At the time, it was called Tawhid-i-Ilāhī ("Divine Monotheism"), as it is written by Abu'l-Fazl, a court historian during the reign of Akbar.

This led to the creation of the Ibādat Khāna ("House of Worship") at Fatehpur Sikri in 1575, which invited theologians, poets, scholars, and philosophers from all religious denominations, including Christians, Hindus, Jains, and Zoroastrians.

Since Akbar had severe dyslexia, rendering him totally unable to read or write, such dialogues in the House of Worship became his primary means of exploring questions of faith.

[citation needed] Despite his aforementioned illiteracy, Akbar would eventually amass a library full of more than 24,000 volumes of texts in Hindustani, Persian, Greek, Latin, Arabic and Kashmiri.

This conversion of Akbar to Dīn-i Ilāhī angered various Muslims, among them the Qadi of Bengal Subah and Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, responded by declaring it to be blasphemy to Islam.

However, the movement was suppressed by penalty and force after his death and was totally eradicated by Aurangzeb, a task made easier by the fact that the religion never had more than 19 adherents.

[2][6] In the 17th century, an attempt to re-establish the Dīn-i Ilāhī was made by Shah Jahan's eldest son, Dara Shikoh,[10] but any prospects of an official revival were halted by his brother, Aurangzeb, who executed him[11][12] on grounds of apostasy.

[13] Although the spirit and central principles of Dīn-i Ilāhī were adapted from Sufism[14] (including ideas from the Andalusi Sufi mystic, Ibn al-'Arabi), Akbar endeavored to create a synthesis of other beliefs and so his personal religion borrowed concepts and tenets from many other faiths.

[15] The following details illustrate the personal religious observances of Akbar: As an inquisitive inquirer endowed with the spirit of reason, he learnt the Hindu alchemy and medicine and cultivated their Yoga system; like his Central Asian ancestor, he believed in astronomy and astrology; and after his association with the Zoroastrian Mobed, he believed that life might be lengthened by lightning fire or by the repetition of a thousand names of Sun.