Mughal Empire

{{Short description|1526–1857 empire in South Asia}} {{Hatnote group|{{distinguish|text=the [[Mongol Empire]] or [[Moghulistan]]}} {{Other uses|Mughal (disambiguation)}} }} {{pp-semi-indef}} {{Use Indian English|date=July 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{Infobox former country | conventional_long_name = Mughal Empire | image_flag = | flag_caption = | ethnic_groups = | religion = {{udl|wrap= ; State religion: : [[Islam]]{{efn|[[Islamic schools and branches|Branch]]: [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] : School of [[Fiqh|jurisprudence]]: [[Hanafi]]}} [[Din-i Ilahi]] (1582–1605) ; Others: : [[Hinduism]] (majority), [[Sikhism]] and more }} | era = Early modern | status = [[Empire]] | other_symbol = | other_symbol_type = | government_type = [[Monarchy]] | life_span = {{circa|1526–1857}} | year_start = 1526 | year_end = 1857 | event_start = [[First Battle of Panipat]] | date_start = 21 April | event_end = [[Siege of Delhi]] | date_end = 21 September | event_post = [[Mughal Emperor]] exiled to [[British Burma]] | date_post = 7 October 1858 | event1 = [[Sur Empire|Mughal Interregnum]] | date_event1 = 17 May 1540 – 22 June 1555 | event2 = [[Second Battle of Panipat]] | date_event2 = 5 November 1556 | event3 = [[Mughal–Afghan Wars]] | date_event3 = 21 April 1526 – 3 April 1752 | event4 = [[Deccan wars]] | date_event4 = 1680–1707 | event6 = [[Nader Shah's invasion of India]] | date_event6 = 1738–1740 | p1 = Delhi Sultanate | p2 = Sur Empire | s1 = British Raj | today = {{ubl|[[India]] | [[Pakistan]] | [[Bangladesh]] | [[Afghanistan]]}} | image_map = Joppen1907India1700a.jpg | map_width = 250px | image_map_caption = The empire at its greatest extent {{circa|1700}}, under [[Aurangzeb]] | image_map_alt = Mughal | capital = {{ubli | [[Agra]] (1526–1530; {{nwr|1560–1571;}} {{nwr|1598–1648}}) | [[Delhi]] (1530–1540; {{nwr|1639–1857}}) | [[Fatehpur Sikri]] (1571–1585) | [[Lahore]] (1586–1598){{sfn|Sinopoli|1994|p=294}} }} | common_languages = ''See [[Languages of South Asia]]'' | official_languages = [[Persian language|Persian]] | currency = [[Rupee]], [[History of the taka|Taka]], [[Dam (Indian coin)|dam]]{{sfn|Richards|1995|pp=73–74}} | leader1 = [[Babur]] | leader2 = [[Bahadur Shah II]] | year_leader1 = 1526–1530 (first) | year_leader2 = 1837–1857 (last) | title_leader = [[Mughal emperors|Emperor]] | title_representative = [[Vakil of the Mughal Empire|Vicegerent]] | year_representative1 = 1526–1540 (first) | representative1 = [[Mir Khalifa]] | year_representative2 = 1794–1818 (last) | representative2 = [[Daulat Rao Sindhia]] | title_deputy = [[List of Mughal grand viziers|Grand Vizier]] | deputy1 = [[Mir Khalifa]] | year_deputy1 = 1526–1540 (first) | deputy2 = [[Asaf-ud-Daula]] | year_deputy2 = 1775–1797 (last) | stat_year1 = {{Circa|1600}}<ref name="Roy134">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Roy|2015|p=134}} "Around circa 1600, the Mughal Empire controlled 3.2 million square kilometres with a population of about 150 million."</ref> | stat_area1 = 3,200,000 | stat_area2 = 4,000,000 | stat_year2 = 1690<ref name="TurchinAdams2006">{{Cite journal |last1=Turchin |first1=Peter |last2=Adams |first2=Jonathan M. |last3=Hall |first3=Thomas D. |year=2006 |title=East–West Orientation of Historical Empires and Modern States |journal=Journal of World-Systems Research |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=219–229 |doi=10.5195/JWSR.2006.369 |issn=1076-156X |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Taagepera">{{Cite journal |last=Rein Taagepera |author-link=Rein Taagepera |date=September 1997 |title=Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia |url=http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807 |journal=[[International Studies Quarterly]] |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=475–504 |doi=10.1111/0020-8833.00053 |jstor=2600793 |access-date=6 July 2019 |archive-date=19 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119114740/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807 |url-status=live |issn = 0020-8833 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="OxfordArea">{{Cite book|last1=Bang|first1=Peter Fibiger|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9mkLEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA92|title=The Oxford World History of Empire: Volume One: The Imperial Experience|last2=Bayly|first2=C. A.|last3=Scheidel|first3=Walter|year=2020|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-977311-4|pages=92–94|language=en}}</ref> | stat_year3 = {{Circa|1600}} | stat_year4 = {{Circa|1700}} | stat_pop3 = 150,000,000<ref name="Roy134" /> | stat_pop4 = 158,400,000<ref name="borocz" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Dyson |first=Tim |title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day |year=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=70–71 |isbn=978-0-19-256430-6 |quote=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 even could even be outside of this range. Accordingly, while it seems likely that the population grew over the 17th century, it is unlikely that we will ever have a good idea of its size in 1707.}}</ref> }} The '''Mughal Empire''' was an [[Early modern period|early modern]] empire in [[South Asia]]. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the [[Indus River]] Basin in the west, northern [[Afghanistan]] in the northwest, and [[Kashmir]] in the north, to the [[highland]]s of present-day [[Assam]] and [[Bangladesh]] in the east, and the uplands of the [[Deccan Plateau]] in [[South India]].<ref name="Stein2010-12">{{harvnb|Stein|2010|pp=159–}}. Quote: "The realm so defined and governed was a vast territory of some {{convert|750000|sqmi|km2|disp=sqbr}}, 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."</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Richards |first=John F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4evztAEACAAJ |title=The Mughal Empire |date=2012-03-28 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-511-58406-0 |language=en}}</ref>

The Mughal Empire is conventionally said to have been founded in 1526 by [[Babur]], a ruler from what is now [[Uzbekistan]], who with the help of the neighbouring [[Safavid Iran|Safavid]] and [[Ottoman Empire]]s,<ref name="Gilbert2017">{{Citation |last=Gilbert |first=Marc Jason |title=South Asia in World History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1dhKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 |year=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=62 |isbn=978-0-19-066137-3 |access-date=15 July 2019}} Quote: "Babur then adroitly gave the Ottomans his promise not to attack them in return for their military aid, which he received in the form of the newest of battlefield inventions, the matchlock gun and cast cannons, as well as instructors to train his men to use them."</ref> defeated the [[sultan of Delhi]], [[Ibrahim Lodi]], in the [[First Battle of Panipat]] and swept down the plains of [[North India]]. The Mughal imperial structure, however, is sometimes dated to 1600, to the rule of Babur's grandson, [[Akbar]].<ref name="Stein2010">{{harvnb|Stein|2010|pp=159–}}. Quote: "Another possible date for the beginning of the Mughal regime is 1600, when the institutions that defined the regime were set firmly in place and when the heartland of the empire was defined; both of these were the accomplishment of Babur's grandson Akbar."</ref> This imperial structure lasted until 1720, shortly after the death of the last major emperor, [[Aurangzeb]],<ref name="Stein2010-1">{{harvnb|Stein|2010|pp=159–}}. Quote: "The imperial career of the Mughal house is conventionally reckoned to have ended in 1707 when the emperor Aurangzeb, a fifth-generation descendant of Babur, died. His fifty-year reign began in 1658 with the Mughal state seeming as strong as ever or even stronger. But in Aurangzeb's later years the state was brought to the brink of destruction, over which it toppled within a decade and a half after his death; by 1720 imperial Mughal rule was largely finished and an epoch of two imperial centuries had closed."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Richards|1995|p=xv}}. Quote: "By the latter date (1720) the essential structure of the centralized state was disintegrated beyond repair."</ref> during whose reign the empire also achieved its maximum geographical extent. Reduced subsequently to the region in and around Old Delhi by 1760, the empire was formally dissolved by the [[British Raj]] after the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]].

Although the Mughal Empire was created and sustained by military warfare,<ref name="Stein2010-2">{{harvnb|Stein|2010|pp=159–}}. Quote: "The vaunting of such progenitors pointed up the central character of the Mughal regime as a warrior state: it was born in war and it was sustained by war until the eighteenth century, when warfare destroyed it."</ref><ref name="Robb2011">{{harvnb|Robb|2011|pp=108–}}. Quote: "The Mughal state was geared for war and succeeded while it won its battles. It controlled territory partly through its network of strongholds, from its fortified capitals in Agra, Delhi or Lahore, which defined its heartlands, to the converted and expanded forts of Rajasthan and the Deccan. The emperor's will be frequently enforced in battle. Hundreds of army scouts were an important source of information. But the empire's administrative structure too was defined by and directed at war. Local military checkpoints or thanas kept order. Directly appointed imperial military and civil commanders (faujdars) controlled the cavalry and infantry, or the administration, in each region. The peasantry in turn were often armed, able to provide supporters for regional powers, and liable to rebellion on their account: continual pacification was required of the rulers."</ref><ref name="Gilbert2017-2">{{Citation |last=Gilbert |first=Marc Jason |title=South Asia in World History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1dhKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 |pages=75– |year=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-066137-3 |access-date=15 July 2019 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922031915/https://books.google.com/books?id=1dhKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 |url-status=live }} Quote: "With Safavid and Ottoman aid, the Mughals would soon join these two powers in a triumvirate of warrior-driven, expansionist, and both militarily and bureaucratically efficient early modern states, now often called "gunpowder empires" due to their common proficiency is using such weapons to conquer lands they sought to control."</ref> it did not vigorously suppress the cultures and peoples it came to rule; rather, it equalised and placated them through new administrative practices,{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|p=115}}{{sfn|Robb|2011|pp=99–100}} and diverse ruling elites, leading to more efficient, centralised, and standardised rule.{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|pp=152–}} The basis of the empire's collective wealth was agricultural taxes, implemented by the third Mughal emperor, Akbar.<ref name="Stein2010-3">{{harvnb|Stein|2010|pp=164–}}. Quote: "The resource base of Akbar's new order was land revenue"</ref><ref name="AsherTalbot2006-1">{{harvnb|Asher|Talbot|2006|pp=158–}}. Quote: "The Mughal empire was based in the interior of a large land mass and derived the vast majority of its revenues from agriculture."</ref> These taxes, which amounted to well over half the output of a peasant cultivator,<ref name="Stein2010-4">{{harvnb|Stein|2010|pp=164–}}. Quote: "... well over half of the output from the fields in his realm, after the costs of production had been met, is estimated to have been taken from the peasant producers by way of official taxes and unofficial exactions. Moreover, payments were exacted in money, and this required a well regulated silver currency."</ref> were paid in the well-regulated silver currency,{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|pp=152–}} and allowed peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.<ref name="AsherTalbot2006-3">{{harvnb|Asher|Talbot|2006|pp=152–}}. Quote: "His stipulation that land taxes be paid in cash forced peasants into market networks, where they could obtain the necessary money, while the standardization of imperial currency made the exchange of goods for money easier."</ref>

The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion.<ref name="AsherTalbot2006-4">{{harvnb|Asher|Talbot|2006|pp=152–}}. Quote: "Above all, the long period of relative peace ushered in by Akbar's power, and maintained by his successors, contributed to India's economic expansion."</ref> The burgeoning European presence in the Indian Ocean and an increasing demand for Indian raw and finished products generated much wealth for the Mughal court.<ref name="AsherTalbot2006-5">{{harvnb|Asher|Talbot|2006|pp=186–}}. Quote: "As the European presence in India grew, their demands for Indian goods and trading rights increased, thus bringing even greater wealth to the already flush Indian courts."</ref> There was [[conspicuous consumption]] among the Mughal elite,<ref name="AsherTalbot2006-6">{{harvnb|Asher|Talbot|2006|pp=186–}}. Quote: "The elite spent more and more money on luxury goods and sumptuous lifestyles, and the rulers built entire new capital cities at times."</ref> resulting in greater patronage of [[Mughal painting|painting]], literary forms, textiles, and [[Mughal architecture|architecture]], especially during the reign of [[Shah Jahan]].<ref name="AsherTalbot2006-7">{{harvnb|Asher|Talbot|2006|pp=186–}}. Quote: "All these factors resulted in greater patronage of the arts, including textiles, paintings, architecture, jewellery, and weapons to meet the ceremonial requirements of kings and princes."</ref> Among the Mughal [[UNESCO World Heritage Sites]] in South Asia are [[Agra Fort]], [[Fatehpur Sikri]], [[Red Fort]], [[Humayun's Tomb]], [[Lahore Fort]], [[Shalamar Gardens, Lahore|Shalamar Gardens]], and the [[Taj Mahal]], which has been described as "the jewel of Muslim art in India, and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".<ref name="Centre" />

== Name == The word ''Mughal'' (also spelled ''Mogul''<ref name="persianatemogul">{{Cite book |last=John Walbridge |title=God and Logic in Islam: The Caliphate of Reason |page=165 |quote=Persianate Mogul Empire.}}</ref> or ''Moghul'' in English) is the Indo-Persian form of [[Mongols|''Mongol'']]. However, the Mughal dynasty's early followers were Chagatai Turks and not Mongols.<ref name="Hodgson" /><ref name="Canfield">{{Cite book |last=Canfield |first=Robert L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g3JhKNSk8tQC&pg=PA20 |title=Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-521-52291-5 |page=20}}</ref> The term ''Mughal'' was applied to them in India by association with the Mongols and to distinguish them from the Afghan elite who ruled the Delhi Sultanate.<ref name="Hodgson">{{Cite book |last=Hodgson |first=Marshall G. S. |author-link=Marshall Hodgson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COOGFSH_jUkC&pg=PA62 |title=The Venture of Islam |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-226-34688-5 |volume=3 |page=62}}</ref> In the West, the terms ''[[Grand Mughal]]'' and [[Mughal emperors|''Mughal'']] were used for the emperor and, by extension, the empire as a whole.<ref name="Fontana">{{Cite book |last=Fontana|first=Michela|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MVZU1sAQ8H4C&pg=PA32|title=Matteo Ricci: A Jesuit in the Ming Court|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|year=2011|isbn=978-1-4422-0588-8|page=32|access-date=19 October 2015|archive-date=22 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922033421/https://books.google.com/books?id=MVZU1sAQ8H4C&pg=PA32|url-status=live}}</ref> The term remains disputed by [[Indologists]].<ref name="RA">{{Cite book |last1=Huskin |first1=Frans Husken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IVhUAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA104 |title=Reading Asia: New Research in Asian Studies |last2=Dick van der Meij |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-136-84377-8 |page=104}}</ref> In [[Marshall Hodgson|Marshall Hodgson's]] view, the dynasty should be called ''Timurid''/''Timuri'' or ''Indo-Timurid''.<ref name="Hodgson" />

The closest to an official name for the empire was ''[[Hindustan]]'', which was documented in the [[Ain-i-Akbari]].<ref name="Vanina">{{Cite book |last=Vanina |first=Eugenia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yriGbWNAF5EC&pg=PA47 |title=Medieval Indian Mindscapes: Space, Time, Society, Man |publisher=Primus Books |year=2012 |isbn=978-93-80607-19-1 |page=47 |author-link=Eugenia Vanina |access-date=19 October 2015 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922033421/https://books.google.com/books?id=yriGbWNAF5EC&pg=PA47 |url-status=live}}</ref> Mughal administrative records also refer to the empire as "dominion of Hindustan" ({{Transliteration|fa|Wilāyat-i-Hindustān}}),<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hardy |first1=P. |editor-last=Levtzion |editor-first=Nehemia |chapter=Modern European and Muslim Explanations of Conversion to Islam in South Asia: A Preliminary Survey of the Literature |title=Conversion to Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=37nXAAAAMAAJ&q=bilad+-+i+Hind+(+the+country+of+Hind+)+,+wilayat+-+i+Hindustan+(+the+dominion+of+Hindustan+)+,+sultanat+-+i |year=1979 |publisher=Holmes & Meier |page=69 |isbn=978-0-8419-0343-2 |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=3 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403231614/https://books.google.com/books?id=37nXAAAAMAAJ&q=bilad+-+i+Hind+(+the+country+of+Hind+)+,+wilayat+-+i+Hindustan+(+the+dominion+of+Hindustan+)+,+sultanat+-+i |url-status=live}}</ref> "country of Hind" ({{Transliteration|fa|Bilād-i-Hind}}), "Sultanate of Al-Hind" ({{Transliteration|fa|Salṭanat(i) al-Hindīyyah}}) as observed in the epitaph of Emperor [[Aurangzeb]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asiaurangabad.in/pdf/Tourist/Tomb_of_Aurangzeb-_Khulatabad.pdf |title=Name of the Monument/ site: Tomb of Aurangzeb |website=asiaurangabad.in |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923175254/http://www.asiaurangabad.in/pdf/Tourist/Tomb_of_Aurangzeb-_Khulatabad.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2015}}</ref> or endonymous identification from emperor [[Bahadur Shah Zafar]] as "Land of Hind" ({{Transliteration|ur|Hindostān}}) in [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Parvez |first1=Aslam |title=The life & poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar |last2=Fārūqī |first2=At̤har |date=2017 |publisher=Hay House India |isbn=978-93-85827-47-1 |location=New Delhi, India |oclc=993093699}}</ref> Contemporary Chinese chronicles referred to the empire as ''Hindustan'' ({{Transliteration|zh|ISO|Héndūsītǎn}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mosca |first=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zvmix_k1XDcC&pg=PA94 |title=From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy: The Question of India and the Transformation of Geopolitics in Qing China |date=2013 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-8538-9 |pages=78–94 |language=en |access-date=7 November 2023 |archive-date=7 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231107203141/https://books.google.com/books?id=Zvmix_k1XDcC&pg=PA94 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Mughal designation for their dynasty was ''Gurkani'' ({{Transliteration|fa|Gūrkāniyān}}), a reference to their descent from the Turco-Mongol conqueror [[Timur]], who took the title {{Transliteration|fa|Gūrkān}} 'son-in-law' after his marriage to a [[Chinggisid]] princess.<ref name="Thackston2">{{Cite book |last=Zahir ud-Din Mohammad |title=The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor |title-link=Baburnama |publisher=Modern Library |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-375-76137-9 |editor-last=Thackston, Wheeler M. |editor-link=Wheeler Thackston |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/babarinizam00babu/page/ xlvi] |quote=In India the dynasty always called itself Gurkani, after Temür's title Gurkân, the Persianized form of the Mongolian {{lang|mn-Latn|kürägän}}, 'son-in-law,' a title he assumed after his marriage to a Genghisid princess. |author-link=Babur}}</ref>

== History == {{See also|Mughal dynasty}}

=== Babur and Humayun (1526–1556) === {{Main|Babur|Humayun}}

{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center | align = right | direction =horizontal | image1 = Humayun and Babur (Late Shah Jahan Album) Babur detail.jpg | image2 = Joppen map-India in 1525 published 1907 by Longmans.jpg | footer=Portrait of Babur in the ''[[:Commons:Category:Late Shah Jahan Album|Late Shah Jahan Album]]'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Babur and Humayun with Courtiers, from the Late Shah Jahan Album |url=https://asia-archive.si.edu/object/S1986.401/ |website=Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art|quote=The first Mughal emperor, Babur, who reigned from 1526 to 1530, is shown seated on the right with his son and successor, Humayun.}}</ref> and map of India in 1525 just before the onset of Mughal rule }} The Mughal Empire was founded by Babur (reigned 1526–1530), a Central Asian ruler who was descended from the [[Turco-Mongol tradition|Turco-Mongol]] conqueror [[Timur]] (the founder of the [[Timurid Empire]]) on his father's side, and from [[Genghis Khan]] on his mother's side.<ref name="Berndl">{{Cite book |last=Berndl |first=Klaus |title=National Geographic Visual History of the World |publisher=National Geographic Society |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7922-3695-5 |pages=318–320}}</ref> Paternally, Babur belonged to the [[Turkification|Turkicised]] [[Barlas]] tribe of [[Mongol]] origin.<ref>Gérard Chaliand, ''A Global History of War: From Assyria to the Twenty-First Century'', [[University of California Press]], California 2014, p. 151</ref> Ousted from his ancestral domains in Central Asia, Babur turned to India to satisfy his ambitions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bayley |first=Christopher |title=The European Emergence. The Mughals Ascendant |date=1990 |isbn=0-7054-0982-1 |page=151|publisher=Time-Life Books }}</ref> He established himself in [[Kabul]] and then pushed steadily southward into India from [[Afghanistan]] through the [[Khyber Pass]].<ref name="Berndl" /> Babur's forces defeated [[Ibrahim Lodi]], [[Delhi Sultanate|Sultan of Delhi]], in the [[First Battle of Panipat]] in 1526. Through his use of firearms and cannons, he was able to shatter Ibrahim's armies despite being at a numerical disadvantage,{{sfn|Richards|1995|p=8}}{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|p=116}} expanding his dominion up to the mid [[Indo-Gangetic Plain]].{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|p=117}} After the battle, the centre of Mughal power shifted to [[Agra]].{{sfn|Richards|1995|p=8}} In the decisive [[Battle of Khanwa]], fought near Agra a year later, the Timurid forces of Babur defeated the combined [[Rajput]] armies of [[Rana Sanga]] of [[Kingdom of Mewar|Mewar]], with his native cavalry employing traditional flanking tactics.{{sfn|Richards|1995|p=8}}{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|p=116}}

The preoccupation with wars and military campaigns, however, did not allow the new emperor to consolidate the gains he had made in India.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bayley |first=Christopher |title=The European Emergence. The Mughals Ascendant |date=1990 |isbn=0-7054-0982-1 |page=154|publisher=Time-Life Books }}</ref> The instability of the empire became evident under his son, [[Humayun]] (reigned 1530–1556), who was forced into exile in Persia by the rebellious [[Sher Shah Suri]] (reigned 1540–1545).<ref name="Berndl" /> Humayun's exile in Persia established diplomatic ties between the [[Safavid dynasty|Safavid]] and Mughal courts and led to increasing Persian cultural influence in the later restored Mughal Empire.{{sfn|Majumdar|1974|pp=59, 65}} Humayun's triumphant return from Persia in 1555 restored Mughal rule in some parts of India, but he died in an accident the next year.{{sfn|Richards|1995|p=12}}

=== Akbar to Aurangzeb (1556–1707) === {{Main|Akbar|Jahangir|Shah Jahan|Aurangzeb}}

[[File:Jesuits at Akbar's court.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Akbar]] holds a religious assembly of different faiths in the [[Ibadat Khana]] in Fatehpur Sikri.]] [[Akbar]] (reigned 1556–1605) was born Jalal-ud-din Muhammad<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Akbar |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date= |year= |last=Ballhatchet |first=Kenneth A. |author-link=Kenneth A. Ballhatchet |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Akbar |access-date=17 July 2017 |archive-date=25 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230525120830/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Akbar |url-status=live}}</ref> in the [[Umarkot Fort]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Vincent Arthur |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924024056503/page/n34/mode/1up |title=Akbar the Great Mogul, 1542–1605 |location=Oxford |publisher=The Clarendon Press |year=1917 |pages=13–14 |author-link=Vincent Arthur Smith}}</ref> to Humayun and his wife [[Hamida Banu Begum]], a [[Persian people|Persian]] princess.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Begum |first=Gulbadan |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofhumayun00gulbrich |title=The History of Humāyūn (Humāyūn-Nāma) |publisher=Royal Asiatic Society |year=1902 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofhumayun00gulbrich/page/237 237]–239 |translator-last=Beveridge |translator-first=Annette S. |author-link=Gulbadan Begum |translator-link=Annette Beveridge}}</ref> Akbar succeeded to the throne under a regent, [[Bairam Khan]], who helped consolidate the Mughal Empire in India.{{sfn|Stein|2010|p=162}} Through warfare, Akbar was able to extend the empire in all directions and controlled almost the entire Indian subcontinent north of the [[Godavari River]].{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|p=128}} He created a new ruling elite loyal to him, implemented a modern administration, and encouraged cultural developments. He increased trade with European trading companies.<ref name="Berndl" /> India developed a strong and stable economy, leading to commercial expansion and economic development.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}} Akbar allowed freedom of religion at his court and attempted to resolve socio-political and cultural differences in his empire by establishing a new religion, [[Din-i-Ilahi]], with strong characteristics of a ruler cult.<ref name="Berndl" /> He left his son an internally stable state, which was in the midst of its golden age, but before long signs of political weakness would emerge.<ref name="Berndl" />

[[Jahangir]] (born Salim,<ref name="Mohammada" /> reigned 1605–1627) was born to Akbar and his wife [[Mariam-uz-Zamani]], an Indian princess.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Marc Jason |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7OQWDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 |title=South Asia in World History |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-976034-3 |page=79 |access-date=22 August 2017 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922033918/https://books.google.com/books?id=7OQWDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 |url-status=live }}</ref> Salim was named after the Indian Sufi saint, [[Salim Chishti]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Muhammad-Hadi |title=Preface to The Jahangirnama |year=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-512718-8 |page=4 |translator-last=Thackston |translator-first=Wheeler M. |translator-link=Wheeler Thackston}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan |title=The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India |year=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-512718-8 |page=65 |translator-last=Thackston |translator-first=Wheeler M. |translator-link=Wheeler Thackston}}</ref> He "was addicted to opium, neglected the affairs of the state, and came under the influence of rival court cliques".<ref name="Berndl" /> Jahangir distinguished himself from Akbar by making substantial efforts to gain the support of the Islamic religious establishment. One way he did this was by bestowing many more ''madad-i-ma'ash'' (tax-free personal land revenue grants given to religiously learned or spiritually worthy individuals) than Akbar had.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Faruqui |first=Munis D. |title=The Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504–1719 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-107-02217-1 |pages=268–269}}</ref> In contrast to Akbar, Jahangir came into conflict with non-Muslim religious leaders, notably the [[Sikh]] guru [[Guru Arjan|Arjan]], whose execution was the first of many conflicts between the Mughal Empire and the Sikh community.{{sfn|Robb|2011|pp=97–98}}{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|p=267}}<ref name="BBC Sikhs">{{Cite web |date=30 September 2009 |title=BBC – Religions – Sikhism: Origins of Sikhism |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/sikhism/history/history_1.shtml |access-date=19 February 2021 |website=BBC |language=en-GB |archive-date=17 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817220705/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/sikhism/history/history_1.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art mss 0874.3.jpg|thumb|right|Group portrait of Mughal rulers, from [[Babur]] to [[Aurangzeb]], with the Mughal ancestor [[Timur]] seated in the middle. On the left: [[Shah Jahan]], [[Akbar]] and Babur, with Abu Sa'id of Samarkand and Timur's son, [[Miran Shah]]. On the right: Aurangzeb, [[Jahangir]] and [[Humayun]], and two of Timur's other offspring [[Umar Shaikh Mirza I|Umar Shaykh]] and [[Muhammad Sultan Mirza|Muhammad Sultan]]. Created {{circa|1707–12}}.]] [[Shah Jahan]] (reigned 1628–1658) was born to Jahangir and his wife [[Jagat Gosain]].<ref name="Mohammada">{{Cite book |last=Mohammada |first=Malika |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dwzbYvQszf4C&pg=PA300 |title=The Foundations of the Composite Culture in India |publisher=Aakar Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-81-89833-18-3 |page=300}}</ref> His reign ushered in the golden age of [[Mughal architecture]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mehta |first=Jaswant Lal |title=Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India |publisher=Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd |year=1984 |isbn=978-81-207-1015-3 |edition=2nd |volume=II |page=59 |language=en |oclc=1008395679 |orig-year=First published 1981}}</ref> During the reign of Shah Jahan, the splendour of the Mughal court reached its peak, as exemplified by the [[Taj Mahal]]. The cost of maintaining the court, however, began to exceed the revenue coming in.<ref name="Berndl" /> Shah Jahan extended the Mughal Empire to the [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]] by ending the [[Ahmadnagar Sultanate]] and forcing the [[Sultanate of Bijapur|Adil Shahis]] and [[Sultanate of Golconda|Qutb Shahis]] to pay tribute.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Singhal |first=Damodar P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ag4BAAAAMAAJ&q=annexed+tribute |title=A History of the Indian People |publisher=Methuen |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-413-48730-8 |page=193 |access-date=4 May 2021 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922033919/https://books.google.com/books?id=ag4BAAAAMAAJ&q=annexed+tribute |url-status=live}}</ref>

Shah Jahan's eldest son, the liberal [[Dara Shikoh]], became regent in 1658, as a result of his father's illness.<ref name="Berndl"/> Dara championed a syncretistic Hindu-Muslim culture, emulating his great-grandfather Akbar.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=H-k9oc9xsuAC&dq=Dara+Shikoh&pg=PA194 Dara Shikoh] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403231619/https://books.google.com/books?id=H-k9oc9xsuAC&dq=Dara+Shikoh&pg=PA194 |date=3 April 2023 }} ''Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia'', by Josef W. Meri, Jere L Bacharach. Routledge, 2005. {{ISBN|0-415-96690-6}}. pp. 195–196.</ref> With the support of the Islamic orthodoxy, however, a younger son of Shah Jahan, [[Aurangzeb]] ({{Reign|1658|1707}}), seized the throne. Aurangzeb defeated Dara in 1659 and had him executed.<ref name="Berndl" /> Although Shah Jahan fully recovered from his illness, Aurangzeb kept Shah Jahan imprisoned until he died in 1666.{{sfn|Truschke|2017|p=68}} Aurangzeb brought the empire to its greatest territorial extent,<ref>{{EI3|title=Awrangzīb|url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EI3O/COM-23859.xml|first=Munis D.|last=Faruqui|date=2011|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_23859}}</ref> and oversaw an increase in the Islamicisation of the Mughal state. He encouraged conversion to Islam, reinstated the ''[[jizya]]'' on non-Muslims, and compiled the ''[[Fatawa 'Alamgiri]]'', a collection of Islamic law. Aurangzeb also ordered the execution of the Sikh guru [[Guru Tegh Bahadur|Tegh Bahadur]], leading to the militarisation of the Sikh community.{{sfn|Robb|2011|p=98}}{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|p=267}}<ref name="BBC Sikhs" /> From the imperial perspective, conversion to Islam integrated local elites into the king's vision of a network of shared identity that would join disparate groups throughout the empire in obedience to the Mughal emperor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abhishek Kaicker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sNQBEAAAQBAJ&dq=Sayyids+Of+Barha&pg=PA160 |title=The King and the People: Sovereignty and Popular Politics in Mughal Delhi |year=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-007067-0 |page=160 |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=3 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403224903/https://books.google.com/books?id=sNQBEAAAQBAJ&dq=Sayyids+Of+Barha&pg=PA160 |url-status=live}}</ref> He led campaigns from 1682 in the Deccan,<ref name="EI2"/> annexing its remaining Muslim powers of Bijapur and Golconda,{{sfn|Richards|1995|pp=220–222}}<ref name="EI2"/> though engaged in a [[Deccan wars|prolonged conflict]] in the region which had a ruinous effect on the empire.{{sfn|Richards|1995|p=252}} The campaigns took a toll on the Mughal treasury, and Aurangzeb's absence led to a severe decline in governance, while stability and economic output in the Mughal Deccan plummeted.{{sfn|Richards|1995|p=252}}

Aurangzeb is considered the most controversial Mughal emperor,{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|p=225}} with some historians arguing his religious conservatism and intolerance undermined the stability of Mughal society,<ref name="Berndl" /> while other historians question this, noting that he financed or patronised the building of non-Muslim institutions,<ref name="Copland2013">{{cite book|last1=Copeland|first1=Ian|last2=Mabbett|first2=Ian|last3=Roy|first3=Asim|last4=Brittlebank|first4=Kate|last5=Bowles|first5=Adam|title=A History of State and Religion in India|location=London and New York|publisher=Routledge|year=2012|isbn=978-0-415-58066-3|pages=118, 119, 154|quote=(p. 154) Even Aurengzeb, stereotyped in the popular imagination a staunch Islamic revivalist with deep anti-Hindu inclinations, was, as we demonstrated in Chapter 5, as much a sponsor of temples as a destroyer of them, and, when required, a patron of Brahmans besides (p. 119) ... the same applied to the issue of temple destruction. ... such acts of this nature occurred during the era of the Sultanate were carried out for reasons of political expediency, not as a result of religious zeal, and this was also the case under the Mughals. Even Aurengzeb, infamous in the old historiography as a destroyer of temples actually built many more temples than he destroyed. (p. 118) Like most rulers on the subcontinent, the Mughals patronised both Muslim and non-Muslim institutions. They financed the building of mosques and the funding of temples alike.}}</ref> employed significantly more [[Hindus]] in his imperial bureaucracy than his predecessors did, and opposed bigotry against Hindus and [[Shia Muslims]].{{sfn|Truschke|2017|p=58}}

=== Decline (1707–1857) === {{main|Decline of the Mughal Empire}}

[[File:Farrukhsiyar Procession in front of the Great Mosque of Delhi.png|Delhi under the puppet-emperor [[Farrukhsiyar]]. Effective power was held by the [[Sayyid Brothers]].|thumb|left]]

Aurangzeb's son, [[Bahadur Shah I]], repealed the religious policies of his father and attempted to reform the administration. "However, after he died in 1712, the Mughal dynasty began to sink into chaos and violent feuds. In 1719 alone, four emperors successively ascended the throne",<ref name="Berndl" /> as figureheads under the rule of a brotherhood of nobles belonging to the [[Islam in India|Indian Muslim]] caste known as the [[Barha Dynasty|Sadaat-e-Bara]], whose leaders, the [[Sayyid Brothers]], became the de facto sovereigns of the empire.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Audrey Truschke |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rOcSEAAAQBAJ&dq=sayyid+brothers+figureheads&pg=PT146 |title=the Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule |year=2021 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-55195-3 |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=3 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403222119/https://books.google.com/books?id=rOcSEAAAQBAJ&dq=sayyid+brothers+figureheads&pg=PT146 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Muhammad Yasin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rz16lub2uRgC&q=sayyid+barha+brotherhood |title=A Social History of Islamic India, 1605–1748 |year=1958 |publisher=Upper India Publishing House |page=18 |quote=became virtual rulers and 'de facto' sovereigns when they began to make and unmake emperors. They had developed a sort of common brotherhood among themselves |access-date=27 March 2023 |archive-date=3 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403224905/https://books.google.com/books?id=Rz16lub2uRgC&q=sayyid+barha+brotherhood |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the reign of [[Muhammad Shah]] (reigned 1719–1748), the empire began to break up, and vast tracts of central India passed from Mughal to [[Maratha Confederacy|Maratha]] hands. As the Mughals tried to suppress the independence of [[Nizam-ul-Mulk, Asaf Jah I]] in the Deccan, he encouraged the Marathas to invade central and northern India.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Columbia University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YkqsAgAAQBAJ&dq=nizam+encouraged+marathas+invade+india&pg=PA285 |title=Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture |year=2000 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-11004-4 |page=285 |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=3 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403224905/https://books.google.com/books?id=YkqsAgAAQBAJ&dq=nizam+encouraged+marathas+invade+india&pg=PA285 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Richard M. Eaton |editor-first1=Richard M. |editor-first2=Munis D. |editor-first3=David |editor-first4=Sunil |editor-last1=Eaton |editor-last2=Faruqui |editor-last3=Gilmartin |editor-last4=Kumar |title=Expanding Frontiers in South Asian and World History Essays in Honour of John F. Richards |year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=21 |doi=10.1017/CBO9781107300002 |isbn=978-1-107-03428-0 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/expanding-frontiers-in-south-asian-and-world-history/6A9546851A81FD60D6641F75F60956DD |quote="I consider all this army (Marathas) as my own.....I will enter into an understanding with them and entrust the Mulukgiri(raiding) on that side of the Narmada to them."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pagadi |first=Setu Madhavarao |author-link=Setumadhavarao Pagadi |title=Maratha-Nizam Relations : Nizam-Ul-Mulk's Letters |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=51 |issue=1/4 |year=1970 |page=94 |quote=The Mughal court was hostile to Nizam-ul-Mulk..... Nizam did not interfere with the Maratha activities in Malwa and Gujarat.....Nizam-ul-Mulk considered the Maratha army...|url=https://archive.org/details/maratha-nizam-relations-nizam-ul-mulk-s-letters}}</ref> The [[Nader Shah's invasion of India|Indian campaign]] of [[Nader Shah]], who had previously reestablished [[Afsharid Iran|Iranian]] [[suzerainty]] over most of West Asia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, culminated with the [[Sack of Delhi]] shattering the remnants of Mughal power and prestige, and taking off all the accumulated Mughal treasury. The Mughals could no longer finance the huge armies with which they had formerly enforced their rule. Many of the empire's elites now sought to control their affairs and broke away to form independent kingdoms.<ref>{{cite book|author=Salma Ahmed Farooqui|date=2011|title=A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: Twelfth to the Mid-eighteenth Century|publisher=Pearson Education India |location= |page=309 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxhAtCflwOMC&q=Mughal+empire+got+reduced+to+a+small+kingdom |access-date= |isbn=978-8131732021 |issn= |oclc=|quote=Even more disturbing was the fact that the assertion of independence had spread to other part of the empire too, and the governors of Hyderabad, Bengal and Awadh soon established independent kingdoms as well.}}</ref> But lip service continued to be paid to the Mughal Emperor as the highest manifestation of sovereignty. Not only the Muslim gentry, but the Maratha, Hindu, and Sikh leaders took part in ceremonial acknowledgements of the emperor as the sovereign of India.<ref name="MSA2">{{Cite book |last1=Bose |first1=Sugata |url=https://archive.org/details/modernsouthasiah00bose |title=Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy |last2=Jalal |first2=Ayesha |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-203-71253-5 |edition=2nd |page=[https://archive.org/details/modernsouthasiah00bose/page/41 41] |author-link=Sugata Bose |author-link2=Ayesha Jalal |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Meanwhile, some regional polities within the increasingly fragmented Mughal Empire involved themselves and the state in global conflicts, leading only to defeat and loss of territory during conflicts such as the [[Carnatic wars]] and [[Bengal War]].{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

[[File:Joppen map-India in 1751 published 1907 by Longmans.jpg|thumb|right|The remnants of the empire in 1751]] The Mughal Emperor [[Shah Alam II]] (1759–1806) made futile attempts to reverse the Mughal decline. [[Sack of Delhi (1757)|Delhi was sacked]] by the Afghans, and when the [[Third Battle of Panipat]] was fought between the Maratha Empire and the [[Durrani Empire|Afghans]] (led by [[Ahmad Shah Durrani]]) in 1761, in which the Afghans were victorious, the emperor had ignominiously taken temporary refuge with the British to the east. In 1771, the Marathas [[Capture of Delhi (1771)|recaptured Delhi]] from the [[Kingdom of Rohilkhand|Rohillas]], and in 1784 the Marathas officially became the protectors of the emperor in Delhi,<ref name="Rathod1994">{{Cite book |last=Rathod |first=N.G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uPq640stHJ0C&pg=PA8 |title=The Great Maratha Mahadaji Scindia |publisher=Sarup & Sons |year=1994 |isbn=978-81-85431-52-9 |location=New Delhi |page=8}}</ref> a state of affairs that continued until the [[Second Anglo-Maratha War]]. Thereafter, the [[British East India Company]] became the protectors of the Mughal dynasty in Delhi.<ref name="MSA2" /> The British East India Company took control of the former Mughal province of Bengal-Bihar in 1793 after it abolished local rule (Nizamat) that lasted until 1858, marking the beginning of the British colonial era over the Indian subcontinent. By 1857 a considerable part of former Mughal India was under the East India Company's control. After a crushing defeat in the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]] which he nominally led, the last Mughal emperor, [[Bahadur Shah Zafar]], was deposed by the British East India Company and exiled in 1858 to [[Rangoon]], Burma.<ref name="Conermann2015">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Mughal Empire |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online |year=2015 |last=Conermann |first=Stephan |publisher=Brill |url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EMHO/COM-024206.xml?rskey=YrXHKP |access-date=2022-03-28 |doi=10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_024206|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

[[File:Portrait of Bahadur Shah II as calligrapher. Delhi, ca. 1850, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. - копия.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Portrait of [[Bahadur Shah Zafar]]]]

=== Causes of decline === Historians have offered numerous accounts of the several factors involved in the rapid collapse of the Mughal Empire between 1707 and 1720, after a century of growth and prosperity. A succession of short-lived incompetent and weak rulers, and civil wars over the succession, created political instability at the centre. The Mughals appeared virtually unassailable during the 17th century, but, once gone, their [[imperial overstretch]] became clear, and the situation could not be recovered. The seemingly innocuous European trading companies, such as the [[British East Indies Company]], played no real part in the initial decline; they were still racing to get permission from the Mughal rulers to establish trades and factories in India.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Kirsten McKenzie |author2=Robert Aldrich |title=The Routledge History of Western Empires |date=2013 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781317999874 |page=333 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qFRJAgAAQBAJ |access-date=14 March 2024 |language=En |format=ebook}}</ref>

In fiscal terms, the throne lost the revenues needed to pay its chief officers, the emirs (nobles) and their entourages. The emperor lost authority as the widely scattered imperial officers lost confidence in the central authorities and made their deals with local men of influence. The imperial army bogged down in long, futile wars against the more aggressive [[Maratha Empire|Marathas]], and lost its fighting spirit. Finally came a series of violent political feuds over control of the throne. After the execution of [[Farrukhsiyar|Emperor Farrukhsiyar]] in 1719, local [[Mughal successor states]] took power in region after region.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Richards |first=J.F. |year=1981 |title=Mughal State Finance and the Premodern World Economy |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=285–308 |doi=10.1017/s0010417500013311 |jstor=178737 |s2cid=154809724}}</ref>

== Administration and state == {{Main|Government of the Mughal Empire}}

[[File:Joppen map-India in 1605 published 1907 by Longmans.jpg|thumb|right|India in 1605 and the end of emperor Akbar's reign; the map shows the different [[subah]]s, or provinces, of his administration.]] The Mughal Empire had a highly centralised, bureaucratic government, most of which was instituted during the rule of the third Mughal emperor, Akbar.<ref name="Robinson2009">{{Citation |last=Robinson |first=Francis |title=Mughal Empire |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001/acref-9780195305135-e-0549 |year=2009 |access-date=2022-03-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329002419/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001/acref-9780195305135-e-0549 |url-status=live |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-530513-5 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="EI2">{{Citation |last1=Burton-Page |first1=J. |title=Mug̲h̲als |date=2012-04-24 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/*-COM_0778 |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam |edition=2nd |access-date=2022-03-31 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_com_0778 |last2=Islam |first2=Riazul |last3=Athar Ali |first3=M. |last4=Moosvi |first4=Shireen |last5=Moreland |first5=W. H. |last6=Bosworth |first6=C. E. |last7=Schimmel |first7=Annemarie |last8=Koch |first8=Ebba |last9=Hall |first9=Margaret |archive-date=31 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331173633/https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/*-COM_0778 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The central government was headed by the Mughal emperor; immediately beneath him were four ministries. The finance/revenue ministry, headed by an official called a ''[[Divan|diwan]]'', was responsible for controlling revenues from the empire's territories, calculating tax revenues, and using this information to distribute assignments. The ministry of the military (army/intelligence) was headed by an official titled ''[[mir bakhshi]]'', who was in charge of military organisation, messenger service, and the ''[[mansabdari]]'' system. The ministry in charge of law/religious patronage was the responsibility of the ''sadr as-sudr,'' who appointed judges and managed charities and stipends. Another ministry was dedicated to the imperial household and public works, headed by the ''mir saman''. Of these ministers, the ''diwan'' held the most importance, and typically acted as the ''[[Grand Vizier of the Mughal Empire|wazir]]'' (prime minister) of the empire.<ref name="Conermann2015" /><ref name="Robinson2009" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gladden |first=E.N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PgGaDwAAQBAJ |title=A History of Public Administration Volume II: From the Eleventh Century to the Present Day |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-42321-5 |pages=234–236}}</ref>

=== Administrative divisions === [[File:A moderate-sized scan of the map.jpg|thumb|[[Ain-i-Akbari]] Subah, by Wilkinson, 1815]] The empire was divided into ''[[Subah]]'' (provinces), each of which was headed by a provincial governor called a ''[[Subahdar|subadar]].'' The structure of the central government was mirrored at the provincial level; each ''suba'' had its own ''[[Bakhshi (Mughal Empire)|bakhshi]]'', ''sadr as-sudr'', and finance minister that reported directly to the central government rather than the ''subahdar''. ''Subas'' were subdivided into administrative units known as ''[[Sarkar (administrative division)|sarkars]],'' which were further divided into groups of villages known as ''[[pargana]]s''. The Mughal government in the ''pargana'' consisted of a Muslim judge and local tax collector.<ref name="Conermann2015" /><ref name="Robinson2009" /> ''Parganas'' were the basic administrative unit of the Mughal Empire.<ref>{{cite book |last=Michael |first=Bernardo A. |title=Statemaking and Territory in South Asia |year=2012 |page=67 |publisher=Anthem Press |doi=10.7135/upo9780857285324.005 |isbn=978-0-85728-532-4}}</ref>

Mughal administrative divisions were not static. Territories were often rearranged and reconstituted for better administrative control, and to extend cultivation. For example, a ''sarkar'' could turn into a ''subah'', and ''Parganas'' were often transferred between ''sarkars''. The hierarchy of division was ambiguous sometimes, as a territory could fall under multiple overlapping jurisdictions. Administrative divisions were also vague in their geography—the Mughal state did not have enough resources or authority to undertake detailed land surveys, and hence the geographical limits of these divisions were not formalised and maps were not created. The Mughals instead recorded detailed statistics about each division, to assess the territory's capacity for revenue, based on simpler land surveys.<ref>{{cite book |last=Michael |first=Bernardo A. |title=Statemaking and Territory in South Asia |year=2012 |pages=69, 75, 77–78 |publisher=Anthem Press |doi=10.7135/upo9780857285324.005 |isbn=978-0-85728-532-4}}</ref>

=== Capitals === The Mughals had multiple imperial capitals, established throughout their rule. These were the cities of [[Agra]], [[Delhi]], [[Lahore]], and [[Fatehpur Sikri]]. Power often shifted back and forth between these capitals.{{sfn|Sinopoli|1994|pp=294–295}} Sometimes this was necessitated by political and military demands, but shifts also occurred for ideological reasons (for example, Akbar's establishment of Fatehpur Sikri), or even simply because the cost of establishing a new capital was marginal.{{sfn|Sinopoli|1994|pp=304–305}} Situations where two simultaneous capitals existed happened multiple times in Mughal history. Certain cities also served as short-term, provincial capitals, as was the case with Aurangzeb's shift to [[Aurangabad]] in the [[Deccan]].{{sfn|Sinopoli|1994|pp=294–295}} [[Kabul]] was the [[summer capital]] of Mughals from 1526 to 1681.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Samrin |first=Farah |year=2005 |title=The City of Kabul Under the Mughals |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44145943 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=66 |page=1307 |jstor=44145943 |access-date=14 December 2021 |archive-date=29 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629170711/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44145943 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The imperial camp, used for military expeditions and royal tours, also served as a kind of mobile, "de facto" administrative capital. From the time of Akbar, Mughal camps were huge in scale, accompanied by numerous personages associated with the royal court, as well as soldiers and labourers. All administration and governance were carried out within them. The Mughal Emperors spent a significant portion of their ruling period within these camps.{{sfn|Sinopoli|1994|pp=296 & 298}}

After Aurangzeb, the Mughal capital definitively became the walled city of [[Shahjahanabad]] (Old Delhi).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bosworth |first=Clifford Edmund |author-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |title=Historic cities of the Islamic world |year=2008 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-15388-2 |page=127 |oclc=231801473}}</ref>

=== Law === [[File:Police Chuprasi, Delhi.png|Police in Delhi under Bahadur Shah II, 1842|thumb]] The Mughal Empire's legal system was context-specific and evolved throughout the empire's rule. Being a Muslim state, the empire employed ''[[fiqh]]'' (Islamic jurisprudence) and therefore the fundamental institutions of Islamic law such as those of the ''[[qadi]]'' (judge), ''[[mufti]]'' (jurisconsult), and ''[[muhtasib]]'' (censor and market supervisor) were well-established in the Mughal Empire. However, the dispensation of justice also depended on other factors, such as administrative rules, local customs, and political convenience. This was due to Persianate influences on Mughal ideology and the fact that the Mughal Empire governed a non-Muslim majority.<ref name="Chatterjee2019">{{Citation |last=Chatterjee |first=Nandini |title=Courts of law, Mughal |date=2019-12-01 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/*-COM_25171 |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three |access-date=2021-12-13 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_com_25171 |archive-date=13 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213060747/https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/*-COM_25171 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Scholar Mouez Khalfaoui notes that legal institutions in the Mughal Empire systemically suffered from the corruption of local judges.<ref name="Khalfaoui" />

==== Legal ideology ==== The Mughal Empire followed the Sunni [[Hanafi]] system of jurisprudence. In its early years, the empire relied on Hanafi legal references inherited from its predecessor, the Delhi Sultanate. These included the ''[[al-Hidayah]]'' (the best guidance) and the ''Fatawa al-Tatarkhaniyya'' (religious decisions of the Emire Tatarkhan). During the Mughal Empire's peak, the ''[[Fatawa 'Alamgiri]]'' was commissioned by Emperor Aurangzeb. This compendium of Hanafi law sought to serve as a central reference for the Mughal state that dealt with the specifics of the South Asian context.<ref name="Khalfaoui">{{Cite web |last=Khalfaoui |first=Mouez |title=Mughal Empire and Law |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/print/opr/t349/e0066 |website=Oxford Islamic Studies Online |access-date=13 December 2021 |archive-date=13 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213062301/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/print/opr/t349/e0066 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Mughal Empire also drew on Persian notions of kingship. Particularly, this meant that the Mughal emperor was considered the supreme authority on legal affairs.<ref name="Chatterjee2019" />

==== Courts of law ==== Various kinds of courts existed in the Mughal Empire. One such court was that of the ''qadi''. The Mughal ''qadi'' was responsible for dispensing justice; this included settling disputes, judging people for crimes, and dealing with inheritances and orphans. The ''qadi'' also had additional importance in documents, as the seal of the ''qadi'' was required to validate deeds and tax records. ''Qadis'' did not constitute a single position, but made up a hierarchy. For example, the most basic kind was the ''[[pargana]]'' (district) ''qadi''. More prestigious positions were those of the ''qadi al-quddat'' (judge of judges) who accompanied the mobile imperial camp, and the ''qadi-yi lashkar'' (judge of the army).<ref name="Chatterjee2019" /> ''Qadis'' were usually appointed by the emperor or the ''sadr-us-sudr'' (chief of charities).<ref name="Chatterjee2019" /><ref>{{Citation |last=Conermann |first=Stephan |title=Mughal Empire |date=2015-08-04 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-early-modern-history-online/*-COM_024206 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online |access-date=2022-03-25 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/2352-0272_emho_com_024206 |archive-date=26 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220326064353/https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-early-modern-history-online/*-COM_024206 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The jurisdiction of the ''qadi'' was availed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chatterjee |first=Nandini |year=2014 |title=Reflections on Religious Difference and Permissive Inclusion in Mughal Law |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2014.20 |journal=Journal of Law and Religion |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=396–415 |doi=10.1017/jlr.2014.20 |issn=0748-0814 |s2cid=143513602 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10871/15975 |access-date=13 December 2021 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922034448/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-law-and-religion/article/abs/reflections-on-religious-difference-and-permissive-inclusion-in-mughal-law/88E6D627704E165E241C0D3C165E3FDA |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The ''[[jagirdar]]'' (local tax collector) was another kind of official approach, especially for high-stakes cases. Subjects of the Mughal Empire also took their grievances to the courts of superior officials, who held more authority and punitive power than the local ''qadi''. Such officials included the ''[[kotwal]]'' (local police), the ''[[faujdar]]'' (an officer controlling multiple districts and troops of soldiers), and the most powerful, the ''[[subahdar]]'' (provincial governor). In some cases, the emperor dispensed justice directly.<ref name="Chatterjee2019" /> Jahangir was known to have installed a "chain of justice" in the [[Agra Fort]] that any aggrieved subject could shake to get the attention of the emperor and bypass the inefficacy of officials.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eaton |first=Richard M. |author-link=Richard M. Eaton |title=India in the Persianate Age : 1000–1765 |publisher=University of California Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-520-97423-4 |page=272 |oclc=1243310832}}</ref>

Self-regulating tribunals operating at the community or village level were common, but sparse documentation of them exists. For example, it is unclear how ''[[panchayats]]'' (village councils) operated in the Mughal era.<ref name="Chatterjee2019" />

== Economy == {{Main|Economy of the Mughal Empire}}

The Mughal economy was large and prosperous.<ref name="Schmidt2015">{{Cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Karl J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BqdzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |title=An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-317-47681-8 |pages=100– |access-date=9 August 2017 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922034442/https://books.google.com/books?id=BqdzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Maddison2003">{{Cite book |last=Maddison |first=Angus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rHJGz3HiJbcC&pg=PA256 |title=Development Centre Studies The World Economy Historical Statistics: Historical Statistics |publisher=OECD Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-92-64-10414-3 |pages=256– |author-link=Angus Maddison |access-date=9 August 2017 |archive-date=20 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120082500/https://books.google.com/books?id=rHJGz3HiJbcC&pg=PA256 |url-status=live }}</ref> India was producing 24.5% of the world's manufacturing output up until 1750.<ref name="Williamson">[[Jeffrey G. Williamson]] & David Clingingsmith, [http://www.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/Research/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Conf7_Williamson.pdf India's Deindustrialization in the 18th and 19th Centuries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329075904/http://www.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/Research/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Conf7_Williamson.pdf |date=29 March 2017 }}, Global Economic History Network, [[London School of Economics]]</ref><ref name="Maddison2003" /> Mughal India's economy has been described as a form of [[proto-industrialisation]], like that of 18th-century Western Europe before the [[Industrial Revolution]].<ref name="voss" />

Modern historians and researchers generally agree that the character of the Mughal Empire's economic policy resembles the [[laissez-faire]] system in dealing with trade and billions to achieve the economic ends.{{sfn|J.J.L. Gommans|2002|p=75}}{{sfn|Streusand|2018|p="...Mughal rulers pursued a more laissez-faire economic approach, benefiting from the prosperity of..."}}<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=A. Bayly |editor1-first=C. |editor2-last=Fibiger Bang |editor2-first=Peter |editor3-last=Scheidel |editor3-first=Walter |title=The Oxford World History of Empire Volume Two: The History of Empires |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780197532775 |page=775 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1GkLEAAAQBAJ |access-date=18 April 2024 |language=En}}</ref>{{sfn|Ali|2008}}

The Mughals were responsible for building an extensive road system and creating a uniform currency.{{sfn|Richards|1995|pp=185–204}} The empire had an extensive road network, which was vital to the economic infrastructure, built by a [[public works]] department set up by the Mughals which designed, constructed and maintained roads linking towns and cities across the empire, making trade easier to conduct.<ref name="Schmidt2015" />

The main base of the empire's collective wealth was agricultural taxes, instituted by the third Mughal emperor, Akbar.<ref name="Stein2010-3" /><ref name="AsherTalbot2006-1" /> These taxes, which amounted to well over half the output of a peasant cultivator,<ref name="Stein2010-4" /> were paid in the well-regulated silver currency,{{sfn|Asher|Talbot|2006|pp=152–}} and caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.<ref name="AsherTalbot2006-3" /> In circa 1595, Modern historians estimated the state's annual revenues of the Mughal Empire were around 99,000,000 rupees.{{sfn|Jorge Flores|2015|p=73}}

=== Coinage === {{Main|Mughal currency}}

[[File:Coin of Aurangzeb, minted in Kabul.jpg|thumb|right|Coin of Aurangzeb, minted in Kabul, dated 1691/2.]] The Mughals adopted and standardised the [[rupee]] (''rupiya'', or silver) and [[Dam (Indian coin)|dam]] (copper) currencies introduced by [[Sur Empire|Sur]] Emperor [[Sher Shah Suri]] during his brief rule.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Picture of original Mughal ''rupiya'' introduced by Sher Shah Suri |url=http://www.rbi.org.in/currency/museum/c-mogul.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021005231609/http://www.rbi.org.in/currency/museum/c-mogul.html |archive-date=5 October 2002 |access-date=4 August 2017}}</ref> The Mughals minted coins with high purity, never dropping below 96%, and without [[debasement]] until the 1720s.<ref name="Richards2003">{{Cite book |last=Richards |first=John F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i85noYD9C0EC&pg=PA27 |title=The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World |publisher=University of California Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-520-93935-6 |pages=27– |author-link=John F. Richards |access-date=9 August 2017 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922034459/https://books.google.com/books?id=i85noYD9C0EC&pg=PA27 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Despite India having its stocks of gold and silver, the Mughals produced minimal gold of their own but mostly minted coins from imported [[bullion]], as a result of the empire's strong export-driven economy, with global demand for Indian agricultural and industrial products drawing a steady stream of [[precious metal]]s into India.{{sfn|Richards|1995}}

=== Labour === The historian Shireen Moosvi estimates that in terms of contributions to the Mughal economy, in the late 16th century, the primary sector contributed 52%, the secondary sector 18% and the tertiary sector 29%; the secondary sector contributed a higher percentage than in early 20th-century [[British India]], where the secondary sector only contributed 11% to the economy.{{sfn|Moosvi|2015|p=433}} In terms of the urban-rural divide, 18% of Mughal India's labour force were urban and 82% were rural, contributing 52% and 48% to the economy, respectively.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maddison |first=Angus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7UOKB3RwDQIC&pg=PA33 |title=Class Structure and Economic Growth: India and Pakistan Since the Moghuls |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=1971 |isbn=978-0-415-38259-5 |page=33 |author-link=Angus Maddison |access-date=22 August 2017 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922035024/https://books.google.com/books?id=7UOKB3RwDQIC&pg=PA33 |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to Moosvi, Mughal India had a per-capita income, in terms of wheat, 1.24% higher in the late 16th century than British India did in the early 20th century.{{sfn|Moosvi|2015|p=432}} This income, however, would have to be revised downwards if manufactured goods, like clothing, would be considered. Compared to food per capita, expenditure on clothing was much smaller though, so relative income between 1595 and 1596 should be comparable to 1901–1910.{{sfn|Moosvi|2015|p=450}} However, in a system where wealth was hoarded by elites, wages were depressed for [[manual labour]].<ref name="moosvi" /> While [[slavery]] also existed, it was limited largely to household servants.<ref name="moosvi">{{Cite journal |last=Moosvi |first=Shireen |date=December 2011 |title=The World of Labour in Mughal India (c. 1500–1750) |journal=International Review of Social History |volume=56 |issue=S19 |pages=245–261 |doi=10.1017/S0020859011000526 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Agriculture === Indian agricultural production increased under the Mughal Empire.<ref name="Schmidt2015" /> A variety of crops were grown, including food crops such as wheat, rice, and [[barley]], and non-food [[cash crop]]s such as cotton, [[Indigofera tinctoria|indigo]] and [[opium]]. By the mid-17th century, Indian cultivators began to extensively grow two new crops from the Americas, maize and tobacco.<ref name="Schmidt2015" />

The Mughal administration emphasised the [[agrarian reform]] that began under the non-Mughal emperor Sher Shah Suri, which Akbar adopted and furthered with more reforms. The civil administration was organised hierarchically based on merit, with promotions based on performance.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Pagaza |first1=Ignacio |title=Winning the Needed Change: Saving Our Planet Earth |last2=Argyriades |first2=Demetrios |publisher=IOS Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-58603-958-5 |page=129}}</ref> The Mughal government funded the building of [[irrigation]] systems across the empire, which produced much higher [[crop yield]]s and increased the net revenue base, leading to increased agricultural production.<ref name="Schmidt2015" />

A major Mughal reform introduced by Akbar was a new land revenue system called ''[[zabt]]''. He replaced the [[tribute]] system, previously common in India and used by [[Tokugawa Japan]] at the time, with a monetary tax system based on a uniform currency.<ref name="Richards2003" /> The revenue system was biased in favour of higher value cash crops such as cotton, indigo, [[sugar cane]], tree crops, and opium, providing state incentives to grow cash crops, in addition to rising market demand.{{sfn|Richards|1995}} Under the ''zabt'' system, the Mughals also conducted extensive [[cadastral surveying]] to assess the area of land under [[plough]] cultivation, with the Mughal state encouraging greater land cultivation by offering tax-free periods to those who brought new land under cultivation.<ref name="Richards2003" /> The expansion of agriculture and cultivation continued under later Mughal emperors, including Aurangzeb.<ref name="Ludden96">{{Cite book |last=Ludden |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eHi62S7vZlsC&pg=PA96 |title=An Agrarian History of South Asia |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-521-36424-9 |page=96 |access-date=29 April 2019 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922034936/https://books.google.com/books?id=eHi62S7vZlsC&pg=PA96 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Mughal agriculture was in some ways advanced compared to European agriculture at the time, exemplified by the common use of the [[seed drill]] among Indian peasants before its adoption in Europe.{{sfn|Habib|Kumar|Raychaudhuri|1987|p=214}} Geared sugar [[Roller mill|rolling mills]] first appeared in Mughal India, using the principle of rollers as well as [[worm gear]]ing, by the 17th century.<ref>[[Irfan Habib]] (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA53 ''Economic History of Medieval India, 1200–1500'', p. 53] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922034936/https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA53 |date=22 September 2023 }}, [[Pearson Education]]</ref>

=== Industrial manufacturing === {{see|Mughal Karkhanas}} South Asia during the Mughal's rule was a very fertile ground for manufacturing technologies coveted by the Europeans before the [[Industrial Revolution]].{{sfn|Andrew de la Garza|2016|pp=114-115}} Up until 1750, India produced about 25% of the world's industrial output.<ref name="williamson">{{Cite web |last=[[Jeffrey G. Williamson]], David Clingingsmith |date=August 2005 |title=India's Deindustrialization in the 18th and 19th Centuries |url=http://www.tcd.ie/Economics/staff/orourkek/Istanbul/JGWGEHNIndianDeind.pdf |access-date=18 May 2017 |publisher=[[Harvard University]] |archive-date=13 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161213044056/http://www.tcd.ie/Economics/staff/orourkek/Istanbul/JGWGEHNIndianDeind.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Manufactured goods]] and cash crops from the Mughal Empire were sold throughout the world.<ref name="Schmidt2015" /> The growth of manufacturing industries in the Indian subcontinent during the Mughal era in the 17th–18th centuries has been referred to as a form of [[proto-industrialisation]], similar to 18th-century Western Europe before the Industrial Revolution.<ref name="voss">{{Cite book |last=Roy |first=Tirthankar |title=The Ashgate Companion to the History of Textile Workers, 1650–2000 |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7546-6428-4 |editor-last=Lex Heerma van Voss |page=255 |chapter=The Long Globalization and Textile Producers in India |author-link=Tirthankar Roy |editor-last2=Els Hiemstra-Kuperus |editor-last3=Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f95ljbhfjxIC&pg=PA255 |access-date=15 August 2017 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702121931/https://books.google.com/books?id=f95ljbhfjxIC&pg=PA255 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In [[early modern Europe]], there was significant demand for products from Mughal India, particularly cotton textiles, as well as goods such as spices, peppers, [[indigo]], silks, and [[saltpetre]] (for use in [[munitions]]).<ref name="Schmidt2015" /> [[1650–1700 in Western European fashion|European fashion]], for example, became increasingly dependent on Mughal Indian textiles and silks.<ref name="Prakash">[[Om Prakash (historian)|Om Prakash]], "[http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3447600139/WHIC?u=seat24826&xid=6b597320 Empire, Mughal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118051038/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=WHIC&u=seat24826&id=GALE%7B%7B%21%7D%7DCX3447600139&v=2.1&it=r&asid=6b597320 |date=18 November 2022 }}", ''History of World Trade Since 1450'', edited by [[John J. McCusker]], vol. 1, Macmillan Reference US, 2006, pp. 237–240, ''World History in Context''. Retrieved 3 August 2017</ref>

==== Textile industry ==== {{See also|Muslin trade in Bengal|Mughal clothing}} [[File:Renaldis muslin woman.jpg|thumb|Muslim Lady Reclining or An Indian Girl with a Hookah, painted in Dacca, 18th century.]]

The largest manufacturing industry in the Mughal Empire was [[textile manufacturing]], particularly cotton textile manufacturing, which included the production of [[piece goods]], [[calico]]s, and [[muslin]]s. The cotton [[textile industry]] was responsible for a large part of the empire's international trade.<ref name="Schmidt2015" /> India had a 25% share of the global textile trade in the early 18th century,<ref>[[Angus Maddison]] (1995), ''Monitoring the World Economy, 1820–1992'', [[OECD]], p. 30</ref> and it represented the most important manufactured goods in world trade in the 18th century.<ref name="Parthasarathi">{{Citation |title=Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850 |page=2 |year=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49889-0 |given=Prasannan |surname=Parthasarathi}}</ref> The most important centre of cotton production was the Bengal province, particularly around its capital city of [[Dhaka]].<ref name="Eaton">Richard Maxwell Eaton (1996), [https://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC&pg=PA202 ''The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760'', p. 202] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404212612/https://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC&pg=PA202 |date=4 April 2023 }}, [[University of California Press]]</ref>

The production of cotton was advanced by the diffusion of the [[spinning wheel]] across India shortly before the Mughal era, lowering the costs of yarn and helping to increase demand for cotton. The diffusion of the [[spinning wheel]] and the incorporation of the [[worm gear]] and [[Crank (mechanism)|crank]] handle into the roller [[cotton gin]] led to greatly expanded Indian cotton textile production during the Mughal era.<ref>[[Irfan Habib]] (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA54 ''Economic History of Medieval India, 1200–1500'', p. 54] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922035433/https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA54 |date=22 September 2023 }}, [[Pearson Education]]</ref>

=== Bengal Subah === {{Main|Bengal Subah}}

{{See also|Muslin trade in Bengal}} [[File:Boro Katra 4 by Ashif Siddique.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the [[Bara Katra|Great Caravanserai]] in [[Dhaka]]]]

The Bengal Subah province was especially prosperous from the time of its takeover by the Mughals in 1590 until the British East India Company seized control in 1757.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Roy |first=Tirthankar |author-link=Tirthankar Roy |date=November 2011 |title=Where is Bengal? Situating an Indian Region in the Early Modern World Economy |journal=Past & Present |issue=213 |pages=115–146 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtr009}}</ref> Historian [[C. A. Bayly]] wrote that it was probably the Mughal Empire's wealthiest province.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bayly |first=C. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fX2zMfWqIzMC&pg=PA51 |title=Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-521-38650-0 |series=The New Cambridge History of India |volume=II.1 |page=51 |author-link=Christopher Bayly |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208030846/https://books.google.com/books?id=fX2zMfWqIzMC&pg=PA51 |url-status=live }}</ref> Domestically, much of India depended on Bengali products such as rice, silks and cotton textiles. Overseas, Europeans depended on Bengali products such as cotton textiles, silks, and opium.<ref name="Prakash" /> The province was a leading producer of grains, salt, fruits, liquors and wines, precious metals and ornaments.<ref name="Nanda-2005">{{Cite book |last=Nanda |first=J. N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HsV3cYAvGEEC |title=Bengal: The Unique State |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |year=2005 |page=10 |isbn=978-81-8069-149-2 |access-date=5 May 2016 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922035433/https://books.google.com/books?id=HsV3cYAvGEEC |url-status=live }}</ref>

After 150 years of rule by Mughal [[viceroy]]s, Bengal gained de facto independence as a dominion under [[Murshid Quli Khan]], the first [[Nawab of Bengal]] in 1717.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nitish K |first=Sengupta |title=Land of Two Rivers A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to Mujib |publisher=Penguin Books India |isbn=9780143416784 |publication-date=2011 |pages=16}}</ref> The Nawabs permitted European companies to set up trading posts across the region, which regarded Bengal as the richest place for trade.<ref name="Nanda-2005" />

==== Shipbuilding industry ==== Mughal India had a large shipbuilding industry, which was also largely centred in the Bengal province. Economic historian Indrajit Ray estimates the shipbuilding output of Bengal during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at 223,250 tons annually, compared with 23,061 tons produced in nineteen colonies in North America from 1769 to 1771.<ref name="ray174">{{Cite book |last=Ray |first=Indrajit |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHOrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA174 |title=Bengal Industries and the British Industrial Revolution (1757–1857) |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-136-82552-1 |pages=174}}</ref> He also assesses ship repairing as very advanced in Bengal.<ref name="ray174" />

== Demographics == {{See also|Demographics of India#History}}

=== Population === {{see also|Mughal people}} India's population growth accelerated under the Mughal Empire, with an unprecedented economic and demographic upsurge which boosted the Indian population by 60%<ref name="mcevedy184">{{Cite book |last1=Colin McEvedy |url=http://www.arabgeographers.net/up/uploads/14299936761.pdf#page=92 |title=Atlas of World Population History |last2=Richard Jones |year=1978 |publisher=[[Facts on File]] |location=New York |pages=184–185 |author-link=Colin McEvedy |access-date=7 August 2017 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112011124/http://www.arabgeographers.net/up/uploads/14299936761.pdf#page=92 |url-status=live }}</ref> to 253% in 200 years during 1500–1700.<ref name="maddison236">[[Angus Maddison]] (2001), ''[[The World Economy: Historical Statistics|The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective]]'', [http://theunbrokenwindow.com/Development/MADDISON%20The%20World%20Economy--A%20Millennial.pdf#page=237 p. 236] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111170118/http://theunbrokenwindow.com/Development/MADDISON%20The%20World%20Economy--A%20Millennial.pdf#page=237 |date=11 November 2020 }}, [[OECD Development Centre]]</ref> The Indian population had a faster growth during the Mughal era than at any known point in [[Indian history]] before the Mughal era.<ref name="Maddison2003" /><ref name="mcevedy184" /> By the time of Aurangzeb's reign, there were a total of 455,698 villages in the Mughal Empire.{{sfn|Habib|Kumar|Raychaudhuri|1987|p=170}}

The following table gives population estimates for the Mughal Empire, compared to the total population of South Asia including the regions of modern [[India]], [[Pakistan]], and [[Bangladesh]], and compared to the [[world population]]:

{| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! scope="col" style="text-align: left;" | Year ! scope="col" data-sort-type="number" | Mughal Empire population ! scope="col" data-sort-type="number" | Total Indian population ! scope="col" data-sort-type="number" | % of South Asian population ! scope="col" data-sort-type="number" | World population ! scope="col" data-sort-type="number" | % of world population |- | 1500 | style="text-align: right;" | — | style="text-align: right;" | {{formatnum:100000000}}<ref name="mcevedy184" /> | style="text-align: right;" | — | style="text-align: right;" | {{formatnum:425000000}}<ref name="Biraben" /> | style="text-align: right;" | — |- | 1600 | style="text-align: right;" | {{formatnum:115000000}}{{sfn|Habib|Kumar|Raychaudhuri|1987|p=170}} | style="text-align: right;" | {{formatnum:130000000}}<ref name="mcevedy184" /> | style="text-align: right;" | 89 | style="text-align: right;" | {{formatnum:579000000}}<ref name="Biraben">Jean-Noël Biraben, 1980, "An Essay Concerning Mankind's Evolution", Population, Selected Papers, Vol. 4, pp. 1–13</ref> | style="text-align: right;" | 20 |- | 1700 | style="text-align: right;" | {{formatnum:158400000}}<ref name="borocz">{{Cite book |last=József Böröcz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d0SPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 |title=The European Union and Global Social Change |year=2009 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-25580-0 |page=21 |author-link=József Böröcz |access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref> | style="text-align: right;" | {{formatnum:160000000}}<ref name="mcevedy184" /> | style="text-align: right;" | 99 | style="text-align: right;" | {{formatnum:679000000}}<ref name="Biraben" /> | style="text-align: right;" | 23 |}

There was a notable presence of the [[Jewish]] [[diaspora]] in the Mughal empire. The Jewish community in the empire engaged in trading jewelry and precious stones.<ref name="IshratAlam">{{cite journal |author= Ishrat Alam |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44144741 |title= Jewish Merchants In The Mughal Empire |year=2004 |journal= Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume= 65 |pages=267–275 |jstor=44144741 |access-date=18 August 2025 }}</ref> [[Sarmad Kashani]] engaged in religious activities in the Mughal court.<ref name="Fischel">{{cite journal |author= Walter Joseph Fischel |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/3622197 |title= Jews and Judaism at the Court of the Moghul Emperors in Medieval India |year=1948 |journal= Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research |volume= 18 |pages=139-140, 151-152, 159-161 |access-date=18 August 2025 |doi= 10.2307/3622197 |jstor=3622197 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

=== Urbanisation === According to [[Irfan Habib]], cities and towns boomed under the Mughal Empire, which had a relatively high degree of urbanisation for its time, with 15% of its population living in urban centres.<ref name="Eraly2007">{{Cite book |last=Eraly |first=Abraham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zpa8gyGW_twC&pg=PA5 |title=The Mughal World: Life in India's Last Golden Age |publisher=Penguin Books India |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-14-310262-5 |pages=5– |author-link=Abraham Eraly}}</ref> This was higher than the percentage of the urban population in contemporary Europe at the time and higher than that of [[British Raj|British India]] in the 19th century;<ref name="Eraly2007" /> the level of urbanisation in Europe did not reach 15% until the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Malanima |first=Paolo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C1Ej4VEPwSgC&pg=PA244 |title=Pre-Modern European Economy: One Thousand Years (10th–19th Centuries) |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-90-04-17822-9 |page=244 |author-link=Paolo Malanima}}</ref>

Under Akbar's reign in 1600, the Mughal Empire's urban population was up to 17 million people, 15% of the empire's total population. This was larger than the entire urban population in Europe at the time, and even a century later in 1700, the urban population of England, Scotland and Wales did not exceed 13% of its total population,{{sfn|Habib|Kumar|Raychaudhuri|1987|p=170}} while British India had an urban population that was under 13% of its total population in 1800 and 9% in 1881, a decline from the earlier Mughal era.{{sfn|Habib|Kumar|Raychaudhuri|1987|p=165}} By 1700, Mughal India had an urban population of 23 million people, larger than British India's urban population of 22.3 million in 1871.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Broadberry |first1=Stephen |last2=Gupta |first2=Bishnupriya |year=2010 |title=Indian GDP before 1870: Some preliminary estimates and a comparison with Britain |url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/sbroadberry/wp/indiangdppre1870v4.pdf#page=23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111210739/https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/sbroadberry/wp/indiangdppre1870v4.pdf#page=23 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |access-date=12 October 2015 |publisher=[[Warwick University]] |page=23}}</ref>

Those estimates were criticised by [[Tim Dyson]], who considers them exaggerations. According to Dyson, urbanisation of the Mughal Empire was less than 9%.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dyson |first=Tim |title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day |year=2018 |pages=63–65}}</ref>

The historian [[Nizamuddin Ahmad]] (1551–1621) reported that, under Akbar's reign, there were 120 large cities and 3200 townships.<ref name="Eraly2007" /> Several cities in India had a population between a quarter-million and half-million people,<ref name="Eraly2007" /> with larger cities including [[Agra]] (in [[Agra Subah]]) with up to 800,000 people, [[Lahore]] (in [[Lahore Subah]]) with up to 700,000 people,{{sfn|Habib|Kumar|Raychaudhuri|1987|p=171}} [[Dhaka]] (in [[Bengal Subah]]) with over 1 million people,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rob |first1=Md. Abdur |last2=Asaduzzaman |first2=Md. |date=December 1997 |title=Historical Growth of Urbanization in Dhaka City |journal=Social Science Review |publisher=[[Dhaka University]] |volume=14 |issue=2 |page=126}}</ref> and Delhi (in [[Delhi Subah]]) with over 600,000 people.<ref name="Moosvi2008">{{Cite book |last=Moosvi |first=Shireen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IhpuAAAAMAAJ |title=People, Taxation, and Trade in Mughal India |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-569315-7 |page=131}}</ref>

Cities acted as markets for the sale of goods, and provided homes for a variety of merchants, traders, shopkeepers, artisans, moneylenders, weavers, craftspeople, officials, and religious figures.<ref name="Schmidt2015" /> However, several cities were military and political centres, rather than manufacturing or commerce centres.<ref name="Chaudhuri2008">{{Cite journal |last=Chaudhuri |first=K. N. |year=2008 |title=Some Reflections on the Town and Country in Mughal India |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=77–96 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X00008155 |s2cid=146558617 |issn=0026-749X}}</ref>

== Culture == {{See also|Indo-Persian culture||}} [[File:Mushafi-ghulam-hamdani.png|thumb|250px|[[Ghulam Hamdani Mushafi]], the poet first believed to have coined the name "''Urdu''" around 1780 AD for a language that went by a multiplicity of names before his time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Faruqi |first=Shamsur Rahman |author-link=Shamsur Rahman Faruqi |editor-last=Pollock |editor-first=Sheldon |editor-link=Sheldon Pollock|chapter=A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture, Part 1 |title=Literary Cultures in History |year=2003 |publisher=University of California Press |page=806 |isbn=0-520-22821-9}}</ref>]]

Generally, classical historiographies depicted the Mughal Empire's origin as a sedentarised agrarian society. However, modern historians such as [[André Wink]], [[Jos J. L. Gommans]], [[Anatoly Khazanov]], Thomas J. Barfield, and others, argued the Mughals originated from nomadic culture.{{sfn|Kaushik Roy|Peter Lorge|2014|p=146}} [[Pius Malekandathil]] argued instead that although it was true that the Mughal had their origin as nomadic civilisation, they became more sendentarised as time passed, as exemplified by their military tradition.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Pius Malekandathil |author1-link=Pius Malekandathil |title=The Indian Ocean in the Making of Early Modern India |year=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1351997454 |page=194 |edition=Illustrated |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-WEPDQAAQBAJ |access-date=19 July 2024 |quote=...Mughal army shed most of its post-nomadic...}}</ref> The Mughal Empire was definitive in the early-modern and modern periods of South Asian history, with its legacy in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan seen in cultural contributions such as:

[[File:Mir Taqi Mir 1786.jpg|thumb|Mir Taqi Mir, an Urdu poet of the 18th century Mughal Empire]]

[[File:Taj mahal (1870s).jpg|thumb|The Taj Mahal in the 1870s]] * Centralised imperial rule that consolidated the smaller polities of South Asia.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Mughal Empire – MSN Encarta |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761564252/mughal_empire.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028022520/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761564252/Mughal_Empire.html |archive-date=28 October 2009}}</ref> * The amalgamation of [[Persian art]] and literature with [[Indian art]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Indo-Persian Literature Conference: SOAS: North Indian Literary Culture (1450–1650) |url=http://www.soas.ac.uk/southasia/research/nilc/indopersian/ |access-date=28 November 2012 |website=SOAS |archive-date=23 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923222924/http://www.soas.ac.uk/southasia/research/nilc/indopersian/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[File:Badshahi Mosque, Lahore. King's Mosque.jpg|thumb|Badshahi Mosque, [[Lahore, Punjab]], Pakistan]] * The development of [[Mughlai cuisine]], an amalgamation of South Asian, Iranian and Central Asian culinary styles. * The development of [[Mughal clothing]], jewellery and fashion, utilising richly decorated fabrics such as muslin, silk, brocade and velvet. * The influence of the Persian language over [[Old Hindi]] led to the development of the [[Hindustani language]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Islam: Mughal Empire (1500s, 1600s) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/mughalempire_1.shtml |access-date=10 June 2018 |website=Religions |publisher=BBC |archive-date=13 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813212912/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/mughalempire_1.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref> * The introduction of sophisticated Iranian-style waterworks and horticulture through [[Mughal gardens|Mughal gardening]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fatma |first=Sadaf |year=2012 |title=Waterworks in Mughal Gardens |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=73 |pages=1268–1278 |jstor=44156328}}</ref> * The introduction of [[Turkish bath]]s into the Indian subcontinent. * The evolution and refinement of [[Mughal architecture|Mughal]] and [[Indian architecture]], and, in turn, the development of later Rajput and Sikh palatial architecture. A famous Mughal landmark is the [[Taj Mahal]]. * The development of the [[Pehlwani]] style of [[Indian wrestling]], a combination of Indian [[malla-yuddha]] and Persian [[varzesh-e bastani]].<ref name="Alter1992a">{{Cite journal |last=Alter |first=Joseph S. |date=May 1992 |title=The ''sannyasi'' and the Indian Wrestler: The Anatomy of a Relationship |journal=American Ethnologist |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=317–336 |doi=10.1525/ae.1992.19.2.02a00070 |issn=0094-0496}}</ref><ref name="Alter1992b">{{Cite book |last=Alter |first=Joseph S. |url=https://archive.org/details/wrestlersbodyide00alte |title=The Wrestler's Body: Identity and Ideology in North India |publisher=University of California Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-520-07697-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/wrestlersbodyide00alte/page/n1 2] |quote=Wrestling in modern India is a synthesis of two different traditions: the Persian form of the art brought into South Asia by the Moguls, and an indigenous Hindu form. |author-link=Joseph Alter |url-access=limited}}</ref> * The construction of [[Maktab (education)|Maktab]] schools, where youth were taught the [[Quran]] and [[Sharia|Islamic law]] such as the ''[[Fatawa 'Alamgiri]]'' in their indigenous languages. * The development of [[Hindustani classical music]],<ref>{{Cite news |date=8 February 2000 |title=Mughal influence on Indian music |work=[[The Hindu]] |url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-miscellaneous/tp-others/mughal-influence-on-indian-music/article28000731.ece |access-date=5 April 2019 |archive-date=26 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226071050/https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-miscellaneous/tp-others/mughal-influence-on-indian-music/article28000731.ece |url-status=live }}</ref> and instruments such as the [[sitar]].

[[File:Fatehput Sikiri Buland Darwaza gate 2010.jpg|thumb|[[Buland Darwaza]] in Fatehpur Sikiri, Agra, India]]

=== Customs === The procession of marriage among the royals of the Mughal Empire was recorded with many reports of extravagant gifts. One occasion was during the marriage of a son of emperor [[Akbar]], [[Jahangir|Salim]], with the daughter of a ruler of [[Bijapur]], [[Bhagwant Das|Raja Bhagwant Das]], where the gift presented by Bhagwant Das consisted of many horses, 100 elephants, many male and female slaves of [[Habesha peoples|Abyssinian]], Caucasian, and native Indian origins, who brought with them various gold and silver utensils as [[dowry]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=Harbans Mukhia |author1-link=Harbans Mukhia |title=The Mughals of India |date=2008 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0470758151 |page=150 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rxHTBQAAQBAJ |access-date=11 July 2024 |language=En}}</ref>

=== Architecture === {{Main|Mughal architecture|Yakhchāl}}

The Mughals made a major contribution to the [[Indian subcontinent]] with the development of their distinctive architectural style. This style was derived from earlier [[Indo-Islamic architecture]] as well as from [[Iranian architecture|Iranian]] and [[Architecture of Central Asia|Central Asian]] architecture (particularly [[Timurid architecture]]), while incorporating further influences from [[Hindu architecture]].<ref name="Petersen1996">{{Cite book |last=Petersen |first=Andrew |title=Dictionary of Islamic architecture |publisher=Routledge |year=1996 |isbn=9781134613663 |location= |pages=199–205 |chapter=Mughals}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Asher |first=Catherine Blanshard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ctLNvx68hIC&pg=PA349 |title=Architecture of Mughal India |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1992 |isbn=9780521267281 |series=The New Cambridge History of India, Part I |volume=4 |pages=1–2, 15–17 |language=en}}</ref> [[Mughal architecture]] is distinguished, among other things, by [[Onion dome|bulbous domes]], [[Pointed arch|ogive arches]], carefully-composed and polished façades, and the use of hard red sandstone and marble as construction materials.<ref name="Petersen1996" /><ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=un4WcfEASZwC |title=The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780195309911 |editor-last=Bloom |editor-first=Jonathan M. |volume=1 |location= |pages=182 |language=en |chapter=Architecture |editor-last2=Blair |editor-first2=Sheila S.}}</ref>

Furthermore, [[William Dalrymple]] mentioned that during the final days of the Mughal [[Siege of Delhi|fall of Delhi]] in 1857, an [[Ice house (building)|ice house]] structure existed in Delhi.<ref>{{cite book |author1=William Dalrymple |author1-link=William Dalrymple |title=The Last Mughal: The Fall of Delhi, 1857 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1408806883 |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wYW5J-jQn8QC |access-date=23 July 2024 |quote=... Ice House in which Zahir was sheltering...}}</ref> Emperor Shah Jahan has recorded establishing an ice-house in [[Sirmaur district|Sirmaur]], north of Delhi.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Keshavlal H. Kamdar |title=History of the Mughal Rule in India, 1526-1761 |year=1933 |publisher=M. C. Kothari |page=141 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pA4dAAAAMAAJ |access-date=8 August 2024}}</ref>

Many monuments were built during the Mughal era by the Muslim emperors, especially [[Shah Jahan]], including the [[Taj Mahal]]—a [[UNESCO World Heritage Site]] considered "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage",<ref name="Centre">{{Cite web|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/252/|title=Taj Mahal|first=UNESCO World Heritage|last=Centre|website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|access-date=7 May 2020|archive-date=1 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180201133603/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/252|url-status=live}}</ref> attracting 7–8 million unique visitors a year. The palaces, tombs, [[Mughal garden|gardens]] and forts built by the dynasty stand today in [[Agra]], [[Aurangabad, Maharashtra|Aurangabad]], [[Delhi]], [[Dhaka]], [[Fatehpur Sikri]], [[Jaipur]], [[Lahore]], [[Kabul]], [[Sheikhupura]], and many other cities of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ross Marlay |title=Patriots and Tyrants: Ten Asian Leaders |last2=Clark D. Neher |year=1999 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-8476-8442-7 |page=269}}</ref> such as:[[File:1. লালবাগের কেল্লা.jpg|thumb|[[Lalbagh Fort]] aerial view in Dhaka, Bangladesh]] {| class="wikitable" |+ !India !Pakistan !Bangladesh !Afghanistan |- |valign=top| * [[Taj Mahal]] in Agra, India * [[Agra Fort]] in Agra, India * [[Buland Darwaza]] in Agra, India * [[Akbar's tomb]] in Sikandra, India * [[Tomb of Mariam-uz-Zamani]] in Sikandra, India * [[Humayun's Tomb]] in Delhi, India * [[Jama Masjid, Delhi|Jama Masjid]] in Delhi, India * [[Red Fort]] in Delhi, India * [[Sunder Nursery]] in Delhi, India * [[Purana Qila]] in Delhi, India * [[Sher Mandal]] in Delhi, India * [[Pinjore Gardens]] in Pinjore, India * [[Shalimar Bagh, Srinagar|Shalimar Bagh]] in Srinagar, India * [[Nishat Bagh]] in Srinagar, India * [[Chashme Shahi|Chasma Shahi]] in Srinagar, India * [[Pari Mahal]] in Srinagar, India * [[Verinag]] Gardens in Srinagar, India * [[Allahabad Fort]] in Prayagraj, India * [[Shahi Bridge]] in Jaunpur, India * [[Bibi Ka Maqbara]] in Aurangabad, India * [[Kos Minar]] in Haryana, India * Baoli Ghaus Ali Shah in Farrukhnagar, India |valign=top| * [[Badshahi Mosque|Badshahi Masjid]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Shalimar Gardens, Lahore|Shalimar Gardens]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Lahore Fort]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Shahi Hammam]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Wazir Khan Mosque]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Tomb of Jahangir]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Tomb of Anarkali]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Tomb of Nur Jahan]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Tomb of Asif Khan]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Begum Shahi Mosque]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Akbari Sarai]] in Lahore, Pakistan * [[Hiran Minar]] in Sheikhpura, Pakistan * [[Mahabat Khan Mosque]] in Peshawar, Pakistan * [[Shahi Eid Gah Mosque]] in Multan, Pakistan * [[Masum Shah|Mausoleum of Masum Shah]] in Sukkur, Pakistan * [[Losar Baoli]] in Taxila, Pakistan * [[Makli Necropolis]] in Thatta, Pakistan * [[Shah Jahan Mosque, Thatta|Shah Jahan Mosque]] in Thatta, Pakistan |valign=top| * [[Dhanmondi Shahi Eidgah|Mughal Eidgah]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Lalbagh Fort]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Sylhet Shahi Eidgah|Shahi Eidgah]] in Sylhet, Bangladesh * [[Mughal Tahakhana]] in Chapai Nawabganj, Bangladesh * [[Sat Gambuj Mosque]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Masjid-e-Siraj ud-Daulah]] in Chittagong, Bangladesh * [[Allakuri Mosque|Allakuri Masjid]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Chawk Mosque, Dhaka|Chawkbazar Shahi Masjid]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Laldighi Mosque|Laldighi Masjid]] in Rangpur, Bangladesh * [[Khan Mohammad Mridha Mosque|Khan Mohammad Mridha Masjid]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Wali Khan Mosque|Wali Khan Masjid]] in Chittagong, Bangladesh * [[Shaista Khan Mosque|Shaista Khan Masjid]], in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Musa Khan Mosque|Musa Khan Masjid]], in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Shahbaz Khan Mosque|Shahbaz Khan Masjid]], in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Kartalab Khan Mosque|Kartalab Khan Masjid]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Azimpur Mosque|Azimpur Masjid]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Goaldi Mosque|Goaldi Masjid]] in Sonargaon, Bangladesh * [[Atia Mosque|Atia Masjid]] in Tangail, Bangladesh * [[Arifile Mosque|Arifail Masjid]] in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh * [[Bajra Shahi Mosque|Bazra Shahi Masjid]] in Noakhali, Bangladesh * [[Mosjidkur Mosque|Masjid Kur]] in Khulna, Bangladesh * [[Nayabad Mosque|Nayabad Masjid]] in Dinajpur, Bangladesh * [[Ghayebi Dighi Masjid]] in Sylhet, Bangladesh * [[Hussaini Dalan]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Bara Katra]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Hajiganj Fort]] in Narayanganj, Bangladesh * [[Idrakpur Fort]] in Munshiganj, Bangladesh * [[Choto Katra]] in Dhaka, Bangladesh * [[Sonakanda Fort]] in Narayanganj, Bangladesh |valign=top| * [[Gardens of Babur|Bagh-e-Babur]] in Kabul, Afghanistan * Shahjahani Mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan |}

=== Art and literature === {{Main|Mughal painting|Mughal clothing}}

[[File:Finial in the Form of a Parrot, Mughal empire.jpeg|thumb|left|250px|Finial in the form of a parrot, Mughal Empire, 17th century]] The [[Mughal painting|Mughal artistic tradition]], mainly expressed in painted miniatures, as well as small luxury objects, was eclectic, borrowing from Iranian, Indian, Chinese and Renaissance European stylistic and thematic elements.<ref>Crill, Rosemary, and Jariwala, Kapil. ''The Indian Portrait, 1560–1860'', pp. 23–27, [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]], London, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1855144095}}; [[Milo Beach|Beach, Milo Cleveland]] (1987), ''Early Mughal painting'', Harvard University Press, pp. 33–37, {{ISBN|978-0-674-22185-7}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=MmcoF12hi3AC&pg=PA33 google books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164801/https://books.google.com/books?id=MmcoF12hi3AC&pg=PA33 |date=26 March 2023 }}</ref> Mughal emperors often took in Iranian bookbinders, illustrators, painters and calligraphers from the Safavid court due to the commonalities of their Timurid styles, and due to the Mughal affinity for Iranian art and calligraphy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Soucek |first=Priscilla |year=1987 |title=Persian Artists in Mughal India: Influences and Transformations |journal=Muqarnas |volume=4 |pages=166–181 |doi=10.2307/1523102 |jstor=1523102}}</ref> Miniatures commissioned by the Mughal emperors initially focused on large projects illustrating books with eventful historical scenes and court life, but later included more single images for albums, with portraits and animal paintings displaying a profound appreciation for the serenity and beauty of the natural world.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blunt |first=Wilfrid |year=1948 |title=The Mughal Painters of Natural History |journal=The Burlington Magazine |volume=90 |issue=539 |pages=48–50 |jstor=869792}}</ref> For example, Emperor Jahangir commissioned brilliant artists such as [[Ustad Mansur]] to realistically portray unusual flora and fauna throughout the empire.

The literary works Akbar and Jahangir ordered to be illustrated ranged from epics like the ''[[Razmnama]]'' (a Persian translation of the Hindu epic, the ''[[Mahabharata]]'') to historical memoirs or biographies of the dynasty such as the ''[[Baburnama]]'' and ''[[Akbarnama]]'', and ''[[Tuzk-e-Jahangiri]]''. Richly finished albums (''[[muraqqa]]'') decorated with calligraphy and artistic scenes were mounted onto pages with decorative borders and then bound with covers of stamped and gilded or painted and lacquered leather.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sardar |first=Marika |date=October 2003 |title=The Art of the Mughals After 1600 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mugh_2/hd_mugh_2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204014635/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mugh_2/hd_mugh_2.htm |archive-date=4 February 2019 |website=The MET}}</ref> Aurangzeb (1658–1707) was never an enthusiastic patron of painting, largely for religious reasons, and took a turn away from the pomp and ceremonial of the court around 1668, after which he probably commissioned no more paintings.<ref>Losty, J. P. Roy, Malini (eds), ''Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire'', 2013, pp. 147, 149, British Library, {{ISBN|978-0712358705}}</ref>[[File:India, Mughal, early 17th century - An Illuminated Folio from the Royal Manuscript of the Farhang-i Jahangiri ( - 2013.318.a - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|thumb|right|upright|Folio from ''[[Farhang-i-Jahangiri]],'' a Persian dictionary compiled during the Mughal era.]]

=== Language === {{Main|Persian language in the Indian subcontinent|Persian and Urdu|Hindustani language}}

Though the Mughals were of [[Turko-Mongol]] origin, their reign enacted the revival and height of the [[Persian language]] in the Indian subcontinent, and by the end of the 16th-century Turki (Chagatai) was understood by relatively few at court.{{sfn|Seyller|2011|p=329}} Accompanied by literary patronage was the institutionalisation of Persian as an official and courtly language; this led to Persian reaching nearly the status of a first language for many inhabitants of Mughal India.<ref>{{Citation |chapter=2. The Culture and Politics of Persian in Precolonial Hindustan |year=2019 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/9780520926738-007 |title=Literary Cultures in History |pages=158–167 |publisher=University of California Press |doi=10.1525/9780520926738-007 |isbn=978-0-520-92673-8 |s2cid=226770775 |access-date=2021-07-26 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922035426/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520926738-007/html |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Abidi |first1=S. A. H. |chapter=Persian in South Asia |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511619069.007 |title=Language in South Asia |pages=105 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-511-61906-9 |access-date=2021-07-26 |last2=Gargesh |first2=Ravinder |editor1-first=Braj B |editor1-last=Kachru |editor2-first=Yamuna |editor2-last=Kachru |editor3-first=S. N |editor3-last=Sridhar |year=2008 |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511619069.007 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922035429/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/language-in-south-asia/persian-in-south-asia/3D0A3CA09533E586A7375FAA51D5BEE8 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Historian [[Muzaffar Alam]] argues that the Mughals used Persian purposefully as the vehicle of an overarching [[Indo-Persian]] political culture, to unite their diverse empire.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Alam |first=Muzaffar |title=The languages of political Islam : India 1200–1800 |year=2004 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-226-01100-3 |pages=134, 144 |oclc=469379391}}</ref> Persian had a profound impact on the languages of South Asia; one such language, today known as [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]], developed in the imperial capital of Delhi in the late Mughal era. It began to be used as a literary language in the Mughal court from the reign of [[Shah Jahan]], who described it as the language of his ''[[dastan]]s'' (prose romances) and replaced Persian as the informal language of the Muslim elite.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Faruqi |first1=Shamsur Rahman |author-link=Shamsur Rahman Faruqi |editor-last=Pollock |editor-first=Sheldon |year=2003 |chapter=A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture, Part 1: Naming and Placing a Literary Culture |title=Literary Cultures in History |publisher=University of California Press |pages=807–808, 811 |doi=10.1525/9780520926738-019 |isbn=978-0-520-22821-4 |s2cid=226765648}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Urdu |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica |date=6 August 2014 |last=Matthews |first=David |author-link=David Matthews (academic) |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/urdu |access-date=26 July 2021 |archive-date=29 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429160516/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/urdu |url-status=live}}</ref> According to contemporary poet [[Mir Taqi Mir]], "Urdu was the language of Hindustan by the authority of the King."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ6fCwAAQBAJ&dq=sayyids+amroha+court&pg=PT223 |title=Delhi:Pages From a Forgotten History |author=Arthur Dudney |year=2015 |publisher=Hay House |isbn=978-93-84544-31-7 |access-date=19 May 2023 |archive-date=9 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230609122644/https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ6fCwAAQBAJ&dq=sayyids+amroha+court&pg=PT223 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Life, Times and Poetry of Mir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W5yfAgAAQBAJ&dq=urdu+authority+of+the+king&pg=PA4 |author=S. R. Sharma · |page=4 |year=2014 |publisher=Partridge Publishing |isbn=978-1-4828-1478-1 |access-date=19 May 2023 |archive-date=16 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230716061500/https://books.google.com/books?id=W5yfAgAAQBAJ&dq=urdu+authority+of+the+king&pg=PA4 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=February 2026}}

== Military == {{Further|Army of the Mughal Empire|Mughal weapons|Mughal artillery}}

=== Gunpowder warfare === [[File:Officer of the Mughal Army, c.1585 (colour litho).jpg|thumb|Mughal [[matchlock]] rifle, 16th century]] {{See also|Gunpowder empires|History of gunpowder#India and the Mughal Empire|l2=History of gunpowder: India and the Mughal Empire}}Mughal India was one of the three Islamic [[gunpowder empires]], along with the [[Ottoman Empire]] and [[Safavid Persia]].<ref name="Hodgson" />{{sfn|Streusand|2011}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Charles T. Evans |title=The Gunpowder Empires |url=http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his112/Notes/Gunpowder.html |access-date=28 December 2010 |publisher=Northern Virginia Community College |archive-date=26 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526092248/http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his112/Notes/Gunpowder.html |url-status=live }}</ref> By the time he was invited by [[Lodi dynasty|Lodi]] governor of [[Lahore]], [[Daulat Khan Lodi|Daulat Khan]], to support his rebellion against Lodi [[Sultan]] [[Ibrahim Lodi|Ibrahim Khan]], [[Babur]] was familiar with [[gunpowder]] [[firearm]]s and [[field artillery]], and a method for deploying them. Babur had employed Ottoman expert [[Ustad Ali Quli]], who showed Babur the standard Ottoman formation—artillery and firearm-equipped infantry protected by wagons in the centre and the [[mounted archer]]s on both wings. Babur used this formation at the [[First Battle of Panipat]] in 1526, where the [[Afghan (ethnonym)|Afghan]] and [[Rajput]] forces loyal to the [[Delhi Sultanate]], though superior in numbers but without the gunpowder weapons, were defeated. The decisive victory of the Timurid forces is one reason opponents rarely met Mughal princes in pitched battles throughout the empire's history.{{sfn|Streusand|2011|p=255}} In India, guns made of [[bronze]] were recovered from [[Kozhikode|Calicut]] (1504) and [[Diu, India|Diu]] (1533).<ref name="Partington226">{{cite book |last=Partington |first=James Riddick |title=A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekfi00part/page/226 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekfi00part/page/226 226] |year=1999 |orig-year=First published 1960 |place=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-0-8018-5954-0 |author-link=J. R. Partington}}</ref> [[Fathullah Shirazi]] ({{Circa|1582}}), a Persian polymath and mechanical engineer who worked for Akbar, developed an early multi-gun shot. As opposed to the [[polybolos]] and [[repeating crossbow]]s used earlier in [[ancient Greece]] and China, respectively, Shirazi's rapid-firing gun had multiple [[gun barrel]]s that fired [[hand cannon]]s loaded with gunpowder. It may be considered a version of a [[volley gun]].<ref name="Fathullah Shirazi">{{Cite journal |last=Bag |first=A.K. |year=2005 |title=Fathullah Shirazi: Cannon, Multi-barrel Gun and Yarghu |journal=Indian Journal of History of Science |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=431–436 |issn=0019-5235}}</ref>[[File:The Padshahnama, imperial court guards and nobles.jpg|thumb|Mughal [[musketeer]], 17th century]]

By the 17th century, Indians were manufacturing a diverse variety of firearms; large guns, in particular, became visible in [[Tanjore]], [[Dacca]], [[Bijapur]] and [[Murshidabad]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Partington |first=James Riddick |title=A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekfi00part/page/225 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekfi00part/page/225 225] |year=1999 |orig-year=First published 1960 |place=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-0-8018-5954-0}}</ref>

=== Rocketry and explosives === In the sixteenth century, [[Akbar]] was the first to initiate and use metal cylinder [[rocket]]s known as ''bans'', particularly against [[war elephant]]s, during the battle of Sanbal.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Swati Shiwal |author2=Dolamani Sahu |year=2022 |title=Political History of the Mughals: Influence on South Asia |journal=IJRTS Journal of Research |volume=23 |issue=23 |page=113 |url=https://ijrtspublications.org/fileserve.php?FID=235 |access-date=16 July 2024 |language=en |issn=2347-6117}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media |people=[[Andrew Lambert]] and narrator Stephen Kemble |date=6 November 2008 |title=Ancient Discoveries: Ancient Tank Tech |time= |location= |publisher=History Channel |quote=Mughal Emperor Akbar ... in this battle a rocket hits one of the elephants and the inevitable happens, he stampedes, the other elephants stampede, a very large Gujarati army is defeated by a much smaller Mughal army}}</ref> In 1657, the [[Army of the Mughal Empire|Mughal Army]] used rockets during the [[siege of Bidar]].<ref name="Yazdani15">{{cite book |author1=Ghulam Yazdani |title=Bidar: Its History and Monuments |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=8120810716 |page=15 |edition=1 |year=1995}}</ref> Prince Aurangzeb's forces discharged rockets and [[grenade]]s while scaling the walls. Sidi Marjan was mortally wounded when a rocket struck his large gunpowder depot, and after twenty-seven days of hard fighting, [[Bidar]] was captured by the Mughals.<ref name="Yazdani15" />

In ''A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder'', [[James Riddick Partington]] described Indian rockets and [[Explosive weapon|explosive]] [[Land mine|mines]]:<ref name="Partington226" />

<blockquote>The Indian war rockets ... were formidable weapons before such rockets were used in Europe. They had bam-boo rods, a rocket body lashed to the rod and iron points. They were directed at the target and fired by lighting the fuse, but the trajectory was rather erratic. The use of mines and counter-mines with explosive charges of gunpowder is mentioned for the times of Akbar and [[Jahangir]].</blockquote>

== Science == A new curriculum for the [[madrasa]]s that stressed the importance of ''uloom-i-muqalat'' (Rational Sciences) and introduced new subjects such as [[geometry]], medicine, philosophy, and mathematics. The new curriculum produced a series of eminent scholars, engineers and architects.<ref>Khan, Nasir Raza. Art and Architectural Traditions of India and Iran: Commonality and Diversity. Routledge, 2022.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Nasir Raza Khan |title=Art and Architectural Traditions of India and Iran Commonality and Diversity |date=2022 |publisher=Routledge India |isbn=9781032134819 |url=https://www.routledge.com/Art-and-Architectural-Traditions-of-India-and-Iran-Commonality-and-Diversity/Khan/p/book/9781032134819 |access-date=20 March 2024 |quote=... Shirazi and others revised the syllabi of the madrasas. In the new syllabi ...}}</ref>

=== Astronomy === {{See also|Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world|Indian astronomy}} {{cite check|date=March 2026|section|reason=Written by an editor later banned for persistently misrepresenting sources. Only one sentence is fully supported by the sources, four are partially supported, and three are entirely unsupported. Needs a rewrite from the ground up, as does corresponding section of [[Indian astronomy]].}} [[File:Jantar Mantar. New Delhi (Misra Yantra). 2010.jpg|thumb|250x250px|[[Jantar Mantar]] in Delhi, built by [[Sawai Jai Singh|Jai Singh II]]]] While there appears to have been little concern for [[theoretical astronomy]], Mughal [[astronomers]] made advances in [[observational astronomy]] and produced some ''[[Zij]]'' treatises. Humayun built a personal [[observatory]] near Delhi. According to [[Sulaiman Nadvi]], Jahangir and Shah Jahan intended to build observatories too, but were unable to do so. The [[astronomical instruments]] and observational techniques used at the Mughal observatories were mainly derived from [[Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world|Islamic astronomy]].<ref name="Sharma">{{Citation |last=Sharma |first=Virendra Nath |title=Sawai Jai Singh and His Astronomy |url=https://archive.org/details/sawaijaisinghandhisastronomyvirendranathsharmamlbd_214_/page/n1/mode/2up |pages=8–9 |year=1995 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] Publ. |isbn=978-81-208-1256-7}}</ref><ref name="Baber">{{Citation |last=Baber |first=Zaheer |title=The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization, and Colonial Rule in India |pages=82–89 |year=1996 |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |isbn=978-0-7914-2919-8}}</ref> In the 17th century, the Mughal Empire saw a synthesis between Islamic and [[Hindu astronomy]], where Islamic observational instruments were combined with [[Indian mathematics|Hindu computational]] techniques.<ref name="Sharma" /><ref name="Baber" />

During the decline of the Mughal Empire, the Hindu king [[Jai Singh II of Amber]] continued the work of Mughal [[astronomy]]. In the early 18th century, he built several large observatories called [[Jantar Mantar|Yantra Mandirs]], to rival [[Ulugh Beg]]'s [[Samarkand]] [[Ulugh Beg Observatory|observatory]], and to improve on the earlier Hindu computations in the ''[[Surya Siddhanta|Siddhantas]]'' and Islamic observations in ''[[Zij-i-Sultani]]''. The instruments he used were influenced by Islamic astronomy, while the computational techniques were derived from Hindu astronomy.<ref name="Sharma" /><ref name="Baber" />

=== Metallurgy === {{See also|History of metallurgy in the Indian subcontinent|Mughal Karkhanas}}

[[File:Mughal Celestial Globe.jpg|thumb|200px|Celestial Globe by [[Muhammad Saleh Thattvi]], c.1663<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Celestial Globe, Made by Mughal Astrolabist Muhammad Salih of Thatta, Dated 1074 AH/1663 AD |url=https://www.orientalartauctions.com/object/artothe30798-a-celestial-globe-made-by-mughal-astrolabist-muhammad-salih-of-thatta-dated-1074-ah-1663-ad |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=www.orientalartauctions.com}}</ref>]]The society within the Mughal Empire operated the ''Karkhanas'', which functioned as workshops for craftsmen. These Karkhanas were producing arms, ammunition, and also various items for the court and emperor's need such as clothes, shawls, turbans, jewelry, gold and silverware, perfumes, medicines, carpets, beddings, tents, and for the imperial stable-harnesses for the horses in irons, copper and other metals.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Verma |first=Tripta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRntAAAAMAAJ |title=Karkhanas Under the Mughals, from Akbar to Aurangzeb: A Study in Economic Development |date=1994 |publisher=Pragati Publications |isbn=978-81-7307-021-1 |location= |pages=18 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sharma |first=Sri Ram |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7kQ5AQAAIAAJ |title=Mughal Government and Administration |date=1951 |publisher=Hind Kitabs |isbn= |location= |pages=61 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sumit |title=An Eighteenth Century Survey of Jaipur "Chhapakhana" Based on Jaipur "Karkhanajat" Records |date=2012 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44156233 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=73 |pages=421–430 |jstor=44156233 |issn=2249-1937}}</ref>

Another aspect of the remarkable invention in Mughal India is the [[Lost-wax casting|lost-wax cast]], hollow, seamless, [[celestial globe]]. It was invented in [[Kashmir]] by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in 998 [[Anno Hegirae|AH]] (1589–90 CE). Twenty other such [[globe]]s were later produced in [[Lahore]] and Kashmir during the Mughal Empire. Before they were rediscovered in the 1980s, it was believed by modern [[metallurgists]] to be technically impossible to produce hollow metal globes without any [[wikt:seam|seams]].<ref>[[Savage-Smith, Emilie]] (1985), ''Islamicate Celestial Globes: Their History, Construction, and Use'', Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC</ref> A 17th-century celestial globe was also made by Diya' ad-din Muhammad in Lahore, 1668 (now in Pakistan).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Celestial globe |url=https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/collection-search-results/ |access-date=2020-10-15 |website=National Museums Scotland |language=en |archive-date=14 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614075903/https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/collection-search-results/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

== List of emperors == {{Main|List of emperors of the Mughal Empire}}

{| style="width:100%;" class="wikitable" ! style="width:8%;"| Portrait ! style="width:12%;"| Titular Name ! style="width:18%;"| Birth Name ! style="width:9%;"| Birth ! style="width:20%;"| Reign ! style="width:13%;"| Death |- | style="text-align:center;"|1 [[File:Idealized portrait of Babur (1483-1530) in Persian style, painted circa 1605-1615 in India (British Museum 1921,1011,0.3).jpg|frameless|106x106px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Babur {{Uninastaliq|بابر}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Babur|Zahir al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|ظهیر الدین محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|14 February 1483 [[Andijan]], Uzbekistan | style="text-align:center;"| 20 April 1526 – 26 December 1530

| style="text-align:center;"|26 December 1530 (aged 47) [[Agra]], India |- | style="text-align:center;"|2 [[File:Darbar of Humayun, detail, Humayun. Akbarnama, 1602-4, British Library.png|104x104px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Humayun {{Uninastaliq|همایوں}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Humayun|Nasir al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|نصیر الدین محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|6 March 1508 [[Kabul]], Afghanistan | style="text-align:center;"|26 December 1530  – 17 May 1540 22 February 1555 – 27 January 1556

(10 years 3 months 25 days) | style="text-align:center;"|27 January 1556 (aged 47) Delhi, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|3 [[File:Govardhan. Akbar With Lion and Calf ca. 1630, Metmuseum (cropped).jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Akbar {{Uninastaliq|اکبر}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Akbar|Jalal al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|جلال الدین محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|15 October 1542 [[Umerkot]], Pakistan | style="text-align:center;"|11 February 1556 – 27 October 1605 (49 years 9 months 0 days)

| style="text-align:center;"|27 October 1605 (aged 63) Agra, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|4 [[File:Jahangircrop.jpeg|107x107px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Jahangir {{Uninastaliq|جهانگیر}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Jahangir|Nur al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq| نور الدین محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|31 August 1569 Agra, India | style="text-align:center;"|3 November 1605 – 28 October 1627 (21 years 11 months 23 days) | style="text-align:center;"|28 October 1627 (aged 58) [[Bhimber|Bhimber, Azad Kashmir]], [[Pakistan]]<ref name="Allan 1934 p. 398">{{cite book |last1=Allan |first1=J. |last2=Haig |first2=Sir T. Wolsely |last3=Dodwell |first3=H. H. |editor-last=Dodwell |editor-first=H. H. |editor-link=H. H. Dodwell |year=1934 |title=The Cambridge Shorter History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_48AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA398 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=398}}</ref> |- | style="text-align:center;"|5 [[File:Shah Jahan of Mughal empire.jpg|130x130px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Shah Jahan {{Uninastaliq|شاہ جهان}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Shah Jahan|Shihab al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|شهاب الدین محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|5 January 1592 [[Lahore]], Pakistan | style="text-align:center;"|19 January 1628 – 31 July 1658 (30 years 8 months 25 days) | style="text-align:center;"|22 January 1666 (aged 74) Agra, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|6 [[File:The Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"| '''Aurangzeb {{Uninastaliq|اورنگزیب }}''' '''Alamgir {{Uninastaliq|عالمگیر}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Muhi al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|محی الدین محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|3 November 1618 [[Gujarat]], India | style="text-align:center;"|31 July 1658 – 3 March 1707 (48 years 7 months 0 days) | style="text-align:center;"|3 March 1707 (aged 88) [[Ahmednagar]], India |- | style="text-align:center;"|7 [[File:Azam shah (cropped).jpg|125x125px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Azam Shah {{Uninastaliq|اعظم شاه}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Azam Shah|Qutb al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|قطب الدين محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|28 June 1653 [[Burhanpur]], India | style="text-align:center;"|14 March 1707 – 20 June 1707

| style="text-align:center;"|20 June 1707 (aged 53) Agra, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|8 [[File:Bahadur Shah I of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Bahadur Shah {{Uninastaliq|بهادر شاہ}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Bahadur Shah I|Qutb al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|قطب الدین محمد }} | style="text-align:center;"|14 October 1643 Burhanpur, India | style="text-align:center;"|19 June 1707 – 27 February 1712 (4 years, 253 days) | style="text-align:center;"|27 February 1712 (aged 68) Lahore, Pakistan |- | style="text-align:center;"|9 [[File:Jahandar Shah, Mughal Emperor..jpg|131x131px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Jahandar Shah {{Uninastaliq|جهاندار شاہ}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Jahandar Shah|Muiz al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|معز الدین محمد }} | style="text-align:center;"|9 May 1661 Deccan, India | style="text-align:center;"|27 February 1712 – 11 February 1713 (0 years, 350 days) | style="text-align:center;"|12 February 1713 (aged 51) Delhi, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|10[[File:Farrukhsiyar of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Farrukh Siyar {{Uninastaliq|فرخ سیر}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Farrukhsiyar|Muin al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|موئن الدین محمد}} Puppet King Under the [[Sayyid Brothers|Sayyids of Barha]] | style="text-align:center;"|20 August 1685 [[Aurangabad]], India | style="text-align:center;"|11 January 1713 – 28 February 1719 (6 years, 48 days) | style="text-align:center;"|19 April 1719 (aged 33) Delhi, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|11[[File:Rafi ud-Darajat of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Rafi ud-Darajat {{Uninastaliq|رفیع الدرجات}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Rafi ud-Darajat|Shams al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|شمس الدین محمد}} Puppet King Under the [[Sayyid Brothers|Sayyids of Barha]] | style="text-align:center;"|1 December 1699 | style="text-align:center;"|28 February 1719 – 6 June 1719 (0 years, 98 days) | style="text-align:center;"|6 June 1719 (aged 19) Agra, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|12[[File:Shah Jahan II of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Shah Jahan II {{Uninastaliq|شاہ جهان دوم}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Shah Jahan II|Rafi al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|رفع الدين محمد}} Puppet King Under the [[Sayyid Brothers|Sayyids of Barha]] | style="text-align:center;"|5 January 1696 | style="text-align:center;"|6 June 1719 – 17 September 1719 (0 years, 105 days) | style="text-align:center;"|18 September 1719 (aged 23) Agra, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|13[[File:Muhammad Shah of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Muhammad Shah {{Uninastaliq|محمد شاه}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Muhammad Shah|Nasir al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|نصیر الدین محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|7 August 1702 [[Ghazni]], Afghanistan | style="text-align:center;"|27 September 1719 – 26 April 1748 (28 years, 212 days) | style="text-align:center;"|26 April 1748 (aged 45) Delhi, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|14[[File:Ahmad Shah Bahadur of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Ahmad Shah Bahadur {{Uninastaliq|احمد شاہ بهادر}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Ahmad Shah Bahadur|Mujahid al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|مجاهد الدین محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|23 December 1725 Delhi, India | style="text-align:center;"|29 April 1748 – 2 June 1754 (6 years, 37 days) | style="text-align:center"|1 January 1775 (aged 49) Delhi, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|15[[File:Alamgir II of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Alamgir II {{Uninastaliq|عالمگیر دوم}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Alamgir II|Aziz al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|عزیز اُلدین محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|6 June 1699 Burhanpur, India | style="text-align:center;"|3 June 1754 – 29 November 1759 (5 years, 180 days) | style="text-align:center;"|29 November 1759 (aged 60) Kotla Fateh Shah, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|16[[File:Shah Jahan III of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Shah Jahan III {{Uninastaliq|شاه جهان سوم}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Shah Jahan III|Muhi al-Millat]] {{Uninastaliq|محی الملت}} | style="text-align:center;"|1711 | style="text-align:center;"|10 December 1759 – 10 October 1760 (282 days) | style="text-align:center;"|1772 (aged 60–61) |- | style="text-align:center;"|17[[File:Ali Gauhar of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Shah Alam II {{Uninastaliq|شاه عالم دوم}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Shah Alam II|Jalal al-Din Muhammad Ali Gauhar]] {{Uninastaliq|جلال الدین علی گوهر}} | style="text-align:center;"|25 June 1728 Delhi, India | style="text-align:center;"|10 October 1760 – 31 July 1788 (27 years, 301 days) | style="text-align:center;"|19 November 1806 (aged 78) Delhi, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|18[[File:Mughal Emperor Mahmud Shah Bahadur.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Jahan Shah {{Uninastaliq|جهان شاه}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Mahmud Shah Bahadur|Bidar Bakht Mahmud Shah Bahadur Jahan Shah]] {{Uninastaliq| بیدار بخت محمود شاه بهادر جهان شاہ }} Puppet King Under Ghulam Qadir Rogilla | style="text-align:center;"|1749 Delhi, India | style="text-align:center;"|31 July 1788 – 11 October 1788 (63 days) | style="text-align:center;"|1790 (aged 40–41) Delhi, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|17[[File:Ali Gauhar of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Shah Alam II {{Uninastaliq|شاه عالم دوم}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Shah Alam II|Jalal al-Din Muhammad Ali Gauhar]] {{Uninastaliq|جلال الدین علی گوهر}} Puppet monarch under the [[Maratha Confederacy]] | style="text-align:center;"|25 June 1728 Delhi, India | style="text-align:center;"|16 October 1788 – 19 November 1806 (18 years, 339 days) | style="text-align:center;"|19 November 1806 (aged 78) Delhi, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|19[[File:Akbar Shah II of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Akbar Shah II {{Uninastaliq|اکبر شاه دوم}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Akbar II|Muin al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|میرزا اکبر}} Puppet King under the [[East India Company]] | style="text-align:center;"|22 April 1760 [[Mukundpur]], India | style="text-align:center;"|19 November 1806 – 28 September 1837 (30 years, 321 days) | style="text-align:center;"|28 September 1837 (aged 77) Delhi, India |- | style="text-align:center;"|20[[File:Bahadur Shah II of India.jpg|80px]] | style="text-align:center;"|'''Bahadur Shah II Zafar {{Uninastaliq|بهادر شاه ظفر}}''' | style="text-align:center;"|[[Bahadur Shah II|Abu Zafar Siraj al-Din Muhammad]] {{Uninastaliq|ابو ظفر سراج اُلدین محمد}} | style="text-align:center;"|24 October 1775 Delhi, India | style="text-align:center;"|28 September 1837 – 21 September 1857 (19 years, 360 days) | style="text-align:center;"|7 November 1862 (aged 87) [[Rangoon, Myanmar]] |}

== See also == * [[History of India]] * [[Flags of the Mughal Empire]] * [[Foreign relations of the Mughal Empire]] * [[List of Mongol states]] * [[Mughal-Mongol genealogy]] * [[Islam in South Asia]] * [[NCERT textbook controversies]]

== References == === Footnotes === {{notelist}}

=== Citations === {{reflist}}

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Majumdar|url=https://archive.org/details/mughal-empire-r.-c.-majumdar-1974}} * {{Cite book |last=Moosvi |first=Shireen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gAFuAAAAMAAJ |title=The economy of the Mughal Empire, c. 1595: a statistical study |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-19-908549-1 |edition=2nd |orig-year=First published 1987 |access-date=13 June 2019 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922035948/https://books.google.com/books?id=gAFuAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}  * {{Cite book |last=Richards |first=John F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHyVh29gy4QC&pg=PA202 |title=The Mughal Empire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-521-56603-2 |author-link=John F. Richards }} * {{Citation |last=Robb |first=Peter |title=A History of India |year=2011 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |isbn=978-0-230-34424-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GJNKEAAAQBAJ}}  * {{cite journal |title=A Mughal Manuscript of the "Diwan" of Nawa'i |first=John |last=Seyller |journal=Artibus Asiae |volume=71 |year=2011 |issue=2 |pages=325–334 }} * {{Cite journal |last=Sinopoli |first=Carla M. |year=1994 |title=Monumentality and Mobility in Mughal Capitals |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42928323 |journal=Asian Perspectives |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=293–308 |issn=0066-8435 |jstor=42928323 |access-date=11 June 2021 |archive-date=1 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220501200000/https://www.jstor.org/stable/42928323 |url-status=live }} * {{Citation |last1=Stein |first1=Burton |author-link=Burton Stein |editor-last=Arnold |editor-first=David |editor-link=David Arnold (historian) |year=2010 |orig-year=First published 1998 |title=A History of India |url=https://archive.org/details/a-history-of-india-second-edition-2010 |edition=2nd |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-9509-6}}. * {{Cite book |last=Streusand |first=Douglas E. |title=Islamic Gunpowder Empires: Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals |url=https://archive.org/details/islamicgunpowder0000stre |url-access=registration |publisher=Westview Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-8133-1359-7 |location=Philadelphia}} * {{cite book |last1=Streusand |first1=Douglas E. |title=Islamic Gunpowder Empires Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals |date=2018 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780429979217 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j6HsDwAAQBAJ |access-date=24 April 2024 }} * {{Cite book |last=Truschke |first=Audrey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oUUkDwAAQBAJ |title=Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-5036-0259-5}} {{refend}}

== Further reading == {{Refbegin|40em}} * Alam, Muzaffar. ''Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India: Awadh & the Punjab, 1707–48'' (1988) * {{Citation |last=Ali |first=M. Athar |title=The Passing of Empire: The Mughal Case |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=385–396 |year=1975 |doi=10.1017/s0026749x00005825 |jstor=311728 |s2cid=143861682}}, on the causes of its collapse * Black, Jeremy. "The Mughals Strike Twice", ''History Today'' (April 2012) 62#4 pp. 22–26. full text online * {{Citation |last=Blake |first=Stephen P. |title=The Patrimonial-Bureaucratic Empire of the Mughals |date=November 1979 |journal=Journal of Asian Studies |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=77–94 |doi=10.2307/2053505 |jstor=2053505 |s2cid=154527305}} * Dale, Stephen F. ''The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals'' (Cambridge U.P. 2009) * {{Cite book |last=Dalrymple, William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zlEDvkhEmL8C |title=The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty : Delhi, 1857 |publisher=Random House Digital, Inc. |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-307-26739-9}} * {{Citation |last=Faruqui |first=Munis D. |title=The Forgotten Prince: Mirza Hakim and the Formation of the Mughal Empire in India |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=487–523 |year=2005 |doi=10.1163/156852005774918813 |jstor=25165118}}, on Akbar and his brother * Gordon, S. ''[[The New Cambridge History of India]], II, 4: The Marathas 1600–1818'' (Cambridge, 1993). * Habib, Irfan. ''Atlas of the Mughal Empire: Political and Economic Maps'' (1982). * {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzOmy2y0Zh4C |title=A History of Modern India, 1480–1950 |year=2004 |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=978-1-84331-004-4 |editor-last=Markovits |editor-first=Claude |edition=2nd |location=London |orig-year=First published 1994 as ''Histoire de l'Inde Moderne'' |access-date=19 October 2015 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922040049/https://books.google.com/books?id=uzOmy2y0Zh4C |url-status=live}} * {{Citation |last1=Metcalf |first1=B. |title=A Concise History of Modern India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iuESgYNYPl0C |year=2006 |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-68225-1 |last2=Metcalf |first2=T.R. |author-link=Barbara Metcalf |author-link2=Thomas R. Metcalf |access-date=19 October 2015 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702122602/https://books.google.com/books?id=iuESgYNYPl0C |url-status=live}} * {{Cite book |last=Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hmagAAAAMAAJ |title=The Mughul Empire |publisher=B.V. Bhavan |year=1974}} * {{Citation |last=Richards |first=J.F. |title=Mughal State Finance and the Premodern World Economy |date=April 1981 |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=285–308 |doi=10.1017/s0010417500013311 |jstor=178737 |s2cid=154809724}} * {{Citation |last=Robb |first=P. |title=A History of India |year=2001 |location=London |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-0-333-69129-8}} * Srivastava, Ashirbadi Lal. ''The Mughul Empire, 1526–1803'' (1952) online.

=== Culture === * Berinstain, V. ''Mughal India: Splendour of the Peacock Throne'' (London, 1998). * Busch, Allison. ''Poetry of Kings: The Classical Hindi Literature of Mughal India'' (2011) [https://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Kings-Classical-Literature-Research/dp/0199765928/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339157925&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529164539/http://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Kings-Classical-Literature-Research/dp/0199765928/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339157925&sr=1-2 |date=29 May 2016 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Parodi |first1=Laura E. |title=Kabul, a Forgotten Mughal Capital: Gardens, City, and Court at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century |journal=Muqarnas Online |year=2021 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=113–153 |doi=10.1163/22118993-00381P05 |s2cid=245040517}} * {{Cite book |last1=Diana Preston |url=https://archive.org/details/tajmahalpassiong00pres |title=Taj Mahal: Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire |last2=Michael Preston |year=2007 |publisher=Walker & Company |isbn=978-0-8027-1673-6 |url-access=registration}} * [[Annemarie Schimmel|Schimmel, Annemarie]]. ''The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture'' (Reaktion 2006) * {{Cite book |last=Welch, S.C. |url=http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/114935/rec/401 |title=The Emperors' album: images of Mughal India |publisher=The [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-87099-499-9 |location=New York |display-authors=etal |access-date=9 October 2013 |archive-date=27 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927100257/http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/114935/rec/401 |url-status=live}}

=== Society and economy === * {{Citation |last=Chaudhuri |first=K.N. |title=Some Reflections on the Town and Country in Mughal India |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=77–96 |year=1978 |doi=10.1017/s0026749x00008155 |jstor=311823 |s2cid=146558617}} * Habib, Irfan. ''Atlas of the Mughal Empire: Political and Economic Maps'' (1982). * Habib, Irfan. ''Agrarian System of Mughal India'' (1963, revised edition 1999). * {{cite book |author1=J. C. Sharman |title=Empires of the Weak: The Real Story of European Expansion and the Creation of the New World Order |date=2019 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0691182797 |language=En}} * {{Citation |last=Heesterman |first=J.C. |title=The Social Dynamics of the Mughal Empire: A Brief Introduction |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=292–297 |year=2004 |doi=10.1163/1568520041974729 |jstor=25165051}} * {{Citation |last=Khan |first=Iqtidar Alam |title=The Middle Classes in the Mughal Empire |journal=Social Scientist |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=28–49 |year=1976 |doi=10.2307/3516601 |jstor=3516601}} * {{cite book |series=世界の歴史14 |title=ムガル帝国から英領インドへ |trans-title=From the Mughal Empire to British India |author1=Masanori Sato (佐藤正哲) |author2=Nariaki Nakazato (中里成章) |author3=Tsukasa Mizushima (水島司) |publisher=中央公論社 |year=1998 |url=https://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/f/dsg-01-9784122051263 |language=Ja}} ** second publishment {{cite book |title=ムガル帝国から英領インドへ |trans-title=From the Mughal Empire to British India |series=Chuokoron-Shinsha World History 14 |year=2009}} * Rothermund, Dietmar. ''An Economic History of India: From Pre-Colonial Times to 1991'' (1993) * {{cite book |author1=Oleg Igorevich Krassov |author1-link=Oleg Krassov |title=Land Law in Asian Countries |date=2022 |publisher=Norma |isbn=9785001562566 |page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lSaJEAAAQBAJ |access-date=18 April 2024 |language=En |format=ebook}}

=== Primary sources === * {{Cite book |last=Bernier |first=Francois |url=https://archive.org/stream/travelsinmogulem00bernuoft#page/ii/mode/2up |title=Travels in the Mogul Empire, A.D. 1656–1668 |location=London |publisher=Archibald Constable |year=1891 |author-link=François Bernier}} * Hiro, Dilip, ed, ''Journal of Emperor Babur'' (Penguin Classics 2007) ** ''The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor'' ed. by W.M. Thackston Jr. (2002); this was the first autobiography in Islamic literature * Jackson, A.V. et al., eds. ''History of India'' (1907) v. 9. Historic accounts of India by foreign travellers, classic, oriental, and occidental, by A.V.W. Jackson [https://archive.org/details/historyofindia09jackiala online edition] * {{Cite book |last=Jouher |url=https://archive.org/stream/tezkerehalvakiat00jawhuoft#page/n7/mode/2up |title=The Tezkereh al vakiat or Private Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor Humayun Written in the Persian language by Jouher A confidential domestic of His Majesty |location=London |publisher=John Murray |others=Translated by Major Charles Stewart |year=1832}}

=== Older histories === * Elliot, Sir H.M., Edited by Dowson, John. ''[[The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period]]''; published by London Trubner Company 1867–1877. (Online Copy at [[Packard Humanities Institute]] – Other Persian Texts in Translation; historical books: Author List and Title List) * {{Cite book |last=Adams |first=W.H. Davenport |url=https://archive.org/stream/warriorsofcresce00adamuoft#page/n9/mode/2up |title=Warriors of the Crescent |location=London |publisher=Hutchinson |year=1893}} * {{Cite book |last=Holden |first=Edward Singleton |url=https://archive.org/stream/mogulemperorsofh00hold#page/n9/mode/2up |title=The Mogul emperors of Hindustan, A.D. 1398–A.D. 1707 |location=New York |publisher=C. Scribner's Sons |year=1895 |author-link=Edward Singleton Holden}} * {{Cite book |last=Malleson |first=G.B. |url=https://archive.org/stream/akbarriseofmugha00mallrich#page/n5/mode/2up |title=Akbar and the rise of the Mughal empire |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1896}} * {{Cite book |last1=Manucci |first1=Niccolao |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofmoguldy00manurich#page/n5/mode/2up |title=History of the Mogul dynasty in India, 1399–1657 |last2=tr. from French by [[François Catrou]] |location=London |publisher=J.M. Richardson |year=1826 |author-link=Niccolao Manucci}} * {{Cite book |last=Lane-Poole |first=Stanley |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofindia04jackuoft#page/n9/mode/2up |title=History of India: From Reign of Akbar the Great to the Fall of Moghul Empire (Vol. 4) |location=London |publisher=Grolier society |year=1906 |author-link=Stanley Lane-Poole}} * {{Cite book |last1=Manucci |first1=Niccolao |url=https://archive.org/stream/storiadomogororm01manuuoft#page/n7/mode/2up |title=Storia do Mogor; or, Mogul India 1653–1708, Vol. 1 |last2=tr. by [[William Irvine (historian)|William Irvine]] |location=London |publisher=J. Murray |year=1907 |author-link=Niccolao Manucci}} * {{Cite book |last1=Manucci |first1=Niccolao |url=https://archive.org/stream/storiadomogororm02manuuoft#page/n7/mode/2up |title=Storia do Mogor; or, Mogul India 1653–1708, Vol. 2 |last2=tr. by William Irvine |location=London |publisher=J. Murray |year=1907 |author-link=Niccolao Manucci}} * {{Cite book |last1=Manucci |first1=Niccolao |url=https://archive.org/stream/storiadomogororm03manuuoft#page/n9/mode/2up |title=Storia do Mogor; or, Mogul India 1653–1708, Vol. 3 |last2=tr. by William Irvine |location=London |publisher=J. Murray |year=1907 |author-link=Niccolao Manucci}} * {{Cite book |last=Owen |first=Sidney J |url=https://archive.org/stream/fallofmogulempir00owenuoft#page/n5/mode/2up |title=The Fall of the Mogul Empire |location=London |publisher=J. Murray |year=1912}} {{Refend}}

== External links == {{sister project links|voy=Mughal Empire|n=no|d=yes}} * [http://www.mughalindia.co.uk/index.html Mughal India] an interactive experience from the [[British Museum]] * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y27h The Mughal Empire], BBC Radio 4 discussion with Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Susan Stronge & Chandrika Kaul (''In Our Time'', 26 February 2004) * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wq1fh Sunil Khilnani's "Akbar"], From BBC Radio 4's Incarnations: India in 50 Lives.

[[Category:Mughal Empire| ]] [[Category:States and territories established in 1526]] [[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1857]] [[Category:Former monarchies in Afghan history]] [[Category:Early modern history of India]] [[Category:1526 establishments in Asia]] [[Category:1857 disestablishments in Asia]] [[Category:Former monarchies of India]] [[Category:Former monarchies in Pakistani history]] [[Category:1526 establishments in India]]