The Muslim 100 by Khan Muhammad;

Author:Khan, Muhammad;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The lives, thoughts and achievements of the most influential Muslims in history
ISBN: 782152
Publisher: Kube Publishing Ltd
Published: 2008-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

FOUNDED BY ZAHIR AL-DIN BABAR (Babur) in 1526, the Mughal dynasty ruled the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries with great splendour and munificence. Expanded and consolidated by Akbar the Great during his long reign of forty-nine years, the Mughal dynasty subsequently became one of the Muslim world’s foremost political and military powers, along with the Ottomans and the Safavids. After the death of Akbar in 1605, his son Salim (also known as Emperor Jahangir) ascended the throne and attempted to further consolidate Mughal power and authority, but he encountered many political obstacles and internal challenges. Jahangir may have been a successful ruler but he was also a pleasure-seeker who surrounded himself with much wealth and luxury. After securing Mughal rule in Bengal, he built some of the most beautiful fountains and gardens ever constructed by a Mughal ruler. And unlike his father, Jahangir was highly educated and wrote his autobiography, Tuzuk-i-Jahangir (Memoirs of Jahangir), which is today considered to be a work of considerable historical significance and literary merit. The fact that Jahangir was more a conqueror of hearts than of land is most evident from the fact that peace and prosperity reigned supreme during his rule.

But towards the end of his reign of twenty-two years, he became embroiled in a serious internal family dispute, sparked off by the question of political succession. The ensuing discord divided the royal family and severely undermined his political power and authority. Jahangir was eventually succeeded by his son, Shah Jahan, who went onto become one of the Muslim world’s most famous and romantic rulers.

Abu Muzaffar Shihab al-Din Muhammad Sahib-i-Qiran II, better known as Shah Jahan (‘King of the World’), was born during the long and successful reign of his grandfather, Akbar the Great. His birth was considered to be a good omen for the Mughals because, in that same year, Akbar went on to extend Mughal rule in the north of India. Overjoyed at the birth of his third grandson, Akbar named him Khurram, meaning ‘joy and happiness’. The Mughal astrologers apparently observed the constellations of the stars at the time of Shah Jahan’s birth and, according to them, they were similar to the constellations observed at the birth of Amir Timur, the great ancestor of the Mughals, and this was considered to be a good omen for the boy. Brought up by his father, young Shah Jahan received a thorough education in the languages, arts and religious sciences. Though his father, Jahangir, led a lavish lifestyle and was very fond of wine, Shah Jahan grew up to be a sensible young man who despised alcohol. Such was his aversion to uninhibited materialism and pleasure-seeking that he even reproached his father for his addiction to alcohol. Perhaps it was his early Islamic education which safeguarded him from the wayward and un-Islamic practices which prevailed within the royal family at the time.

In 1611, when Shah Jahan was only nineteen, his father married Mihr al-Nisa, popluarly known as Nur Jahan (‘Light of the World’), who was the daughter of a Persian immigrant.

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