Mughal Empire

Mughal Empire
Hindustan[1][2]
مغلیہ سلطنت (Urdu)
دولتِ مغل (Persian)
1526–1858
Mughal
The empire at its greatest extent in c. 1700 under Aurangzeb
Capital
Official languages
Religion
Sunni Islam (Official)
GovernmentMonarchy
Emperor[a] 
• 1526–1530 (first)
Babur
• 1837–1857 (last)
Bahadur Shah II
Vakil-i-Mutlaq 
• 1526–1540 (first)
Mir Khalifa
• 1795–1818 (last)
Daulat Rao Sindhia
Grand Vizier 
• 1526–1540 (first)
Mir Khalifa
• 1775–1797 (last)
Asaf-ud-Daula
Establishment
• Founding
1526
• Fall
1858
Area
1690[7][8]4,000,000 km2 (1,500,000 sq mi)
Population
• 1595
125,000,000[9]
• 1700
158,000,000[10]

The Mughal Empire (Urdu: مغلیہ سلطنت, Persian: دولتِ مغل)[b] was a Muslim empire, in South Asia which existed from 1526 to 1858.[12] When it was biggest it ruled most of the Indian subcontinent, including what is now Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan[13] Between 1526 and 1707, It contributed to 24% of the world's GDP[14] It was the world's largest economy and was known for its architecture.[15][16]

The Mughal emperors were Mongols in origin.[17] Though they later settled in India and became Indianized, They ruled for India and expanded the boundaries of Hindustan (India).[12][18][19] Babur of the Timurid dynasty founded the Mughal Empire (and Mughal dynasty) in 1526 and ruled until 1530. He was followed by Humayun (1530-1540) and (1555-1556), Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627), Shah Jahan (1628-1658), and Aurangzeb (1658-1707) and several other minor rulers until Bahadur Shah Zafar II (1837-1857). After the death of Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire became weak. It continued until 1857-58. By that time, South Asia had become under the British Raj.

The Mughal Empire was established by Muslim rulers who came from the present-day Uzbekistan after defeating the Delhi sultanate. The Mughal rule in India saw the region into a united Indian state.[20] which was administered under a single ruler. This hadn't happened since the Delhi Sultanate, Guptas and Mauryans. During the Mughal period, art and architecture became important.[21]

Empire expansion

[change | change source]

The Mughal Empire reached across much of the Indian subcontinent during period of Aurangzeb. By the death of Akbar, the third Mughal ruler, the Mughal Empire extended from Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal and southward to what is now Gujarat state and the northern Deccan region of India.[22]

  1. The title (Mirza) descends to all the sons of the family, without exception. In the royal family it is placed after the name instead of before it, thus, Abbas Mirza and Hosfiein Mirza. Mirza is a civil title, and Khan is a military one. The title of Khan is creative, but not hereditary.[6]
  2. Also called Hindustan historically[1][11]

References

[change | change source]
  1. 1.0 1.1 Vanina, Eugenia (2012). Medieval Indian Mindscapes: Space, Time, Society, Man. Primus Books. p. 47. ISBN 978-93-80607-19-1. Archived from the original on 22 September 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  2. Hardy, P. (1979). "Modern European and Muslim Explanations of Conversion to Islam in South Asia: A Preliminary Survey of the Literature". In Levtzion, Nehemia (ed.). Conversion to Islam. Holmes & Meier. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-8419-0343-2. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  3. Sinopoli, Carla M. (1994). "Monumentality and Mobility in Mughal Capitals". Asian Perspectives. 33 (2): 294. ISSN 0066-8435. JSTOR 42928323. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  4. Conan 2007, p. 235.
  5. "Islam: Mughal Empire (1500s, 1600s)". BBC. 7 September 2009. Archived from the original on 13 August 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  6. Morier 1812, p. 601.
  7. Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D. (2006). "East–West Orientation of Historical Empires and Modern States". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 219–229. doi:10.5195/JWSR.2006.369. ISSN 1076-156X.
  8. Rein Taagepera (September 1997). "Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia". International Studies Quarterly. 41 (3): 475–504. doi:10.1111/0020-8833.00053. JSTOR 2600793. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  9. Dyson, Tim (2018). A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day. Oxford University Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-0-19-256430-6. We have seen that there is considerable uncertainty about the size of India's population c.1595. Serious assessments vary from 116 to 145 million (with an average of 125 million). However, the true figure could even be outside of this range. Accordingly, while it seems likely that the population grew over the course of the seventeenth century, it is unlikely that we will ever have a good idea of its size in 1707.
  10. Cite error: The named reference borocz was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  11. Hardy, P. (1979). "Modern European and Muslim Explanations of Conversion to Islam in South Asia: A Preliminary Survey of the Literature". In Levtzion, Nehemia (ed.). Conversion to Islam. Holmes & Meier. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-8419-0343-2. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  12. 12.0 12.1 Richards, John F. (1995), The Mughal Empire, Cambridge University Press, p. 2, ISBN 978-0-521-56603-2, archived from the original on 22 September 2023, retrieved 9 August 2017 Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the dynasty and the empire itself became indisputably Indian. The interests and futures of all concerned were in India, not in ancestral homelands in the Middle East or Central Asia. Furthermore, the Mughal Empire emerged from the Indian historical experience. It was the end product of a millennium of Muslim conquest, colonization, and state-building in the Indian subcontinent."
  13. Stein, Burton (2010), A History of India, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 159–, ISBN 978-1-4443-2351-1, archived from the original on 22 September 2023, retrieved 15 July 2019 Quote: "The realm so defined and governed was a vast territory of some 750,000 square miles [1,900,000 km2], ranging from the frontier with Central Asia in northern Afghanistan to the northern uplands of the Deccan plateau, and from the Indus basin on the west to the Assamese highlands in the east."
  14. Jeffrey G. Williamson & David Clingingsmith, India's Deindustrialization in the 18th and 19th Centuries Archived 29 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Global Economic History Network, London School of Economics
  15. Cite error: The named reference Maddison2003 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  16. Cite error: The named reference voss was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  17. Richards, John F. (1995), The Mughal Empire, Cambridge University Press, p. 6, ISBN 978-0-521-56603-2
  18. Vanina, Eugenia (2012). Medieval Indian Mindscapes: Space, Time, Society, Man. Primus Books. p. 47. ISBN 978-93-80607-19-1 – via Google Books.
  19. Chandra, Satish (1959). Parties And Politics At The Mughal Court.
  20. Britanica, Encyclopaedia (2022), The Mughal Empire, Encyclopaedia of britanica, p. 2, ISBN 978-0-521-56603-2, archived from the original on 22 September 2023, retrieved 9 August 2017{{citation}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Quote: "A further distinction was the attempt of the Mughals, who were Muslims, to integrate Hindus and Muslims into a united Indian state."
  21. Asher, Catherine B.; Talbot, Cynthia (2006), India Before Europe, Cambridge University Press, pp. 186–, ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7, archived from the original on 22 September 2023, retrieved 15 July 2019 Quote: "All these factors resulted in greater patronage of the arts, including textiles, paintings, architecture, jewelry, and weapons to meet the ceremonial requirements of kings and princes."
  22. Thackeray, Frank W. (2012). John E. Findling (ed.). Events that formed the modern world : from the European Renaissance through the War on Terror. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. p. 248. ISBN 9781598849011.