THE GREAT MUGHALS

• Empire founded in 1526 by Emperor Babur.

• Prospered under first 6 emperors, referred to as the Great Mughals.• 2nd emperor, Humayan, lost several battles to Sher Shah Suri, losing control of Hindustan.

• 3rd emperor Akbar (circa 1700) regained control of Hindustan. Greatest Mughal ruler.

• 5th ruler Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in 1653.

• Empire declined under 6th emperor, Aurangzeb. Wars of succession, local revolts.

• By 1765, the Mughal emperor had become a pensioner of the British East India Company.

• Empire had several more mediocre rulers, finally ending in 1857 with expulsion to Burma (by British) of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MUGHAL/AKBAR.HTM

Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur (February 14, 1483 –

December 26, 1530), also spelled Baber or Babar, was a Turko-Mongol Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty in South Asia

. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a

descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother. Babur identified

his lineage as Timurid and Chaghatay-Turkic, while his origin, milieu, training, and culture were

steeped in Persian culture and so he was largely responsible for the fostering of this culture by his

descendants, and for the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant 

literary, artistic, and historiographical results.

BABUR

Babur the tiger came to power in1483 & ruled till 1530. he ruled over a very small kingdom in Turkestan. With significantly small armies he managed to conquer Afghanistan & the Delhi sultanate & all of Hindustan.

Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun (Persian:  همایون محمد الدین -full title: Al ;نصیرSultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram, Jam-i-Sultanat-i-haqiqi wa Majazi, Sayyid al-Salatin, Abu'l Muzaffar Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun Padshah Ghazi, Zillu'llah; OS 7 March 1508–OS 22 February 1556) was the second Mughal Emperor who ruled present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of northern India from 1530–1540 and again from 1555–1556. Like his father, Babur, he lost his kingdom early, but with Persian aid, he eventually regained an even larger one. On the eve of his death in 1556, the Mughal empire spanned almost one million square kilometers.He succeeded his father in India in 1530, while his half-brother Kamran Mirza, who was to become a rather bitter rival, obtained the sovereignty of Kabul and Lahore, the more northern parts of their father's empire. He originally ascended the throne at the age of 22 and was somewhat inexperienced when he came to power.

HUMAYUN

Humayun inherited one of the largest empires in the world at the time and nearly ruined it. Between 1530 and 1540 he managed to lose all the land that his father worked so hard to get through rebellions from Afghanistan and India. He was sent into exile in Persia and created a small army. He ended up eventually regaining all the lands back but is looked upon as one of the worst Mughal emperors. At the end of his conquests he fell down a flight of stairs and broke his neck. He was succeeded by his son Akbar which in Arabic means" Great One."

Akbar (Urdu:  اکبر محمد الدین Hindi , جالل: जला�ला�द्दी�न मु�हम्मुद अकबर, Hunterian Jalāl ud-Dīn Muḥammad Akbar), also known as Shahanshah Akbar-e-Azam or Akbar the Great (14 October 1542  – 27 October 1605),[2][3] was the third Mughal Emperor. He was of Timurid descent; the son of Emperor Humayun, and the grandson of the Mughal Emperor Zaheeruddin MuhammadBabur, the ruler who founded the Mughal dynasty in India. At the end of his reign in 1605 the Mughal empire covered most of the northern and central India. He is most appreciated for having a liberal outlook on all faiths and beliefs and during his era, culture and art reached to zenith as compared to his predecessors.

AKBAR

Muslim, Indian and Western Historians all see Akbar as the greatest ruler throughout Indian history. He became emperor at the age of thirteen in 1556. He immediately began seizing land in Hindustan. He conquered more lands than any of his ancestors before him had. He was very wise in his rulings and tried to govern all his people equally and fairly. Since his conquered lands were so many he assigned governors to each region called mansabars.

JahangirJahangir (Urdu:   نورالدین جهانگیر Persianسلیم

جهانگیر:  سلیم نورالدین  Hindi: न�रुद्दी�न सला�मु जह��गी�र) (full title:Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram, Khushru-i-Giti Panah, Abu'l-Fath Nur-ud-din Muhammad Jahangir Padshah Ghazi [Jannat-Makaani]) (20 September 1569 – 8 November 1627) was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1605 until his death. The name Jahangir is fromPersian ."meaning "Conqueror of the World,جهانگیر Nur-ud-din or Nur al-Din is an Arabic name which means " Light of the Faith." Born as Prince Muhammad Salim, he was the third and eldest surviving son of Mogul Emperor Akbar. Akbar's twin sons, Hasan and Hussain, died in infancy. His mother was the Rajput Princess of Amber, Jodhabai (born Rajkumari Hira Kunwari, eldest daughter of Raja Bihar Mal or Bharmal, Raja of Amber, India).

Akbar was succeeded by his favorite son, Jahangir, who ruled the empire from 1605 to 1628. Jahangir did

not pursue military conquests as forcefully as his father, but he did manage to extend the empire into

Bengal. His father had once said that any Empire that is not expanding is in decline. Jahangir had a great passion for the arts: painting, culture architecture,

philosophy, and literature. He was known to carry the Mughal Empire through their richest cultural period.

Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan,(Urdu:  , جاں Persianشاه

جهان :  شاه ) (January 5, 1592 – January 22, 1666) (full title His Imperial Majesty Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram, Malik-ul-Sultanat, Ala Hazrat Abu'l-Muzaffar Shahab ud-din Muhammad Shah Jahan I, Sahib-i-Qiran-i-Sani, Padshah Ghazi Zillu'llah, Firdaus-Ashiyani, Shahanshah—E--Sultanant Ul Hindiya Wal Mughaliya, Emperor of India ) was the emperor of the Mughal Empire in the Indian Subcontinent from 1628 until 1658. The name Shah Jahan comes from Persian meaning "King of the World." He was the fifth Mughal emperor after Babur, Humayun,Akbar, and Jahangir. While young, he was favourite of his legendary grandfather, Akbar the Great. He is also called Shahjahan the Magnificent. Besides being a descendant of Genghis Khan, Emperor of Mongol Empire and Tamerlane, he is also a descendant of EmperorCharlemagne, the King of the Franks, King of the Lombards and the Emperor of the Romans.

SHAH JAHAN

Jahangir successor, Shah Jahan, inherited Akbar's obsession with the military. Shah Jahan ruled from 1628 1658. By the end of his reign, the Mughal Empire was expanding and seemed in charge and stable. He built a new capital and many other buildings. The most famous of all is the Taj Mahal in Agra. When his favorite wife died while giving birth to her fourteenth child, Shah Jahan decided to build her the most beautiful tomb that the world had ever seen and that was exactly what he did. Till this day the Taj Mahal is known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Taj Mahal took over twenty years to build and over twenty thousand men. All of his lavish building projects, though, eventually ran the treasury dry. Because of this he raised the taxes on all the

people and raised a lot of hostility towards himself.

Aurangzeb, Emperor Shah Jahan's sixth son, was born on 24th October 1618 at Dohad in Madhya Pradesh, and wrested India's crown from his father before the end of June 1658, after defeating his brother Prince Dara Shukoh's armies, first at Dharmat near Ujjain (15th April 1568) and the second, led by Dara himself, at Samugarh on 29th May 1658. The War of Succession to the richest throne in the world was practically over with this victory, and Aurangzeb secured his position by making Murad, his brother and accomplice in his impetuous pursuit for power, his prisoner, by treachery, on 25th June. He had already made his old father Emperor Shah Jahan a prisoner in the Agra Fort (8th June 1658).

Aurangzeb

The last great Mughal ruler was Aurangzeb Alamgir. During the fifty-year reign, the empire reached its greatest physical size but also showed unmistakable signs of decline. Aurangzeb restored Mughal military dominance & expanded power Southwards.

INFLUENCE OF MUGHAL

DYNASTY ON !ND!A

• Known for manuscripts and Persian miniature paintings.

• Very symbolic.

• Involved a lot of nature (birds, flowers, animals, etc.)

• Very colorful and detailed.

•In 1680 Emporer Shah Jahan banned music and painting from his court, but he allowed architectural art, such as the Pearl Mosque and the Taj Mahal.

• Nearly 400 monuments have survived a time-span of 132 years.

•White marble and red sandstone was favored.

•Semi-precious gemstones were popular (jade, crystal, etc.)

• Used arches sparingly.

• Symmetry and balance stressed.

• Used octagons a lot.

• Kurta ~ an informal dress worn by Mughal men and women.

• Sometimes sewn with gold or silver threads.

• Cut in long, flowing panels for comfort; about knee-length.

• Traditional wear in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

• Spicy

• Dried fruit

• Rich and Creamy

• Known for various sauces

• Numerous kabobs

• Non vegetarian!

MilitaryBabur, the first Mughal emperor , succeeded to

the throne of Fergana in 1494 when he was only 12 years old.

He was forced to leave his ancestral throne due to invasion of Mongol group, the uzbegs. In 1526 he defeated the sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi, at panipat & captured Delhi & Agra

Mughal relations with other rulers

As the Mughals became powerful many other rulers also joined them voluntarily. The rajputs are good example of this. many of them married their daughters into Mughal families and received high positions. But many resisted as well. once defeated, however, they were honorably treated by Mughals, given lands back as assignments.

ReligionMughals followed a different kind of religion.It was named sulh-i-kul .As in the wide

expanse of the divine compassion there is room for all classes and the followers of all creeds, so…. in his Imperial dominions, which on all sides were limited only by the sea, there was room for the professors of opposite religions, & for beliefs, good & bad, and the road to intolerance was closed . Sunnis and shias met in one mosque and Christians and Jews in one church to pray. He consistently followed the principle of “universal peace” {sulh-i-kul} it was also followed by jahangir & shan jahan.

Mughals Traditions of succession

The Mughals did not believe in the rule of primogeniture where the eldest son inherited his father’s estate. Instead they followed the Mughal and Timurid custom of` coparcenary inheritance amongst all sons.

Which do you think is a fairer division of inheritance:

primogeniture or coparcenary?

Akbar’s policies

The broad features of administration were laid down by Akbar. The empire was divided into provinces called subas, governed by a subadar who carried out both political and military functions. Subadar was supported by other officers. Akbar’s nobles commanded large armies

and had access to large amounts of revenue. While they were loyal the

empire functioned efficiently.

He was defeated by the new Afghan leader, Sher Khan Sur (later known as Sher Shah), wandered in exile in Persia, and finally settled in Kabul. After 15 years, by which time the Sur regime was in a shambles, Humayan recaptured Hindustan just before his death in 1556. His young son Akbar soon recovered the lost empire, expanding its almost to the entire upper India. Akbar, who is often considered the true founder of the Mughal Empire, laid the grounds for the significant economic growth and the fabulous art and building activities of his successors. He died in 1605 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Jahangir.

Mughal influence on the subcontinentThe main Mughal contribution to the south

Asia was their unique architecture. They also influenced these points:Persian art & culture amalgamated with native Indian art & culture.Urdu & Hindi languages were formed.Landscape gardening.A new style of architecture.

The Mughal Empire reached its greatest extent in the time of Aurangzeb Alamgir, but it collapsed with dramatic suddenness within a few decades after his death. The Mughal Empire owes its decline and ultimate downfall to a combination of factors; firstly Aurangzeb religious policy is regarded as a cause for the decline of the Mughal Empire as it led to disunity among the people. Although the policy did lead to weakening of the empire but the major cause of decline was the lack of worthy and competent successors after him. The character of Mughal kings had deteriorated over a period of time. The successive rulers after Aurangzeb were weak and lacked the character, motivation and commitment to rule the empire strongly. They had become ease loving and cowardly. They totally disregarded their state duties and were unable to detain the declining empire from its fall.