Mughal Empire Family Babur to Bahadur Shah Zafar. The Mughals, who united various states of the subcontinent formed a kingdom and ruled over these vast lands for about 300 years. An empire that at its peak accounted for 22% of the world’s GDP. The foundation of the Mughal Empire was laid by Zaheer ud Din Babur in 1526 AD. What was special about Babur’s ancestry was that on his father’s he was a Turkic-Mongol and descended from Timur the Lame.
His mother was purely Mongolian and descended from the younger son of Genghis Khan named Chagatai Khan Babur, who was born in 1483 AD Governor of the Timurid Empire name Umar Sheikh Mirza became governor of Uzbekistan at the age of only 13 after his father died in 1494. However, due to his young age, he had to face many rebellions and was soon deposed from the throne. Because he had Turko-Mongol blood in his veins.
Sultan Babur
He did not want to sit still, so he turned his attention to the Delhi Sultanate in the subcontinent. Subcontinent that stretched from Bangladesh in the west to Afghanistan in the east. For centuries this area was never united. Instead, there were many small sovereign states. At this time, Delhi was ruled by the Pathan Emperor Ibrahim Lodhi. Since Lodhi did not have the explosives and had to rely on his elephant army.
He defeated this powerful army with his only 20,000 fighters in the first battle of Pani Pat and thus captured Delhi and laid the foundation of the Mughal Sultanate. But after ruling over this empire for just four years, Babar died in 1530 AD. According to him, he was buried in Kabul. he was succeeded by his son Humayun. At that time, the area of the Mughal Empire was 10 lac square kilometers.
Sultan Humayun
With Humayun’s accession to the throne, Sher Shah took control of many areas of the Mughal Sultanate, but Humayun regained control of all areas after some time. Humayun against Sher Shah was supported by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. In 1556, after the death of Humayun, his son Akbar succeeded him when he was just 14 years old. But Akbar depended heavily on his army general Bairam Khan to make decisions. Bairam played an important role in expanding and strengthening the Mughal Empire.
The famous thing about Akbar was that he invented a new religion called “Din e Elahi”, which included teachings from Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. The purpose of this religion was that the people of the subcontinent should live together as one nation and therefore there should be no division in its empire based on religion. For this reason, Akbar also married a Hindu woman named Joda Bai. At the beginning of Akbar’s reign, the Ottoman Sultan was the same, Sultan Suleiman.
Sultan Jalaluddin Akbar
In a letter, Akbar recognized him as the leader of the entire Muslim Ummah But Akbar’s later decisions were opposite to this letter. he was succeeded by his son Jahangir, who was also known as “Prince Selim”. This was the same time when the British East India Company started coming to the Mughal courts and people brought various gifts for Jahangir. These gifts used to have a variety of alcoholic beverages.
As a result, Jahangir allowed the East India Company to set up trading factories and conduct trade. After that, the East India Company converted these factories into fortresses. Jahangir fell in love with one of the slave girls during his father’s time. And when Akbar came to know about it, Akbar buried her in the wall as punishment. However, most historians consider this story to be fiction. Relations between the Mughals and the Ottomans were not very good during the reign of Jahangir.
Sultan Jahangir
The Ottoman Sultan Murad IV wrote many letters to Jahangir, but Jahangir had come under the influence of the British, so he did not give much preference to the Ottoman Sultan. After Janghar’s death, one of his sons, Shehryar Mirza, ascended the throne. Some time later, another son of Jahangir named Shah Jahan removed him and installed himself on the throne. The reign of Shah Jahan is considered the golden age of Mughal architecture. The emperor built many famous monuments.
The Taj Mahal of Agra is one of the famous ones in which his favorite wife Mumtaz was buried, and he is buried here. Shah Jahan had different types of gemstones in the royal treasury. And especially the precious diamond “Kohinoor” was there. That’s why he was considered the richest man of the time. In 1634 AD, Shah Jahan abolished taxes for the East India Company, which enabled the company to strengthen its clutches at the subcontinent embassy in the Ottoman Empire. Relations between these two kingdoms were quite good for the next few years.
Sultan Shah Jahan
In 1657, Shah Jahan became seriously ill, leading to a struggle between his four sons for the throne. From this battle, his 3rd son Aurangzeb emerged victorious and became the 7th emperor of the Mughal Empire. After he acceded to the throne, he placed his father Shah Jahan under house arrest in the fort of Agra. And there Shah Jahan died During the reign of Aurangzeb, the gross domestic product of the Mughal Empire was 22% of the entire world and its area was around 4 million square kilometers.
It was the largest economy in the world and the making of Power Viewers Powerful ruler of the Mughal Sultanate Because the decline of the Mughal Sultanate had begun in his time. Aurangzeb Alamgir ruled the subcontinent for about 49 years. During this period, Muhammad IV and Sulaiman II were the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire. But during this period there was no connection between the Mughals and the Ottomans because the two kingdoms struggled with their problems.
Aurangzeb Alamgir
After Auranzeb’s death, seven emperors sat on the throne over the next seven years. The first was “Azam Shah”, the son of Aurangzeb and his Persian wife Banu Begum, who built a Taj Mahal-like tomb for his mother. But Aurangzeb’s other son Bahadur Shah rebelled against him He killed him and ascended the throne But Bahadur Shah could not hold the Sultanate together After Bahadur Shah his son Jehandar Shah ascended the throne.
After him, many of his grandchildren ruled the empire But all the emperors had lost their power. There were various uprisings in the empire and many states became independent. Just as the Deccan province had declared its sovereignty during this period. Therefore, the situation was slightly better in Muhammad Shah’s time and he maintained excellent relations with the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud I. But during this time, the East India Company had a tight grip on the entire empire.
Sultan Bahadur Shah Zafar
They built a chain of forts throughout the subcontinent empire from which they would operate. In addition, the Hindu Maratha Empire gained control over much of the empire. Mohammad Shah’s successor was Ahmad Shah and then his many cousins followed to the throne. But no one was able to control the situation.
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Then in 1757 AD, under the reign of Alamgir II, the Battle of Palasi occurred in which the East India Company defeated the Nawab Siraj of Bengal and conquered Bengal. This was the beginning of British rule in the Indian subcontinent. During the reign of Shah Alam II, the Mughal rulers were mere kings. Most of the empire was ruled by the East India Company and the Maratha Empire.
Mughal Empire
Afterward, during the reign of Akbar II, the East India Company defeated the powerful Maratha dynasty. And became the most powerful force in the subcontinent. The East India Company, trading in the subcontinent for centuries, had gained considerable control over much of the region by the early 19th century. For this reason came under the rule of Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1857 CE.
Starting to collect taxes from these areas was a revolt. The British easily defeated this revolt and took control of the entire subcontinent. And they put Bahadur Shah Zafar in prison. And so the reign of the Mughal Empire ended. The British subcontinent of India was ruled for almost 100 years. Queen Elizabeth’s father, Emperor George VI, was the last king of the subcontinent.
