Shah Jahan, the emperor from Lahore

[war&peace]

I personally believe that the fall of the Mughal Empire was due to incompetent rulers after Aurangzeb died. Animosity doesn't mean jack if you can successfully put down your opponents.

Lol the empire centred around South Asia, only Shah Jahan came from Lahore, so I called him Lahori.

Aurangzeb is irrelevant to where Shah Jahan was from.

Kings like Rangeela Shah and Bahadur Shah Zafar were the weakest link

 

[Hamza913]

It sure did. Read about Ustad Ahmed Lahori, one of the if not the main architect of the Taj Mahal. Lahore's status as a major Mughal city in league with Delhi and Agra had already been confirmed during the reign of Akbar. Some of his most senior generals and ministers were from Lahore, including Lahori Kambohs. The official biographer of Shah Jahan for example was Mohammad Saleh Kamboh Lahori, who also built Masjid Saleh Kamboh in androon shehr (walled city).

Asalamu Alaikum

Lahore first became a major city under the Ghaznavid's, firmly replacing Taxila as Pakistan's top city.

 

[Jackdaws]

The previous King of Thailand was born in Massachusetts.

 

[Joe Shearer]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...Mahal-originally-an-ancient-Hindu-temple.html

Was the Taj Mahal originally an ancient Hindu temple?
Indian culture minister dragged into controversial legal case calling for Taj Mahal to be classified as a Hindu temple

Taj Mahal Photo: AP

By Andrew Marszal, New Delhi

5:19PM GMT 01 Dec 2015


India’s government has been dragged into a bizarre row over whether the Taj Mahal, widely seen as a masterpiece of Muslim architecture, should be converted into a Hindu temple.

A legal case, first brought by six lawyers in Agra in April, claims that the monument famously built by a seventeenth-century Mughal emperor as a tomb for his beloved wife was originally an ancient shrine to the Hindu god Shiva.

The petition, which was accepted by the Agra Court, names a Hindu deity as its main plaintiff.

It calls for ownership of the monument to be transferred to Hindus for worship and, most controversially, for Muslim religious activity to be blocked and graves to be removed.

Currently, only Muslims are allowed to worship at the site, offering Friday prayers at a mosque attached to the Taj Mahal.

Questioned in parliament on Monday, Dr Mahesh Sharma, India’s culture minister, said he was aware of the suit, but that “the government has not found any evidence which can suggest that Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple of Shiva”.

However, experts warned this alone will not be enough to quash the suit, which has inflamed tensions in India at a time when growing religious intolerance is already a daily talking point.

The Yamuna River (pictured) in 2008. According to Indian MPs the Yamuna River is now more toxic than at any other time in its long history Photo: Bloomberg/ Getty

“What the culture minister has said will be the government’s official stand on it, but the court has yet to decide,” said Dr Bhuvan Vikrama, of the Archaeological Survey of India, which manages the mausoleum.

Theories over the Taj Mahal’s supposed Hindu heritage have abounded for decades, albeit well outside the historical mainstream.

In his 1989 book Taj Mahal: The True Story, revisionist historian PN Oak claimed the monument was built in 1155, decades before the Muslim invasion of India. He said its name is a corrupt form of the sanskrit term “Tejo Mahalay”, signifying a Shiva Temple.

However, Oak is the author of many outlandish and discredited theories, including bizarre claims that the Hindus once conquered Italy, and even that Westminster Abbey was once also a Shiva temple.

That, though, has not stopped his writings being widely circulated online.

As British historian William Dalrymple noted, Hindu supremacists "have found it hard to believe that such a masterpiece was built by the same Muslims they despised”.

Today, the same claims have been taken up by some members of the ruling BJP, the Hindu nationalist party led by prime minister Narenda Modi.

Lakshmikant Bajpayee, the BJP president of Uttar Pradesh state, where the monument is located, said in December that the Taj Mahal was an ancient temple that was sold by Hindu king Jai Singh to Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor widely believed to have built it.

An Indian worker cleans a water pond inside the grounds of the Taj Mahal ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit in Agra Photo: AFP

"I am not saying this in air but there are documents to prove this," he said.

Likewise, the Agra court case was filed by lawyer Hari Shankar Jain, who claims to be a sympathiser of the RSS, a Hindu nationalist organisation with close ideological links to Mr Modi's BJP.

While government ministers have now been forced to pour cold water on the claims, some in the tourism industry surrounding the Taj Mahal believe the damage is already being done.

Speaking at the Agra district court in May, a collection of tourist bodies warned: “The Taj Mahal is a major tourist attraction and a symbol of national pride not only for Agra but also for the entire country.

“Making the Taj Mahal controversial would affect not only the source of attraction for the world but also tourism in the country.”

That pathetic P. N. Oak story, warmed up and served for lunch the day after. Only the dregs would read and believe it, considering what else he wrote.

Incredible, the stuff that is now circulating on the Internet; I had the misfortune of reading it when it first came out in print.

 

[Ahmet Pasha]

Aik Lahori ki keemat tum kya jaano Karachi walo.

On topic:
These dudes didn't build any universities. My only beef with them.

Shah Jahan was the 5th Mughal emperor, reigning from 1628 to 1658. He was born in Lahore, the son of Jahangir (the previous Mughal emperor) and a Rajput princess from Marwar.

Before becoming the ruler of the Mughal Empire, Shah Jahan demonstrated extraordinary military talent, e.g during the Mughal campaign against the Rajputs of Rajasthan, Shah Jahan engaged in a brutal war of attrition, resulting the Rajputs surrendering and becoming a vassal state of the Mughals. Another example of Shah Jahan's military prowess was his subjugation of parts of the Deccan, which is actually how he obtained his title of Shah Jahan (King of the World).

Under Shah Jahan's rule, the Mughal Empire maintained an over 900,000 strong army, and just under 200,000 Sowars were commanded by princes and nobles throughout the region.

The Mughal Empire continued to expand moderately across Afghanistan and the Deccan during his reign, and he managed to successfully put down several rebellions. South Asia at the time was a rich centre of the arts, crafts and architecture, and some of the best of the architects, artisans, craftsmen, painters and writers of the world resided in Shah Jahan's empire. At the time, the Mughal Empire had the highest GDP in the world.

Shah Jahan was more radical in his religious thinking than his father and grandfather. He adopted new policies which reversed Akbar's treatment of non-Muslims. Shah Jahan began to impose provisions against the construction or repair of churches and temples. After learning that wealthy Hindus wished to complete several unfinished temples in Benares, he ordered all new temples in the city to be destroyed. He also destroyed the Sikh temple of Lahore after the Sikhs attempted an (unsuccessful) rebellion. Prominent shrines encountered during military campaigns were also damaged. He celebrated Islamic festivals with enthusiasm unfamiliar to his predecessors. Royal interest in the Islamic Holy Cities was also revived during his reign.

Shah Jahan is best known for his remarkable contributions to architecture, such as the Taj Mahal, Naulakha Pavilion, Wazir Khan Masjid, etc.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shah-Jahan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Jahan
http://www.ancient-origins.net/hist...-and-one-most-powerful-mughal-emperors-006285

 

[El Sidd]

Shah Jahan was the 5th Mughal emperor, reigning from 1628 to 1658. He was born in Lahore, the son of Jahangir (the previous Mughal emperor) and a Rajput princess from Marwar.

Before becoming the ruler of the Mughal Empire, Shah Jahan demonstrated extraordinary military talent, e.g during the Mughal campaign against the Rajputs of Rajasthan, Shah Jahan engaged in a brutal war of attrition, resulting the Rajputs surrendering and becoming a vassal state of the Mughals. Another example of Shah Jahan's military prowess was his subjugation of parts of the Deccan, which is actually how he obtained his title of Shah Jahan (King of the World).

Under Shah Jahan's rule, the Mughal Empire maintained an over 900,000 strong army, and just under 200,000 Sowars were commanded by princes and nobles throughout the region.

The Mughal Empire continued to expand moderately across Afghanistan and the Deccan during his reign, and he managed to successfully put down several rebellions. South Asia at the time was a rich centre of the arts, crafts and architecture, and some of the best of the architects, artisans, craftsmen, painters and writers of the world resided in Shah Jahan's empire. At the time, the Mughal Empire had the highest GDP in the world.

Shah Jahan was more radical in his religious thinking than his father and grandfather. He adopted new policies which reversed Akbar's treatment of non-Muslims. Shah Jahan began to impose provisions against the construction or repair of churches and temples. After learning that wealthy Hindus wished to complete several unfinished temples in Benares, he ordered all new temples in the city to be destroyed. He also destroyed the Sikh temple of Lahore after the Sikhs attempted an (unsuccessful) rebellion. Prominent shrines encountered during military campaigns were also damaged. He celebrated Islamic festivals with enthusiasm unfamiliar to his predecessors. Royal interest in the Islamic Holy Cities was also revived during his reign.

Shah Jahan is best known for his remarkable contributions to architecture, such as the Taj Mahal, Naulakha Pavilion, Wazir Khan Masjid, etc.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shah-Jahan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Jahan
http://www.ancient-origins.net/hist...-and-one-most-powerful-mughal-emperors-006285

Barbarian

 

[shootingstar]

That pathetic P. N. Oak story, warmed up and served for lunch the day after. Only the dregs would read and believe it, considering what else he wrote.

Incredible, the stuff that is now circulating on the Internet; I had the misfortune of reading it when it first came out in print.

 

[Kambojaric]

Asalamu Alaikum

Lahore first became a major city under the Ghaznavid's, firmly replacing Taxila as Pakistan's top city.

Walaikumsalam

Actually already under Anandpala, Lahore had become a major level city (serving briefly as his capital), and the Ghaznavids under Malik Ayaz took the city to the next level, making Lahore the eastern capital of the Ghaznavi Empire (the western one being Ghazni of course), and when Ghazni fell to the Ghoris, Lahore became the sole capital city. This is the period in time when Ali Hajweri (Data Ganj Baksh) came to Lahore.

However my point was that it was during Akbar's reign when Lahore became a full fledged capital in the eyes of the Mughal monarchs. Humayun and Babur had treated the city as a supply point in their ultimate target of Delhi. However starting with Akbars reign, Lahore was treated as a capital city along with Delhi and Agra. This tradition was carried on by all the next "Great Mughals" down to Aurengzeb, with even Aurengzebs successors (Shah Alam spent significant time there and was involved most notably in a controversy over the Khutbah with many Lahori ulema objecting to the addition of Ali as the wali in the friday Khutbah sermon. Shah Alam gave his name to the Shaalmi gate in androon shehr and his son Jahandar Shah also held his coronation in Lahore). Nader Shah ultimately dealt a huge blow to the Punjab and Lahore, with the Sikhs benefiting from the collapse of Mughal authority in the region.

 

[Hamza913]

Asalamu Alaikum

@waz

Could I please get this thread moved to the history section?