The History of the Mughal Empire | 1526CE - 1857CE | Al Muqaddimah

On the fringes of the subcontinent of India, there are two countries with a Muslim majority. On the west, there's Pakistan and on the east, there's Bangladesh. Both of these countries, as well as the huge minority of Muslims living in India, have one dynasty to thank for their Muslim faith. The Mughal dynasty. This video is sponsored by Magellan TV. Magellan TV, as you might know, is a streaming service founded by passionate and talented filmmakers. You can find a lot of documentaries and shows on various types of history and not just history but other genres too. Other than history, I enjoy their science shows a lot. They're adding new shows all the time which you can enjoy on all sorts of devices. Also, best of all, there are no ads and an increasing percentage of the shows is now available in 4K with no additional cost. They were kind enough to offer Al Muqaddimah viewers an extended free month-long trial which you can take advantage of by clicking the link in the description. I would personally strongly recommend their documentary, Promises and Betrayals, which talks about the British double dealings in the aftermath of World War I that led to many of the problems in the Middle East today. Another one that I would recommend is Iran 100-Year War which takes a look into how the previous century has led to the current situation of Iran and how all of it impacts Iranian daily life. Also, I would like to mention that this video is part of a bigger collaboration called The Discovery of India between various YouTube history channels. All of us have made videos covering various aspects of Indian history. Link is in the description. Be sure to check out the whole playlist. Let's get started. Back in the 8th century, the Umayyad Caliphate had conquered Sindh in what is today Pakistan. However, India was too distant to control and subsequent Caliphs were unable to exercise control over it or expand further. Then, in the 11th century, Mahmud of Ghazni invaded India and established a permanent Turkic regime there after taking Lahore in 1030. After the collapse of his empire, various dynasties ruled Northern India, collectively called the Delhi Sultanate. Although none was very successful for very long. Hikma History has made a video about the Muslim invasion of India as a part of the collaboration. You should check that out. The last of these dynasties was the Lodhi dynasty. However, in 1526, a Timurid prince named Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur with nothing to lose and no options left in Central Asia decided to invade India. Babur was a 5th generation descendant of Tamerlane and a 13th generation descendant of Genghis Khan. Like many other Timurid princes, he claimed the entirety of Timur's empire. However, he was barely even able to control the Ferghana Valley. He was pushed south from there by the rise of the Uzbeks until he established his seat of power in Kabul. With the Safavids to the west and the Uzbeks to the north, he had nowhere to go but east. East was India. In 1526, he faced the ruling Lodhi dynasty at Panipat. Despite the rather overwhelming odds, he defeated them and over the next four years, he conquered almost all of North India after facing other local Hindu and Muslim rulers. The dynasty he founded came to be known as the Mughals which is the Persian word for Mongol. Although, the dynasty itself held strong ties to Timur and called themselves the Gorkhani dynasty. Gorkhan being the title of Timur meaning the royal son-in-law. The son-in-law of Genghis Khan as Timur liked to boast. Babur died in 1530 at the age of 46 or 47. The story goes that his son and heir, Nasiruddin Humayun had fallen ill and Babur had bargained with God for his son's life in exchange for his. Although, as was soon revealed, the bargain was not the best bargain he could have gotten. Humayun was not a very capable leader and on top of that, he indulged a little too much in wine and opium. His apparent weakness invited challenge from many local rulers. One Afghan noble named Sher Khan Suri overthrew Humayun in 1539. Humayun pretty much became homeless and wandered through Sindh for several years. Although, Sher Khan or as he was now called Sher Shah Suri died in battle in 1545 and his empire was divided up soon after. On the other side, Humayun asked the Safavids for help and started conquering the divided empire. By 1555, both Delhi and Lahore were back in his control. Unfortunately, he lost control while running down the stairs and fell. He died soon after in 1556. That's why you should never run down the stairs or up or just run. His son, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, a mere 12 or 13-year-old, was installed as the next ruler of the Mughal Empire. Regents ruled and stabilized the empire for the first five years of his reign. By 1561, he was ready to take charge. He expanded the empire further, conquering Gujarat, Bihar and much of Bengal. However, at this point, the Mughals had a bit of a legitimacy problem. They were a foreign Muslim dynasty ruling over a realm where less than 5% of the population followed the same faith as them. Babur and Humayun were followers of Sunni Islam and that's also how Akbar started his reign. Although over the years, he began a struggle to reconcile Islam with the various Indian religions. He invited scholars of various religions to have open discussions in the Ibadat Khana. He also invited Jesuits from the Portuguese enclave at Goa. In fact, the Portuguese had arrived in India three decades before the Mughals did. Akbar reconciled all these ideas into his Deen-e-Ilahi or divine religion. This new religion kind of put the ruler as partly divine and that was not very popular with the Muslims who recited that there is no God but God. He also started worshipping the sun every morning. He tried to cozy up to the Hindus by abolishing the Jizya tax and by financing Hindu temples. He was also the one who translated Mahabharat into Persian so his people could read it and understand Hinduism slightly better. You can watch the video by Useful Charts on Mahabharat and Hindu Mythology which is also a part of the Discovery of India. Again, link is in the description. By this point, the subcontinent was pretty much self-sufficient and only imported precious metals, war horses and just a few spices. On the other hand, it exported many valuable things such as pepper, saffron, sugar, indigo and textiles. Although as the subcontinent was fractured between many rulers, there were a lot of taxes that people had to pay as they crossed from the territory of one ruler to the other. It was also pretty dangerous since everyone was raiding everyone else. Although, it all changed with the arrival of the Mughals. During the brief period of Sher Shah Suri's rule, he had united all of North India under his banner which allowed trade to flourish from the western edge of India to the eastern one. Sher Shah Suri was also the one who introduced the rupee coin. So, Hindu nationalists, take note, that's another thing you gotta change. He also built the Grand Trunk Road or as it's called now, GT Road which connected his vast empire from the The Mughals designed a system of bureaucracy called the Mansabdari system which was reformed by Akbar. A Mansabdar was an official who was liable to provide the emperor with troops. They had various grades and the higher the grade, the more troops they had to provide. It ranged from 10 soldiers to 5,000 soldiers during Akbar's reign. To finance their obligation to the emperor, they were given a Jaheer which was essentially the rights to collect taxes from a certain amount of land. The emperor himself appointed these Mansabdars. So, they remained loyal to him and he moved them around so they wouldn't be able to build a base of power in one place. The system was open to all faiths and in fact, some of the highest Mansabs were held by Mughal and Rajput princes. The Mansabdars in turn had to handle the Zamindars who were landowners with a significant degree of command over a single or a few villages. The Mansabdars often came into conflict with the Zamindars as they tried to collect taxes and enforce edicts but the Zamindars resisted. Due to all these reforms, Akbar was able to provide the strong foundation that the young Mughal Empire needed to thrive in India. He is considered the greatest Mughal emperor by many. In fact, Akbar means the great and was a title, not his given name. He died in 1605. Akbar's son and heir, Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir, further tried to expand the empire but it had pretty much reached its limits. He even tried to conquer Timur's former empire but that didn't go anywhere. During his reign, he started actively trying to kill the newly founded Sikh religion from the region of Punjab. He even executed a Sikh Guru. Mythology Guy's video in the Discovery of India collaboration talks about the foundation of Sikhs. Do check that one out as well. An interesting thing from the reign of Jahangir is that he tried to take over Ahmednagar to the south which fell in 1616 but a rather famous unknown general named Malik Ambar started guerilla warfare against the Mughals there. He became a major headache for the Mughals but more damaging to the Mughals was the legacy of Deccan resistance against Mughal rule that he started. He had gathered many Hindus and Muslims in his mission, including a Maratha general named Shahji Bhosale. He will become important later. Malik Ambar died in 1626 and Jahangir died in 1627, leaving the Mughal empire to Shahabuddin Muhammad Shahjahan. Shahjahan pressed even harder on the Deccan but again, not very successfully. In 1646, Shahjahan actually led a campaign into Transoxiana with the dreams of conquering the Timurid empire. However, nothing was achieved there either. He was the one who built the Taj Mahal for his beloved deceased wife Mumtaz Mahal who, by the way, died giving birth to the couple's 14th child in the 19th year of their marriage in 1631. Shahjahan seemed like he was close to death in 1657. So, a civil war erupted among his sons. Even though Shahjahan recovered, his sons had too much invested in the war and so, he was overthrown and imprisoned by his own son, Muhyiddin Muhammad Aurangzeb in 1658 after he won the civil war against his brothers. Shahjahan would spend the next eight years imprisoned in Agra fort, being able to see but never visit Taj Mahal. Aurangzeb was what's called, traditionally, pious. He revoked many of the tolerant policies implemented by Akbar. He imposed Islam on the entire realm. He even composed the Fatawa-ul-Alamgidiya which is a compilation of the Sharia from various sources like the Quran and the Hadith. He banned music but he couldn't completely impose that. Although, at the same time, he employed people in his court based on merit and not religion. In his court, he employed the largest percentage of Hindus of any Mughal ruler. He did patronise the construction of Hindu temples while at the same time, ordering destruction of temples which he deemed too attractive to Muslims. Like his great-grandpa, Akbar, Aurangzeb was a conqueror. He spent most of his life in military campaigns. He extended the empire further south but it got more and more difficult to control. He opened the Pandora's box that was the Deccan. He controlled the Mughal Empire at its territorial zenith and controlled the biggest portion of India since Muhammad ibn Takluq's death in 1351. Shahji Bhusale's son, the great Maratha warrior, Chhatrapati Shivaji Bhusale founded the Maratha Empire which would quickly conquer quite an impressive amount of land in the south. Freemanpedia has made a video about the Marathas as a part of the discovery of India. You can check that out for more on that empire. Busy with keeping and his empire, Aurangzeb failed to actually rule it. In my opinion, Aurangzeb just never knew when to end a war and go home. The Zamindars and the Mansabdars obtained more and more power and grew restless. The system established by Akbar needed a strong and active ruler who could keep an eye on the Mansabdars but that just wasn't Aurangzeb's strong suit. On top of that, the Mansabdars were tired of raising and sending troops all the time. The empire's treasury was also depleted by constant warring. Aurangzeb spent his final years either conquering new lands or destroying rebellions in the previously conquered ones. After Aurangzeb's death in 1707, a civil war broke out. Before it was over, two of his sons and three of his grandsons were dead. His eldest son, Bahadur Shah ascended to the throne at the age of 64. He repealed his father's conservative and discriminatory policies against the Hindus in order to win them over. Although, Hindus weren't exactly the biggest problem the empire was facing. Bahadur Shah himself died in 1712 and before 1720, there were two more wars of succession until the reign of Muhammad Shah started. His reign was somewhat stabilizing the empire until in 1739, Nadir Shah, the Afsharid ruler of Persia invaded, looted and sacked Delhi. Whatever illusion those around the Mughals had about their strength was now shattered. The Marathas had already conquered almost all of South India. Now, they were eyeing Delhi itself. On the other side, Ahmad Shah Durrani, the first ruler of Afghanistan and a protege of Nadir Shah was harassing the Mughals as well. He would attack India three times, in 1748, 1757 and 1760. The Marathas conquered Delhi in 1757 and the Mughals were now their tributaries. Their control expanded barely outside the walls of the city. After the collapse of the Marathas, a joint-stock English company whose ambition and avarice knew no bound whatsoever replaced them as the puppet masters. From 1757 to 1857, the empire remained but only in name. In 1857, it joined the Indian Mutiny and the British finally put an end to its miserable existence. The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II was imprisoned where he died. Other Mughal princes were beheaded and their bodies were displayed at the Khuni Darwaza, which literally means the Gate of Blood. You can watch the video in the Discovery of India by A Long Long Time Ago which discusses the British conquest and rule over India. The legacy of the 331 years of Mughal existence in India can be seen all around the subcontinent. The culture they developed revolved around the Turko-Persian culture of their homeland but eventually, it became its own thing after merging with local traditions. For instance, it was during the reign of Aurangzeb that Urdu started to emerge as its own language even though many still insist that it's just Hindi with slight changes. Among tourists to the subcontinent of India, the Mughals are famous for the beautiful buildings and miniature paintings they left behind. Shah Jahan alone commissioned the imperial city of Shahjahanabad, the Red Fort of Delhi and the Taj Mahal. Finally, the aspect of Indian life where their legacy is most obvious is in the spread of Islam. The details of how Islam spread in India are a story for another time. As Vernon Agar writes... had no interest in trying to convert them. It now seems more accurate to say that Sufis played an important but indirect role in the spread of Islam in South Asia. Many Hindus were attracted to Sufi Peers due to their reputation as healers, miracle workers and exorcists. They did not go to the Peer in order to learn the highly demanding spiritual exercises that he taught his inner circle of disciples. Rather, they went in the hope of gaining a spiritual benefit just as they would seek help from a Sadhu or Hindu holy man. They took some token gift and the Peer or his assistants blessed the supplicants or provided an amulet in the form of a piece of paper etched with the names of God or a verse from the Quran. Islam spread widely throughout South Asia during the three and a half centuries under examination in this section. Enormous numbers of people came into contact with the Peers at their lodges or shrines and with the Qadis at their courts of law. They adopted features of Islamic tradition that met their immediate needs and they integrated their new practices into their pre-existing worldview. As a result, it was common in South Asia to witness Hindus attending Muslim shrines and festivals and Muslims attending Hindu shrines and festivals. The varieties of Islamic expression were more diverse in South Asia than in Iran or the Ottoman Empire. The Mughals, unlike the Safavids and Ottomans, did not attempt to impose state control of Islam and did not develop the elaborate bureaucracies that regulated religious life in the other two empires. One of the great ironies of South Asian history is that the regions where the most dramatic Islamization occurred, East Bengal and the western regions of modern Pakistan, lay on the fringes of Muslim rule in the subcontinent where government rule was weak. The regions in the Delhi-Agra axis, the heart of Mughal power, were, by contrast, only lightly Islamized. As mentioned before, this video is part of a collaboration called The Discovery of India. Link is in the description. Be sure to check out the whole playlist. See you next time.