Mughal Empire

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"Mughals" redirects here. For other uses, see Mughal (disambiguation).
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Mughal Empire

( Persian)
Grkniyn

(Urdu)

Mugghliyah Salanat

15261857

Flag

The Mughal Empire

Capital

Agra
(15261571)

Fatehpur Sikri
(15711585)

Lahore
(15851598)

Agra
(15981648)

Shahjahanabad/Delhi
(16481857)

Languages

Persian (official and court language)[1]

Chagatai Turkic (only initially)
Urdu (later period)

Religion

Islam (15261857)

Din-e Ilahi (15821605)

Government
Emperor[2]
- 15261530
- 18371857
Historical era
- Battle of
Panipat
- Siege of Delhi

Absolute monarchy,unitary state

with federal structure
Babur (first)
Bahadur Shah II (last)
Early modern
21 April 1526
21 September 1857

Area
- 1700[a]

3,200,000 km(1,235,527 sq mi)

Population
- 1700[a] est.
Density

150,000,000
46.9 /km (121.4 /sq mi)

Currency

Rupee

Preceded by
Timurid dynasty
Delhi Sultanate

Succeeded by
Maratha Empire
Durrani Empire

Suri dynasty
Adil Shahi dynasty
Sultanate of Bengal
Deccan Sultanates

Today part of

1.

Indian Empire
Hyderabad State
Nawab of
Carnatic
Nawab of Bengal
Nawab of Awadh
Kingdom of
Mysore
Bharatpur State
Sikh
Confederacy

Afghanistan
Bangladesh
India
Pakistan

Jump up^ Area source:[3] Population source:[4]

The Mughal Empire (Urdu:

[5]

, Mugghliyah Salanat),

[6]

[7][8]

self-

designated as Gurkani (Persian: , Grkniyn),

was aPersianate
empire extending
over large parts of the Indian subcontinentand ruled by a dynasty of Mongol and ChagataiTurkic origin.

[9][10][11]

In the early 16th century, northern India, being then under mainly Muslim rulers,

[12]

fell to the

[13]

superior mobility and firepower of the Mughals.

The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out
the local societies it came to rule, but rather balanced and pacified them through new administrative
practices

[14][15]

and diverse and inclusive ruling elites,

[16]

leading to more systematic,

[17]

centralized, and uniform rule.

Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic identity, especially
under Akbar, the Mughals united their far-flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a
Persianised culture, to an emperor who had near-divine status.
policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture

[18]

[16]

The Mughal state's economic

and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-

[19]

[17]

regulated silver currency,

caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.
The
relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's
economic expansion,

[17]

resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles,

[20]

and architecture.
Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as
the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal
rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience.

[21]

Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political

elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India.

these elites were able to control their own affairs.

[21]

As the empire disintegrated, many among

[22]

The beginning of the empire is conventionally dated to the founder Babur's victory over Ibrahim
Lodi in the first Battle of Panipat (1526). It reached its peak extent under Aurangzeb, and declined
rapidly after his death (in 1707) under a series of ineffective rulers. The empire's collapse followed
heavy losses inflicted by the smaller army of the Maratha Empire in the Deccan Wars (16801707),

[23]

which encouraged the Nawabs of Bengal, Bhopal,Oudh, Carnatic, Rampur, and the Nizam of

[24]

Hyderabad to declare their independence from the Mughals.

Following the Third Anglo-Maratha
warin 1818, the Mughal emperor became a pensioner of the Raj, and the empire, its power now
limited to Delhi, lingered on until 1857, when it was effectively dissolved after the fall of Delhi during

[25]

the Indian Rebellion that same year.

The Mughal emperors were Central Asian Turko-Mongols from modern-dayUzbekistan, who claimed
direct descent from both Genghis Khan (through his son Chagatai Khan) and Timur. At the height of
their power in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, they controlled much of the Indian subcontinent,
extending from Bengal in the east to Kabul & Sindh in the west, Kashmir in the north to

[26]

the Kaveri basin in the south.

Its population at that time has been estimated as between 110 and
150 million (quarter of the world's population), over a territory of more than 3.2 million square
kilometres (1.2 million square miles).

[4]

The "classic period" of the empire started in 1556 with the ascension ofAkbar the Great to the
throne. Under the rule of Akbar and his son Jahangir, India enjoyed economic progress as well as

religious harmony, and the monarchs were interested in local religious and cultural traditions. Akbar
was a successful warrior. He also forged alliances with several Hindu Rajputkingdoms.
Some Rajput kingdoms continued to pose a significant threat to Mughal dominance of northwestern
India, but they were subdued by Akbar. Most Mughal emperors were Muslims. However Akbar in the
latter part of his life, and Jahangir, were followers of a new religion called Deen-i-Ilahi, as recorded in

[27]

historical books like Ain-e-Akbari & Dabestan-e Mazaheb.

The reign of Shah Jahan, the fifth emperor, was the golden age of Mughal architecture. He erected
several large monuments, the most famous of which is the Taj Mahal at Agra, as well as the Moti
Masjid, Agra, the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid, Delhi, and the Lahore Fort. The Mughal Empire
reached the zenith of its territorial expanse during the reign of Aurangzeband also started its terminal
decline in his reign due to Maratha military resurgence under Shivaji Bhosale. During his lifetime,
victories in the south expanded the Mughal Empire to more than 3.2 million square kilometres (1.2
million square miles), ruling over more than 150 million subjects, nearly 1/4th of the world's
population, with a combined GDP of over $90 billion.

[4][28]

By the mid-18th century, the Marathas had routed Mughal armies, and won over several Mughal
provinces from the Deccan to Bengal, and internal dissatisfaction arose due to the weakness of the
Mughal Empire's administrative and economic systems, leading to the breakup of the empire and
declaration of independence of its former provinces by the Nawabs
ofBengal, Bhopal, Oudh, Carnatic, Rampur, the Nizam of Hyderabad, sultan of the state of
Mysore, Shah of Afghanistan and other small states. In 1739, the Mughals were crushingly defeated
in the Battle of Karnal by the forces of Nader Shah, the founder of the Afsharid dynasty in Persia,
and Delhi was sacked and looted, drastically accelerating their decline. During the following century
Mughal power had become severely limited and the last emperor, Bahadur Shah II, had authority
over only the city of Shahjahanabad. He issued a firman supporting the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and
following the defeat was therefore tried by the British East India Company for treason, imprisoned,
exiled to Rangoon and the last remnants of the empire were taken over by the British.