Mughal Empire

Not to be confused with the Mongol Empire or Moghulistan. For other uses, see Mughal (disambiguation).

Mughal Empire
1526–1857
Mughal
The empire at its greatest extent in c. 1700 under Aurangzeb
StatusEmpire
Capital
Official languages
Common languagesSee Languages of South Asia
Religion
GovernmentMonarchy
Emperor 
• 1526–1530 (first)
Babur
• 1837–1857 (last)
Bahadur Shah II
Vicegerent 
• 1526–1540 (first)
Mir Khalifa
• 1794–1818 (last)
Daulat Rao Sindhia
Grand Vizier 
• 1526–1540 (first)
Nizam-ud-din Khalifa
• 1775–1797 (last)
Asaf-ud-Daula
Historical eraEarly modern
21 April 1526
17 May 1540–22 June 1555
5 November 1556
21 April 1526–3 April 1752
1680–1707
1738–1740
21 September 1857
• Mughal Emperor exiled to Burma
7 October 1858
Area
1690[2][3]4,000,000 km2 (1,500,000 sq mi)
Population
• 1595
125,000,000[4]
• 1700
158,000,000[5]
CurrencyRupee, Taka, dam[6]
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Delhi Sultanate
Sur Empire
British Raj
Today part ofIndia
Pakistan
Bangladesh
Afghanistan

The Mughal Empire was an 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 highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of the Deccan Plateau in South India.[7]

The Mughal Empire is conventionally said to have been founded in 1526 by Babur, a Timurid chieftain from Transoxiana, who employed aid from the neighbouring Safavid and Ottoman Empires[8] to defeat the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi, in the First Battle of Panipat, and to sweep down the plains of North India. The Mughal imperial structure, however, is sometimes dated to 1600, to the rule of Babur's grandson, Akbar.[9] This imperial structure lasted until 1720, shortly after the death of the last major emperor, Aurangzeb,[10][11] 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,[12][13][14] it did not vigorously suppress the cultures and peoples it came to rule; rather it equalized and placated them through new administrative practices,[15][16] and diverse ruling elites, leading to more efficient, centralised, and standardized rule.[17] The base of the empire's collective wealth was agricultural taxes, instituted by the third Mughal emperor, Akbar.[18][19] These taxes, which amounted to well over half the output of a peasant cultivator,[20] were paid in the well-regulated silver currency,[17] and caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.[21]

The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion.[22] 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.[23] There was more conspicuous consumption among the Mughal elite,[24] resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture, especially during the reign of Shah Jahan.[25] Among the Mughal UNESCO World Heritage Sites in South Asia are: Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Red Fort, Humayun's Tomb, Lahore Fort, Shalamar Gardens, and the Taj Mahal, which is described as "the jewel of Muslim art in India, and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."[26]

  1. ^ Sinopoli 1994, p. 294.
  2. ^ Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D. (2006). "East–West Orientation of Historical Empires and Modern States". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 219–229. doi:10.5195/JWSR.2006.369. ISSN 1076-156X.
  3. ^ Rein Taagepera (September 1997). "Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia". International Studies Quarterly. 41 (3): 475–504. doi:10.1111/0020-8833.00053. ISSN 0020-8833. JSTOR 2600793. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  4. ^ Dyson, Tim (2018). A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day. Oxford University Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-0-19-256430-6. We have seen that there is considerable uncertainty about the size of India's population c.1595. Serious assessments vary from 116 to 145 million (with an average of 125 million). However, the true figure could even be outside of this range. Accordingly, while it seems likely that the population grew over the seventeenth century, it is unlikely that we will ever have a good idea of its size in 1707.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference borocz was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Richards 1995, pp. 73–74.
  7. ^ Stein 2010, pp. 159–. Quote: "The realm so defined and governed was a vast territory of some 750,000 square miles [1,900,000 km2], ranging from the frontier with Central Asia in northern Afghanistan to the northern uplands of the Deccan plateau, and from the Indus basin on the west to the Assamese highlands in the east."
  8. ^ Gilbert, Marc Jason (2017), South Asia in World History, Oxford University Press, p. 62, ISBN 978-0-19-066137-3, retrieved 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."
  9. ^ 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."
  10. ^ 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."
  11. ^ Richards 1995, p. xv. Quote: "By the latter date (1720) the essential structure of the centralized state was disintegrated beyond repair."
  12. ^ 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."
  13. ^ 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."
  14. ^ Gilbert, Marc Jason (2017), South Asia in World History, Oxford University Press, pp. 75–, ISBN 978-0-19-066137-3, archived from the original on 22 September 2023, retrieved 15 July 2019 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."
  15. ^ Asher & Talbot 2006, p. 115.
  16. ^ Robb 2011, pp. 99–100.
  17. ^ a b Asher & Talbot 2006, pp. 152–.
  18. ^ Stein 2010, pp. 164–. Quote: "The resource base of Akbar's new order was land revenue"
  19. ^ 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."
  20. ^ 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."
  21. ^ 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."
  22. ^ 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."
  23. ^ 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."
  24. ^ 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."
  25. ^ 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."
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference Centre was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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