page_title: Mughal emperors
section_title: Mughal Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Mughal emperors / Mughal Empire
caption_attribution_description: English: The emperor sits in haloed profile upon a gold-footed throne under a high white canopy, flanked by his three young princes who stand on the left. All are resplendent with opulently bejewelled turbans, necklaces, qatar daggers, and sashes (patkas) against a rounded backdrop of turquoise, perhaps suggesting a globe, as golden light appears on the right. The inscription on this Mughal painting identifies it as a portrait of emperor Jahangir and his three sons, but what we see today are the faces of Shah Jahan (r. 1628-57 CE) and his three eldest sons - Dara Shikoh (1615-59 CE), Shah Shuja' (1616-59 CE) and Awrangzeb (1618-1707 CE) - and their maternal grandfather, Asaf Khan, on the right. It was not unusual for the Mughals to refurbish earlier works for propaganda reasons. The inscription at bottom left reads, “work of the most humble of the house born, Manohar.” Sheila Canby notes that the painting is characteristic of Manohar’s style from about 1615 CE except for the refurbished faces, and that the composition follows the conventions of intimate royal portraits from Akbar’s reign, which, under Jahangir and Shah Jahan in the 1610s–1620s, developed to include a more psychological focus.
context_page_description: The Mughal emperors built and ruled the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughals began to rule parts of India from 1526, and by 1700 ruled most of the sub-continent. After that they declined rapidly, but nominally ruled territories until the 1850s. The Mughals were a branch of the Timurid dynasty of Turco-Mongol origin from Central Asia. Their founder Babur, a Timurid prince from the Fergana Valley, was a direct descendant of Timur and also affiliated with Genghis Khan through Timur's marriage to a Genghisid princess.
  Many of the later Mughal emperors had significant Indian Rajput and Persian ancestry through marriage alliances as emperors were born to Rajput and Persian princesses. Akbar, for instance, was half-Persian, Jahangir was half-Rajput and quarter-Persian, and Shah Jahan was three-quarters Rajput.
context_section_description: The Mughal Empire was founded by Babur, a Timurid prince and ruler from Central Asia. Babur was a direct descendant of the Timurid Emperor Tamerlane on his father's side, and the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan on his mother's side. Ousted from his ancestral domains in Turkistan by Sheybani Khan, the 14-year-old Prince Babur turned to India to satisfy his ambitions. He established himself in Kabul and then pushed steadily southward into India from Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass. Babur's forces occupied much of northern India after his victory at Panipat in 1526. The preoccupation with wars and military campaigns, however, did not allow the new emperor to consolidate the gains he had made in India. The instability of the empire became evident under his son, Humayun, who was driven into exile in Persia by rebels. Humayun's exile in Persia established diplomatic ties between the Safavid and Mughal Courts, and led to increasing West Asian cultural influence in the Mughal court. The restoration of Mughal rule began after Humayun's triumphant return from Persia in 1555, but he died from an accident shortly afterwards. Humayun's son, Akbar, succeeded to the throne under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped consolidate the Mughal Empire in India.
  Through warfare and diplomacy, Akbar was able to extend the empire in all directions, and controlled almost the entire Indian subcontinent north of the Godavari river. He created a new ruling elite loyal to him, implemented a modern administration, and encouraged cultural developments. He increased trade with European trading companies. The Indian historian Abraham Eraly wrote that foreigners were often impressed by the fabulous wealth of the Mughal court, but the glittering court hid darker realities, namely that about a quarter of the empire's gross national product was owned by 655 families while the bulk of India's 120 million people lived in appalling poverty. After suffering what appears to have been an epileptic seizure in 1578 while hunting tigers, which he regarded as a religious experience, Akbar grew disenchanted with Islam, and came to embrace a syncretistic mixture of Hinduism and Islam. Akbar allowed freedom of religion at his court, and attempted to resolve socio-political and cultural differences in his empire by establishing a new religion, Din-i-Ilahi, with strong characteristics of a ruler cult. He left his son an internally stable state, which was in the midst of its golden age, but before long signs of political weakness would emerge.
  Akbar's son, Jahangir, "was addicted to opium, neglected the affairs of the state, and came under the influence of rival court cliques. During the reign of Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan, the splendour of the Mughal court reached its peak, as exemplified by the Taj Mahal. The cost of maintaining the court, however, began to exceed the revenue coming in.
  Shah Jahan's eldest son, the liberal Dara Shikoh, became regent in 1658, as a result of his father's illness. Dara championed a syncretistic Hindu-Muslim religion and culture. With the support of the Islamic orthodoxy, however, a younger son of Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb, seized the throne. Aurangzeb defeated Dara in 1659 and had him executed. Although Shah Jahan fully recovered from his illness, Aurangzeb declared him incompetent to rule and had him imprisoned.
  During Aurangzeb's reign, the empire gained political strength once more, and it became the world's largest economy, over a quarter of the world GDP, but his establishment of Sharia caused huge controversies. Aurangzeb expanded the empire to include a huge part of South Asia. At its peak the kingdom stretched to 3.2 million square kilometres, including parts of what are now India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.  but at his death in 1707, "many parts of the empire were in open revolt". Aurangzeb's attempts to reconquer his family's ancestral lands in Central Asia were not successful while his successful conquest of the Deccan region proved to be a Pyrrhic victory that cost the empire heavily in both blood and treasure.  A further probl
caption: Shah Jahan, accompanied by his three sons: Dara Shikoh, Shah Shuja and Aurangzeb, and their maternal grandfather Asaf Khan IV
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