Mohammad Aurangzeb, greatest of the Grand Moghul emperors of the Subcontinent

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On November 4, 1618 AD, the sixth and greatest of the Grand Moghul emperors of the Subcontinent and eastern Afghanistan, Mohi ud-Din Mohammad Aurangzeb, was born in the reign of his grandfather, Emperor Jahangir, in Dahod, Gujarat, where his father, Shahjahan (then Prince Khorram) was governor.
His mother Arjmand Bano Mumtaz Mahal, a granddaughter of the statesman, Mirza Ghiyas Beg Tehrani titled E'temad od-Dowla, is that cultured lady of Iranian ancestry, in whose love and memory, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal Mausoleum – a wonder of the world in white marble.
Aurangzeb proclaimed himself Emperor with the title Alamgir (World-Grasper) after defeating and executing his three brothers and imprisoning his father. During his 50-year reign, the empire reached its zenith, 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 Myanmar (Burma) in the east.
Revenues from these vast lands made Aurangzeb the richest monarch of his time, especially after his conquest of the Golconda-Hyderabad Shi'ite Muslim sultanate of Iranian origin (Qara Qoyunlu), whose king Abu'l-Hassan Qutb Shah surrendered his vast treasure including such fabulous diamonds as Hope Diamond, Regent Diamond, Nour al-Ain and Darya-e Nour (the last two presently in the Iranian treasury after Nader Shah brought them from India).
Although Aurangzeb's relations with Shah Abbas II of Safavid Iran were uneasy, his help was sought against the Austrians by the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman II. His death in 1707 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 protأ©gأ© of Shah Ismail I, the Founder of Iran's Safavid Empire.