Who is mughal empire

In between accounts of the rituals of court life, political events and family matters like births, marriages and deaths, they reveal that Jahangir inherited a similar fascination for the natural world.

Unlike Babur, Jahangir commissioned his leading artists to paint some of the events, people, birds and animals that he described. He mentions multiple copies being made of the Jahangirnama in but no illustrated intact volume exists. Nevertheless, at least part of one was definitely finished — a folio depicting the submission of the Rana of Mewar to Jahangir's son Khurram in has a catchword in the lower left of the painting, used in manuscripts to link the painting to the text that follows on the next page.

Another painting was certainly intended for a copy of the Jahangirnama , but ended up in an album created for his son when he became emperor. It demonstrates Jahangir's close interest in the natural world and also provides information not given in his memoirs.

In a delegation came to court and presented the emperor with rare and exotic birds and animals. One was an African zebra, an animal Jahangir had never seen before and which seemed like a horse painted with stripes. He wrote, "One might say the painter of fate, with a strange brush, had left it on the page of the world".

He intended it to be sent to Shah 'Abbas of Iran, with whom he regularly exchanged valuable or rare presents, but there is no mention of the name of the artist to whom he gave an order to record the animal's appearance. However, on the right of the painting, the emperor himself has written in his distinctive spidery hand that it was the work of one his two leading artists, Mansur, and includes details of how and when the zebra came to court.

The life of Jahangir and his court was nomadic, with long absences from the major capital cities of Agra and Lahore. Formal transfers between these two cities involved travelling with a vast tented city to accommodate the women's quarters, the nobility, the servants and camp followers. Two sets of tents were needed so that one could be set up ahead, at the next halting place.

A reduced camp travelled across long distances, sometimes being absent from the capitals for years at a time. Jahangir's memoirs make it clear that many artists and craftsmen travelled with him, even if their names or activities are rarely mentioned. Therefore, when Jahangir left Agra for the city of Ajmer in Rajasthan in , and remained there for almost three years, signed and dated paintings depicting the emperor must have been done in the city. His son also had his own small entourage of artists accompanying him, even when he undertook military campaigns, as Nanha's depiction of the submission of the redoubtable Rana of Mewar reveals, the artist has included himself at work in the painting.

These prolonged absences from the major cities may explain the apparent reduction in the number of artists in royal service — the House of Books that included the huge imperial library must have remained in the palace at Agra, but the leading artists and calligraphers accompanied Jahangir on his travels.

In , when he mentions copies of the Jahangirnama being made, and the artist Abu'l Hasan painting a splendid frontispiece for the royal copy, the court was in Ahmadabad, the capital of Gujarat. This was also the only opportunity that another artist, Bishndas, had to study two minor rulers of Gujarat, Rao Bharah and Jassa Jam, who never travelled out of the province.

Portraiture reached an unprecedented level of naturalism under Jahangir, a phenomenon that is usually attributed to the royal artists' exposure to European portraits. Famously, the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe, who visited Jahangir in Ajmer and then travelled with the court for a time, showed the emperor a miniature by Isaac Oliver.

This was such a treasured possession that Roe was unwilling to give it to Jahangir, but allowed him to borrow it. One of the leading court artists was ordered to make a copy of it, and when Roe was shown the original, accompanied by five identical versions, he had some difficulty in recognising his own. The practice of taking likenesses of individuals at court had begun under Akbar but reached unprecedented levels of accuracy in Jahangir's reign.

Single portraits were clearly used as templates to transfer the image to scenes of court assemblies. A portrait of Mirza Ghazi, with its plain pale green background is reproduced at exactly the same size in a group scene of Jahangir and his courtiers in a garden. Different colours have been used to fill in the outline of the group portrait than were used on the single portrait.

The portrait has beautifully painted gold flowering plants on indigo-dyed paper, and decorative borders of great inventiveness were added to paintings and calligraphic specimens that were preserved in the albums of Jahangir, now all dispersed. Sometimes the panels of calligraphy, often dating to much earlier times and treasured as the work of a great master, were themselves decorated with small panels depicting animals, or with shimmering golden illumination and flowers.

The flowers were derived from European engravings, probably seen by Mughal artists in the borders of Netherlandish prints of Biblical scenes owned by the Jesuits and often brought out by them in court gatherings. Jahangir mentions in his memoirs an Iranian poet who had been given the title Bibadal Khan, 'the Peerless One'. His name was Sa'ida and he probably arrived at the Mughal court early in Jahangir's reign. His skills were many and varied — in addition to being a poet, he was a calligrapher, a lapidary cutter, polisher or engraver of gem stones , and one of several specialists who was able to inscribe in minute lettering the title of Jahangir on his personal possessions made of precious stones, jade or imported Chinese porcelain.

He was also a goldsmith who was given the position of head of the goldsmiths department. His ability to work hardstones perhaps explains the appearance, during Jahangir's reign, of objects made of nephrite jade that were inscribed with the emperor's titles.

One of these is a wine cup inscribed with Persian verses, the hijri date , and the regnal year 8 corresponding to the first half of The raw material, imported from Khotan, was probably already in the royal treasury when Jahangir became emperor, but no finished artefacts can be reliably dated before his reign.

The techniques used to fashion nephrite jade, which cannot be carved but has to be abraded or incised using diamond drills and small lap wheels, are the same as those used to shape objects of rock crystal, a material commonly found in the subcontinent and already used for hundreds of years.

Nephrite jade was probably still a rare commodity in the empire at this period, its availability was dependant upon whether or not the narrow trade routes from Khotan, across Tibet and through Kashmir to Lahore, were open. However, the material quickly began to be used in typically innovative fashion by the royal master craftsmen. Wine cups of increasingly complex form were made, and jade artefacts were also inlaid with precious stones.

A jade pendant in our collections , set with rubies and emeralds of very high quality in gold, was very probably made in the imperial workshops. Textiles of Jahangir's reign are particularly rare, but a unique and extremely splendid satin coat embroidered all over with birds and animals in a flower-strewn rocky landscape must have been made for a leading individual at court.

Many details, including some of the animals and plant forms are replicated in the borders of contemporary paintings and on metalwork, underlining a fundamental difference between artistic production in the Mughal empire and in Europe — as in Iran, Central Asia and the rest of the subcontinent, no distinction is made between so-called 'fine' and 'decorative' art.

Jahangir died in and after a short but violent interval when rivals competed for the throne, his son Shah Jahan became emperor in Shah Jahan had rebelled against his father — as Jahangir as a prince had rebelled against Akbar — and had been estranged from onwards. Some of this time was spent in the Deccan, where the prince tried to form alliances with the traditional enemies of the Mughal state. Sensitively observed portraits of two men that were considered enemies to the Mughal state can only have been done by an eye witness, and demonstrate that artists must have accompanied Shah Jahan.

Malik Ambar was born in Ethiopia in about and sold into slavery. He was eventually bought by a leading member of the court of Nizam Shah, ruler of Ahmadnagar, one of the fragile sultanates of the Deccan.

The slave became a soldier, and eventually a commander of the army which fought against Akbar's forces. By he was so powerful that he effectively ruled Ahmadnagar until his death in Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah ruled nearby Golconda and was renowned for his patronage of the arts. Hashem's painting shows the distinctively different weapons and jewellery worn by the ruler compared with Mughal fashions at the time. After Shah Jahan's accession, paintings inherited from his father were combined in sumptuous albums with newly commissioned paintings.

Decorated panels of calligraphy by great Iranian masters were pasted to the back of each painting, and floral borders were added to each side of the folio, creating a sense of unity throughout the albums.

Shah Jahan seems to have made a conscious attempt to obliterate all physical record of his father. Structures built by order of Jahangir in the royal cities of Agra and Lahore were replaced with those in a new style, characterised by profusely carved or inlaid floral decoration. More subtle slights are apparent in paintings. In a representation of the three emperors that has a companion piece, now in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin , Akbar hands the imperial crown not to his actual successor but to Shah Jahan.

Jahangir is ignored. More surprisingly, in another painting, Shah Jahan's head replaces that of his father, and the original depiction of himself as Crown Prince, seen following the emperor, has been replaced by the head of his own son, Dara Shokuh. All other elements of the painting by Manohar remain unchanged. The artist of the replacement heads, Murar, signed his work in minute inscriptions immediately behind Shah Jahan, and underneath the Crown Prince's left hand.

Shah Jahan inherited the volumes of the combined libraries of Akbar and Jahangir, but on the basis of what has survived, his interest in the art of the book seems to have been much less than that of his father — though a contemporary historian notes that he inspected the work of the artists every day.

Some traditions carried on — the portrait of Shah Jahan's brother-in-law, Asaf Khan, has the same pale green background of earlier portraits, though faintly drawn scenes have been added, alluding to episodes from his life. Many portraits of the emperor and his sons were made. He was depicted holding the jewels which he loved, and about which he knew a great deal, and also on horseback with a parasol held over his head by his son — one of the main emblems of royalty.

Nevertheless, Shah Jahan's lasting legacy is to be seen in the great monuments he constructed — the forts of Agra and Lahore that were transformed with new buildings decorated with coloured stone inlays, and the new city called Shahjahanabad that was built in Delhi between and White marble from the mines of Makrana in Rajasthan was used prolifically in Agra and Delhi, carved in low relief or inlaid with semi-precious stones in a new Mughal style inspired by imported Florentine panels inlaid with pietre dure.

The first Muslims arrived in the 8th century. In the first half of the 10th century a Muslim ruler of Afghanistan invaded the Punjab 11 times, without much political success, but taking away a great deal of loot.

A more successful invasion came at the end of the 12th century. This eventually led to the formation of the Delhi Sultanate. The Mughal Empire grew out of descendants of the Mongol Empire who were living in Turkestan in the 15th century.

They had become Muslims and assimilated the culture of the Middle East, while keeping elements of their Far Eastern roots. They also retained the great military skill and cunning of their Mongol ancestors, and were among the first Western military leaders to use guns. Babur succeeded his father as ruler of the state of Farghana in Turkestan when he was only 12, although he was swiftly deposed by older relatives.

Babur moved into Afghanistan in , and then moved on to India, apparently at the invitation of some Indian princes who wanted to dispose of their ruler. Babur disposed of the ruler, and decided to take over himself.

The Empire he founded was a sophisticated civilisation based on religious toleration. It was a mixture of Persian, Mongol and Indian culture. Trade with the rest of the Islamic world, especially Persia and through Persia to Europe, was encouraged. The importance of slavery in the Empire diminished and peace was made with the Hindu kingdoms of Southern India. Babur brought a broad-minded, confident Islam from central Asia. His first act after conquering Delhi was to forbid the killing of cows because that was offensive to Hindus.

Babur may have been descended from brutal conquerors, but he was not a barbarian bent on loot and plunder. Instead he had great ideas about civilisation, architecture and administration. He even wrote an autobiography, The Babur - Namah. The autobiography is candid, honest and at times even poetic. Babur was followed by his son Humayun who was a bad emperor, a better poet, and a drug addict.

He rapidly lost the empire. He did eventually recover the throne but died soon afterwards after breaking his neck falling downstairs. While Humayan was certainly disastrous as a ruler, his love of poetry and culture heavily influenced his son Akbar, and helped to make the Mughal Empire an artistic power as well as a military one.

The third Emperor, Abu Akbar, is regarded as one of the great rulers of all time, regardless of country. Akbar succeeded to the throne at 13, and started to recapture the remaining territory lost from Babur's empire. By the time of his death in he ruled over most of north, central, and western India. Akbar worked hard to win over the hearts and minds of the Hindu leaders.

While this may well have been for political reasons - he married a Hindu princess and is said to have married several thousand wives for political and diplomatic purposes - it was also a part of his philosophy. Akbar believed that all religions should be tolerated, and that a ruler's duty was to treat all believers equally, whatever their belief.

He established a form of delegated government in which the provincial governors were personally responsible to him for the quality of government in their territory. The positive aspect of their legacy still contributes to interfaith harmony in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh , but the negative aspect fuels inter-community communitarian hatred and even violence. Lessons can be learned from the Mughal legacy on how to govern multi-racial, multi-religious societies.

The Mughal ruling class was Muslim , although many of the subjects of the empire were Hindu and also Sikh. When Babur first founded the empire, he did not emphasize his religion, but rather his Mongol heritage. Under Akbar , the court abolished the jizya , the tax on non-Muslims, and abandoned use of the lunar Muslim calendar in favor of a solar calendar more useful for agriculture.

He enjoyed good relations with the emerging Sikh community, and it was proclaimed the state religion until his death. These actions were later retracted by Aurangzeb , known for his zealotry. Aurangzeb imposed Sharia law, which he codified, re-imposed the jizya , and as had Babur, destroyed temples in order to build mosques.

He is known to have treated non-Muslims harshly. Under Aurangzeb, Mughal court life changed dramatically. According to his interpretation, Islam did not allow music, so he banished court musicians, dancers, and singers.

Further, based on Muslim precepts forbidding images, he stopped the production of representational artwork, including the miniature paintings for which the Mughals are renowned. Even the Taj Mahal is reputedly built on a sacred Hindu site, although this is disputed.

At times, popular Sufi teachers such as attracted Hindu and Muslim disciples while some Hindu gurus were also popular among Muslims. Many Sufi shrines are still visited by Hindus as well as Muslims.

The Mughals tended to regard themselves as rulers by divine right, rather than as subject to Islamic law. Thus, they did not afford religious scholars much authority. Although they recognized the Ottoman claim to the title of caliph , they saw the Ottomans as just another Muslim empire like themselves, especially as they shared a similar pedigree. Whether the earlier policies of harmonizing religions were merely pragmatic or stemmed from a more inclusive understanding of Islam is debatable.

He taught that all people are members of one family and he drew equally on Muslim and Hindu devotional traditions. The Mughals used the mansabdar system to generate land revenue. The emperor would grant revenue rights to a mansabdar in exchange for promises of soldiers in wartime.

The greater the size of the land the emperor granted, the greater the number of soldiers the mansabdar or Zamindars had to promise. The mansab was both revocable and non-hereditary; this gave the center a fairly large degree of control over the mansabdars. As a result of increasingly heavy taxation initially the Mughals had not overtaxed , revolt was encouraged as local people objected to the amount of money spent on the lavish Mughal court.

Initially, this also encouraged economic development, establishing a strong system of banking and credit, and issuing paper money. Increasingly, however, they bled the country of its wealth to feed their lifestyle. Ignoring development, they failed to keep pace with the developments of the rest of the world, including those of weapon technology.

Babur was driven from Samarkand and initially established his rule in Kabul in ; he later became the first Mughal ruler — His determination was to expand eastward into Punjab, where he had made a number of forays including an attack on the Gakhar stronghold of Pharwala.

Then an invitation from an opportunistic Afghan chief in Punjab brought him to the very heart of the Delhi Sultanate , ruled by Ibrahim Lodi Babur defeated the Lodi sultan decisively at Panipat in modern-day Haryana, about 90 kilometers north of Delhi.

Employing gun carts, movable artillery, and superior cavalry tactics, Babur achieved a resounding victory. A year later, he decisively defeated a Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sangha. In Babur routed the joint forces of Afghans and the sultan of Bengal but died in before he could consolidate his military gains. He left behind as legacies his memoirs Baburnama , several beautiful gardens in Kabul and Lahore, and descendants who would fulfill his dream of establishing an empire in the Indian Subcontinent.

When Babur died, his son Humayun —56 inherited a difficult task. He was pressed from all sides by a reassertion of Afghan claims to the Delhi throne, by disputes over his own succession, and by the Afghan-Rajput march into Delhi in He fled to Persia, where he spent nearly ten years as an embarrassed guest at the Safavid court of Tahmasp I.

In Humayun gained a foothold in Kabul with Safavid assistance and reasserted his Indian claim, a task made easier by the weakening of Afghan power in the area after the death of Sher Shah Suri in May , and took control of Delhi in As soon as Akbar came of age, he began to free himself from the influences of overbearing ministers, court factions, and harem intrigues, and demonstrated his own capacity for judgment and leadership.

A workaholic who seldom slept more than three hours a night, he personally oversaw the implementation of his administrative policies, which were to form the backbone of the Mughal Empire for more than two hundred years. He continued to conquer, annex, and consolidate a far-flung territory bounded by Kabul in the northwest, Kashmir in the north, Bengal in the east, and beyond the Narmada River in central India—an area comparable in size to the Mauryan territory some 1, years earlier.

Akbar built a walled capital called Fatehpur Sikri Fatehpur means town of victory near Agra, starting in It incorporated the tomb of the Sufi saint, whom he revered, Shaikh Salim Chisti , who had predicted the birth of his son. The city, however, proved short-lived, with the capital being moved to Lahore in The reason may have been that the water supply in Fatehpur Sikri was insufficient or of poor quality, or, as some historians believe, that Akbar had to attend to the northwest areas of his empire and therefore moved his capital northwest.

In Akbar shifted his capital back to Agra, from where he reigned until his death. Akbar adopted two distinct but effective approaches in administering a large territory and incorporating various ethnic groups into the service of his realm. In he obtained local revenue statistics for the previous decade in order to understand details of productivity and price fluctuation of different crops. Aided by Raja Todar Mal, a Rajput king, Akbar issued a revenue schedule that the peasantry could tolerate while providing maximum profit for the state.

Revenue demands, fixed according to local conventions of cultivation and quality of soil, ranged from one-third to one-half of the crop and were paid in cash. Akbar relied heavily on land-holding zamindars.