The Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire developed in India around 1526 and lasted until 1761 and finally ended in 1857 with the overthrow of the emperor by British colonial forces. The empire was created in effect by kings who have descended from the Mongol ruler Tamerlane (The Khans of Timur) and established a Sunni Muslim empire in northern India. Akbar the Great efficiently established the empire in 1556 and gave peace as well as a strong central administration in the northern heartlands. He granted land revenues called mansabs to military leaders and government officials for their service and made sure these grants were not hereditary so people can advance through service of society (a blow to the castle system). The empire was characterized by the heavy influence of Persian culture on the royal family and in all the acts patronage by the family.

By the mid 1600s, the empire controlled much of the Indian subcontinent and by 1700s, was at its largest extending from Bangladesh to parts of Afghanistan to the borders to Iran (Saffavid Empire). Under the Mughals, arts and literature was allowed to flourish and architecture that is a mix of Persian and Indian standards were seen with stylistic influences of Islam’s calligraphy. One such building was the Taj Mahal, which was build under Emperor Shah Jehan to commemorate his favorite wife. The violence, destruction and the powerful rule of the Mughal rules horrified the Hindu population of India and lead to an underlying growth of hatred against the Muslim population. So the Mughals tried to be more tolerant of other faiths and worked to bridge the gaps between the Hindu and Muslim populations under their rule. Akbar the Great married a Hindu princess and gave certain office posts to the Hindu Rajput families to appease the Hindu populations. It even came to a point where he created his own religious following called Divine Faith, which sponsored a court based culture that is mixed with Islamic and Hindu cultural values and religious elements. In Punjab, Nanak created the Sikh religion as a mix between Hindu and Muslim faiths and grew rapidly within that state and soon posed a military threat to the Mughal Empire as continued bloodshed occurred between them. Mughals continued to decline as such internal conflicts raged between local princes and the intrusion of European powers into the Indian ports. And in 1739, the Iranians under Nadir Shah sacked Delhi and ended the reign of the Mughal Empire.