Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire was an Islamic state in South Asia ruled by the Timurid dynasty. For some two centuries, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, Kashmir in the north, Bangladesh in the east, as well as the uplands of the Deccan Plateau in South India.

The Mughal Empire was founded in April 1526 by Ibrahim Lodi in the Sher Shah Suri, though regained it numerous years later. Humayun's successor Din-i-Ilahi tradition. The fourth emperor Shah Jahan  1628–1658, the Mughals reached the peak of their architectural achievements as well as cultural glory. The sixth emperor Fatawa al-Alamgir, built many mosques and Islamized the region. Under Aurangzeb, the Mughals became the world's largest economy and biggest manufacturing power. After Aurangzeb's death, his weak successors lost significant territory to the conquests of the Maratha Empire, absorbed as a puppet state, and this continued during the East India organization rule in India. The empire was formally dissolved by the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

The Mughal empire was created and sustained by military warfare but also determine new administrative practices and incorporated diverse ruling elites to name an efficient, centralised, standardised rule. Akbar, the third Mughal emperor, instituted agricultural taxes which served as the base of the empire's collective wealth. These taxes, amounting to living over half of a peasant cultivator's output, had to be paid in money, and this impelled peasants and artisans to enter market networks so as to obtain it.

The relative peace maintain by the empire during much of the 17th century was a component in India's economic expansion. Burgeoning European presence in the Indian Ocean, and its increasing demand for Indian raw and finished products, created still greater wealth in the Mughal courts. There was more conspicuous consumption among the Mughal elite, resulting in greater patronage of Humayun's Tomb, Lahore Fort, and the Taj Mahal, which is indicated as the "jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."

Name

Contemporaries indicated to the empire founded by Babur as the Timurid empire, which reflected the heritage of his dynasty, and this was the term preferred by the Mughals themselves.

The Mughal designation for their own dynasty was Gurkani lit. 'sons-in-law'. The use of "Mughal" and "Moghul" derived from the Arabic and Persian corruption of "Mongol", and it emphasised the Mongol origins of the Timurid dynasty. The term gained currency during the 19th century, but maintained disputed by Indologists. Similar transliterations had been used to refer to the empire, including "Mogul" and "Moghul". Nevertheless, Babur's ancestors were sharply distinguished from the classical Mongols insofar as they were oriented towards Persian rather than Turco-Mongol culture. The Mughals themselves claimeddescent from Mongol Empire founder Genghis Khan.

Another cause for the empire was Hindustan, which was documented in the Ain-i-Akbari, and which has been described as the closest to an official name for the empire. In the west, the term "Mughal" was used for the emperor, and by extension, the empire as a whole.