Shah Jahan (1627-1658)
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Shah Jahan ruled in what is considered the Golden Age of the vast Mughal Empire, which covered almost all of the Indian subcontinent. He ruled from the newly constructed capital of Shahjahanabad.
Shah Jahan gave orders in 1631 to Qasim Khan, the Mughal viceroy of Bengal, to drive out the Portuguese from their trading post at Port Hoogly. The post was heavily armed with cannons, battleships, fortified walls, and other instruments of war.The Portuguese were accused of trafficking by high Mughal officials and due to commercial competition the Mughal-controlled port of Saptagram began to slump.
Shah Jahan was particularly outraged by the activities of Jesuits in that region, notably when they were accused of abducting peasants
1632 the Mughal Army raised imperial banners and gained control over the Bandel region and the garrison was punished
Then Shah Jahan realized the futility of his ambition and stopped fighting. His Deccan policy was more successful.
A famine broke out in 1630–32 in Deccan, Gujarat and Khandesh as a result of three main crop failures. Two million died of starvation
In response to the devastation, Shah Jahan set up langar (free kitchens) for the victims of the famine
He defeated the forces of Ahmadnagar and annexed it.
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Golconda submitted in 1635 and then Bijapur in 1636.
Shah Jahan appointed Aurangzeb as Viceroy of the Deccan, consisting of Khandesh, Berar, Telangana, and Daulatabad.
During his viceroyalty, Aurangzeb conquered Golconda in 1656, and then Bijapur in 1657.
Both Bijapur and Golkonda signed a treaty with the emperor.
Shah Jahan carved four Mughal provinces in the Deccan – Khandesh, Berar, Telungana and Daulatabad.
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Shah Jahan launched a prolonged campaign in the northwest frontier to recover Kandahar and other ancestral lands.
The Mughal army lost more than five thousand lives during the successive invasions between 1639 and 1647.
Shah Jahan also expanded the Mughal Empire to the west beyond the Khyber Pass to Ghazna and Kandahar.
Shahjahan preached equality among Hindus and Muslims. He introduced various new policies to unite all the religions. As a result, his reign worked for 30 successful years. He used to celebrate all the festivities of Indian origin and tried to converse with every problem.
Hindavi, the origin of Hindi language, was introduced for the first time in his court. Realising that everyone could not speak Persian, he introduced a new court language, that maintained a perfect balanced mixture of Sanskrit and Persian.
Shah Jahan's treasurer was Shaikh Farid, who founded the city of Faridabad.
1657, Shah Jahan fell seriously ill, which set off a war of succession among his four sons, in which his third son Aurangzeb, emerged victorious.
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Shah Jahan recovered from his illness, but Aurangzeb put his father under house arrest in Agra Fort from July 1658 until his death in January 1666.
Shah Jahan
The vision of Shah Jahan (1628—1658) introduced a delicate elegance and detail to Mughal architecture, illustrated in the Jama Masjid in Delhi, the Moti Masjid situated within the Agra Fort, and the Sheesh Mahal in the Lahore Fort, which makes spectacular use of pietra dura and complex mirror work. Shah Jahan’s most famous achievement, however, is indisputably the Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal
Located in Agra, the Taj Mahal is a white marble mausoleum built between 1632 and 1648 by Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Constructed by 20,000 men, it represents the Islamic garden of paradise and is widely regarded as the greatest achievement in Mughal architecture.
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The Taj Mahal: The Taj Majal, built under Shah Jahan, represents the Islamic garden of paradise and is widely regarded as the greatest achievement in Mughal architecture.
The mausoleum rests in the middle of a large square plinth and has four almost identical facades, each with a large arch-shaped doorway. It is topped by a large double dome and a finial , combining both the traditional Islamic motif of the crescent moon and the Hindu symbol of the trident, associated with the god Shiva. The central dome is adorned with a lotus design and is surrounded by four smaller chhatris, each of which also has the same lotus motif. Four tall minarets extend from the corners of the plinth.
The exterior decorations of the Taj Mahal include calligraphy , abstract forms , verses from the Koran, and vegetable motifs, executed in paint, stucco , carvings, and pietra dura work. The interior decorations also feature inlay work of precious and semi-precious gemstones. Muslim tradition forbids elaborate decoration of graves, and the bodies of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal are interred in a plain crypt underneath the mausoleum. However, the inner tomb features two cenotaphs, or false tombs, that are richly decorated with inlays of semi-precious stones forming vines and flowers and surrounded by jali screens, or latticed screens with ornamental patterns constructed through the use of calligraphy and geometry.
Inside the inner tomb: This is an example of pietra dura inlay work and lattice carvings from the interior of the Taj Mahal.
Among his other constructions are the Red Fort also called the Delhi Fort or Lal Qila in Urdu,
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large sections of Agra Fort,
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Façades facing the mosque's courtyard are embellished with intricate kashi-kari tile work.
The main prayer hall is richly embellished with Mughal frescoes.
The mosque houses several shops in what is known as the "Calligrapher's Bazaar."
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the Jahangir mausoleum—his father's tomb, the construction of which was overseen by his stepmother Nur Jahan.
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He also had the Peacock Throne, Takht e Taus, made to celebrate his rule. Shah Jahan also placed profound verses of the Quran on his masterpieces of architecture.
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The throne was, even by Golden Age Mughal standards, supremely extravagant, costing twice as much as the construction of the Taj Mahal.
The ruler's court was to be a mirror image of paradise on earth, in the very centre of the empire; and such a ruler would be worthy of a Throne of Solomon (Takht-e-Sulaiman) to underscore his position as a just king.
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inaugurated in a triumphant ceremony 1635, the formal seventh anniversary of Shah Jahan's accession. The date was chosen by astrologers and was doubly auspicious, since it coincided exactly with Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, and Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
in the Battle of Karnal, on 13 February 1739, and the defeat of Muhammad Shah, Nadir Shah entered Delhi and sacked the city, in the course of which tens of thousands of inhabitants were massacred. Persian troops left Delhi at the beginning of May 1739, taking with them the throne as a war trophy
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Koh-i-Noor, and Shah diamonds, as well as the Samarian spinel and the Timur ruby. These stones were part of the Peacock Throne in possession of the Mughal emperors. The Akbar Shah Diamond was said to form one of the eyes of a peacock, as did the Koh-i-Noor
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The Shah diamond was described by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier as being on the side of the throne. Many of these stones ended up becoming part of the Persian crown jewels or were taken later by the British colonialists.
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The mosque is built with red bricks with blue coloured glaze tiles
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The mosque has overall 93 domes and it is world's largest mosque having such number of domes. It has been built keeping acoustics in mind.
The mosque features extensive brickwork laid in geometric patterns, which is a decorative element unusual for Mughal era mosques and is an element of Timurid architecture adopted for use in the mosque.
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