Shahabuddin Muhammad Shah Jahan (1592 to 1666)
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Shahabuddin Muhammad Shah Jahan ruled India from 1628 to 1658.
he was the fifth Mughal Emperor of India.
Born Prince Khurram, he was the son of Emperor Jahangir and his Hindu Rajput
wife, Tag Bibi Bilqis Makani.
He succeeded his father in 1627
and was considered one of the greatest Mughals. He pursued expansionist
policies like Akbar's to expand his vast empire. In 1658, he fell ill and was
confined by his son and successor, Aurangzeb, in Agra Fort until his death in
1666.
Shah Jahan was a more orthodox
Muslim than his father and grandfather. His policies towards non-Muslims were
less liberal than those of Jahangir and Akbar. In spite of his Hindu mother,
Shah Jahan did not follow the liberal religious policy instituted by his
grandfather. In 1632, he ordered all Hindu temples recently built or in the progress of erection to be torn
down. Christian churches in Agra and Lahore were also demolished. In the same
year, the Portuguese arrangement at Hooghly, near Calcutta, was also attacked.
The Portuguese were accused of piracy and of kidnapping Mogul subjects,
infecting them with Christian doctrines, and shipping them as slaves to Europe.
The settlement or arrangement was
reduced, and several thousand Christians were killed.
Between 1630 and 1636, Shah
Jahan reduced the number of independent kingdoms in the Deccan. Ahmadnagar took
in 1632, Golkonda in 1635, and Bijapur in 1636. In the northwest, however,
imperial troops were unsuccessful. The attempt in 1647 to annexed Balkh and
Badakshan, inheritial occupancy of Babur, the founder of the Mogul Empire is
failed.
The oeriod of his reign was
considered the golden age of Mughal architecture. Shah Jahan erected many
monuments, the most famous of which is the Taj Mahal at Agra, built in
1632–1654 as a tomb for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. The pearl mosque at Agra
and the palace and great mosque at Delhi also commemorate him. The celebrated
peacock throne, said to be worth millions of dollars by modern estimates, also
dates from his reign. He was the founder of Shahjahanabad, now known as ‘Old
Delhi’ . The important buildings of Shah Jahan were the Diwan-i-Am and Abd-i
Diwan-i-Khas in the fort of Delhi, the Jama Masjis, the Moti Masjid, and the
Taj. It is pointed out that the Palace of Delhi is the most magnificent in the
East.
