Shah Jehan (Khurram)

Birth + Death
 One of Jehangir’s 4 sons
 Born in Lahore 1592

Accession to throne
 Khurram was soon the favourite of his father and his grandfather
 There was no question on the accession of throne
 This was until Nur Jehan tried to push her son-in-law as the contender for
the next emperor
 Khurram had suspected this
 Nur Jehan’s brother Asaf Khan wanted his son in law ‘Khurram’ to be the
next emperor
 Khurram was far away from Delhi when his father died. Shehryar had
announced himself as the emperor
 But Asaf Khan helped Khurram to get the throne by keeping a nominee
until Khurram reached
 Combined forces of Nur Jehan + Shehryar met the combined forces of Asaf
Khan and Khurram
 Khurram defeated Shehryar and became the emperor in Feb 1628 (1627)

Rebels
 He faced his first rebel by the Afghan general ‘Khan Jan lodhi’ in 1628
 Khan Jan was the governor of Deccan and he with his chief-ministers
decided to rebel
 It was so serious that Shah Jehan himself had to quell with the rebellion
 In 1630, chief ministers of Khan did a service to Shah Jehan by killing the
rebellion
First issue
 Khurram also known as Shah Jehan during his reign faced a great economy
loss
 It was because of the famine in Deccan and Gujarat
 People were starving of death and people would have to switch to
cannibalism
 Jehan ordered langars to be established
 It was ordered that the imperial court spent 70 lakh rupees to have food for
the starving
 This was the 10% of revenue collected from the mansabdars

Building
 Mughals were keen builders (They had constructed beautiful gardens and
buildings)
 Shah Jehan’s love for architecture was displayed resulting in great buildings
 The most famous example is the Taj Mahal which he made in the memorial
of his wife ‘Mumtaz Mahal’
 Mumtaz was Shah Jehan’s favourite wife who died in 1631

Fights
 Shah Jehan was the first emperor to fight the Europeans who had
established a firm foothold in Bengal
 Mughals were first tolerant to them though they tried to convert Hindus to
Christianity but the late emperors welcomed and allowed them to preach\
 Shah Jehan was a bit more religious and didn’t allow them
 Portuguese also tried to preach and kidnapped 2 girls to forcibly convert
them
 Shah Jehan took a serious notice the governor of Bengal was ordered to
teach a lesson to Portuguese and they were taken captives
Fight of Persia
 Shah Jehan longed to fulfil the dream of the Mughals to expand to Central
Asia
 During Jehangir’s time Persians captured Central Asia and now Mughals
wanted it back
 Shah Jehan tried it three times
1. He sent his son Aurangzeb with 60,000 cavalry +
10,000 infantry but it failed after a siege of two years
2. He again sent his son Aurangzeb but called him back
just after two months
3. He now sent his eldest son Dara Shikoh who also failed
in capturing Persia
 This had costed the Mughals a lot as because of expensive campaigns
 Secondly, Persians fear for Mughals had lessened

More Failures
 The city of Balkh was in control of the ruler of Bukhara who were fighting
internally
 In 1646, a large Mughal Army met the Uzbek forces under Shah Jehan’s son
Murad
 Murad was not interested in warfare and left the troops without emperor’s
permission
 The troops were without a leader and were surrounded with Uzbek forces
when Aurangzeb went to get control of the troops
 He successfully defeated the Uzbeks but faced heavy loss during return
 Moreover, failure at Kandahar was fearful for the Mughals and no inch of
territory was added
Succession fights
 Shah Jehan had now ruled for a long time and he felt ill in September 1657
 His all 4 sons were from his one wife ‘Mumtaz Mahal’
 The two best nominees were Dara lacked military temperament and was
interested in Sufism
 The Second was the successful soldier Aurangzeb who also was an orthodox
Muslim but he was a bit short-tempered and wouldn’t tolerate
 When Shah Jehan’s condition was spread the two least likely nominees
declared themselves as the emperor; Shuja and Murad
 Aurangzeb took a clever move and teamed up with Murad
 He promised Murad that he will give control of modern Pakistan and keep
with himself the remainder on the condition that they will fight their elder
brother Dara
 As Murad and Aurangzeb marched towards Dara, Dara’s Rajput allies came
across the joint armies on April 1658 who were defeated and gave
Aurangzeb’s army supplies
 The joint armies reached Gwalior on May 1658
 Shah Jehan was now well and could stop his sons from fighting and he using
the Imperial court asked Aurangzeb to not fight
 Aurangzeb politely but firmly rejected it
 Rumours spread that Aurangzeb would ask Shah Jehan to abdicate the
throne
 A battle on 28 May 1658 was fought at Samugarh
 Dara was defeated after a tough battle
 Aurangzeb sieged Agra and Shah Jehan was imprisoned by his own son but
was taken care by a daughter
 He eventually died in 1666 and buried in Taj Mahal
 Shah Jehan’s period is also known as Golden age of Mughals as their was
peace and several building were constructed and administration was good
despite no expansion of empire