The Mughal Empire was an Islamic empire.
Abu ` l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad ( 15 October 1542 -- 27 October 1605 ) , popularly known as Akbar I ( [ əkbər ] , literally `` the great '' ) and later Akbar the Great , was the third Mughal emperor , who reigned from 1556 to 1605 . The Mughal Empire or Mogul Empire , self-designated as Gurkani ( گورکانیان , Gūrkāniyān , meaning `` son-in-law '' ) , was an empire in the Indian subcontinent , established and ruled by a Muslim Turkic dynasty of Chagatai origin from Central Asia . All Mughal emperors were Muslims ; while Akbar was Muslim most of his life , he propounded a syncretic religion in the latter part of his life called Dīn-i Ilāhī , as recorded in historical books like Ain-i-Akbari and Dabistān-i Mazāhib .