Mughal Emperors

Mughal Emperors

The Mughal era is a historic period of the Mughal Empire in South Asia (mainly Northern India, North Eastern Pakistan and Bangladesh) that was ruled by members of the Timurid Dynasty. It ran from the early 15th century to the early 18th century when the Mughal emperors' power dwindled. It ended in several generations of conflicts between rival warlords.

The imperial family descended from two of the world's greatest conquerors: Genghis Khan, founder of the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world; and the Amir, Taimurlong or Tamerlane the Great. Due to descent from Genghis Khan, the family was called Mughal, or mogul, the Persianized version of the former's clan name Mongol. The English word mogul (e.g. media mogul, business mogul), meaning influential or powerful, or a tycoon, was derived from the name of this dynasty. From their descent from Tamerlane, also called the Amir, the family used the title of Mirza, shortened Amirzade, literally meaning 'born of the Amir'. The burial places of the emperors illustrate their expanding empire, as the first emperor Babur, born in Uzbekistan is buried in Afghanistan, his sons and grandsons, namely Akbar the Great and Jahangir in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh respectively, and later descendants, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb in Hindustan. The last emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar is buried in Burma.

They were also a prominent influence of literature in Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali. They have been continuously portrayed in many films, the most famous of which, multi-million dollar Mughal-e-Azam about Emperor Jahangir's love story; considered an Indian classic and epic film and also the Bollywood film Jodhaa Akbar about Emperor Akbar's (Emperor Jahangir's father) love story. Emperor Jahangir's son was the Prince Khurram who later went on to become Emperor Shah Jahan and built one of the seven Wonders of the World, the famous Taj Mahal to memorialize his love for his wife.