Medieval Period

Brief History of Islam

 The religion Islam was established by Prophet Mohammad (570-632 AD). Prophet
Mohammad was born in Mecca and Medina region of Saudi Arabia.
 In 622 AD, Mohammad along with his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina.
This migration is called as Hijra, this is the beginning of Hijri Calendar. It is a Lunar
Calendar with 354 days each year.
 After the death of Prophet Mohammad in 632 AD, a person was elected to lead the
people and he was called as ‘Caliph’ who was the religious as well as Political head.
 There were four different Caliphates i.e., the area controlled by the Caliph.
1. Rashidun Caliphate (632-661 AD)
2. Ummayyad Caliphate (661-750 AD): Damascus in Syria
3. Abbasid Caliphate (750-1251 AD): Baghdad
4. Ottoman Caliphate (1517-1924 AD): Istanbul

Arab Invasion in India

Md.Bin Qasim Invasion in 712 AD

• He belongs to Ummayid Dynasty of Arabia.
• He decided to capture the area of Sindh and Port of Debyal to stop loot of his ships
at the port of Debayal.
• Battle of Rewar was fought between Md.Bin Qasim and Dahir, the ruler of Sindh.
Dahir was defeated whereby Sindh and Multan were captured. Md. Bin Qasim
called Multan as “The City Of Gold”.
• The rule of Qasim was for a short period of time but even in this short duration
Islam spread into Indian sub continent.

Turkish Invasion In India

Mahmud of Ghazni (971 AD to 1030 AD)

• In the 10th century AD a volatile situation arised in Middle East ruled by Samanid
Dynasty. The tribes from central Asia who where followers of nature started to
invade Samanid areas. In this situation a special type of personality Ghazi was
born. The 1st Ghazi of Samanid was Mahmud of Ghazni.
• Two important task were there before Ghazni that is:
1. to safeguard the Samanid Territory
2. to spread Islam.
• Ghazni was supported by his court poet Firdausi who wrote Shahnama which
created inedibl impact on the minds of Central Asians and majority of them joined
Islam. Later these Central Asians became strongest defender of Islam and crusader
from Islam.
• In 1000 AD, Mahmud of Ghazni invaded India. He was the first Turkish to Invade
India. He returned to Ghazna with enormous wealth after defeating:
1. Jaipala, the ruler of Hindu Shahi Dynasty
2. Fateh Daud of Multan
3. Anandapala of Nagarkot
4. the Chandelas, the rulers of Mathura
5. Kannauj and Gwalior.
• He targeted rich temples of India and invaded 17 times. His last attack was on
Temple of Somnath in 1025 AD.
• Though the image of Ghazni was Cultural regenerator in West Asia and Middle East
but in Indian history he was a plunderer.

Muhammad of Ghori (1149 AD to 1206 AD)

• In the 11th century, Samanid were replaced by Seljuk in Middle East and West Asia.
After some point of time they started to fight among themselves on the question of
Syria. Later the Khwarizmi branch of Seljuk defeated Ghurid Branch of Seljuk. The
Ghurid ruler, Muhammad of Ghori was forced to divert his attention towards
Indian subcontinent. From 1170s, Md. Ghori started his Indian campaign.
• Initially Md. Ghori captured Multan and Ucch but his campaign on temple of
somnath was not successful.
• On the question of Tabar-i-Hind (Bhatinda, Punjab), Md.Ghori fought with Rajput
ruler, Prithvi Raj Chauhan which led to the First Battle of Tarain in 1191 AD in which
Md. Ghori was defeated.
• Meanwhile daughter of Gahdaula Ruler, Sanyogita eloped with Prithvi Raj
Chauhan. This incident was used by Ghori to pit Jaichand against Prithvi Raj
Chauhan. As such in the Second Battle of Tarain, 1192 AD, Prithvi Raj Chauhan was
defeated and later killed.
• Later in 1194 AD, Md. Ghori defeated and killed Jaichand in Battle of Chandawar.
• In 1206 AD, when Md. Gori was assassinated by Kokhar’s then in this situation
Qutub-ud-din Aibak declared the formation of Delhi Sultanate.

Conquest of Bengal and Bihar

• Mohammed Bin Bakiyar Khilji, one of the commanders of Mohammed of Ghori
destroyed Vikramshila in 1202 AD and Nalanda University in 1203 AD.
 DELHI SULTANATE (1206-1526)
In 1206 AD, when Mohammed Ghori was assassinated by the Kokkhar’s then in this
situation Qutub Uddin Aibak declared the formation of Delhi Sultanate.

SLAVE DYNASTY (1206-1290 AD): Slaves were also known as Mameluk.

The Slave dynasty was founded by Qutub Uddin Aibak in 1206 AD.
Qutub Uddin Aibak (1206-1210 AD)
 He assumed the title of Sultan and made Lahore its capital. He patronized great scholars
Hasan Nizami.
 He was a generous ruler and often gave charity in amount of lakhs. Due to his charity ac-
tivity, he was given the title of “Lakh Baksha”.
 He started the construction of “Qutub Minar” in the memory of sufi saint “Qutub Uddin
Bakhtiyar Kaki”. It was completed by Iltutmish and later Feroz Shah Tughlaq added few
more stories to the Minar.
 He built Adhai Din ka Jhonpra at Ajmer and Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque at Delhi.
 In 1210 AD, Aibak died when he fell from his horse while playing the game of Chaugan.

Iltutmish (1210-1236 AD)

 In the beginning, Iltutmish had to defeat the challenges created by the other slaves of Mo-
hammed Ghori that is Yaldoz and Qubacha.
 He belongs to the Ilbari tribe of Turkey. He is considered to be the real founder of Delhi
Sultanate.
 He transferred the capital from Lahore to Delhi.
 On the Arabic lines of coinage, he released official currency of Delhi Sultanate which was:
a. Silver Tanka
b. Copper Jittal.
 It was under his reign that Mongols under Chengiz Khan raided Central Asia.
 He established the system of revenue administration known as Iqta System.
 He also created a group of 40 nobles known as Turkan-i-chahalgani. They assisted sultan in
his political functions.

Before his death, Iltutmish overlooked the claim of all of his sons and appointed his
daughter Razia as next sultan. But after his death one of his son Ruknuddin Feroz
became the next Sultan, but due to public revolt and dissatisfaction Raziya became the
next Sultan.
Raziya (1236-1240)
 She was bold and fearless lady, she discarded the Parda system and started to wear attire
of Sultan.
 She was very generous kind and progressive. When she appointed a person of African
origin, Yakut to a high official position, it was protested by the nobles and as such they
wanted to remove Raziya.
 The Governor of Punjab, Altunia imprisioned Razia. But this problem was solved by Razia
by marrying Altunia. Later on the group of nobles decided to give the task of killing Raziya
to the dacoits, who killed her at Kaithal in Haryana.
 Razia was succeeded by the following rulers:
a. Bahram Shah (1240-1242 AD)
b. Masud Shah (1242-1246 AD)
 c. Naseer Uddin Mohammad Shah (1246-1265 AD)

Initially these rulers were appointed by the whims and fancies of the 40 Nobles, but with
the arrival of Naseer Uddin Mohammad Shah, the rule was stabilized.
 Naseer Uddin was a generous ruler and believed in quthority of gods. Because of this he
was also known as “Darvesh”.
 He created the post of “Naib-i-Mamalkat” which means Deputy Sultan and on the occu-
pant of this post was Ghiyas Uddin Balban.
 After the death of Naseer Uddin in 1265 AD, Balban became the next Sultan.

Balban (1265- 1286 AD)

 He gave the “Divine Theory of Kingship” whereby he maintained that Sultan is “Shadow of
God on Earth” which is best kept by term “Jill-i-Illahi”. He also followed the policy of Blood
and Iron to suppress his enemy.
 He introduced few Iranian etiquettes in the court:
a. Sijda: Bowing down of head before Sultan
b. Paibos: Kissing the feet of Sultan.
c. Introduced the festival of “Navroj” in India.
 He dismantled the group of 40 nobles and abolished all their powers. Moreover, they were
not allowed to marry among themselves. He became the most power ruler of slave dyn-
asty.
 To implement his centralised rule he created a very strong army under a separate depart-
ment of military named as Diwan-i-Ariz.
 After the death of Balban, his grandson, Kaiqubad became the next ruler in 1286 AD. He
was overpowered and eliminated by one of the general of Balban, named “Jalaluddin
Khilji” in 1290 AD.

KHILJI DYNASTY (1290-1320 AD)

The important ruler of Khilji Dynasty are stated below:
Jalaluddin Khilji (1290-1296 AD)
 He was the founder of Khilji dynasty. He was also called as “Clemency Jalaluddin” as he
followed peace and wanted to rule without violence.
 He suppressed Malik Chhajju’s revolt at Kara and appointed Alauddin Khilji as the gover-
nor of Kara.
 In 1292 AD, Jalaluddin defeated the Mongols who had come up to Sunam.
 One of the most important events during the reign of Jalaluddin Khilji was the invasion of
Devgiri, the capital of Yadava kingdom by Alauddin Khilji in 1296 AD.
 When he was returning from his Bengal campaign, he was assassinated by his nephew
Alauddin Khilji at Kara in 1296 AD.

Alauddin Khilji (1296-1316 AD)

 He after coming to power captured Gujrat. He brought a very able person, Malik Kafur
from Gujrat, who later became his army general.
 After Gujrat episode, Alauddin decided to capture Ranthambore Fort. When his army en-
tered inside the fort they selectively started to kill the men inside the fort. In this situa-
tion, women of fort to safeguard their dignity and honour performed Jauhar. This event of
Jauhar was very well documented by the court poet of Alauddin, Amir Khusrau.
  After Ranthambore, Alauddin captured Chittorgarh from Kunwar Ratan Singh.
 After the North and Western Campaign, Alauddin decided to invade South India which was
done by his general Malik Kafur. Kafur Invaded:
a. Yadavas of Devgiri
b. Kakatiya of Warrangal
c. Hoysala of Dwarsamudram
d. Vir Pandya of Maabar

The Kohinoor diamond was presented to Alauudin by Prataprudra of Kakatiya.

 Alauddin died in 1316 AD and the last ruler of Khilji was Khusrow who was eliminated by
Ghiyas-Uddin Tughlaq in 1320 AD.

Initiatives of Alauddin Khilji

 He was known as the “Master of Market Reform”
 He divided the market into 3 categories:
1. Food Grains
2. Cloth and Footwear
3. Animal Trade and Slave Trade
 He also fixed the prices of all basic commodities so as to increase the revenue.
 Main source of income was “Kharaj” which was Land tax and Khilji fixed it at 50% of the
produce.
 He also standardised all the weights and measures in the sultanate and those who de-
faulted were given severe punishment.
 He utilised the services of “Banjara Community” to establish trade with many areas.
 He started branding of horses under “Dagh System” and initiated “Chehra or Hulia Sys-
tem”, whereby the physical appearance and attributes were noted down in register.
 He abolished the privileges of intermediaries known as Khuts and Muqqadama.
 He was the first to bring standing army system.
 He constructed Alai Darwaza, the Palace of a thousand pillars and the fort of Siri.

TUGHLAQ DYNASTY (1320-1414 AD)

 Ghiyas Uddin Tughlaq founded this dynasty in 1320 AD. Original name of Ghiyas-Uddin Tu-
ghlaq was Gazi Malik.
 He had acrimonious relation with the Sufi Saint of Delhi, Nizam-Uddin Auliya.
 Ghiyas-Uddin Tughlaq decided to invade Bengal on which Auliya commented that “Delhi is
far far from you”. He received huge number of elephants from Bengal as war booty. One
of his sons, Mohammad Bin Tughlaq, erected a very large wooden platform just before
Delhi to welcome the winning army. When the elephant mounted on this wooden plat-
form it collapsed and Ghiyas-Uddin Tughlaq died in the process and Mohammad Bin Tu-
ghlaq became the next ruler.
 Ghiyas-Uddin Tughlaq was the governor of Punjab during the reign of Alauddin Khilji.
 He founded the city of Tughlaqabad.
Mohammad Bin Tughlaq (1325-1361 AD)
 He was the most erratic and bizarre personality of the medieval history. On one hand he
was a scholar of many languages, a fine-tuned mathematician, Astronomers, easily inter-
mixed with people and he often celebrated Hindu festivals. But on the other hand, he was
very brutal and short tempered and was known for giving extreme type of capital punish-
ment.
 He was also a man of innovation and during his rule he undertook many initiatives which
are as follow:
a. He decided to increase the rate of tax in Doab region in order to increase the revenue
to the state. But soon after the implementation a severe famine hit the doab region
and the peasants refused to pay. In this situation, the tax was withdrawn.
b. Transfer of capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (Aurangabad):
The decision was taken in the background of creating a central location capital and to
safeguard from Mongols. But the experiment failed due to extreme summer and no
provision of water at Daulatabad.
c. Khorasan Expedition to Afghanistan:
He wanted to extend his frontier around West and Central Asia. He recruited large
number of soldiers for this purpose and to keep their motivation high they were given
advanced salary but despite full fledged preparation war did not happen on ground
and Md. Bin Tughlaq incurred heavy losses.
d. Kurachil Expedition:
To punish those who revolted against Md. Bin Tughlaq, he sent his army to capture
them but due to extreme cold army lost his way and entered into Tibet where a crush-
ing defeat was imposed on them.
e. Issue of Token Currency:
There was a scarcity of Silver all over the world. In this scenario, he decided to release
Token currency on the face value of Silver. This experiment failed due to forging of cur-
rency by the officer and other people.
f. Agricultural Reform:
He created a separate department of agriculture known as “Diwan-i-Kohi”. Under this
department, “Sondhar” facility was opened which gave cheap agricultural loan, “Tac-
cavi” to the people.
 During his tenure, the famous Morrocan travellere, “Ibn Batuta”, visited Delhi. He was
given grand welcome and was appointed as Qazi of Delhi. he wrote his experience of
Delhi’s court in his book “Rehala”.
 During the tenure of Md. Bin Tughlaq, total 23 revolts took place and he was able to sup-
press only 2. Moreover, the most important was the establishment of:
a. Vijayanagar Kingdom in 1336 AD
b. Bahmani Kingdom in 1347 AD.
 Md. Bin Tughlaq died in 1351 AD after which Feroz Shah Tughlaq became the next ruler.

Feroz Shah Tughlaq (1351 – 1388 AD)

 From the very beginning Feroz Shah Tughlaq (FST) has to face many challenges and the
most important was how to revive the lost glory of Delhi Sultanate
 He banned all the extreme type of capital punishments and also started to support the or-
thodox section of Islam.
  During the time of Md. Bin Tughlaq, nobles were heavily disaffected. In order to seek their
support FST, decided to make “Iqta system hereditary in nature”.

Other Initiatives of Feroz Shah Tughlaq

 FST repealed majority of the taxes and imposed only 5 types of taxes which are as follow:
a. Kharaj: Land Tax
b. Khumsa: Part of looted wealth shared with sultan
c. Jizya: He extended Jizya to Brahmins
d. Ushra: Tax imposed on the income of Muslims
e. Zakat: Charity taken from Muslim section for spread of Islam.
 FST laid the foundation of “Firoz Shah Kotla” in Delhi and “Jaunpur” in UP.
 He established the department of “Diwan-i-Khairat” which was meant to provide financial
aid to the poor people in the marriage of their daughter.
 After the death of FST, the weak successor were not able to save the decline of Delhi Sul-
tanat. Their weakness was exposed and Turkish Invader, Amir Taimur, looted Delhi in 1398
AD.
 In 1414 AD, the general of Amir Taimur known as Khizra Khan eliminated Tughlaq from
Delhi and founded Sayyid Dynasty.

Note: Nasir-Ud-Din Mahmud Shah Tughlaq was the last ruler of this dynasty. Amir
Taimur invaded northern India during his reign.

Sayyid Dynasty (1414-1451 AD)

 Khizra Khan was the most important ruler of this dynasty. He maintained that he is “Rai-
yat-i-Ala” or Caretaker of Taimur’s son, Shahrukh.
 In 1451 AD, Sayyid dynasty was thrown out of Delhi by the Lodi’s, who were the 1 st Afghan
origin dynasty of Delhi.

Note: Mubarak Shah was the first Sultan to appoint Hindu nobles in the court of Delhi.
Alauddin Shah was the last ruler of this dynasty.

Lodi Dynasty (1451-1526 AD)

 Bahlul Lodi, founded the dynasty in 1451 AD and laid down the principle that all the im-
portant position must be shared with Afghan origin friends and family. Though this princi-
ple was diluted by his successor.
 He took the title of Bahlul Shah Gazi. He died in 1489 AD and his tomb is located at Chirag
Dilli in Delhi.

Sikandar Lodi (1489-1517 AD)

 He was the most important ruler of this dynasty who founded the city of “Agra” and made
it the capital of Delhi Sultanate.
 His most important political achievement was annexation of Bihar.
 He initiated a new unit of measurement known as “Gaj-i-Sikandari”
 He also translated medicinal work of Sanskrit into Persian. He wrote poetry in Persian us-
ing the pen name “Gulrukhi”.
 A work on music names “Lahjati-Sikandar Shahi” was created during his reign.
Ibrahim Lodi (1517-1526 AD)
 He was the last ruler of Lodi and Delhi Sultanate. He is controlled one of the strongest ar-
mies of that time but he was very rash and impolite to his own people. In one such in-
stances he humiliated Daulat Khan Lodi who in turn invited Zahiruddin Babur from Kabul.
 Initially Babur refused but later when he was given assurance that Rana Sangha of Mewar
will support him then he gave his assent.
 The 1st Battle of Panipat, 1526 AD was fought between Ibrahim Lodi and Babur. Babur de-
spite controlling very less number of people in his army was able to defeat Ibrahim Lodi
due to use of Cannon’s to operate gunpowder and the intelligent strategy of “Tulugma”.

Administrative Department of Delhi Sultanate

1. Diwan-i-Wizarat: - Department of Finance
2. Diwan-i-Insha: - Department of Post and correspondence
3. Diwan-i-Ariz: - Department of Military
4. Diwan-i- Bandagan: - Department of Prisioner and slave created by Feroz Shah Tughlaq
5. Diwan-i-Risalat: - Department of Foreign affairs w.r.t religion
6. Diwan-i-Qazi: - Department of Religious Affairs
7. Diwan-i-Muniha: - Department of Espionage created by Alauddin Khilji
8. Diwan-i-Mustakharaj: - Department of collection of revenues and arrears
9. Diwan-i-Kohi: - Department of Agriculture
10. Diwan-i-Riyasat: - Department of market control.
 MUGHAL EMPIRE
The first battle of Panipat, 1526 fought between Ibrahim Lodhi and Babur laid the
foundation of Mughal Empire in India
Zahiruddin Mohammad Babur
 He after consolidating his power decided to fight with Rana Sangha. In the battle of
Khanwa, 1527 AD, Babur defeated Rana Sangha.
 Later in 1528 AD, he defeated Medni Roy of Chanderi. In the fort of Chanderi, soldier killed
each other and women performed Jauhar.
 Babur defeated the Afghans in the Battle of Ghagra in 1529 AD.
 After laying down the foundation of Mughal in India, Babur died in 1530 AD after which his
son Humayun became the next ruler.
 He wrote his autobiography. “Tuzuk-i-Baburi” in Turki language.

Humayun
 In the beginning Humayun had to give the province of Kabul and Kandhar to his brothers:
Kamran, Hindal and Ashkari
 In 1534 AD, he defeated Bhahdur Shah of Gujrat but was not successful against Sher Shah
Suri of Bihar.
 Sher Shah Suri defeated Humayun in two successive battle in 1539 and 1540 at Chausa and
Kannauj. It led to the establishment of Sur Empire.
 Initially Humayun received refugee at Amarkot but later when he accepted Shiya Islam he
received asylum in Iran.

Sur Empire (1540-1555 AD)

 It was an Afghan origin dynasty.
 Sher Shah Suri was the most important ruler and the founder of this dynasty.
 He took many initiatives which are as follows:
a. He codified the Islamic Law for adjudication of religious disputes
b. He released the official currency of Sur Empire which was “Rupiyah” made from silver.
“Dam” was another lower denomination currency made from copper.
c. He is also known as the creator of Postal System or Dak Khanas and he opened post
offices in far flunged areas.
d. Creation of Highways of which GT Road or Badshah Road from Kolkata to Peshawar
was most famous.
e. He also created resting house known as Sarai on the sides of the roads.
f. He was also creator of base of provincial administration which was further elaborated
by Akbar.
 In 1555 AD, Humayun came back from Iran and with the support of Iranian ruler Shah Ta-
masp he uprooted the Sur Empire and reestablished the Mughals in India
 In 1556 AD, Humayun died in unfortunate fashion when he fell from his observatory Sher
Mandal
 At this point of time Delhi was captured by one of the Afghan aids, Hemu. In this situation
Mughal general Bairam Khan defeated and killed Hemu in the Second Battle of Panipat,
1556 AD.
 The biography of Humayun: Humayunama was written by Gulbadan Begum in Persian lan-
guage.
 Akbar
 Initially Akbar was working under the regency of Bairam Khan who took retirement in
1560.Next two years of his reign was dominated by Maham Anga.
 From 1562 AD onward Akbar started his military campaign and he annexed:
a. Gujrat
b. Malwa
c. Kabul
d. Bihar
e. Bengal
f. Kashmir
g. Parts of Ahmednagar
 Akbar followed a policy of negotiation with the Rajput rulers whereby he maintained that
if Rajput accepted the supremacy of Akbar then they would be granted full autonomy to
rule in their own areas. As such all the Rajpur rulers accepted this proposal except Maha-
rana Pratap of Mewar which led to the “Battle of Haldighati,1576” fought between
Mansingh Tomar of Gwalior (supported by Akbar) and Maharana. This war was inconclu-
sive and Maharana retained Mewar.
 After establishing a very large Mughal empire, Akbar took his last breath in 1605 AD. In his
original will he wished that his grandson, Khusrow must become next ruler but after his
death Prince Salim became the next emperor with the title of Jahangir.

Initiatives of Akbar
a. Administrative Initiatives
 For the ease of administration, Akbar divided the Mughal empire into 16 Provinces which
where further sub divided and they are as follow:

 Mansabdari System: It was the official nobilities of the Mughal. All the officers in Mughal
Empire were known as “Mansabdar”. It had two components:

a. Zat: It decided the personal rank of Mansabdar in official hierarchy. According

to the rank they were paid salary in the form of cash or Jagir. If a Mansabdar
 was paid in cash, he was known as Naqdi Mansabdar. When he was paid in Ja-
gir, he was known as Jagirdari Mansabdar. “The Jagir granted was not heredi-
tary but given for a temporary period.

b. Sawar: As per the rank Mansabdar needed to maintain a troop including Sol-
diers and Horses for Mughal Emperor.

Economic Initiatives of Akbar:

 His finance minister, Raja Todarmal came up with progressive system of Taxation based on
fertility of land. On the basis of fertility, land was divided into 4 categories which are as
follow:
a. Polaj Land: It was the most fertile and every year cultivation was practiced and it at-
tracted most amount of taxes.
b. Parati Land: It was left fallow for 1 year to regain fertility and taxes were imposed in
the alternate years.
c. Cachar Land: It was left fallow for 2 years to regain fertility and taxes were imposed in
the 3rd year.
d. Banjar Land: It was left fallow for 5 or 6 years to regain fertility and taxes were im-
posed in the year of cultivation.
 The rate of taxes were decided by “Dahisala System” whereby the 10 year average produc-
tion of a particular are was calculated and the rate of taxes were decided on the basis of
quantity of production.

Socio-Religious Initiative of Akbar

 Akbar abolished the discriminatory tax of Jizya (1564) and Pilgrimage tax (1563)
 He stopped the practice of converting prisoner of war forcefully to accept Islam.
 He created the building of Ibadat Khana in 1575 AD at Fatehpur Sikri for religious discus-
sion and deliberation.
 The outcome of these discussion came in the form of a new religion or theology known as
“Din-i-Ilahi” (Birbal accepted it).
 The essence of this religion was message of “Suhl-i-Kuhl” (Universal peace and brother-
hood).
 He also opened “Maktabkhana” where Indian literature was translated into Persian.

Jahangir (1605-1627 AD)

 After coming to power, he annexed Mewar in 1611 AD.
 He was married to Noor Jahan in 1613 AD who later became de-facto ruler and controlled
the administration with her own close group known as “Junta”.
 Her father Mirza Ghiyas Beg was appointed as Wazir and her brother, Asaf-ud-daullah was
appointed as Khan-i-Saman (incharge of royal treasury)
 His reign witnessed the visit of two Englishmen- William Hawkins and Sir Thomas Roe,
which led to the establishment of British factory at Surat.
 He executed Guru Arjun Dev.
 He took his last breath in 1627 AD and after his death there was a war of succession in
which finally Khurram with the support of Asaf-ud-daullah ascended the throne with the
title of Shah Jahan.
Shah Jahan (1627-1658 AD)
 His most important political achievement was complete annexation of Amhednagar.
 He was contemporary to Louis XIV of France. In his reign the famous Peacock throne was
made for the King.
 Europeans like Berinier (French Traveller), Tavernier (French Traveller), Mandelso (German
Traveller), Peter Mundy (English Trader) and Manucci (Italian Traveller) visited India during
the reign of Shah Jahan.
 After the death of his wife, Mumtaz, he dedicated his life to create landmark monuments
in India. The climax of Mughal architecture was creation of “Taj Mahal”.
 By 1657 AD, a war of succession started among his sons in which finally Alamgir Aurangzeb
was successful after killing his brother Dara Sikhoh.
 He also imprisoned Shah Jahan in Red Fort Agra.

Aurangzeb (1658-1707 AD)

 After coming to power, he reimposed Jizya Tax and started to patronize orthodox Islam.
 The Jats and Satnamis and also the Sikh revolted against him.
 He was influenced by Nakshabandi Sufi order.
 He annexed Golconda and Bijapur.
 He also banned many festivals like Holi and Diwali and restarted the campaign of temple
destruction which included the destruction of:
a. Kashiviswanath Temple
b. Somnath Temple
c. Govinda Dev Temple
d. Keshav Rai Temple
 He executed the ninth Sikh Guru Tegbahadur.
 The death of Aurangzeb in 1707 AD marked a watershed in Indian history as the Mughal
Empire virtually came to an end even though the weak successor of Aurangzeb held the
throne for the next 150 years.