Which of the following Mughal emperors abolished the Jizya tax for the first…
2026
Which of the following Mughal emperors abolished the Jizya tax for the first time?
Answer: C. Akbar — ConceptJizya was a per-capita tax that Islamic states levied on their non-Muslim subjects (zimmis) in return for state protection and exemption from military…
- A.
Jahangir
- B.
Babur
- C.
Akbar
- D.
Shah Jahan
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Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept
Jizya was a per-capita tax that Islamic states levied on their non-Muslim subjects (zimmis) in return for state protection and exemption from military service. Because liability was fixed by religious identity rather than by land, trade or income, historians read the imposition or removal of jizya as a direct statement of a ruler's religious policy, not as an ordinary fiscal adjustment. A question that asks who removed it “for the first time” is therefore asking for the earliest ruler of the dynasty to make that policy break, because a later removal of a tax that had been brought back is a second abolition, not the first.
Applying the idea to this question
Akbar is the Mughal emperor who made that break. In 1563 he remitted the pilgrimage tax on non-Muslims, and in 1564, still early in a reign that ran from 1556 to 1605, he abolished jizya itself. Both measures belong to the policy of sulh-i-kul (“peace with all”) that also produced the Rajput matrimonial alliances, the appointment of non-Muslims to high mansabs, and the inter-faith debates of the Ibadat Khana at Fatehpur Sikri.
Cross-check against the other reigns
Chronology settles the rest of the list on its own:
Emperor (reign) | Position on the jizya question |
|---|---|
Babur (1526–1530) | Founder of the dynasty; his four regnal years went to the conquest of northern India at Panipat, Khanwa and Ghaghra, and no change to jizya is recorded for his reign. |
Jahangir (1605–1627) | His reign begins forty-one years after 1564, so any step he took on this tax would follow Akbar's and could not be the first. |
Shah Jahan (1628–1658) | His reign begins sixty-four years after 1564, so it too falls well after the first abolition. |
Aurangzeb (not listed here) | He re-imposed jizya in 1679, which is why the abolitions recorded in the early eighteenth century are re-abolitions rather than the first one. |
The emperor who abolished the jizya tax for the first time is therefore Akbar, in 1564.