Claim: Akbar was the ruler of the Mughal empire.

The Mughal emperors were a branch of the Timurid dynasty . From the early 16th century to the early 18th they built and ruled the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent , mainly corresponding to the modern countries of Bangladesh , India and Pakistan . Their power rapidly dwindled during the 18th century and the last of the emperors was deposed in 1857 , with the establishment of the British Raj . The dynasty was of Asian Turco-Mongol origin from an area now part of modern-day Uzbekistan , and the emperors claimed direct descent from both Timur and Genghis Khan , through his son Chagatai Khan . Timur is generally known in the West as Tamerlane the Great .   At their empire 's greatest extent in the late 17th and early 18th centuries , they controlled much of the Indian subcontinent , extending from Bengal in the east to Kabul and Sindh in the west , Kashmir in the north to the Kaveri basin in the south . Its population at the time has been estimated as between 110 and 150 million -LRB- a quarter of the world 's population -RRB- , over a territory of more than 3.2 million square kilometres -LRB- 1.2 million square miles -RRB- .