Indian Turkish-Mongol (Mughal) ruler (B. January 5th, 1592,
Lahor –D. January 22nd, 1666, Agra).
He was the son of Jahangir and his real name was Hürrem. He is also known as
Prince Hürrem. He is the grandson of Timur through Babür Shah, the founder of
the dynasty, and Genghis Khan through his maternal line and Jochi Khan. While
he was a prince, he did important services. When he was the governor of Dekkan,
he managed to establish his domination on many states, primarily Nizam Shahi, Qutb
Shahi and Adil Shahi dynasties and thus gained the title “Shah Jahan”.
Afterwards, he rose against his father but he got defeated. With the help of
his father-in-law Asaf Khan, in the fight for throne that emerged upon the
death of his father, he eliminated his brother Shahryar and ascended to the
throne in Agra
(1628).
In the first years of his sultanate, Shah Jahan removed the Uzbeks from Afghanistan and
took back the Gurkanli lands that were held by Nizam Shahi and after a short
while he completely eliminated the Nizam Shahi state (1633). Defeating the
Portuguese, who had captured some of the coastal cities of Bengal,
and by the treaty he signed with Qutb Shahi and Adil Shahi, he had his
sovereignty accepted by these two states (1636). Although again around those
times, he sent an ambassador to Istanbul in
order to receive the cooperation of Ottoman Sultan Murad IV against Iran he could
not accomplish a result from this initiative. The following year, he established
his domination over Little Tibet and prevented the raids on Kashmir.
He marched on Kabul with a large army after
taking Kandahar
back. However, because he did not want to struggle with the Uzbeks, he turned
back after having declared to İmam Kulu Khan that he had not wanted to conquer
the old Timurid lands. However, after a while, as the relations got tense in
the period of the Uzbek ruler Nezir Muhammad, who succeeded İmam Kulu Khan, he
sent an army under the command of his son Murat Baksh that captured Badakhshan
and Balkh and
added these cities to the empire (1646). On the other hand, he thought that it
would be difficult for him to rule these lands and thus he gave back these two
cities to Uzbeks on the condition that they acknowledged his sovereignty.
Iran Shah Abbas II took over Kandahar
in 1649. In spite of the fact that Shah Jahan defeated the Safevid armies in Kabul (1652) Kandahar
remained under the rule of Iranians. This incident caused the Qutb Shahi and
Adil Shahi to revolt again (1655). Although his son Aurangzeb took action and
subjugated them (1657), his sons Dara Shikoh, Shuja, Murat Baksh and Aurangzeb
started to fight for the throne as Shah Jahan, who was very old, fell ill.
Dara, who was proclaimed by his father as his successor, and his other brothers
were eliminated by his other son Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb, who ascended to the
throne (1658), had also Shah Jahan secluded in Agrâ
Palace.
Shah Jahan is mostly known with his legendary love. The father of his
wife Arjumand Banu, was one of the highest nobles of the kingdom and she was
also the sister of Nur Jehan, the mother-in-law of Shah Jahan. Mümtaz Mahal was
actually Shah Jahan’s third but most beloved wife. Mümtaz Mahal died in 1631
when she was giving birth to their fourteenth child, Gauhara Begüm. Upon her
death, Shah Jahan had the legendary monumental tomb, Taj Mahal, built in Agra.
Taj Mahal, which is accepted as one of the Seven
Wonders of the World, was completed in 1652, 20 years after the
beginning of its construction in 1632. Two of the architects that gave rise to
this unique structure were İsa Mehmet Çelebi, one of the students of Mimar
Sinan, and Samarkandi Mehmet Sharif, who was invited to Agra to help İsa Mehmet Çelebi. The person
responsible for the construction of the dome was again İsmail Çelebi, one of
the students of Mimar Sinan. Beautiful writings that were written on the walls
by carving the marble are the works of calligraphist Settar Efendi from Istanbul.
Shah Jahan faced a lot of ancestral difficulties and struggled with
domestic revolts and rivalry in the dynasty. However, unarguably he had brought
a golden age for Babur and Timurid culture. He supported many poets and
miniature crafters in his era and led to the creation of Babur school of Indian miniature craft. However,
unarguably he gave the greatest support to architectural works that he was fond
of. He had forts, mausoleums, palaces, mosques and madrasahs built all along
the country. “Shahjahanabad”, which is today Delhi, was also founded by this ruler.
However the power struggle within the dynasty caused his dethronement
while he was still alive. In a short while after the completion of Taj Mahal he
was dethroned by his son Alamgir (Aurangzeb) on the grounds that he went insane
and he was put under room confinement in Agra Fort by his son. According to the
legend, he spent the rest of his days by watching Taj Mahal from a small
window. After his death he was buried in Taj Mahal, next to the love of his
life, Mümtaz Mahal.
The Indian-Mughal Empire experienced its prime period during the thirty
years of Shah Jahan’s rule. Shah Jahan, who was a good commander and a strong
statesman, gave importance to public works and agriculture and adamantly
protected the commercial interests of his country against the imperialist
Europeans. Aside from the arrangements he made in civil and military
institutions, he improved the agriculture by having a vast channel network
built and played a significant role in the increase of the country’s welfare.
Many forts, palaces, mosques and mausoleums apart from Taj Mahal were built in
his period.