Empire Of The Moghul Series
Vivien
Empire of the Moghul is a series of historical fiction novels written by Alex Rutherford (the pen name for Diana and Michael Preston). The series consists of six volumes covering the rise and height of the Moghul Empire in medieval India.[1][2]
The first book in the Empire of the Moghul series introduces Babur, a charismatic warrior and ruler of Ferghana, a kingdom north of Afghanistan, a leader determined to emulate his ancestors at all costs.
It is 1494, and the new ruler of Ferghana, twelve-year-old Babur, faces a seemingly impossible challenge. Babur is determined to equal his great ancestor, Tamburlaine, whose conquests stretched from Delhi to the Mediterranean, from wealthy Persia to the wild Volga. But he is dangerously young to inherit a crown and treasonous plots, tribal rivalries, rampaging armies and ruthlessly ambitious enemies will threaten his destiny, his kingdom, even his survival.
The year is 1530, Agra, Northern India and Humayun is the newly-crowned second Moghul Emperor, is a fortunate man. His father, Babur, has bequeathed him wealth, glory and an empire which stretches a thousand miles south from the Khyber pass; he must now build on his legacy, and make the Moghuls worthy of their forebear, Tamburlaine. But, unbeknown to him, Humayun is already in grave danger. His half-brothers are plotting against him; they doubt that he has the strength, the will, the brutality needed to command the Moghul armies and lead them to still-greater glories. Perhaps they are right. Soon Humayun will be locked in a terrible battle: not only for his crown, not only for his life, but for the existence of the very empire itself.
The Empire is an Indian television adaptation of the books created by Nikkhil Advani for Disney+ Hotstar.[9] The first season of the series adapts first volume of the novel series and stars Kunal Kapoor, Drashti Dhami, Shabana Azmi, and Dino Morea among others. The first season debuted on August 27, 2021 on Disney+ Hotstar and Hotstar globally.[10]
Raiders from the North ushers in a bold, panoramic new historical series that tells the unknown story of the Moghul emperors, chronicling the rise and fall of one of the most powerful, opulent, and glittering dynasties in history.
Descended from the legendary Tamburlaine, the Moghuls rose out of Central Asia in the 16th century. Raiders from the North tells the astounding story of their young king, who led his warriors against rampaging armies and ruthlessly ambitious enemies to found an empire that would dominate the continent. Full of action, drama, and character, with epic battles, incredible journeys, and lives ravaged by treachery, this is the perfect book for fans of fast-paced tales of adventure during some of the most tumultuous eras in history.
Under Akbar the Great, the empire grew considerably, and continued to expand until the end of Aurangzeb's rule. Jahangir, the son of Akbar, ruled the empire between 1605 and 1627. When Shah Jahan, Jehangir's son, became emperor in October 1627, the empire was large and wealthy enough to be considered one of the greatest empires in the world at that time. It was Shah Jahan who commissioned the building that represents the pinnacle of Mughal architectural achievement, the Taj Mahal, between 1630 and 1653. Sponsors of art and of learning, the Mughals left a rich heritage of buildings, paintings and literature. Their beautiful gardens (jahanara) representing a taste of heaven on earth, and the sanctity of nature which in the Qur'an praises God (Q34: 10), remain an impressive part of their heritage.
Maintaining the Mughal lifestyle meant higher taxes, from which the taxpayers derived no benefit. Little money was invested in agricultural or technological development. Economic prosperity was regarded as a threat to the security of the state, and so was discouraged (the more wealthy people could purchase arms and rebel). Local governors took advantage of this to virtually declare independence from the center, soon aided and abetted by the British and French. Under an initial treaty with the Mughals in 1616, the British first built factories; by 1765 in the Treaty of Allahabad they acquired tax raising and administrative power in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, after which the Mughal emperor became their puppet. They dissolved the empire in 1857, having already gained control of substantial territory in India, winning the competition against the French and Dutch. At times, the Mughals experimented in establishing good inter-religious relations with the non-Hindu majority, employing Hindus in senior posts. At other times, religious zealousness resulted in the destruction of temples and of Hindu images and in the imposition of harsh taxes. The positive aspect of their legacy still contributes to interfaith harmony in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but the negative aspect fuels inter-community (communitarian) hatred and even violence. Lessons can be learned from the Mughal legacy on how to govern multi-racial, multi-religious societies.
Under Aurangzeb, Mughal court life changed dramatically. According to his interpretation, Islam did not allow music, so he banished court musicians, dancers, and singers. Further, based on Muslim precepts forbidding images, he stopped the production of representational artwork, including the miniature paintings for which the Mughals are renowned.
The Mughal Emperors persecuted several of the Sikh Gurus, and Jehangir executed the fifth Guru. Even the Taj Mahal is reputedly built on a sacred Hindu site, although this is disputed. At times, popular Sufi teachers such as attracted Hindu and Muslim disciples while some Hindu gurus were also popular among Muslims. Many Sufi shrines are still visited by Hindus as well as Muslims.
The Mughals used the mansabdar system to generate land revenue. The emperor would grant revenue rights to a mansabdar in exchange for promises of soldiers in wartime. The greater the size of the land the emperor granted, the greater the number of soldiers the mansabdar or Zamindars had to promise. The mansab was both revocable and non-hereditary; this gave the center a fairly large degree of control over the mansabdars. As a result of increasingly heavy taxation (initially the Mughals had not overtaxed), revolt was encouraged as local people objected to the amount of money spent on the lavish Mughal court. Initially, this also encouraged economic development, establishing a strong system of banking and credit, and issuing paper money. Increasingly, however, they bled the country of its wealth to feed their lifestyle. Ignoring development, they failed to keep pace with the developments of the rest of the world, including those of weapon technology.
Babur, a seasoned military commander, entered India in 1526 with his well-trained veteran army of twelve thousand to meet the sultan's huge but unwieldy and disunited force of more than 100,000 men. Babur defeated the Lodi sultan decisively at Panipat (in modern-day Haryana, about 90 kilometers north of Delhi). Employing gun carts, movable artillery, and superior cavalry tactics, Babur achieved a resounding victory. A year later, he decisively defeated a Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sangha. In 1529 Babur routed the joint forces of Afghans and the sultan of Bengal but died in 1530 before he could consolidate his military gains. He left behind as legacies his memoirs (Baburnama), several beautiful gardens in Kabul and Lahore, and descendants who would fulfill his dream of establishing an empire in the Indian Subcontinent.
Akbar built a walled capital called Fatehpur Sikri (Fatehpur means town of victory) near Agra, starting in 1571. Palaces for each of Akbar's senior queens, a huge artificial lake, and sumptuous water-filled courtyards were built there. It incorporated the tomb of the Sufi saint, whom he revered, Shaikh Salim Chisti (1418-1572), who had predicted the birth of his son. The city, however, proved short-lived, with the capital being moved to Lahore in 1585. The reason may have been that the water supply in Fatehpur Sikri was insufficient or of poor quality, or, as some historians believe, that Akbar had to attend to the northwest areas of his empire and therefore moved his capital northwest. In 1599 Akbar shifted his capital back to Agra, from where he reigned until his death.
Akbar adopted two distinct but effective approaches in administering a large territory and incorporating various ethnic groups into the service of his realm. In 1580 he obtained local revenue statistics for the previous decade in order to understand details of productivity and price fluctuation of different crops. Aided by Raja Todar Mal, a Rajput king, Akbar issued a revenue schedule that the peasantry could tolerate while providing maximum profit for the state. Revenue demands, fixed according to local conventions of cultivation and quality of soil, ranged from one-third to one-half of the crop and were paid in cash. Akbar relied heavily on land-holding zamindars. They used their considerable local knowledge and influence to collect revenue and to transfer it to the treasury, keeping a portion in return for services rendered. Within his administrative system, the warrior aristocracy (mansabdars) held ranks (mansabs) expressed in numbers of troops, and indicating pay, armed contingents, and obligations. The warrior aristocracy was generally paid from revenues of nonhereditary and transferable jagirs (revenue villages).
Akbar's empire supported vibrant intellectual and cultural life. A large imperial library included books in Hindi, Persian, Greek, Kashmiri, English, and Arabic, such as the Shahnameh, Bhagavata Purana and the Bible. Akbar sought knowledge and truth wherever it could be found and through a wide range of activities. He regularly sponsored debates and dialogs among religious and intellectual figures with differing views, building a special chamber for these discussions at Fatehpur Sikri and he welcomed Jesuit missionaries from Goa to his court. Akbar directed the creation of the Hamzanama, an artistic masterpiece that included 1,400 large paintings.
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