|
Aurangzeb, the Moghul Emperor of India
Compiled by: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On July 31, 1658 AD, Mohi ud-Din Mohammad Aurangzeb proclaimed himself the 6th Grand Moghul Emperor of the Subcontinent after defeating and executing his brothers and imprisoning his father, Shah Jahan – the builder of the famous monument Taj Mahal.
He took the title of Alamgir or Word-Grasper and during his 50-year reign the empire reached the zenith of expansion, stretching from Afghanistan in the north to the southernmost tip of India, and from the borders of Iran in the west to the borders of Burma-Bangladesh in the east.
Born of an Iranian mother, Arjomand Banu Begum Mumtaz Mahal, the granddaughter of E'temad od-Dowla Mirza Ghiyas Beg Tehrani, he was prolific both in Arabic and Persian, and carried on correspondence with the Safavid Shahs of the Persian Empire the Turkish Sultans of the Ottoman Empire.
His death brought about the rapid decline of Moghul power in India founded by the famous Central Asian adventurer Zahir od-Din Babur – a great grandson of the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur and protégé of Shah Ismael I, the Founder of Iran's Safavid Dynasty.
|
