Jean Baptiste Tavernier

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605–1689) was a French traveller and a merchant in gems who made six voyages to India between 1630 and 1668 during the reign of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. Being a dealer of diamonds made him well equipped to elaborately discuss about diamonds and diamond mines of India. 

His travel account, entitled Travel in India, first appeared in 1676. His another book Le Six Voyages de J. B. Tavernier- The Six Voyages of J. B. Tavernier was also published in 1676, and translated into English by Dr. C. V. Ball in 1889. 

The gem-studded Peacock Throne (Takht-i-Taoos), commissioned by Shah Jahan and housed in the Diwan-i-Khas in the Red Fort of Delhi, was described by Tavernier as “the richest and most superb throne which has ever been seen in the world.” The Peacock Throne was taken to Persia by Nadir Shah who invaded India during the reign of Raushan Akhtar who ascended the Mughal throne under the title of Muhammad Shah in 1719. 

Tavernier died in Moscow in 1689, at the age of eighty-four. 

Taj Mahal Crowning Glory of Mughal Architecture

Taj Mahal is an architectural feat that marks a height of Mughal architecture. 

Synonymous with beauty and elegance, the world beating landmark of Taj Mahal was built by the order of fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan between 1631 and 1648 in memory of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal who was his third wife. Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631 in childbirth at the age of 39 at Burhanpur,    

Taj Mahal is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Taj Mahal was the result of the labour of over 12, 000 workers, over a period of 22 years. The cost incurred on the construction in those times was 50 (5 million) Rupees.

Sometimes, the design of Taj Mahal is credited to a Venetian, Gernimo Verrones. According to whispers, Shah Jahan had its architects blinded, so that they could never again replicate a monument so grand and majestic. However, these claims are not verified and not confirmed by the historians.

Zeb-un-Nisa: Mughal Princess Imprisoned for More Than Two Decades by Her Father

Zaibunissa Palace / Image Credit

Mughal princess Zeb-un-Nisa was the eldest child of sixth Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. She was a poetess of considerable merit and wrote under the pen name of Makhfi (meaning Hidden One in Persian). She produced a brilliant collection of beautiful poems which were published after her death in 1702 as Diwan-i-Makhfi.

Born in 1738 in Daulatabad in Deccan, Zeb-un-Nisa seems to be antithetical to what Auranzeb stood for. 

Strained relationship between Zeb-un-Nisa and Aurangzeb had led the father to imprison the daughter for the last 20 years of her life at Salimgarh Fort which lies adjacent to the Red Fort  in Delhi.

Her grandfather, the fifth Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, had betrothed her to Sulaiman Shikoh, the eldest son of Dara Shikoh, elder brother of Aurangzeb. The marriage, however, did not take place. This is because as soon as Shah Jahan fell ill in September, 1657, it sparked a deadly war of succession among his four sons – Dara Shikoh, Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad. During the course of this fratricidal war of succession Murad  and Sulaiman Shikoh were executed on the orders of Aurangzeb in the Gwalior Fort where they were imprisoned.

Khairul Manzil Mosque, Delhi

                                    Khairul Manazil, opposite Purana Qila, Delhi. Image credit 

Located opposite the Purana Qila in Delhi, Khairul Manzil mosque was built in 1561 by Maham Anga, the foster mother of the Mughal emperor Akabr. She was the mother of powerful Mughal noble Adham Khan who was killed by Akbar in Agra in 1562.

Meaning ‘the most auspicious of houses’ in Persian, Khair-ul-Manazil mosque on the Mathura road is Delhi’s first mosque built by the Mughals. 

The arch in the middle of the prayer chamber contains the inscription that says that the mosque was built by Maham Anga.

Rebellion of Khusrau

    Tomb of Khusrau in Khusro Bagh, Allahabad|Wikimedia Commons

Khusrau was the eldest son of the fourth Mughal emperor Jahangir. He was born in 1587 to Man Bai, sister of Raja Man Singh, trusted general of Emperor Akbar. With the support of the powerful nobles Khusrau eyed the Mughal throne and unfurled a banner of rebellion against his father. After the death of his grandfather, Akbar, in 1605, he was imprisoned in Agra Fort by Jahangir who had succeeded Akbar as the Mughal emperor.

However, though he managed to escape, he was defeated by the Mughal forces in 1606.  

In 1606, the fifth Sikh Guru Arjan Dev was sentenced to death by Jahangir since he had blessed Khusrau during his rebellion against the emperor. However, famous Sufi saint Shaikh Nizam Thaneswari was banished by the emperor to Mecca for the same offence. 

Khusrau was later blinded and was forced into the custody of his brother Khurram (future Shah Jahan) who eventually strangled him at Burhanpur in 1621. (The official cause of his death was colic.)

On the orders of Jahangir, Khusrau was buried in a tomb adjoining his mother's in a garden in Allahabad, now called Khusrau Bagh.

Mughal Mansabdari System

Mansabdari system was a unique feature of the administrative system of the Mughal empire. It was introduced by Akbar with a view to organizing his nobility as well as army. Under the system, all officers of the state were entitled to a mansab. Mansabdari system was, in sum, “the army, the peerage, and the civil administration, all rolled into one.”   

Mansabdar (holder of a rank, or an officer) is a title derived from the word Mansab which is of Arabic origin and means a rank or a position. 

Under the system, each mansabdar held a mansab (rank) and was to maintain a quota of horses, elephants, camels, beasts of burden and carts. They were paid either in cash (naqd) or allotted land (jagir). The mansabdars who received pay in cash were known as naqdi and those paid through assignments of jagirs were called jagirdars.

According to the Ain –Akbari, there were thirty-three grades of mansabdars ranging from the dahbashi (commanders of 10) to the dah hazari (commanders of 10,000). Mansabs above 5,000 were reserved for the royal princes. 

The status of mansabdars was defined by sawar (cavalrymen) and zat (personal). The former indicated number of horsemen which a mansabdar had to maintain while the zat rank showed his personal pay in the pay schedules.

Akbar included all nobles in the Mansabdari system. Persons holding ranks below 500 were called Mansabdar. Those holding from 500 to less than 2500 were called Amir and those holding 2500 and above were known as amir-i-umda or amir-i-azam or omrahs. 

In theory all mansabdars were appointed, promoted, suspended or dismissed by the emperor. Mansabdars holding ranks below 500 zat were called mansabdars, those more than 500 but below 2,500 amirs and those holding ranks of 2,500 and above were called amir-i-umda or amir-i-azam or omrahs.

The post of a mansabdar was not hereditary and it automatically lapsed after his death or dismissal. Children of a mansabdar, if they were granted a mansab, had to start afresh. 

Mansabdari system marked the end of the separation of civil and military departments. Now officers were expected to perform both duties and were liable to be transferred from the civil administration to the military department and vice versa. 

In order to provide rest for the horses during their marches and their replacements in times of war, it was expected of the mansabdars to maintain twenty horses for every ten cavalrymen. A sawar with only one horse was considered as a nim-sawar i.e. half a sawar. 

Mansabdari system introduced by Akbar was continued by his successors with some modifications. 

While during Jahangir’s reign there was a reduction in the average rate of maintenance grant payable to Mansabdar per Sawar, a significant modification introduced by Shah Jahan to the system came in the form of drastic reduction in the number of sawars a noble was expected to maintain.

Some selected mansabdars were allowed by Jahangir to maintain a large quota of soldiers without raising their zat rank. 

During the reign of Aurangzeb the numbers of the Hindu mansabdars was higher than that of the Muslim mansabdars. 

Reference: Mughal Nobility Under Aurangzeb by Ali M. Athar

Mulla Abdul Qadir Badayuni, Mughal Court historian

Born in 1540, Mulla Abdul Qadir Badauni, also spelt Badayuni, was a contemporary historian of Akbar in the Mughal empire. He had entered his court in 1574. 

Badauni had studied together with Abdul Fazi and both had been trained by Abul Fazal’s father, Shaykh Mubarak. He had joined Man Singh’s army against Maharana Pratap in the Battle of Haldighati in 1576.

A Sunni Muslim, he was an inveterate enemy of Akbar.  He had charged Akbar of working against Islam.

His most important work was Tarikh-e Badauni (“Badauni’s History”), also called the Muntakhab al-Tawarikh (“Selection from History”). It is a general history of India from the time of the the Ghaznavids to the 40th year of Akbar’s reign (1595-96). He also wrote Kitāb al-Ḥadīth (“Book of Ḥadīth”), the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad. . 

Tarikh-i-Alfi (“History of Thousand Years”) is another famous work by Badauni who is also credited with the translation of Singhasan Battisi, Ramayana and Mahabharata into Persian.

Ahmad Shah (1748-54): Imbecile Mughal Ruler

Ahmad Shah was a Mughal ruler whose reign lasted from 1748 to 1754. After the death of his father Muhammad Shah in 1754, he ascended the throne at an age of 22.  He was the son of Udham Bai, a dancing girl of low intellect and dubious character. Though he was a man of 22 at the time of his accession, he is said to have received no education and did not hold any civil or military office ever.

A pleasure seeking ruler with debased taste, Ahmad Shah was an illiterate and indulging in sensual pursuits. Spending time with women and eunuchs for weeks, he remained content by entrusting the task of running the state to the queen mother Udham Bai and her shameless paramour and powerful eunuch Javid Khan, who dominated the affairs of the state. Javid Khan was grated the title of Nawab Bahadur and Udham Bai was got the title of Qibla-i-Alam and the rank of 50,000 horses. Her brother Man Khan, a ill-mannered professional dancer, got the title of Mutqat-ud-Daula and the rank of 6,000.

During this period Safdarjang, the governor of Oudh, became the wazir or prime minster of the Mughal empire in 1748. Javid Khan and the court party controlled by the Turks (known as Turanis) took exception to his appointment as Safdarjang was an Irani. Things came to such a pass that Javid Khan was murdered in 1752 at the instance of Safdarjang. This made Udham Bai furious who got Safdarjang dismissed in 1753. Safdarjang retired to Oudh and died there on 5th October, 1754. In his place Amir Ghazi-ud-din Imad-ul-mulk, a grandson of Nizam-ul-mulk of the Deccan, was made wazir who deposed Ahmad Shah in 1754. Azizuddin Alamgir II was placed on the Mughal throne by Imad-ul-mulk. Ahmad Shah and Udham Bai were imprisoned and blinded by the formal order of Alamgir II. He died in prison in 1775.

It was during the reign of Ahmad Shah that Afghan chief Ahmad Shah Durrani invaded India twice in 1749 and 1752, when he marched up to Delhi. To make matters worse, the imbecile emperor made children of three years or less governors of Punjab and Kashmir when the empire was threatened with his invasion.

Shah Jahan the Fifth Mughal Emperor

Accession to the Throne 

Shah Jahan (1628-58) was in Deccan when his father Jahangir died in the month of October in 1627. At Lahore, Nur Jahan, one of the wives of Jahangir, proclaimed her son-in-law Shahryar as the emperor, while Asaf Khan, father of Mumtaz Mahal (Shah Jahan’s wife in whose memory Taj Mahal was built) put Dawar Baksh, son of Khusrav (brother of Shah Jahan), on the throne as a stop-gap emperor till the return of Shah Jahan to Agra from Deccan. When Shah Jahan arrived at Agra in February 1628, Dawar Baksh, the “sacrificial lamb’ was deposed and sent in exile to Persia. Asaf Khan defeated, captured and blinded Shahryar. Now decks were clear for Shah Jahan who ascended the Mughal throne at Agra in February 1628. However, Shah Jahan was paid back in his own coin when during his last days when two of his own sons were executed. 

Military Conquests of Shah Jahan 

The first three years of Shah Jahan’s reign were marked by the rebellions of the Bundela Chief Juhar Singh, son of Bir Singh Bundela and of Khan Jahan Lodi. After suppressing these rebellions, he ousted the Portuguese from Hugli and occupied it in 1632. The Nizam Shahi kingdom of Ahmadnagar was finally annexed to the Mughal empire. In 1636-37, Shah Jahan led from the front and himself arrived in the Deccan and compelled Bijapur and Golconda to accept the Mughal Suzerainty and pay annual tribute. Persia had captured Kandahar during the reign of Jahangir, but no attempt was made to recapture it till 1639. The opportunity came in 1639, when Ali Mardan Khan, the discontented Persian Governor of Kandahar, surrendered the fort to the Mughals without fighting. However, Shah Abbas II of Persia wrested Kandahar from the Mughals in 1649. Subsequently, Shah Jahan sent three expeditions to recover Kandahar, but all proved to be miserable failure. 

Last years of Shah Jahan 

The last years of Shah Jahan were spent in misery. In 1658, he was made prisoner by his son Aurangzeb who came out victorious in the terrible war of succession that took place among the sons of Shah Jahan. The war for succession continued till 1661 and in between 1658 and 1661 all the remaining sons were killed or executed. Shah Jahan passed the remaining years of his life in captivity. While in prison, he was badly treated by Aurangzeb. All his efforts for reconciliation ended in naught. At last he “bowed to the inevitable, and like a child that cries itself to sleep, ceased to complain”. Shah Jahan died at the age of seventy-four, on the 22nd January, 1966.

Estimate of Shah Jahan 

The reign of Shah Jahan has been described by many authorities as the ‘climax’ or ‘golden age’ of the Mughal empire. Mughal architecture under him reached its pinnacle. Several foreign tarvellers who visited India during his reign, have left a vivid account of his reign. Of these, two Frenchmen Bernier and Travenier and an Italian adventurer Manucci, the author of the Storio Dor Mogor, are worth mentioning.

Humayun : The Fugitive Mughal Emperor

Humayun's Tomb in Delhi

Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire in India in 1526, was succeeded by his eldest son Humayun who inherited “a monarchy which could be held together only by the continuance of war conditions which in times of peace was weak, structureless and invertebrate.” 

When Babur died in 1530, Humayun was 23 years old. Since father's conquests had not been consolidated in the short span of four years, the army lacked cohesiveness and the administration an effective machinery.

The name Humayun (meaning "the Fortunate”) is rather a misnomer. Though the second Mughal emperor, he had to spend his life as a wanderer almost all through his life. He lost the nascent Mughal kingdom and when he regained it, he did not live long enough to rule it.

Humayun was born in Kabul in 1508. He ascended the throne  on December 30, 1530 four days after death of Babur. 

The imperial treasury was almost bankrupt and beyond the frontiers powerful political forces, such as Gujarat, Malwa and Bengal, were up in arms against the Mughals. On top of it Humayun divided the empire inherited from his father among his three brothers, Kamran, Hindal and Askari. The Afghans, who had not yet been crushed, also raised their heads. Of them, Sher Khan, known as Sher Shah Suri, proved be the most formidable enemy of Humayun, and after defeating the latter at Chausa and Kanauj in 1540, completely shattered his prospects.

After his final defeat at the hands of Sher Shah Suri, the Mughal empire in India was temporarily out of picture and Humayun had to pass nearly fifteen years (1540-55) in exile. During his wanderings in the deserts of Sind, Humayun married Hamida Banu Begam, daughter of Shaikh Ali Ambar Jaini, who had been a preceptor to Humayun’s brother Hindal. While he was at Amarkot (now in Pakistan), where his son Akbar was born on 23rd November, 1542.

After the untimely death of Sher Shah from an accidental explosion at Kalinjar, the time was ripe for Humayun to restore the Mughal Empire and he succeeded in doing so. But shortly after regaining the empire Humayun died in accident on the 24th January, 1556.

Humayun founded a city at Delhi named the Dinpanah (World refuge). However no remains are available of this first Mughal city. He took great interest in astrology and mathematics. Nizam-ud-Din Ahmad, author of Tabaqat-i-Akbari, writes about his generosity,"All the wealth of Hindustan would not have sufficed to maintain his generosity." Humayun was highly addicted to opium.

Humayun's tomb in Delhi is an important Mughal monument which attracts visitors in large numbers. It was commissioned by his wife Bega Begum or Haji Begum.

Babur Not the real founder of Mughal Empire

Zahirudding Muhammad Babur, better known simply today as Babur, who defeated Ibrahim Lodi of the Lodi Dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate at the first battle of Panipat on the 21st April, 1526, founded the Mughal empire in India. However, it seems that this Central Asian adventurer was not interested in setting up of an empire in India. 

According to eminent historian R. P. Tripathi, Babur’s conquest of Hindustan was “a result of chance thought”. As a matter of fact, he was invited to invade the Lodi ruler by some of the disgruntled nobles of the Delhi sultanate. According to some authorities, Rana of Mewar, Sangram Singh or Rana Sanga, had also entered into some kind of deal with Babur. 

Babur was a descendant of Timur on his father’s side and of Chengiz khan on the side of his mother. The Mughals loved to call Timurids because they were so proud of their connections with Timur. On the death of his father Umar Shaikh Mirza, Babur inherited the ancestral principality of Farghana (now in Uzbekistan) in 1494. 

The first battle of Panipat was just the beginning of the Mughal rule. The real foundation of Mughal rule was laid by the greatest Mughal ruler Akbar in 1556. When Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the political power in India was being shared by the Rajputs and the Afghans. 

But Babur’s conquest of India would have been incomplete till he defeated the Rana Sanga, who was the most powerful Rajput ruler of the period and certainly a more formidable adversary than Ibrahim Lodi. 

Consequently, a decisive battle took place on the 16th March, 1527 at Khanua, a village some 60 km west of Agra, between the forces of Babur and Rana Sanga. In this battle Rana Sanga, who was joined by the rulers of Marwar, Gwalior, Ajmer, Amber and Chanderi and Sultan Mahmud Lodi (brother of Ibrahim Lodi), was comprehensively defeated and Khanua cemented Babur’s victory at Panipat. In 1528, he captured Chanderi from a Rajput Chief Medini Rai despite the desperate opposition of the Rajputs. On 6th May 1929, Babur inflicted a crushing defeat on the Afghan chiefs under Mahmud Lodi at the battle of Ghagra in Bihar. These conquests made Babur the master of Northern India, but he was not able to enjoy the fruits of his conquests because shortly afterwards he died at Agra at the age of forty seven on December 26, 1530. 

Babur’s body was first buried at Arambagh in Agra. However, it was later carried to his favourite place Kabul where he was laid in one his favourite gardens. 

Apart from being a formidable conqueror, Babur was also an accomplished poet in Persian and his autobiography Tuzuk –i-Baburi, written in his mother tongue (Turky). Tuzuk –i-Baburi was translated into Persian by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan in 1590, into English by Leyden and Erskine in 1826. The Memoirs were translated into French in 1871.