidence of?

A. Which officers Akbar promoted to the highest ranks
B. How much tax each village actually paid that year
C. How farmers themselves felt about paying the tax
D. What Akbar's court expected of its tax collectors

The last sentence of Excerpt A says rank came from skill and loyalty, not birth. Which detail from the passage best supports this claim?

A. Akbar ended the jizya in 1564.
B. Todar Mal had the fields measured.
C. A mansabdar's sons had to win their own places.
D. Jagirs were moved from one area to another.

A second view

Read Excerpt B. Compare it with Excerpt A and the passage.

Excerpt B: adapted and shortened from a report by Francisco Pelsaert, a merchant of the Dutch East India Company who lived in Agra, a Mughal city. He wrote it in 1626 for his company's directors, about twenty years after Akbar's death, when Akbar's son Jahangir was emperor.
"The lands are given to lords who hold them for a short time and may be moved at any hour. Since they do not know how long they will keep a place, they squeeze the farmers for all they can get while they are there. Many villages lie half empty, because farmers have run away from these heavy demands."

On which point do Excerpt A and Excerpt B disagree most?

A. Whether officials treated farmers with care
B. Whether farmers paid a tax on their land
C. Whether lords held their lands for a long time
D. Whether the empire had towns such as Agra

10.

Pelsaert blames the farmers' hardship on one feature of the system. Which feature from the passage is it?

A. Moving jagirs from one area to another
B. Ending the tax paid by non-Muslims
C. The ten-year record used to set the tax
D. Giving ranks to Hindu Rajput princes

11.

Why should a historian be careful using Excerpt B as evidence about Akbar's own reign?

A. Pelsaert was Akbar's court historian and was paid to praise him.
B. Pelsaert wrote about twenty years later, under a different emperor.
C. Pelsaert wrote his report before Akbar became emperor in 1556.
D. Pelsaert lived in Europe and relied on rumors sent from India.

12.

Claim: Akbar's system of ranks, jagirs and taxes was a good way to govern a huge empire. Do you agree? Use evidence from the passage and both excerpts, and explain how each writer's position affects how much you trust him.