Jahāngīr

Jahāngīr (born August 31, 1569, Fatehpur Sikri [India]—died October 28, 1627, en route to Lahore [now in Pakistan]) was the Mughal emperor of India from 1605 to 1627.

Prince Salīm was the eldest son of the emperor Akbar, who early marked Salīm to succeed him. Impatient for power, however, Salīm revolted in 1599 while Akbar was engaged in the Deccan. Akbar on his deathbed confirmed Salīm as his successor. The new emperor chose the Persian name Jahāngīr (“World Seizer”) as his reign name.

Jahāngīr continued his father’s traditions. A war with the Rajput principality of Mewar was ended in 1614 on generous terms. Campaigns against Ahmadnagar, initiated under Akbar’s rule, were continued fitfully, with Mughal arms and diplomacy often thwarted by its able leader Malik Ambar (ʿAnbar), a formerly enslaved Abyssinian (Ḥabshī) who had attained high military rank. In 1617 and 1621, however, Prince Khurram (later Shah Jahān) concluded apparently victorious peace treaties. Jahāngīr, like his father, was not a strict Sunni Muslim; he allowed, for example, the Jesuits to dispute publicly with Muslim ʿulamāʾ (theologians) and to make converts.

After 1611 Jahāngīr accepted the influence of his Persian wife, Mehr al-Nesāʾ (Nūr Jahān); her father, Iʿtimād al-Dawlah; and her brother Āṣaf Khan. Together with Prince Khurram, that clique dominated politics until 1622. Thereafter, Jahāngīr’s declining years were darkened by a breach between Nūr Jahān and Prince Khurram, who rebelled openly between 1622 and 1625. In 1626 Jahāngīr was temporarily placed under duress by Mahābat Khan, another rival of Nūr Jahān’s group. Jahāngīr died while traveling from Kashmir to Lahore.

Jahāngīr, a heavy drinker and opium eater—until excess taught him comparative moderation—encouraged Persian culture in Mughal India. He possessed a sensitivity to nature, an acute perception of human character, and an artistic sensibility, which expressed itself in an unmatched patronage of painting. Mughal painting reached a high level of elegance and richness during his reign.