The Mughal Empire

THE MUGHAL EMPIRE
1526-1858 A.D.
PRESENTED BY
 Khawar Abbas
Roll No: BBA-F15-46
 Ammad Raza
Roll No: BBA-F15-29
 Mudassar Shahzad
Roll No: BBA-F15-47
 Sarwar Ali
Roll No: BBA-F15-36
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
 The Mughal Empire ruled most of India and Pakistan in the

16th and 17th centuries.
 It consolidated Islam in South Asia and spread Muslim arts
and culture as well as the faith.
 The Mughals were Muslims who ruled sub-continent with a
large Hindus majority.
 However, for much of their empire they allowed Hindus to
reach senior government or military positions.
 The foundation of Mughal Empire was established around
1506 by Al-Din Mohammad also known as Babur(The tiger)
CONTINUE...
 Babur was a Chugatai Turk who claimed descent from both

Genghis Khan and Tamerlane he took control of Kabul and
the eastern region and lower valley of Indus River.
 In 1526, the Babur defeated the last of the Turkic Delhi
Sultans, Ibrahim Shah Lodi, at the first battle of Panipat to
put the newly founded Kingdom in motion.
WHY WAS THE MUGHAL
EMPIRE WAS IMPORTANT?
 The Mughals brought many changes to India
 Centralized government which brought together many
smaller kingdoms
 Delegated government with respect for human rights
 Persian art and culture
 Persian language mixed with Arabic and Hindi to create
Urdu
 Periods of great religious tolerance A style of architecture
(e.g. the Taj Mahal)
 A system of education that took account of pupils’ needs.
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
 The Empire Babur founded was sophisticated civilization

based on religious toleration. It was a mixture of Persian,
Mongol and Indian culture.
 While Humayun, Babur’s successor, was certainly
disastrous as a ruler, His love of poetry and culture heavily
influenced his son Akbar and helped to make the Mughal
Empire an artistic power as well as a military one.
 Akbar established a form of delegated government in which
the provisional governors was personally to him for the
quality of government in their territory.
EMPERORS OF THE MUGHAL
EMPIRE
 Babur, the first Mughal emperor , was followed by his son
Humayun who was a bad emperor, a better poet, and a
drug addict.
 The third emperor, Abu Akbar, is regarded as one of the
great rulers of all time.
 Akbar was followed by Jahangir, and then his son Jahan.
They both had major religious and cultural influences in the
Mughal Empire.
 Jahan’s son Aurangzeb was to be the last great Mughal
Emperor.
EMPERORS (CONT.)
 He was a strong leader whose consequents expanded the

Mughal Empire to its greatest size.
 Under Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire reached the peak of
its military power but the rule was unstable mostly because
the empire got too big to handle.
 Aurangzeb’s extremism caused Mughal territory to dry up
and the Empire went into decline. The last Mughal Emperor
was disposed of by The British in 1858.
ROLE OF RELIGION
 Under Babur, Hinduism is tolerated and new Hindu temples

were built with his permission.
 Babur first act after conquering Delhi was to forbid the
killing of cows that was offensive to Hindus.
 Akbar proclaimed an entirely new state religion of ‘God-ism’
a jumble of Islamic, Hindu, Christian and Buddhist teaching
with himself as deity. It never spread beyond his court and
died when he did.
 Fatehpur Sikri was the new capital built by Akbar.
CONTINUE…
 Akbar believed that a ruler’s duty was to treat all believers equally, all
religion should be tolerated and whatever their belief.
 Emperor Jahangir readopted Islam as the state religion and
continued the policy of religious toleration.
 His court included large numbers of Indian Hindus, Persian Shi’a and
Sufis and members of local heterodox Islamic sects.
CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS
 Jahangir began building the magnificent monuments and

gardens by which the Mughals are chiefly remembered
today.
 Jahangir’s approach was typified by the development of
Urdu as the official language of Empire.
 Urdu uses as Arabic script, but Persian vocabulary and
Hindi grammatical structure.
 Jahan, Jahangir’s successor commissioned the Taj Mahal
as symbol of the empire’s stability, power and confidence.
SOCIAL ASPECTS
 Generally the Mughal Empire is thought of as a prosperous
time period.
 Even though the Mughal Empire existed 300-500 years ago
its influence still exists in current day India.
 The social aspects of the Mughal Empire and India today
especially relate including family life, religion, art, music,
literature and education.
 During the Mughal Empire, women had a significant role in
family life.
 The Hindu practice of cremation of widows, called suttee,
continued even though the Mughals tried to abolish it.
CONTINUE…
 Women received salaries, owned land, participated in business
transactions and literary.
 The Mughal rulers sometimes forced Islam upon the Hindus, but
many times Hindus resisted.
 Hindu men would marry Islam women and convert them to
Hinduism in order to keep their religion prominent.
 Families looked down upon Hindus if one converted to Islam.
 Child marriage also remained common.
 Depending on the emperor there was religious acceptance and
tolerance, but religious segregation still existed.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS
 Productive agriculture economy was the base and foundation to
all of the Islamic empires.
 They relied heavily on crops of wheat and rice.
 The profit from agriculture trade and production went mostly to
finance armies and bureaucracies.
 The Columbian exchange brought change by introducing
American food crops such as maize, potatoes and tomatoes.
 Maize was used as feed for animals because it was not popular
for food use for the Islamic people.
 Tobacco and coffee traded by European merchants became
very popular in the 16th century.
CONTINUE…
 Plantations specialized in the production of these items in a

similar way as sugar in America.
 In the mid sixteenth century both the drink and tobacco
were outlawed because of distraction on moral teachings.
 The rise in the population in Mughal Empire was attributed
mainly to their success in agriculture rather than trade.
 The people of the Mughal empire also participated actively.
FALL OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE
 The period of the great Mughals, which began in 1526 with

Babur’s accession to the throne, ended with the death of
Aurangzeb in 1707.
 Aurangzeb’s death marked the end of an era in Indian history.
 When Aurangzeb died, the empire of the Mughals was the
largest in India, yet within about 50 years of his death, the
Mughal Empire disintegrated.
 Aurangzeb’s death was followed by a war of succession among
his three sons, it ended in the victory of the eldest brother
Prince Muazzam.
CONTINUE…
 Religious Policy: Aurangzeb was a great soldier and
general but he failed to be a good ruler of his religious
conservatism.
 Weak successors: The successors of Aurangzeb were
both weak and incompetent. The late Mughals spent more
time in their harems and in pleasure and soon lost control
of the states
 Poor Economy: The economic stability of the empire was
ruined because of constant wars. Besides this, the Mughal
rulers spent lavishly on buildings and monuments
CONTINUE…
 Mughal Army: Mughal army became weak and inefficient.

The military weakness became a potential cause of decline
of Mughal Empire
 Rise of new Powers: New powers such as the Sikhs, Jats
and Marathas came onto the scene. Gradually they broke
off from the Mughal domination and established their own
independent states
 Foreign invasions: The invasion of Nadir Shah and
Ahmed Shah Abdali proved fatal for the Mughal Empire.
Not only were the Indians defeated but their weaknesses
were exposed and India became an easy prey to others

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THE MUGHAL EMPIRE

 The Mughal Empire ruled most of India and Pakistan in the

 Babur was a Chugatai Turk who claimed descent from both

 The Empire Babur founded was sophisticated civilization

 He was a strong leader whose consequents expanded the

 Under Babur, Hinduism is tolerated and new Hindu temples

 Jahangir began building the magnificent monuments and

 Plantations specialized in the production of these items in a

 The period of the great Mughals, which began in 1526 with

 Mughal Army: Mughal army became weak and inefficient.

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