page_title: History of Ahmedabad
section_title: Mughal rule (1572–1707)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Ahmedabad / Mughal rule (1572–1707)
caption_attribution_description: A battle between the Mughals and Muhammad Husain Mirza near Ahmadabad in north-west India in 1573, during the long and ultimately successful Mughal campaign to conquer the territory of Gujarat. Those bearing the title Mirza were, like the Mughal royal family, descended from Timur, the Central Asian ruler who had briefly conquered Hindustan, as the northern regions of South Asia were known, in 1398. As a result, Hindustan was later seen as a legitimate target for conquest by members of the different branches of the family. During the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar (r.1556–1605) battles between Mughal forces and various Mirzas frequently took place as each tried to seize control of a particular region. The title Mirza is a contraction of the Persian ‘Amirzadeh’, meaning ‘born of the amir’ (that is, Timur). Here, Muhammad Husain Mirza had taken advantage of Akbar’s departure from Gujarat to try to seize the region, and Mughal forces had been despatched to prevent this.
context_page_description: Ahmedabad is the largest city in the state of Gujarat. It is located in western India on the banks of the River Sabarmati. The city served as political as well as economical capital of the region since its establishment. The earliest settlement can be recorded around the 12th century under Chaulukya dynasty rule. The present city was founded on 26 February 1411 and announced as the capital on 4 March 1411 by Ahmed Shah I of Gujarat Sultanate as a new capital. Under the rule of sultanate the city prospered followed by decline when the capital was transferred to Champaner. For next 135 years, the city renewed greatness under the early rulers of Mughal Empire. The city suffered due to political instability under late Mughal rulers followed by joint rule between Maratha and Mughal. The city further suffered following joint Maratha rule. The city again progressed when politically stabilized when British East India Company established the rule in the city. The city further renewed growth when it gain political freedom by establishment of municipality and opening of railway under British crown rule.
context_section_description: Mughal emperor Akbar entered Gujarat and won Anhilwad Patan in 1572. In November 1572, after receiving the submission of its nobles, he made Gujarat a province of his empire, and appointed a governor. When Akbar was gone, the rebel Mirzas connected to Timurid dynasty, backed by some of the Gujarat nobles, came against Ahmedabad in 1573. Two years later in 1575, at a second siege Muzaffar Husain Mirza all but took the city. In 1583 Muzaffar Shah III, the last ruler of Gujarat sultanate, recaptured Ahmedabad and spoiled it of gold, jewels, and fine cloth. Akbar sent Mirza Khan, one of his chief nobles, leading the Mughal army against Ahmedabad. The armies clashed on 22 January 1584 at Sarkhej, after a hard-fought battle, routed Muzzafar's army and forced him to flee to Kathiawar. Raised to be Khan Khanan or head of the nobles, Mirza Khan turned the Sarkhej battlefield into a garden, Fateh Bagh (later Fateh vadi), the garden of victory, for long one of the chief sights of Ahmedabad. Khan Khanan governed the city from 1583 to 1590. In the early years of the seventeenth century Ahmedabad increased in size. Its governor Syed Murtaza, Shaikh Farid-i-Bukhari who ruled from 1606 to 1609 founded a new ward Bukhari Mohalla and built Wajihuddin's Tomb. In 1613, a company of thirty-two Englishmen under Mr. Aldworth, the first representatives of British East India Company, came to Ahmedabad. On 15 December 1617, Sir Thomas Roe came to Ahmedabad. About three weeks later on 6 January 1618, Mughal emperor Jahangir gave an audience to him. The Dutch traders also visited him. Jahangir stayed in the city for nine months but was unimpressed by its environment calling it Gardabad, the city of dust. His wife Nur Jahan governed the city during this period.
  In 1616 Prince Khurram, afterwards, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, was made governor. During his government from 1616 to 1622, he built Moti Shahi Mahal in 1621 and royal baths in the Bhadra fort. Jain merchant Shantidas Jhaveri started building Chintamani Parshwanath temple in Saraspur in 1622. Shortly after (1626), the English traveller Sir Thomas Herbert describes Ahmedabad as "the megapolis of Gujarat, circled by a strong wall with many large and comely streets, shops full of aromatic gums, perfumes and spices, silks, cottons, calicoes and choice Indian and China rarities, owned and sold by the abstemious Banians who here surpass for number the other inhabitants." In 1629 and 1630 Ahmedabad passed through two years of famine known as Satyashiyo Dukal  so severe that its streets were blocked by the dying, and those who could move, wandered to other countries. For the poor and destitute soup kitchens, langar-khanas, were established. The famine over, the city soon regained its prosperity. In 1636, Azam Khan started construction of Azam Khan Sarai in Bhadra.
  During the next thirty years (1640–1670), the fortunes of Ahmedabad were at their best. The most distinguished governors were Azam Khan (1635–1642), Aurangzeb (1644–1646), and Murad Bakhsh (1654–1657).‹See TfM› In 1638, Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo visited the city. During this time the only disorder was in 1644 a riot between Hindus and Muslims in which under Aurangzeb's orders the temple of Chintamani Parswanath near Saraspur was mutilated. Aurangzeb ascended the throne at Delhi 1658. In 1664, the revenue concessions were offered to Europeans and Tavernier came to the city. English Ambassador Sir Thomas Roe visited the city in 1672 again. The jizya tax was imposed on non-Muslims in 1681 and the riots broke out due to famine in the city. The city was flooded up to Teen Darwaza in 1683. Though for several years (1683–1689) affected by attacks of pestilence, Ahmedabad seems to have lost little in wealth. In 1695 it was the headquarters of manufactures, 'the greatest city in India, nothing inferior to Venice for rich silks and gold stuffs curiously wrought with birds and flowers.' With the close of Aurangzeb's (1707) reign began a period of disorder. 
  During Mughal rule, with the rise of Surat as a rival commercial center, Ahmedabad lost so
caption: The battle between the Mughal Imperial Army and Muhammad Husain Mirza near Ahmadabad in 1573. From Akbarnama.
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