First, why the Mughals? And secondly, why Great? How was the Mughal empire formed and why was it called that, what was Mongol in it? Do the cruel nomads of the Tatar-Mongols have anything to do with it, and what?
What is remarkable about the fate of the "Indo-Muslim" union of the Great Mogul Akbar (even twice great, because the very name Akbar in translation from Arabic means Great)? And did he really want to create this politically correct state, unique for that time? What new religion did Emperor Akbar come up with and why? Why was the city of Fatehpur - Sikri of Emperor Akbar abandoned?
Great Emperor Shah - Jahan left to descendants the most beautiful monument of eternal love Taj Mahal. Is this pearl only about immortal passion? What is “encrypted” in the memorial complex? There is a legend that Shah-Jahan dared to compete with Allah himself and built a model of paradise on earth, but who occupied the throne of the Creator in this paradise? However, Shah - Jahan left treasures, not only carved in stone, but also more "mobile" ones, but they disappeared with the fall of the great state. What did the Peacock Throne, Agra treasures and other legendary pieces of jewelry look like and where did it go?
The chronicle of the great dynasty keeps a great many secrets, mysteries and strange coincidences. Is there any hope to lift the veil of secrecy?
Great Moguls are called the dynasty of the rulers of the empire, created by the Turks after their conquest of India and the adjacent lands in the 16th century. It was the richest state, whose padishahs literally bathed in gold, precious stones, masterpieces of jewelry art and … at the same time, they were prisoners of ambition, pride, and palace etiquette.
How did this paradise come about? For more than two thousand years, India, with its enormous natural resources, has been repeatedly attacked by foreign invaders who took advantage of the economic, political and tribal fragmentation of the country's large population, weakened by religious strife.
The first civilizations in the Indus Valley emerged more than 2 millennia before the appearance of Ancient Hellas. The cradle of all Indian civilization - the Ganges Valley - is believed to have not existed at that time: there was a shallow sea. The mysterious Aryan tribe brought to India what largely determined the further course of the development of civilization - the Vedas, castes, teachings about karma and the Sanskrit language. This period in the history of India is called Aryan, or Vedic. It was in this era that the greatest monuments of Indian and world culture were created - the poetic epics "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana". Between the invasion of the Aryans into the Indus Valley and the era that later came to be called the era of Buddha, about five centuries passed.
In the era of Buddha, the center of Indian civilization shifted to the east. Here the four kingdoms arise and flourish. But they also turned out to be not eternal. Around 326 BC Alexander the Great, after conquering the Achaemenid Persian empire and marching to Bactria, overcomes the Hindu Kush and invades India. The great conqueror Alexander defeats the troops of the Punjabi king Pora and begins an offensive into the interior of the country, but under the threat of mutiny in his troops, he is forced to turn back.
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Around 269 BC. Ashoka becomes emperor, later one of the greatest rulers of India. According to Buddhist sources, Ashoka illegally seized the throne, killed all possible rivals and began his rule as a tyrant, but eight years after accession to the throne, the king, for some reason, morally and spiritually became a completely different person and began to pursue a new policy. He abandoned the usual territorial expansion, and domestic policy was also significantly relaxed. He banned the sacrifice of animals, even replaced the traditional fun of Indian kings - hunting - with a pilgrimage to Buddhist shrines. Emperor Ashoka died around 232 BC. uh, by
- apparently, having already lost power by this time. Ashoka's heirs ruled India for about 50 years.
In 183 BC. e. power as a result of a palace coup seized by Pushyamitra Shunga. The new king returns to the old Hindu religion. At this time in the north
- the western borders of India as a result of the collapse of the Seleucid empire, the independent Hellenistic states of Bactria and Parthia are formed. The Bactrian Greeks begin the expansion of northwestern India.
In the same II century. BC. hordes of nomads from Central Asia (known from Chinese sources under the name Yuech - zhei) moved westward, pushing the Scythians. The Scythians, under pressure from the north, attacked Bactria and captured it, and subsequently, being pressed by the same nomads, defeated Parthia and the Greek kingdoms of North-Western India.
In 320 A. D. in the history of India, Chandragupta appears, whose descendants have largely restored the power of the country. A great empire emerges in India, stretching from Assam to the borders of the Punjab. Then rulers and dynasties changed again, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam replaced each other …
From the beginning of the XIII century. and until the 18th century. in northern India, Muslim conquerors dominated. During the existence of the Delhi Sultanate, several dynasties have changed. And the Great Mughals were one of the most significant, at least certainly one of the most impressive.
This is how it happened …
In 1398 the Delhi Sultanate was attacked by the famous Tamerlane, the ruler of Samarkand. The sultanate began to disintegrate into separate parts, towards the end of the 16th century. it included only Delhi and its immediate environs. In the XV-XVI centuries in South India there was the Hindu Vijaya - the Nagara Empire and the Muslim Empire of the Bahmanids. In 1498, the Portuguese first appeared off the coast of India and began to gain a foothold on its western coast. In 1498, the Portuguese squadron of Vasco da Gama, circumnavigating Africa, arrived at the port of Calcutta, opening the sea route to India. The Portuguese soon defeated the combined Indian fleet and their allies, as well as the Turkish fleet, and asserted their dominance in the seas surrounding India. In 1510, the Portuguese garrison settled in Goa, the next year in Malacca, and in 1515 in Hormuz. This is how the European colonialists appeared in India.
At the beginning of the 16th century, a new powerful state began to take shape on the ruins of the Delhi Sultanate. This can be considered the first step from which, in fact, the era of the Great Mughals begins.
Babur Zahir - ad - din Muhammad (1483-1530) became the founder of the Great Mughal Empire.
Babur's claims to power were fully justified - he was a descendant of Genghis Khan on the maternal side and Tamerlane on the paternal side (later the Great Mogul Shah - Jahan would officially declare himself a descendant of Genghis Khan and heir to the title of King of the World). Having started his life as the ruler of a small inheritance in Central Asia, the ruler of Fergana Babur did not shame his great ancestors: in 1526 - 1527. Babur undertook a campaign against the Delhi Sultanate and immediately conquered most of North India. In 1504, Babur's troops left Central Asia and soon seized vast territories. The army numbered only about 20 thousand people. The best artillery at that time and obstacles from chained carts, covering the infantry and artillery, turned out to be serious technical advantages of this small army. In 1526in the battle of Panipat, Babur's army defeated the army of the Delhi Sultanate, and the following year defeated the combined forces of the Rajputs. Babur took over the Delhi throne.
So, in fact, the Mughal empire was founded. The local population called the conquerors who came with Babur Mukhgal, or Muguls. This was the name of the inhabitants of Mogolistan, which included the territory of Northern India and the south of Central and Central Asia - hence the name of the dynasty. The borders of the multinational state of Babur during its heyday stretched from Kabul to Bengal.
European travelers of the 17th century called this dynasty the Great Moguls. And it is precisely this name that has firmly entered the historical literature. (Until now, by the way, a small - only 2,000 people - people living in Afghanistan, speaking the archaic dialect of the Mongolian language and called "Mughals" are descendants of the army of conquerors, that is, the army of the Great Mughals.)
So, the Great Mughals reigned in India from the 16th to the 18th century, their power extended over a vast territory, including most of modern India and Afghanistan.
In total, fifteen kings belonged to this dynasty. Not all of them left a memory of themselves. Among them there were both completely walkable figures and undoubtedly outstanding personalities.