Shah Jahan

• 1. Introduction

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  Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal Emperor, was born in Lahore on the 5th of January 1592, and died a prisoner in the very fortress where he had crowned himself king. His grandfather Akbar chose his name, raised him in his own household, and reportedly told his father Jahangir: "There is no comparison between him and your other sons. I consider him my true son." That early favoritism set the shape of a life in which affection and ambition were inseparable. The questions his story raises are not merely historical. How does an emperor who commissioned the most famous monument of love end his days locked in a tower, gazing at that same building from a distance? What did it cost to build an empire, and what did that empire cost him?

• 2. A Childhood Between Courts

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  Ruqaiya Sultan Begum raised the infant Khurram at Akbar's insistence, and she did so with a devotion the chronicles describe as exceeding even a mother's. Jahangir recorded that Ruqaiya had loved his son "a thousand times more than if he had been her own son." When Akbar died in 1605, Khurram returned to the care of his mother Jagat Gosain, to whom he became deeply attached despite their years apart. He addressed her as Hazrat in court records, a title of reverence. On the 8th of April 1619, when Jagat Gosain died in Akbarabad, Jahangir recorded that Khurram was inconsolable. For twenty-one days he attended no public meetings and ate only simple vegetarian meals. His wife Mumtaz Mahal supervised the distribution of food to the poor throughout those weeks, led Quran recitations each morning, and counselled him on the substance of life and death. The young prince had been schooled in martial training, poetry, and music, and his court chronicler Qazvini noted that he showed little interest in Turki as a child, preferring Hindi literature instead. At Akbar's deathbed in 1605, Khurram refused to leave the room even when his mother came to retrieve him, and had to be ordered away by senior women of the household, including Salima Sultan Begum and his grandmother Mariam-uz-Zamani.

• 3. Love and Politics

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  In 1607, when Khurram was about fourteen and Arjumand Banu Begum about fifteen, they became engaged. Five years passed before they married in 1612, on a date chosen by court astrologers as most auspicious. She came from a family with deep roots in Mughal administration: her grandfather Mirza Ghiyas Beg held the title I'timad-ud-Daulah, meaning "Pillar of the State", and had served as Jahangir's finance minister. Her father, Asaf Khan, rose to become Chief Minister. Her aunt Mehr-un-Nissa became the Empress Nur Jahan. Arjumand Banu, who took the title Mumtaz Mahal, was not merely a consort. She held the imperial seal, which gave her authority to review official documents in their final form. She attended the council, was consulted on state matters, and could issue her own orders. They had fourteen children together; seven survived into adulthood. On the 7th of June 1631, Mumtaz Mahal died in Burhanpur at age thirty-eight, after thirty hours of labor that ended in a postpartum haemorrhage during the birth of their daughter Gauhar Ara Begum. Jahanara, then seventeen, was so distressed that she began distributing gems to the poor in hopes of divine intervention. Shah Jahan was described by contemporaries as paralysed by grief. Mumtaz Mahal's body was temporarily buried in a walled pleasure garden called Zainabad, built along the Tapti River by Shah Jahan's uncle Prince Daniyal.

• 4. The Rival and the Stepmother

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  Nur Jahan married Jahangir in 1611 and within years had become, in the eyes of every observer inside and outside the court, the actual power behind the throne. Coins began to be struck with her name alongside Jahangir's, one of only two sovereign prerogatives in a Muslim monarchy. Her brother Asaf Khan was allied with Khurram; her own allegiance went to her son-in-law Shahryar Mirza, Khurram's younger brother. She maneuvered to keep Khurram occupied on distant Deccan campaigns while securing favors for Shahryar. When the Persians besieged Kandahar, Nur Jahan ordered Khurram to march in relief. He refused, fearing she would poison his father against him in his absence. Kandahar fell after a forty-five-day siege. In 1622, Khurram raised an army and marched against his own father. He was defeated at Bilochpur in March 1623. He took refuge with Maharana Karan Singh II in Udaipur Mewar, lodging first in Delwada Ki Haveli before moving to Jagmandir Palace. He exchanged turbans with the Maharana, and that turban is still preserved in Pratap Museum, Udaipur. By November 1623 he had found asylum in Bengal Subah. At Akbarnagar on the 20th of April 1624, he defeated and killed Ibrahim Khan Fath-i-Jang, the Subahdar of Bengal, and entered Dhaka, where all the elephants, horses, and four million rupees belonging to the government were handed over to him. His rebellion ultimately failed, crushed by Jahangir's trusted general Mahabat Khan. Although pardoned in 1626, when Jahangir died in 1627 it was Asaf Khan who moved decisively: he put Nur Jahan under close confinement, secured control of Khurram's sons who had been in her charge, and cleared the way for his son-in-law to become emperor.

• 5. The Throne and Its Cost

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  On the 23rd of January 1628, Shah Jahan's orders were carried out at Agra Fort, where he had crowned himself emperor. Those executed included his brother Shahryar; his nephews Dawar Bakhsh and Garshasp, sons of the previously executed Prince Khusrau; and his cousins Tahmuras and Hoshang, sons of the late Prince Daniyal Mirza. Nur Jahan was stripped of all authority, economic grants, and honors, and placed under house arrest. From that point, Shah Jahan ruled without contention. His reign produced a military machine of remarkable scale: a 1648 record states the army comprised 911,400 infantry, musketeers, and artillery men, plus 185,000 cavalry commanded by princes and nobles. The Deccan campaigns brought results: Daulatabad fell in 1632, Golconda submitted in 1635, and Bijapur in 1636. A Central Asian invasion launched in 1646-1647 with a total force of 75,000 men temporarily occupied Balkh and Badakhshan but ultimately retreated. The conflict with the Safavids over Kandahar dragged on inconclusively for years after the initial success in 1638. The economist Angus Maddison calculated that Mughal-era India's share of global GDP grew from 22.7% in 1600 to 24.4% in 1700, surpassing China. Shah Jahan personally owned the royal treasury and several precious stones, including the Kohinoor. He also commissioned the Peacock Throne, known as Takht e Taus, to mark his rule.

• 6. Building in Marble and Grief

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  The Taj Mahal took twenty years to complete, constructed from white marble underlaid with brick, with architects called from across the world. Shah Jahan placed verses from the Quran on its surfaces. Among his other works were the Red Fort in Delhi, large sections of Agra Fort, the Jama Masjid, the Wazir Khan Mosque, the Moti Masjid, the Shalimar Gardens, sections of the Lahore Fort, the Mahabat Khan Mosque in Peshawar, and the Jahangir mausoleum, the construction of which was overseen by Nur Jahan. The Shah Jahan Mosque in Thatta, Sindh, built in 1647, stands roughly 100 kilometres from Karachi. Its 93 domes are built from red brick with blue glazed tiles, possibly imported from the Sindh town of Hala. The acoustics were designed so that a person speaking inside one dome can be heard at the other end when speech exceeds 100 decibels. The mosque has been on the tentative UNESCO World Heritage List since 1993. His relationship with Mumtaz Mahal was later adapted extensively into Indian art, literature, and cinema. It is believed that the mosaic work of Jagmandir Palace, where Khurram sheltered during his rebellion, inspired him to use mosaic work in the Taj Mahal.

• 7. The Succession and the Prison

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  In September 1657, Shah Jahan fell gravely ill and designated his eldest son Dara Shikoh as regent. His three other sons moved against Dara immediately. Shuja, Viceroy of Bengal, and Murad Bakhsh, Viceroy of Gujarat, declared independence and marched on Agra. Aurangzeb, the third son, assembled a trained army and defeated Dara at the Battle of Samugarh. Although Shah Jahan recovered, Aurangzeb declared him incompetent and had him imprisoned inside the Agra Fort from July 1658. His daughter Jahanara Begum Sahib voluntarily shared his eight-year confinement and nursed him. Aurangzeb then executed all surviving brothers, including Dara Shikoh on the 30th of August 1659. In January 1666, Shah Jahan fell ill in his confinement. On the 22nd of January, he commended the ladies of the imperial court, particularly his later consort Akbarabadi Mahal, to Jahanara's care. After reciting the Kal'ma and verses from the Quran, he died at age seventy-four. Aurangzeb refused the state funeral Jahanara had planned, which would have included a procession of eminent nobles and officials scattering coins for the poor. Shah Jahan's chaplain Sayyid Muhammad Qanauji and Kazi Qurban of Agra came to the fort, washed the body, enshrouded it, and placed it in a coffin of sandalwood. It was carried to the Taj Mahal and buried beside Mumtaz Mahal.