Mughal dynasty, Mughal also spelled 

Mogul, Persian Mughūl
(“Mongol”), Muslim dynasty of Turkic-Mongol origin that ruled
most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid-18th century.
After that time it continued to exist as a considerably reduced and
increasingly powerless entity until the mid-19th century. The Mughal
dynasty was notable for its more than two centuries of effective rule
over much of India; for the ability of its rulers, who through seven
generations maintained a record of unusual talent; and for its
administrative organization. A further distinction was the attempt of
the Mughals, who were Muslims, to integrate Hindus and Muslims
into a united Indian state.

Mughal emperors: Jahāngīr, Akbar, and Shah Jahān

Emperors Jahāngīr (left), Akbar (centre), and Shah Jahān (seated at right) are depicted with their
ministers and Prince Dārā Shikōh in a watercolour from India from the 1600s.
Brooklyn Museum, New York, gift of the Asian Art Council in memory of Stanley J.
Love, 1994.42
Development of the Mughal EmpireEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Bābur and the establishment of the Mughals
The dynasty was founded by a Chagatai Turkic prince
named Bābur (reigned 1526–30), who was descended from the Turkic
conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) on his father’s side and from Chagatai,
second son of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, on his mother’s side.
Bābur’s father, ʿUmar Shaykh Mīrzā, ruled the small principality
of Fergana to the north of the Hindu Kush mountain range; Bābur
inherited the principality at a young age, in 1494.
Bābur
Meeting between Bābur and the sultan ʿAlī Mīrzā near Samarkand, illustration from the Bābūr-
nāmeh (“The Book of Bābur”), c. 1590; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, (Louis V. Bell Fund, 1967),
www.metmuseum.org
In 1504 he conquered Kabul and Ghaznī and established himself there.
In 1511 he captured Samarkand, only to realize that, with
the formidable Safavid dynasty in Iran and the Uzbeks in Central Asia,
he should rather turn to the southeast toward India to have
an empire of his own. As a Timurid, Bābur had an eye on the Punjab,
part of which had been Timur’s possession. He made several
excursions in the tribal habitats there. Between 1519 and 1524—when
he invaded Bhera, Sialkot, and Lahore—he showed his definite
intention to conquer Hindustan, where the political scene favoured his
adventure.

Having secured the Punjab, Bābur advanced toward Delhi, garnering

support from many Delhi nobles. He routed two advance
troop contingents of Ibrāhīm Lodī, Delhi’s sultan, and met the sultan’s
main army at the First Battle of Panipat. By April 1526 he was in
control of Delhi and Agra and held the keys to conquer Hindustan.
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The Rajput confederacy, however, under Rana Sanga of Mewar

threatened to revive their power in northern India. Bābur led an
expedition against the rana and crushed the rana’s forces at Khanua,
near Fatehpur Sikri (March 1527), once again by means of the skillful
positioning of troops. Bābur then continued his campaigns to
subjugate the Rajputs of Chanderi. When Afghan risings turned him to
the east, he had to fight, among others, the joint forces of the Afghans
and the sultan of Bengal in 1529 at Ghaghara, near Varanasi. Bābur
won the battles, but the expedition there too, like the one on the
southern borders, was left unfinished. Developments in Central Asia
and Bābur’s failing health forced him to withdraw. He died near
Lahore in December 1530.
Humāyūn
Bābur’s son Humāyūn inherited the hope rather than the fact of
empire, because the Afghans and Rajputs were merely restrained but
not reconciled to Mughal supremacy by the Mughal victories at
Panipat (1526), Khanua (1527), and the Ghaghara (1529). Bahādur
Shah of Gujarat, encouraged by Afghan and Mughal émigrés,
challenged the Mughals in Rajasthan, and, although Humāyūn
occupied Gujarat in 1535, the danger there ended only with Bahādur’s
death in 1537. Meanwhile, an Afghan soldier of fortune, Shēr Shah of
Sūr, had consolidated his power in Bihar and Bengal. He defeated
Humāyūn at Chausa in 1539 and at Kannauj in 1540, expelling him
from India.

Reaching Iran in 1544, Humāyūn was granted military aid by

Shah Ṭ ahmāsp and went on to conquer Kandahār (1545) and to seize
Kabul three times from his own disloyal brother, Kāmrān, the final
time being in 1550. Taking advantage of civil wars among the
descendants of Shēr Shah, Humāyūn captured Lahore in February
1555, and, after defeating Sikandar Sūr, the rebel Afghan governor of
the Punjab, at Sirhind, he recovered Delhi and Agra that July.
Humāyūn was fatally injured by falling down the staircase of his
library. His tomb in Delhi, built several years after his death, is the
first of the great Mughal architectural masterpieces; it was designated
a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993.

Delhi, India: Humāyūn's tomb

Humāyūn's tomb (completed c. 1570), Delhi, India.
© Arteki/Shutterstock.com
Akbar the Great and the consolidation of the
empire
Within a few months of Humāyūn’s death, his governors lost several
important cities and regions, including Delhi itself, to Hemu, a Hindu
minister who had claimed the throne for himself. Humāyūn’s
son Akbar (reigned 1556–1605), under the guidance of the regent
Bayram Khan, defeated Hemu at the Second Battle of Panipat (1556),
which commanded the route to Delhi, and thereby turned the tide
in Hindustan to the Mughal dynasty’s favour.
Akbar
Akbar hunting, c. late 16th century; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, (Rogers Fund, 1911),
www.metmuseum.org
Although Akbar inherited an empire in shambles, he proved an
extremely capable ruler. His expansion and absorption of vast
territories established an empire across northern and parts of central
India; at his death in 1605 the empire extended from Afghanistan to
the Bay of Bengal and southward to what is now Gujarat state and the
northern Deccan region (peninsular India). The political,
administrative, and military structures that he created to govern the
empire were the chief factor behind its continued survival for another
century and a half.

One of the notable features of Akbar’s government was the extent of

Hindu, and particularly Rajput, participation. Rajput princes attained
the highest ranks, as generals and as provincial governors, in the
Mughal service. Discrimination against non-Muslims was reduced by
abolishing the taxation of pilgrims and the tax payable by non-
Muslims (jizyah) in lieu of military service. Yet Akbar was far more
successful than any previous Muslim ruler in winning the cooperation
of Hindus at all levels in his administration. The further expansion of
his territories gave them fresh opportunities.

Learn about the Mughal emperor Akbar and his accession to the throne
Questions and answers about Akbar.
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The incorporation of the zealously independent Hindu Rajputs
inhabiting the rugged hilly Rajputana region came about through a
policy of conciliation and conquest. When in 1562 Raja Bihari Mal of
Amber (now Jaipur), threatened by a succession dispute, offered
Akbar his daughter in marriage, Akbar accepted the offer. The raja
acknowledged Akbar’s suzerainty, and his sons prospered in Akbar’s
service. Akbar followed the same feudal policy toward the other Rajput
chiefs. They were allowed to hold their ancestral territories, provided
that they acknowledged Akbar as emperor, paid tribute, supplied
troops when required, and concluded a marriage alliance with him.
The emperor’s service was also opened to them and their sons, which
offered financial rewards as well as honour. However, Akbar showed
no mercy to those who refused to acknowledge his supremacy; after
protracted fighting in Mewar, Akbar captured the historic fortress of
Chitor (now Chittaurgarh) in 1568 and massacred its inhabitants.

Meanwhile, Akbar needed a way to maintain his status as a Muslim

ruler while eliciting active support from his now predominantly non-
Muslim subjects. In addition to annulling the jizyah, he abolished the
practice of forcibly converting prisoners of war to Islam and
encouraged Hindus as his principal confidants and policy makers. To
legitimize his nonsectarian policies, he issued in 1579 a public edict
(maḥẓar) declaring his right to be the supreme arbiter in Muslim
religious matters—above the body of Muslim religious scholars and
jurists, whom Akbar had come to consider as shallow. He had by then
also undertaken a number of stern measures to reform the
administration of religious grants, which were now available to
learned and pious men of all religions,
including Hindu pandits, Jain and Christian missionaries,
and Parsi priests. The emperor created a new order commonly called
the Dīn-e Ilāhī (“Divine Faith”), which was modeled on the Muslim
mystical Sufi brotherhood but was devised with the object of forging
the diverse groups in the service of the state into
one cohesive political community.

Other notable features of Akbar’s government included the

streamlining of both military and civil administration. He
consolidated military ranks into a standard system under his
authority, and regular checks on rank holders (manṣabdārs) ensured a
reasonable correlation between their obligations and their income. He
also seems to have instituted more efficient revenue assessment and
collection in an effort to safeguard the peasants from excessive
demands and the state from loss of money.

Toward the end of his reign, Akbar embarked on a fresh round of

conquests. The Kashmir region was subjugated in 1586, Sindh in 1591,
and Kandahār (Afghanistan) in 1595. Mughal troops now moved south
of the Vindhya Range into the Deccan. By 1601 Khandesh, Berar, and
part of Ahmadnagar had been added to Akbar’s empire. His last years
were troubled by the rebellious behaviour of his son Prince Salīm
(later the emperor Jahāngīr), who was eager for power.
Jahāngīr and Nūr Jahān
Akbar’s son Jahāngīr (reigned 1605–27) continued both his father’s
administrative system and his tolerant policy toward Hinduism. His
most significant achievement in his own right was the cessation of the
conflict with Mewar, a Rajput principality that had eluded Akbar’s
subjugation. Its rana accepted Jahāngīr as suzerain but retained
greater independence than the other principalities.

Jahāngīr
The feast of Nōrūz at Jahāngīr's court, with Jahāngīr in the upper centre; painting in the Mughal
miniature style, early 17th century.
P. Chandra

Agra Fort: Jahāngīr's Palace

Jahāngīr's Palace (Jahāngīri Mahal) inside Agra Fort (Red Fort), Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
© Ron Gatepain (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
In 1611 he married Mehr al-Nesāʾ, who was afterward known as Nūr
Jahān. His third son, Prince Khurram (later the emperor Shah Jāhan),
married her niece Arjūmand Bānū Begum (Mumtāz Maḥ al) the
following year. When Jahāngīr left Agra in 1613 for several years to
pursue campaigns in the south, Nūr Jahān—along with her father,
Iʿtimād al-Dawlah (Mirzā Ghiyās Beg); her brother Āṣaf Khan
(Arjūmand’s father); and her niece’s husband, Prince Khurram—
became heavily influential, if not decisive, in the royal court. After
Jahāngīr’s return, his health deteriorated. Nūr Jahān took charge of
many of the ruler’s duties and even issued farmāns (sovereign
mandates) in her name. But, after her attempt to arrange her son-in-
law as Jahāngīr’s successor, she stoked the ire of Prince Khurram and
Āṣaf Khan. Upon Jahāngīr’s death, she was held in confinement for
the remainder of her life.

Jahāngīr: tomb
Tomb of Jahāngīr, Mughal emperor of India from 1605 to 1627, built by his son Shah Jahān 10 years
after Jahāngīr's death, Lahore, Pakistan.
© Smandy/Dreamstime.com
Shah Jahān
Prince Khurram succeeded in attaining the throne and took on the
regnal name Shah Jahān (reigned 1628–58). His reign was notable for
successes against the Deccan states. By 1636 Ahmadnagar had been
annexed and Golconda and Bijapur (Vijayapura) forced to become
tributaries. Mughal power was also temporarily extended in the
northwest. In 1638 the Persian governor of Kandahār, ʿAlī Mardān
Khan, surrendered that fortress to the Mughals. In 1646 Mughal forces
occupied Badakhshān and Balkh, but in 1647 Balkh was relinquished,
and attempts to reconquer it in 1649, 1652, and 1653 failed. The
Persians reconquered Kandahār in 1649. Shah Jahān transferred his
capital from Agra to Delhi in 1648, creating the new city of
Shāhjahānābād there.

Bichitr:  The Emperor Shah Jahan

Detail from The Emperor Shah Jahan, oil painting by Bichitr, 1631.
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; photographs, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc.
Shah Jahān had an almost insatiable passion for building (see Shah
Jahān period architecture). At his first capital, Agra, he undertook the
building of two great mosques, the Motī Masjid (Pearl Mosque) and
the Jāmiʿ Masjid (Great Mosque) of Agra. The Taj Mahal, also in Agra,
is the masterpiece of his reign and was erected in memory of his wife
Arjūmand (Mumtāz Maḥ al). At Delhi, Shah Jahān built a huge
fortress-palace complex called the Red Fort as well as another Jāmiʿ
Masjid, which is among the finest mosques in India. Shah Jahān’s
reign was also a period of great literary activity, and the arts of
painting and calligraphy were not neglected. His court was one of
great pomp and splendour, and his collection of jewels was probably
the most magnificent in the world. But his expeditions against Balkh
and Badakhshān and his attempts to recover Kandahār brought the
empire to the verge of bankruptcy.
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal, in Agra, Uttar Pradesh state, India, designated a World Heritage site in 1983.
Tom Nebbia-Aspect Picture Library
Aurangzeb
When Shah Jahān fell ill in September 1657, his sons Dārā, Shujāʿ,
Aurangzeb, and Murād each sought the throne. A protracted war of
succession left Aurangzeb the sole victor and one of his brothers dead;
the other two were executed.
Aurangzeb
Portrait of the emperor Aurangzeb, ink, watercolour, and gold on paper, 17th century; in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bequest of George D. Pratt, 1935,
(45.174.28), www.metmuseum.org
Aurangzeb (reigned 1658–1707) expanded the empire to its greatest
extent, particularly after annexing the Muslim Deccan kingdoms of
Bijapur (1686) and Golconda (1687), but his political and religious
intolerance also laid the seeds of its decline. In the first decades of his
long reign, Aurangzeb continued his predecessors’ recipe for conquest:
defeat one’s enemies, reconcile them, and place them in imperial
service. Thus, the Maratha chief Shivaji was compelled into vassalage
upon his defeat in 1666. Later that same year, however, he escaped the
Mughal court and challenged the Mughal Empire anew. His elaborate
coronation in 1674, complete with Hindu religious consecration
(abhisheka), rallied many Hindus to his cause; his successful rise also
gained the attention and cooperation of Muslim sultans in the Deccan.

Aside from this already formidable challenge, the Mughals faced

several rebellions, and Aurangzeb’s attitude and policy began to
harden. He excluded Hindus from public office and destroyed their
schools and temples, while his persecution of the Sikhs of the Punjab
turned that sect against Muslim rule (most notably under the
leadership of Guru Gobind Singh) and roused rebellions among
the Rajputs, Sikhs, and Marathas. The heavy taxes levied by
Aurangzeb (including the reimposition of the jizyah) steadily
impoverished the farming population, the abundant commissioning
of manṣabdārs far outstripped the empire’s growth in area or
revenues, and a steady decay in the quality of Mughal government was
thus matched by a corresponding economic decline. When Aurangzeb
died in 1707, he had failed to crush the Marathas of the Deccan, his
authority was disputed throughout his dominions, and Mughal
governance was collapsing under its own weight.
Decline of the Mughal Empire
Aurangzeb’s successors were plagued by instability and financial woes.
Rebellions and external challenges continued under Bahādur Shah
I (1707–12), whose poor fiscal management resembled that of
Aurangzeb. Farrukh-Siyār (1713–19) acceded to the throne after a war
of succession, assisted by two highly influential governors; his reign
ended after those same agents, now his vizier and chief military
commander, conspired with the ruler of Jodhpur to assassinate him.

The dynastic centre found itself more and more vulnerable, and the
court was increasingly dependent on revenue and support from its
governors. During the reign of Muḥ ammad Shah (1719–48), the
empire began to break up, a process hastened by dynastic warfare,
factional rivalries, and the Iranian conqueror Nādir Shah’s brief but
disruptive invasion of northern India in 1739. After the death of
Muḥ ammad Shah in 1748, the Marathas overran almost all of
northern India. Mughal rule was reduced to only a small area around
Delhi, which passed under Maratha (1785) and then British (1803)
control. The last Mughal, Bahādur Shah II (reigned 1837–57), was
exiled to Yangon, Myanmar (Rangoon, Burma), by the British after his
involvement with the Indian Mutiny of 1857–58.