Everything about Mogul Empire totally explained
The
Mughal Empire (;, ; self-designation:, ), was a
Turkic ruled
Islamic imperial power which ruled most of the Asian subcontinent from the early
16th to the mid-
19th centuries. At the height of its power, around
1700, it controlled most of the subcontinent and parts of what is now
Afghanistan. Its population at that time has been estimated as between 110 and 130 million, over a territory of over 4 million km² (1.5 million mi²). Following
1725 it declined rapidly. Its decline has been variously explained as caused by wars of succession, agrarian crises fueling local revolts, the growth of religious intolerance and British colonialism. The last
Emperor,
Bahadur Shah II, whose rule was restricted to the city of
Delhi, was imprisoned and exiled by the
British after the
Indian Rebellion of 1857.
The classic period of the Empire starts with the accession of
Jalaluddin Mohammad, better known as Akbar the Great, in
1556 and ends with the death of
Aurangzeb in
1707, although the Empire continued for another 150 years. During this period, the Empire was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting the different regions. All the significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period.
Early history
The foundation for the Mughal empire was established around the early
1500s by the
Timurid prince
Babur, a descendant of
Genghis Khan and
Timur, when he took control of
Doab and eastern regions of
Khorasan controlling the fertile
Sindh region and the lower valley of the
Indus River.
In
1526, Babur defeated the last of the
Delhi Sultans,
Ibrahim Shah Lodi, at the
First Battle of Panipat. Babur was invited to invade the
Delhi Sultans by
Rana Sanga, who thought after defeating Ibrahim Lodhi, Babur would go back and he'd become Ruler of Delhi. To secure his newly founded kingdom, Babur then had to face the
Rajput confederacy led by
Rana Sanga of
Chittor, at the
battle of Khanwa. These early military successes of the Mughals, achieved by an army much smaller than its opponents, have been attributed to their cohesion, mobility,
horse-mounted archers, and use of
artillery.
Babur's son
Humayun succeeded him in
1530 but suffered major reversals at the hands of the
Pashtun Sher Shah Suri and effectively lost most of the fledgling empire before it could grow beyond a minor regional state. From
1540 Humayun became a ruler in exile, reaching the Court of the
Safavid ruler in
1542 while his forces still controlled some fortresses and small regions. But when the Afghans fell into disarray with the death of Sher Shah Suri, Humayun returned with a mixed army, raised more troops and managed to reconquer Delhibum in
1555.
Humayun crossed the rough terrain of
Makran with his wife, but left behind their infant son
Jalaluddin to spare him the rigours of the journey. Akbar, as Jalaluddin would be better known in his later years, was taken from the
Rajput town of
Umerkot in
Sindh(
Pakistan) where was raised by his uncle Askari. There he became an excellent outdoorsman, horseman, and hunter, and learned the arts of war.
The resurgent Humayun then conquered the central plateau around Delhi, but months later died in an accident, leaving the realm unsettled and in war. Akbar succeeded his father on
14 February 1556, while in the midst of a war against
Sikandar Shah Suri for the throne of Delhi. He soon won his eighteenth victory at age 21 or 22. The rump remnant began to grow, then it grew considerably. He became called Akbar, as he was a wise ruler, set fair but steep taxes. He investigated the production in a certain area and taxed inhabitants 1/5 of their agricultural produce. He also set up an efficient bureaucracy and was tolerant of religious differences which softened the resistance by the conquered.
Jahangir, the son of Mughal Emperor Akbar ruled the empire from
1605–
1627. In October 1627,
Shah Jahan, son of Mughal Emperor Jahangir succeeded to the throne, where he inherited a vast and rich empire in
India. At mid-century this was perhaps the greatest empire in the world. Shah Jahan commissioned the famous
Taj Mahal (
1630–
1653) in
Agra as a tomb for his wife
Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child. By 1700 the empire reached its peak with major parts of present day India, except for the North eastern states, the
Sikh lands in
Punjab, the lands of the
Marathas, areas in the south and most of Afganistan under its domain, under the leadership of
Aurangzeb Alamgir. Aurangzeb was the last of what are now referred to as the Great Mughal kings.
Religion
The official State religion of the Mughal Empire was
Islam, with the preference to the
jurisprudence of the
Hanafi Madhab (Mazhab). However, throughout its history, subjects had complete freedom to practice any Religion of his or her choice, though the government tended to support Islamic institutions.
During the reign of all the Emperors except
Akbar, Non-Muslims were obliged to pay the
Jizya tax, signifying their status as
Dhimmis and " peoples of the book "
After the
invasion of Persia by the
Mongol Empire, a regional Turko-Persio-Mongol dynasty formed. Just as eastern Mongol dynasties inter-married with locals and adopted the local religion of
Buddhism and the
Chinese culture, this group adopted the local religion of
Islam and the
Persian culture. The first Mughal King, Babur, established the Mughal dynasty in regions spanning parts of present-day
Pakistan and
India. Upon invading this region, the Mughals inter-married with local royalty once again, creating a dynasty of combined
Turko-Persian, and
Mongol background. King Babur did this to create peace among the different religions in the region. In accordance to Islamic values, Babur focused on setting a good example for the Mughal Dynasty by emphasizing religious tolerance.
The language of the court was
Persian. The language spoken was Urdūn, which today has advanced into
Urdu. Urdūn originated from Persio-Arabic formation, and took on various characteristics of Persian,
Chagatai, and
Arabic. Today, Urdu is the National Language of Pakistan and is spoken by Indian
Muslims.
The dynasty remained unstable until the reign of
Akbar, who was of liberal disposition and intimately acquainted, since birth, with the mores and traditions of Islam in the Indian sub-continent. Under Akbar's rule, the court abolished the
jizya (tax on non-Muslims comparable with
zakat for Muslims) and abandoned use of the Muslim
lunar calendar in favor of a
solar calendar . One of Akbar's most unusual ideas regarding religion was
Din-i-Ilahi (Faith of God), which was an eclectic mix of
Islam,
Zoroastrianism,
Jainism and
Christianity. It was proclaimed the state religion until his death. These actions however met with stiff opposition from the Muslim clergy, especially the
Sufi Shaykh Alf Sani
Ahmad Sirhindi. Akbar is remembered as tolerant, at least by the standards of the day: only one major massacre was recorded during his long reign (1556–1605), when he ordered most of the captured inhabitants of a fort be slain on
February 24,
1568, after the battle for Chitor. Akbar's acceptance of other religions and toleration of their public worship, his abolition of poll-tax on non-Muslims, and his interest in other faiths show an attitude of considerable religious tolerance, which, in the minds of his orthodox Muslim opponents, was tantamount to
apostasy. He made the formal declaration of his own infallibility in all matters of religious doctrine, promulgated a new creed, and adopted Hindu and Zoroastrian festivals and practices.
The emperor Jahangir was also a religious moderate. His mother being Hindu and his father setting up an independent faith-of-the-court ('Din-i-Illahi') and the influence of his two Hindu queens (the Maharani Maanbai and Maharani Jagat) kept religious moderation as a center-piece of state policy which was extended under the emperor Shah Jahan.
Religious orthodoxy would only play an important role during the reign of
Aurangzeb, a devout Muslim. Aurhangzeb was comparatively less tolerant of other faiths than his predecessors had been, and his reign saw an increase in the number and importance of Islamic institutions and scholars. He led many military campaigns against the remaining non-Muslim powers of the Indian subcontinent, namely the Sikh states of the
Punjab and the last independent Hindu rajputs. Under his reign the empire reached its greatest extent in terms of territorial gain and economic strength.
Economy
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 had to promise. The
mansab was both revocable and non-hereditary; this gave the centre a fairly large degree of control over the
mansabdars.
Establishment and reign of Babur
In the early
16th century, Muslim armies consisting of Mongol, Turkic, Persian, and
Afghan warriors invaded the subcontinent under the leadership of the Timurid prince Zahir-ud-Din-Muhammad Babur. Babur was the great-grandson of
Central Asian conqueror Timur-e Lang (Timur the Lame, from which the Western name Tamerlane is derived), who had invaded India in
1398 before retiring to
Samarkand. Timur himself claimed descent from the Mongol ruler,
Genghis Khan. Babur was driven from Samarkand by the Uzbeks and initially established his rule in
Kabul in
1504. Later, taking advantage of internal discontent in the
Delhi sultanate under
Ibrahim Lodi, and following an invitation from
Daulat Khan Lodhi (governor of Punjab) and
Alam Khan (uncle of the Sultan), Babur invaded the sultanate in
1526.
Babur, a seasoned military commander with his well-trained veteran army of 12,000 met the sultan's huge but unwieldy and disunited force of more than 100,000 men. Babur defeated the Lodhi sultan decisively at the
First Battle of Panipat. Employing
firearms, gun carts, movable
artillery, superior cavalry tactics, and the highly regarded Mughal composite bow, a weapon even more powerful than the English longbow of the same period, Babur achieved a resounding victory and the Sultan was killed. A year later (
1527) he decisively defeated, at the
Battle of Khanwa, a Rajput confederacy led by
Rana Sanga of Chittor. A third major battle was fought in 1529 at Gogra, where Babur routed the joint forces of Afghans and the sultan of
Bengal. Babur died in 1530 in Agra before he could consolidate his military gains. During his short five-year reign, Babur took considerable interest in erecting buildings, though few have survived. He left behind as his chief legacy a set of descendants who would fulfil his dream of establishing an Islamic empire in the Indian subcontinent.
Successors
* Afghan Rule (
Sher Shah Suri and his descendants)
Humayun
When Babur died, his son Humayun (1530–1556) inherited a difficult task. He was pressed from all sides by a reassertion of Afghan claims to the Delhi throne and by disputes over his own succession. Driven into
Sindh by the armies of
Sher Shah Suri, in
1540 he fled to the
Rajput Kingdom of
Umarkot then to Persia, where he spent nearly ten years as an embarrassed guest of the
Safavid court of
Shah Tahmasp. During Sher Shah's reign, an imperial unification and administrative framework were established; this would be further developed by Akbar later in the century. In addition, the tomb of Sher Shah Suri is an architectural masterpiece that was to have a profound impact on the evolution of Indo-Islamic funerary architecture. In
1545, Humayun gained a foothold in Kabul with Safavid assistance and reasserted his claims, a task facilitated by the weakening of Afghan power in the area after the death of Sher Shah Suri in May 1545. He took control of Delhi in
1555, but died within six months of his return, from a fall down the steps of his library. His tomb at Delhi represents an outstanding landmark in the development and refinement of the Mughal style. It was designed in
1564, eight years after his death, as a mark of devotion by his widow,
Hamida Banu Begum.
Akbar
Humayun's untimely death in 1556 left the task of conquest and imperial consolidation to his thirteen-year-old son,
Jalal-ud-Din Mohammad Akbar (r.1556–
1605). Following a decisive military victory at the
Second Battle of Panipat in 1556, the regent
Bairam Khan pursued a vigorous policy of expansion on Akbar's behalf. 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 200 years. With the aide of his legendary
Navaratnas, 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.
Starting in
1571,
Akbar built a walled capital called
Fatehpur Sikri (
Fatehpur means "town of victory") near Agra. Palaces for each of Akbar's senior queens, a huge artificial lake, and sumptuous water-filled courtyards were built there. However, the city was soon abandoned and the capital was moved to
Lahore in
1585. The reason may have been that the water supply in Fatehpur Sikri was insufficient or of poor quality. Or, as some historians believe, Akbar had to attend to the northwest areas of his empire and therefore moved his capital northwest. In
1599, 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
1580 he obtained local revenue statistics for the previous decade in order to understand details of productivity and price fluctuation of different crops. Aided by
Todar Mal, a Hindu scholar, Akbar issued a revenue schedule that optimized the revenue needs of the state with the ability of the peasantry to pay. 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 to act as revenue-collectors. They used their considerable local knowledge and influence to collect revenue and to transfer it to the treasury, keeping a portion in return for services rendered. Within his administrative system, the warrior aristocracy (
mansabdars) held ranks (mansabs) expressed in numbers of troops, and indicating pay, armed contingents, and obligations. The warrior aristocracy was generally paid from revenues of non-hereditary and transferable
jagirs (revenue villages).
An astute ruler who genuinely appreciated the challenges of administering so vast an empire, Akbar introduced a policy of reconciliation and assimilation of Hindus (including
Jodhabai, later renamed
Mariam-uz-Zamani Begum, the Hindu
Rajput mother of his son and heir, Jahangir), who represented the majority of the population. He recruited and rewarded Hindu chiefs with the highest ranks in government; encouraged intermarriages between Mughal and
Rajput aristocracy; allowed new temples to be built; personally participated in celebrating Hindu festivals such as
Deepavali (or Diwali), the festival of lights; and abolished the
jizya (poll tax) imposed on non-Muslims. Akbar came up with his own theory of "rulership as a divine illumination," enshrined in his new religion
Din-i-Ilahi (Divine Faith), incorporating the principle of acceptance of all religions and sects. He encouraged widow re-marriage, discouraged child marriage, outlawed the practice of
sati and persuaded Delhi merchants to set up special market days for women, who otherwise were secluded at home.
By the end of Akbar's reign, the Mughal Empire extended throughout
north India and south of the
Narmada river. Notable exceptions were
Gondwana in central India, which paid tribute to the Mughals,
Assam in the northeast, and large parts of the
Deccan. The area south of the
Godavari river remained entirely out of the ambit of the Mughals. In
1600, Akbar's empire had a revenue of £17.5 million. By comparison, in
1800, the entire treasury of
Great Britain totalled £16 million.
Akbar's empire supported vibrant intellectual and cultural life. The large imperial library included books in
Hindi,
Persian,
Greek,
Kashmiri,
English, and
Arabic, such as the
Shahnameh,
Bhagavata Purana and the
Bible. Akbar regularly sponsored debates and dialogues among religious and intellectual figures with differing views, and he welcomed
Jesuit missionaries from
Goa to his court. Akbar directed the creation of the
Hamzanama, an artistic masterpiece that included 1400 large paintings. Architecture flourished during his reign. One of his first major building projects was the construction of a huge fort at Agra. The massive sandstone ramparts of the Red Fort are another impressive achievement. The most ambitious architectural exercise of Akbar, and one of the most glorious examples of Indo-Islamic architecture, was the creation of an entirely new capital city at Fatehpur Sikri.
Jahangir
After the death of Akbar in 1605, his son, Prince Salim, ascended the throne and assumed the title of Jahangir, "Seizer of the World". He was assisted in his artistic attempts by his wife, Nur Jahan. The
Mausoleum of Akbar at
Sikandra, outside Agra, represents a major turning point in Mughal history, as the sandstone compositions of Akbar were adapted by his successors into opulent marble masterpieces. Jahangir is the central figure in the development of the Mughal garden. The most famous of his gardens is the Shalimar Bagh on the banks of
Dal Lake in
Kashmir.
Mughal rule under Jahangir (1605–
27) and
Shah Jahan (
1628–
58) was noted for political stability, brisk economic activity, beautiful paintings, and monumental buildings. Jahangir's wife
Nur Jahan (Light of the World), emerged as the most powerful individual in the court besides the emperor. As a result, Persian poets, artists, scholars, and officers — including her own family members — lured by the Mughal court's brilliance and luxury, found asylum in India. However, the number of unproductive officers mushroomed in the state bureaucracies, as did corruption, while the excessive Persian representation upset the delicate balance of impartiality at the court.
The reign of Jahangir was also known for religious persecution. Joint Hindu and Jain forces were rebelling against the government and disrupting society. Upon stopping the rebellion, he severely persecuted the
Jains and destroyed
Hindu temples.
Guru Arjun, the fifth Guru of
Sikhs, was tortured to death during his reign. Although his relations with the son of Guru Arjun,
Guru Hargobind, remained very cordial and friendly. It is contended that Guru Arjun and the Jains suffered because of their disrespect of the Empire.
Nur Jahan's abortive efforts to secure the throne for the prince of her choice (
Khurram - later
Shah Jahan) led the first-born, Prince Khusrau (Maharani Maanbai's son) to rebel against Jahangir in
1622. In that same year, the Persians took over
Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, an event that struck a serious blow to Mughal prestige. Jahangir also had the
Tuzak-i-Jahangiri composed as a record of his reign.
Shah Jahan
The
Taj Mahal is the most famous monument built by the Mughals. It was built by Prince Khurram who ascended the throne in 1628 as Emperor Shah Jahan. Between
1636 and
1646, Shah Jahan sent Mughal armies to conquer the Deccan and the lands to the northwest of the empire, beyond the
Khyber Pass. Even though they aptly demonstrated Mughal military strength, these campaigns drained the imperial treasury. As the state became a huge military machine, causing the nobles and their contingents to multiply almost fourfold, the demands for revenue from the peasantry were greatly increased. Political unification and maintenance of law and order over wide areas encouraged the emergence of large centers of commerce and crafts — such as Lahore, Delhi, Agra, and
Ahmadabad — linked by roads and waterways to distant places and ports.
However, Shah Jahan's reign is remembered more for monumental architectural achievements than anything else. The single most important architectural change was the use of marble instead of sandstone. He demolished the austere sandstone structures of Akbar in the Red Fort and replaced them with marble buildings such as the Diwan-i-Am (hall of public audience), the Diwan-i-Khas (hall of private audience), and the Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque). The tomb of
Itmad-ud-Daula, the grandfather of his queen,
Mumtaz Mahal, was also constructed on the opposite bank of the
Jamuna or Yamuna. In
1638 he began to lay out the city of Shahjahanabad beside the Jamuna river further North in Delhi. The Red Fort at Delhi represents the pinnacle of centuries of experience in the construction of palace-forts. Outside the fort, he built the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in the empire. However, it's for the Taj Mahal, which he built as a memorial to his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, that he's most often remembered.
Shah Jahan's extravagant architectural indulgence had a heavy price. The peasants had been impoverished by heavy taxes and by the time his son Aurangzeb ascended the throne, the empire was in a state of insolvency. As a result, opportunities for grand architectural projects were severely limited. This is most easily seen at the Bibi-ki-Maqbara, the tomb of Aurangzeb's wife, built in
1678. Though the design was inspired by the Taj Mahal, it's half its size, the proportions compressed and the detail clumsily executed.
The Taj Mahal thus symbolizes both Mughal artistic achievement and excessive financial expenditures at a time when resources were shrinking. The economic positions of peasants and artisans didn't improve because the administration failed to produce any lasting change in the existing social structure. There was no incentive for the revenue officials, whose concerns were primarily personal or familial gain, to generate resources independent of what was received from the Hindu zamindars and village leaders, who, due to self-interest and local dominance, didn't hand over the entirety of the tax revenues to the imperial treasury. In their ever-greater dependence on land revenue, the Mughals unwittingly nurtured forces that eventually led to the break-up of their empire.
The Reign of Aurangzeb and the decline of the empire
Shah Jahan fell ill in 1657, and a succession struggle emerged among his four sons,
Dara Shikoh,
Shah Shuja,
Aurangzeb, and
Murad Baksh. In 1658 Aurangzeb defeated Dara Shikoh's army near Agra, and Dara Shikoh fled north. Aurangzeb captured Agra, crowned himself emperor, and imprisoned Shah Jahan. Dara Shikoh and Murad Baksh were captured and later executed, while Shah Shuja fled into exile in 1660. Shah Jahan remained imprisoned in the citadel at Agra until his death in 1666.
Aurangzeb Alamgir was the last of the Great Mughals. During his fifty-year reign, the empire reached its greatest physical size (the
Bijapur and
Golconda Sultanates which had been reduced to vassaldom by Shah Jahan were formally annexed), but also showed unmistakable signs of decline. The bureaucracy had grown corrupt; the huge army used outdated weaponry and tactics. Aurangzeb restored Mughal military dominance and expanded power southward, at least for a while. Aurangzeb was involved in a series of protracted wars against the sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda in the Deccan, the
Rajputs of
Rajasthan,
Malwa, and
Bundelkhand, the
Marathas in
Maharashtra and the
Ahoms in Assam. Peasant uprisings and revolts by local leaders became all too common, as did the conniving of the nobles to preserve their own status at the expense of a steadily weakening empire. From the early
1700s the campaigns of the Sikhs of Punjab under leaders such as
Banda Bahadur, inspired by the martial teachings of their last Guru,
Guru Gobind Singh, also posed a considerable threat to Mughal rule in Northern India.
But most decisively the series of wars against the
Pashtuns in Afghanistan weakened the very foundation upon which Moghul military rested. The Pashtuns formed the backbone of the Muhgal army and were some of the most hardened troops. The antagonism showed towards the erstwhile Mughal General
Khushal Khan Khattak, for one, seriously undermined the Mughal military apparatus.
Aurangzeb made his religion an important part of his reign. However, that brought about resentment. For instance, the much resented
jiziya tax which non-Muslims had to pay was re-introduced. In this climate, contenders for the Mughal throne were many, and the reigns of Aurangzeb's successors were short-lived and filled with strife. The Mughal Empire experienced dramatic reverses as regional
nawabs or governors broke away and founded independent kingdoms such as the Marathas to the southwest and the Sikhs in the northwest. In the
war of 27 years from
1681 to
1707, the Mughals suffered several heavy defeats at the hands of the Marathas. In the early 1700s the Sikhs became increasingly militant in an attempt to establish their own country where only they'd control and govern. They had to make peace with the Maratha armies.
Nader Shah defeated the Mughal army at the huge
Battle of Karnal in February,
1739. After this victory, Nader captured and sacked Delhi, carrying away many treasures, including the
Peacock Throne. In 1761, Delhi was raided by
Ahmed Shah Abdali after the
Third battle of Panipat.
The decline of the Mughal Empire has been ascribed to several reasons. Some historians such as
Irfan Habib have described the decline of the Mughal Empire in terms of class struggle. Habib proposed that excessive taxation and repression of peasants created a discontented class that either rebelled itself or supported rebellions by other classes and states. Athar Ali proposed a theory of a "jagirdari crisis." According to this theory, the influx of a large number of new Deccan nobles into the Mughal nobility during the reign of Aurangzeb created a shortage of agricultural crown land meant to be allotted, and destroyed the crown lands altogether. The most obvious concept is that of increasing European hegemony and spheres of influence in the region. The powers of Europe were challenging themselves to the game of who could conquer these foreign lands and exploit their riches and wealth for their own personal gain. Other theories put weight on the devious role played by the
Saeed brothers in destabilizing the Mughal throne and auctioning the agricultural crown lands to the Dutch or the British for revenue extraction.
The lesser Mughals
- Bahadur Shah I (Shah Alam I), b. October 14, 1643 at Burhanpur, ruler 1707–12, d. February 1712 in Lahore.
- Jahandar Shah, b. 1664, ruler 1712–13, d. February 11, 1713 in Delhi.
- Furrukhsiyar, b. 1683, r. 1713–19, d. 1719 at Delhi.
- Rafi Ul-Darjat, ruler 1719, d. 1719 in Delhi.
- Rafi Ud-Daulat (Shah Jahan II), ruler 1719, d. 1719 in Delhi.
- Nikusiyar, ruler 1719, d. 1719 in Delhi.
- Mohammed Ibrahim, ruler 1720, d. 1720 in Delhi.
- Muhammad Shah, b. 1702, ruler 1719–48, d. April 26, 1748 in Delhi.
- Ahmad Shah Bahadur, b. 1725, ruler 1748–54, d. January 1775 in Delhi.
- Alamgir II, b. 1699, ruler 1754–59, d. 1759.
- Shah Jahan III, ruler 1760
- Shah Alam II, b. 1728, ruler 1759–1806, d. 1806.
- Akbar Shah II, b. 1760, ruler 1806–37, d. 1837.
- Bahadur Shah II aka Bahadur Shah Zafar, b. 1775 in Delhi, ruler from 1837–57, d. 1862 in exile in Rangoon, Burma.
Present-day descendants
A few descendants of
Bahadur Shah Zafar are known to be living in
Pakistan,
Delhi,
Kolkata (previously called Calcutta),
Hyderabad, and Burma. Some of the direct descendants still identify themselves with the clan name Timur and with one of its four major branches: Shokohane-Timur (Shokoh), Shahane-Timur (Shah), Bakshane-Timur (Baksh) and Salatine-Timur (Sultan). Some direct descendants of the Timur carry the surname of Mirza, Baig and Jangda are found predominantly in
Pakistan, especially in major cities like
Multan and
Lahore. A number of 'imposter' Mughals, ie people who don't have authentic right to descent are to be found in India. Descendants in Pakistan are now known of the surname of "Malik". However, good genealogical records exist for most families in the subcontinent and are often consulted for establishing the authenticity of their claims. Some descendants of the Mughal empire have even settled in the western places like America and Europe. Some Burmese decedents of Bahadur Shah Zafar live in Rangoon, France and Canada. The
Pashtun tribe Babar living in Baluchistan regard themselves as direct descendants of
Babar however this claim hasn't been proven authentically.
However, there are real descendants of Mughal kings living in all over Pakistan as one of the family is in Lahore Pakistan. The surname "Sheikh" is also commonly known to be descendent's of the Mughul Empire and the these type of families do have their family tree written prove with them also known as (
shajra e nasab) which can be traced back to zaher ud din babar and some times to
Amir Taimor Lang Jogzai. Some descendants are also called "
Chughtai" so it can be also used by them. Although not the descendants of the many heirs to the Mughal empire's throne, the descendants of Bahadur Shah II's brother Mirza Nali (the crown prince of the empire, as decided by his father Akbar Shah II) live in Rajshahi and Dhaka (Bangladesh). The present day heir to the throne is Colonel HH Prince Azam II, the son of Nali's great grand daughter (Gul Bodon Begum). Gul Bodon became the head of the family as she was born well before her siblings. Mirza Nali's descendants are very well off, owning lots of land around North Bengal. Nali fled to Bangladesh, in fear of the British. It has been found that the direct descendant of Bahadur Shah II is an old low-middle class lady with 8 grandsons.
Mughal influence on the subcontinent
A major Mughal contribution to south Asia was their unique
architecture. Many monuments were built during the Mughal era including the Taj Mahal. The Muslim mughal dynasty bulit splendid palaces, tombs and forts that stand today in
Delhi,
Agra,
Jaipur,
Lahore and many other cities of
Northern India.
The first Mughal emperor Babur wrote in the
Bāburnāma:
Fortunately his successors, with fewer memories of the Central Asian homeland he pined for, took a less jaundiced view of cultures of the subcontinent, and became more or less naturalised, absorbing many subcontinental traits and customs along the way. The Mughal period would see a more fruitful blending of Indian, Iranian and Central Asian artistic, intellectual and literary traditions than any other in the subcontinents' history. The Mughals had a taste for the fine things in life — for beautifully designed artifacts and the enjoyment and appreciation of cultural activities. The Mughals borrowed as much as they gave; both the Hindu and Muslim traditions of the subcontinent were huge influences on their interpretation of culture and court style. Nevertheless, they introduced many notable changes to societies of the subcontinent and culture, including:
Centralised government which brought together many smaller kingdoms
Persian art and culture amalgamated with native Indian art and culture
Started new trade routes to Arab and Turk lands, Islam was at its very highest
Mughlai cuisine
Urdu language was formed by amalgamation of Farsi, Arabic, Turkish with many North Indian languages. Spoken Hindi branched off from Urdu at a much later date (late 19th Cent.) retaining a more distinct Sanskrit flavour.
A new style of architecture
Landscape gardening
The remarkable flowering of art and architecture under the Mughals is due to several factors. The empire itself provided a secure framework within which artistic genius could flourish, and it commanded wealth and resources unparalleled in the history of the subcontinent. The Mughal rulers themselves were extraordinary patrons of art, whose intellectual caliber and cultural outlook was expressed in the most refined taste.
Alternate meanings
The alternate spelling of the empire, Mogul, is the source of the modern word mogul. In popular news jargon, this word denotes a successful business magnate who has built for himself a vast (and often monopolistic) empire in one or more specific industries. The usage is a reference to the expansive and wealthy empire built by the Mughal kings. Rupert Murdoch, for example, is a called a news mogul.Further Information
Get more info on 'Mogul Empire'.
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