Dabestan-e Mazaheb

The text is best known for its dedication of an entire chapter to Din-i Ilahi, the syncretic religion propounded by the Mughal emperor Jalāl ud-Dīn Muḥammad Akbar after 1581 and is possibly the most reliable account of the Ibādat Khāna discussions that led up to this.

[2] In 1856, a Parsi named Keykosrow b. Kāvūs claimed Khosrow Esfandiyar as the author, who was son of Azar Kayvan.

[3] The author describes that he spent time in Patna, Kashmir, Lahore, Surat and Srikakulam (Andhra Pradesh).

The section on Judaism consists of translations by a Persian Jew, Sarmad Kashani, and his Hindu disciple from Sindh.

[4] Walter Fischel notes: Through the medium of the Dabestan Sarmad thus became the channel through which Jewish ideas, though with a Sufic blending, penetrated into the religious fabric of the India of his time.

Mughal Emperor Akbar (c. 1556–1605) holds interfaith dialogue in the Ibadat Khana (House of Worship) in Fatehpur Sikri ; the two men dressed in black are the Jesuit missionaries Rodolfo Acquaviva and Francisco Henriques. Illustration to the Akbarnama , miniature painting by Nar Singh, c. 1605.