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1.Several Jesuit missionaries had visited the court of the Mughal Emperors Akbar and Jahangir; subsequently, they wrote letters, missives, even books about their adventures at the court of the Great Mughals. One must take into account an important consideration: the Fathers are not detached scholars, they have a very clear bias for Christianity. Further, their one point agenda was to convert the Mughal emperor to Christianity and then attempt to impose the Christian religion onto large parts of India in the 'top down' fashion.
2. It seems Jahangir had inherited his great father's inquisitiveness regarding philosophical enquiries; it should be noted that his favourite holy man was the hindu monk Jadrup with whom Jahangir himself tells us in his autobiography he would spend several hours 'discussing the science of Vedanta'.
3. By 'moors' the Fathers are referring to muslims, by 'gentiles' to hindus.
4. Following from the book 'Jahangir and the Jesuits' by Father Guerriro and translated by C.H. Payne (pg 51-56):
"The King[Jahangir] spoke next, asking the Fathers to enlighten him on various points. Though it cannot be said that he spoke with kingly gravity, his questions deserve to be recorded, seeing that they were asked by so great a monarch...Moreover, they serve to show his genuine interest in religious matters, and also the good which resulted from these disputes.
'What do the Christians say of Mohammad?' was his first question.
'They say,' was the reply, 'that he was a man who took upon himself the role of a prophet.'
'Then he was not a prophet?'
'That is true, Sire.'
'In other words, he was a false prophet?'
'Yes, Sire.'
At this, the King laughed.
....
whereon the King... beckoned to his Reader, who had kept himself at a distance, saying:
'Come here, Nagibuscao(for such was his name). Do you hear what the Fathers say, that Mohammad is a false prophet?
'Such men,' said the Moor, 'ought to be put to death than listened to.'...
This greatly diverted the King, who laughed and slapped his thighs at merriment, at the same time calling his Reader to come back.
'Sire', said the Father, 'this question is one to be settled by discussion and sound reasoning, not by the threats and calumnies of Nagibuscao.'
'The Father speaks truly,' said the King.'So now, Nagibuscao, prove to us that Mohammad was a prophet.'
Thus called upon, the Reader proceeded to narrate a number of stories from the Al Koran, and after he had spoken for some time, the King stopped him and told the Father to answer him. The latter replied that all these stories were false and was proceeding to support his words by argument when a Moorish Captain interposed and said 'We cannot prove anything by these stories, because the Christians do not hold our stories to be true.'...
At last, one of the Captains said, 'Our difficulty is that the Fathers are not to believe in our books, but we are to believe in theirs. How is it possible for us to dispute with them?'...There was also a Gentile Captain present, to whom the King now turned, asking him if he regarded Mohammad as a prophet.
'Sir,' was the reply, 'how can i know anything of Mohammad?'
'Do you regard him as a false prophet?' asked the King.
The Gentile replied 'Yes sire! He is a false prophet,' at which the King laughed exceedingly.
--> From what i can gather, Jahangir cared two hoots about orthodox religion. Never the less, one would imagine that he respected Mohammad despite his interest in different religions and philosophies. His laughter (when Mohammad was called a 'false prophet'), then, should probably be seen as a gesture of magnanimity.
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