Empire: World History - 141. Nur Jahan: The Most Powerful Mughal Woman

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

With Jahangir sliding into more of an opium and alcohol fuelled slumber with each passing day, Nur Jahan took the reins of the Mughal Empire. In this she demonstrated her political prowess, but she was also a remarkable woman. She hunted tigers, greatly improved her family's standing, and at one point led an army of men on elephant-back. But her most significant legacy lies in the tomb she designed for her father, which in turn helped to influence the architecture of the famous Taj Mahal. Listen as William and Anita discuss Nur Jahan at her peak. **Empire Live** Empire live show tickets are ON SALE NOW!! Join Anita and William at the London Barbican 8 July 2024! Buy your tickets here or here. Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [e-mail] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Anouska Lewis Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community. Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mpowerpoduk.com. And welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnan. And me, William Duremberg. And today we're continuing our discussion about Noorjaan, the great mogul empress of the 17th. century, wife of the Emperor Jahangir, and just to give you an idea of just how important she is and was at the time, William, I mean, you've got this brilliant, well, shall we say

an episode in Anglo-Indian affairs. Can you tell us what happened? Yes, because it's at this point 1615 that the first English ambassador to India turns up in the person of Sir Thomas Rowe. and Roe meets finally, after many, many months of travel, he meets Jihangir and the unseen, but very much present, Nur Jahan, at Ajmir, which is not far from modern Jaipal. And he's brought all these presents that he's very proud of, English mastiffs and Irish greyhounds, a stage coach, some paintings, an English virginal, a sort of harpsichord, and many crates of red wine, which he says, for which I heard Jahangir has a great fondness. but when he finally gets to meet the emperor,

he's longing to talk customs duties and the matters of interest to the East India company, matters of trade. And Jahangir is bored stiff. He really cannot be bothered for one minute with all this talk of trade or tax rates or anything. And he turns the conversation to beer. He says to, this is from,

I'm reading from Rose's own diaries. And he said, so with many passages of, jests, mirth and brags concerning the arts of his country. He failed to ask me questions, how often I drank a day, and how much, and what? What in England? What beer was, how made, and whether I could make it here. So literally, the very first diplomatic exchange between Britain and India ends up with a conversation about English beer. Forget about ping pong diplomacy. This is point diplomacy. Okay. But at this,

This crucial moment, this is what Ro has to say. And he realizes that there's nothing that can be done in the Mogul Empire at this point, 1615, except through the say-so of Nur Jahan, the empress who, of course, he never gets to meet. And he writes in his diary, in the same day that he's meeting Jahangir, he says, all justice or care of anything or public affairs either sleeps or depends on her, who is more inaccessible than any goddess or mystery. of heathen in piety. What a fantastic quote. And that's from first contact. That's from first contact. So he's basically, he gets the impression pretty quickly that Jahang is great. He loves these artworks

and he demonstrates his ability to match English arts by producing a perfect copy of the state coach, the Lord Mayor's coach that he's brought all the way from London in about three days. Three days later, ping! You ain't so hot. And then he also produces a miniature around his neck of his girlfriend.

Jehung his says, what's that around your neck? And this is a slightly embarrassed, blushing Roe has to say, well, that's my girlfriend. And Jehunger says, can I borrow it just for 24 hours? And the next day, Roe is called back. And he presents him with two miniatures. Wow. One which is newly painted at the Mughal Court, and one which is Rose original. And Roe admits he can't tell the difference.

This is a great story. Okay. So I'm intrigued by the woman who is, you know, with all of this bromance blossoming, is inaccessible to him. And he recognizes as the power behind the throne, Nurja Haas. So if you missed the first in our duplex, our double bill of Nurja Haar, we talked about how she rose up through the harem, how she married Jahangir, how she became his favorite wife and is known now throughout the Mughal Empire as the light of the world. And she is recognized. as such. Which is what, we should explain, Nur Jahan is what it means in Persian, nor light Jahan world. Literally translates as. Yeah, so we should now really,

I mean, this world that Roe is entering. It is a Mughal Empire that is very powerful, very rich, but it is experiencing some problems, isn't it, the Mughal Empire? Thanks to our old friend Malik Amber, who we covered, the slave who ruled.

For those who didn't hear that episode, or can't remember it, we had our one of friend, Manu Pillai telling the story of the man who became the nemesis of Nojahan and Jahangir, who was this improbable figure of a former Ethiopian slave named Malik Umba? And Malik Umba has been fighting first on behalf of Amid Naga and then on his own bat against this relentless march south of the Mughal Arbis. The Mughal start in Uzbekistan.

They conquer Afghanistan and Kabul. they then come into India. And ever since then, particularly with the emperor Akbar, who's the father of Jahang, they've been marching southwards, encompassing an ever greater area of India and also marching, as far as they're concerned, towards the source of all the great mines which are in the deacon. That's where they really want to get their hands on the source of the world's only diamonds and so on, it all lies just to the south of Mogul Territory in areas that's now held by Amid Naga and by Golkonda.

and as they march south, they begin to meet the guerrilla tactics of this former slave from Ethiopia, Malik Amber, who realizes the weaknesses of the mogul armies. He realizes that these long trains of supplies, that the difficult territory in the Deccan, which is all sort of scrub mountain and ideal for ambushes. And he works out a method of warfare, which is entirely. knew at the time of guerrilla tactics attacking from the rear, attacking at night, attacking supply lines, which completely unnerves the moguls, and it becomes the model. And this is, this was Manu Pillai's great point in his wonderful episode from last year, that he invents

the guerrilla tactics which become the tactics of the Marathas who do eventually bring the moguls down. Well, and push them right out of the deck in. So at this point, together, Jahangir and Nojah, guess is very pivotal in this decision. They decide to give control of the armies, because they've been quite ineffective so far at pushing Malakamba back. They decide to give it to Jahangir's son Shah Jahan, he famously of the Taj Mahal, and they say, right, you're going to do what everyone else has failed to do and to teach this, this former slave a lesson, this malicumber pain in our neck a lesson. So as part of Noor Jahan's wooing of Prince Khamber. Karam, the future Shah Jahan, she sends him down to the Deccan to fight this irritating

guerrilla leader, Malik Umba. And this is part of a general move by Nojahan to try and pull Karam into her diplomatic system, into her family alliances. She's always politicking and finding ways of building alliances to support her rule. And Shah Jahan is sent down there and he's tested by being sent against. Manik Umba, and he begins to make progress against Malik Umba. He pushes him further and further into the margins. So Nojahan is settling now to consolidate her position, and all the time she is pushing her family. Her brother Asaf, who's the father of Mumtaz, is being given more

roles and greater prominence in the state, and she is accumulating land. She has hugely increased Land Grants, 16, 16, 17, shortly after Thomas Road leaves. And it's at this period that we see her rising to the centre of court life and becoming famous for among other things, becoming a great hunter. Okay, so now I want to talk about the hunting thing, because I've seen a miniature of Nujan holding a gun. It's like a really big musket, and she's pushing the powder down the barrel of this very long gun. She's got her hair all tied up in a turban sort of contraption. And she is dressed like somebody who is ready for action. I would have thought that this is unusual for women at the mobile court, or is it? It is unusual. And we rightly associate pictures of Muslim women as these

sort of rather sensuous images of often bare-breasted women with gorgeous textiles around their waist, often in front of picnic scenes or in Harim scenes. This is the polar opposite of that. Nojahan is shown not as a sort of Harim lovely. She's shown as she actually was as a powerful tomboy. And she's out hunting, she's loading a gun, she's wearing boys' clothes. That's the point of the picture. That's the thing. She's wearing trousers, which is extraordinary. But also, is she not very famous for, in one hunting trip shooting? And I don't approve of this and no one should do this, four tigers in quick succession with a musket. I mean, that's the kind of woman that she is dead shot. Yes. And this again is something which, Thomas Rowe, is comments on and is obviously very impressed by, that she, rather than sitting as he would have expected in a hurry, doing. the kind of, you know, the stereotypical Mughal or Muslim woman thing. She's out hunting. She's a crack shot. She's a marksman. She loads her own guns. She wears boys' clothing. And she's out in the

hills in the action. And this, you know, this is unusual. This is not normal ladylike behavior in any court. And yet, she's still, I mean, she's still acknowledged for her beauty, you know, light of the world, Nur Jahar. It means that, you know, people do talk about the fact that she's everything. You know, she is sort of this very comely woman, very beautiful. I mean, not many will actually get to look upon her face, like Roe will not be able to, but that she is sort of both things. She's kind of like, you know, the perfect partner. So Ruby Lal, who is the wonderful biographer of No Jahan,

when she did this biography, went out to sort of check the veracity of the different pictures said to be No Jahan, which are often to be seen in museums across the world. And she came to the conclusion that this tomboy picture by the artist Abul Hassan, is the only 100% legitimate image of her, that all these images of these beautiful women that are often captioned, Noor Jahan, are probably spurious or certainly and not proven.

And that I think is highly significant that the one image we have of this woman is of her as a huntress out on the hills, loading her own gun. Yeah, yeah, with nobody around her. You know, she has no flunkies around her. She's very much presented like a heroic prince, if anything, It's a very strong jawline looking up into the hills, whatever it is.

She's going to blast out of a tree or out of the hills. So that is very interesting, but she's still the favourite. Would it be fair to say she's de facto co-ruler of the Mughal Empire? So what we're beginning to see, I mean, it's significant. It's not just funny that Jahangir asks Sir Thomas Rowe about beer. It's significant because it's an increasing obsession with him. Jihangir has now become clearly an alcoholic with a very severe problem. in his wonderful diary, the Tuzuki-Jangiri, he records his growing addiction.

He talks about how undistilled, distilled, double-distilled and triple-distilled alcohol that he has, and his consumption of opium. And as he sinks for more and more of the day into the grip of this addiction, the power of No Jahan grows. Is she popular, do you know, among the people? I mean, and also as Jahangir is turning into a drunken layabout, really, what do the people think of their rulers? Do we know? It's almost impossible to answer those sort of questions for the mogul period. And often the only indication we have of bizarre gossip is with foreign visitors like Sir Thomas Rowe or his chaplain.

And they are chatting to the servants outside the assembly rooms. They are catching not direct gossip from the top. layer of diplomatic contacts because at this point the English and all the other Europeans with the possible exception of the Portuguese are simply too modest to be allowed access to any of the real power brokers in India. And it's a huge achievement for Thomas Roe that he gets his brief conversation about beer. It's just a very, it's a quickie that he has to wait six months for. And obviously, Jahangir is bored stiff by Rose Company. I don't think that's hilarious. No, makes no pretense.

of hiding is on week. Yeah, but again, what strikes me about that meeting? So many things, so many questions. So on the first is that actually, Jahangir doesn't think much of England or Britain. You know, it doesn't care and really doesn't care at all. He's ever heard of it. Again, I mean, we imagine, for example, the meeting of Jahangir and Sir Thomas Rowe is on the walls of the British Parliament today.

I think in the 1920s or is it, 18, 19, certainly the turn of the 20th century, a whole new scheme of the great highlights of English history are drawn in Westminster Hall. And I think William Rothenstein's the artist. And he draws Alfred the great burning the cakes and fighting the Danes, the arrival of the first missionaries in England. It's these sort of classic schoolbook moments in English history. And there, among them, are these images of Sir Thomas Row in sort of dashing Shakespearean outfit, chatting to Jahangir in Ajmir. But that meeting, which is so important from the British perspective, which is still there in Parliament to the day, is not even referred to. He doesn't even mention

his diary. He's got this diary. Really, not even mentioned. Not even an aside. I met this bloke from a place called Britain. Nothing. Doesn't even mention it. And his father, Akbar, calls the European diplomats who come to his court an assembly of savages. Right. So another question, or maybe an observation. Thomas Roe knows and recognises that the power sits with Norja Har. And also, we should remember that this is not alien to Britain either, a woman wielding power because they've just gone through the reign. I mean, Elizabeth Fers has just died in 1603.

So they know how strong a woman ruler can be. So, you know, whereas, I don't know, maybe 80 years later, it might be an extraordinary thing that you have to kowt out to somebody's misses because she holds the power. Thomas Roe will recognize that and he will know it from England's. own history. And yet already these sort of orientalist attitudes are there and he's comparing Nojahar not with Elizabeth I, his own monarch who was on the throne when he was growing up, but instead he compares it to a goddess of heathen in piety as he puts it. Yes, that's true. That's true.

Anyway, look, shall we take a break here and just come back after the break and we find out how Nourjah really as de facto ruler, as her husband slips into an alcoholic abyss, what her life looks like and how the world responds to having actually a woman running the show. Welcome back. So just before the break, we were talking about Nurja Haar rising in power and stature and becoming, you know, first a co-ruler of the Mongol Empire and then maybe de facto ruler as Johannes slips into beer, red wine, whatever he can get his hands on apparently. He's slipping away. He can't get his hands on beer. He's very upset by that. It's everything he wants from England. He can reproduce a cameo, but he can't make beer.

But I'm really interested in what Nojahe actually does while she has this power and this autonomy, because there's a Dutch traveller who writes about this. In about 1620, and he talks about her, and this is a quote, she erects very expensive buildings in all directions, Sarais, or halting places for travellers and merchants and pleasure gardens and palaces such that no one has ever seen before. And one of these Sarais is in just, And it is such an important Sarai that, according to another historian Shao deen, Sarai Nurmaal, in location idiom meant some spacious, important edifice.

It becomes sort of synonymous with Nurjaja, that she's the person who has that vision. The tomb of her father is the one extraordinary thing that she erects at this time. Tell us about the tomb she erects to her father. So this is her great masterpiece. And while the wonderful Soraya you mentioned outside Jilanda is an incredible thing, it's almost unvisited. No one really goes there and it's falling slightly to bits. It's astonishing and it's something which people should know better. But what I think everyone who goes to India never misses is what in the tourist books is called the Baby Tarj,

which is actually called the tomb of Itmadudhalla. And Immadadal is Nur Jahan's father. And she has brought him in to be effectively the vizier, the prime minister. And it's part of this family takeover. She got her own daughter, Ludley, now married to Sharia, who is one of the Jahangir's youngest sons. And now at the peak of her power, she has her father effectively as the vizier. But in, I think it's early 1622, while Nojahan and Jahang are coming back from their summer holiday in Kashmir, they hear the news that Giyas has died.

And the big project of Nur Jahan over the next few years is building this astonishing tomb for him in Agra. And unlike a lot of mogul buildings, which seek to impress through scale and through magnitude, the sheer sort of, if you think of the size of the targe or the massive extent of the walls of the red fort, What's so charming about it, Madadal, is that it is like a sort of perfect little jewel box. First of all, it's in white marble. Every inch of it is inlaid with precious stones. And it's set in this small but very charming garden on the river Yamuna. The main gate originally was by the water gate.

You come to it by river. Today, as a tourist, you enter wrongly through the land gate. and it's recently been restored so that its fountains and its gardens have been beautifully restored by the World Monuments Funds. You go there today and it's right back to the perfection of its original conception. And it's a symbol of her father's supposed house in paradise. And this symbolism of paradise, which is then later taken forward a generation later by Shadj, Jahan at the Taj has its first sort of most exquisite miniature version in the Itmododola and anyone that goes to Agra should always look it up. It's the most wonderful place.

What is also extraordinary and tells you a lot about Nurjaan's position in society and what people thought of it. Normally when somebody dies, so Yasus died, everything would pass to his eldest son, who is Alsa, who is alive. But in this instance, it doesn't, everything that this man owned passes to Nur Jahan, as if to say to the world, this is my eldest son and heir. It's quite something. It's quite a revolutionary thing to do, isn't it? Absolutely. And I think this is, you could say, is the peak of Nur Jahan's power, because at this point, it begins to slip. And now that Jahangir is partly incapacitated with drink and with opium, you see the beginnings of the jockeying for power of the next generation. And you see a cooling.

of relations between the royal couple and Shah Jahan, Prince Karam. But hang on a minute, why? She really backed him. He really owes her. I mean, she's the one who favoured him and told Jahangir, this is your special boy. Give him the troops. Give him the real responsibility. He's your son and heir. He's the right one. He may not be your oldest, but he's the best bet that you have. But now he's seeing his dad lose his grip and his stepmom, if you like, running the show single-handed. And he's chaffing. to get control. And he sees No Jihad has an impediment rather than an ally. I think he sees No Jihad as a usurper, really, because she's running the show now.

Right. Why should it be her? And why should it be her? This is not the norm in an Islamic state to have women running the country. So I think he is jockeying, seeing his dad going down, getting ready to seize power, and the person in the way is No Jihad. But at that point, we have a kind of a wild card moment when something completely unexpected and something that's never happened before in mogul history, when Jahangir gets kidnapped. What? So the emperor of this enormous state that now includes Afghanistan, most of India, right down to halfway through the Deccan, all of Bangladesh and all of Pakistan.

And on his way to Kashmir, he is taken hostage or captured by a man called Mahabat Khan, who had previously been one of his most close and trusted advisors and who'd actually helped put down the rebellion which Noor Jahan's first husband, Ali Kuli, was killed in. And we hear that Jhunga being camped on one side of the river Jelam on his way up to Kashmir. During the kidnapping, Noor Jahan managed to escape to her brother's cab, which was on the other side of the river.

And she was furious with Jhungir's nobles and dressed them down, saying you have been disgraced before God and people by your actions. So this is a kind of unprecedented moment. But it's bonkers. It's like somebody kidnapping King Charles on a visit. It's just nuts. Well, rather more in the sense that this is the ruler of a far richer and more powerful state than modern Britain. At this point, I don't know, Mughal India is probably producing about 35% of world GDP.

It's more like President Biden being kidnapped. being snatched on a visit. And actually, that's maybe not such a bad image in that Biden now elderly slightly past it. It's vulnerable. I could not possibly comment, as you know. But yes, okay. Exactly. Yes.

So, okay. So then what happens? This is such a rip-roaring yarn. Then what happens? So I think it happens very quickly. She then leads the mogul forces across a fordable section of the river on elephant back. So this is, you know, this is her big sort of moment as a... Tomboy moment.

She's actually leading her, and she, by all accounts, displays her skills with a musket as she advances, but she's forced to retreat when her elephant is wounded. So she's right at the front. I mean, this is a no-nonsense girl power moment. So hang on, I love this image so much. There she is, on the back of an elephant, roaring into battle to get her man back and to get her, you know, teach these upstarts a lesson. How old is she when she's doing this? She must be 49-50 at this point. God, that's brilliant. That's amazing. And so just see this, imagine the scene. Out of nowhere, there's basically a coup attempt. Hubbard Khan is leading the army, a faction of the army, against their own emperor.

The idea being, I think, that Jahangir now is out of control and in no fit state to rule the country. But she doesn't take it like that. She gets on an elephant. She crosses the river. And it's only when her own elephant is wounded that she has to surrender. Oh, no. And she realizes that her plan has failed and she surrenders to Mohabbat Khan. And she's placed in captivity with her husband. But unfortunately for the rebels, Muhammad Khan fails to recognize how brilliant Nojahan is.

And she's able to organize an escape. Imagine that. From this, from this go. And raise an army right under his nose. So, I mean, it's an extraordinary performance by this woman. Her husband is going down. She does not lose for a minute. confidence. She goes into battle, she then escapes from captivity, and she defeats the coup.

But the way she defeats it, I mean, so from what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, is once she's sort of given them the slip, Mohab Khan, and she's given him the slip, and she's managed to get away, she gets to somehow an imperial hunting reserve, and she says, you know what, one of your local caretakes, one of your own, was murdered by Mahabat Khan and his men. You need to attack them. She doesn't say attack them for me. She goes, you need to need. like Kuhn al-Qun, you need to get blood for blood. And so she sends these guys from the hunting reserve who are all expert archers to go and attack.

So she raises an army just very, very quickly, like a crack commando unit, if you like. It's at 900 men that killed in this? It's an extraordinary attack and very, very costly to the rebels. It's fabulous. And they make it back to Lahore in October 1626. and for a few weeks it's business as normal. Noor has rescued her declining emperor,

but you already begin to hear murmurs in the court about the growth of her power and her role in leading soldiers into battle. This is just, you know, the last time this happened was in, what, the 13th century with Razia Sultanah. And while some recognised that she saved the mogul kingdom through her actions,

the poet Shirazi writes that never was it witnessed in the region of my king, such a fortified refuge for the kingdom as the queen. She herself has saved the empire. But it's her last hurrah, because a year later, we see the death of Jahangir. First thing, there's two disasters in one year. First of all, her preferred candidate for the throne, who's Sharia, who's married to Ladley. Her daughter, Lardley. He becomes it with something horrible called Fox's Disease, which is a sort of form of lepros. that causes his hair, beard, eyebrows and eyelashes to fall off. Oh dear.

So this is a sort of moment of horror. And then they go off to Lahore to recover. And soon after that, Jahangir, whose health is now very severe, he's wrecked his body with the abuse of alcohol and opium. At this point, on the way to Lahore, Jahangir organized a hunting party in one of his favorite game reserves. But when the hunt begins, the emperor witnesses the death of one of his hunters who falls to his death from a shooting platform. He's drunk at the time, but it has a sort of a catalytic effect on him.

And his health begins to deteriorate. He can't swallow. His breathing becomes increasingly shallow. Do you know, I know they don't diagnose these things the way we do now, but all of that, sort of not being able to breathe, not being able to swallow, are signs of a stroke. So I went, you know, and if you have the sort of excessive trauma that you're, you're, you know, witnessing. It does all seem consistent with having a big old stroke, doesn't it? I think you could well be right. Okay, so he then, you know, is unable to breathe properly, not swallow properly, is weakened.

Does Nojahan make it to his side? I mean, who's with him? So Nojahan is there, as is her brother, Asafodala, and an array of their faction. And he dies age 60 only on the 29th of October 1627. And this is a man. is a very bad moment for Nojahan because she has lost her not only her husband and her great love, but her claim to power. And her protection. You know, she's been wearing the trousers, but only because he's still alive. So there's instantly, as happens after every death of every emperor in mogul history, a scramble for the throne. And there is Nur Jahan who has backed this slight non-entity, Sharia, who's married to Noirjan's only daughter, Ladley,

begam. But Shari is clearly not a serious contender because he is a non-entity compared to Prince Karam, who is the future Shah Jahan, who is married to Nur Jahan's niece, Mumtaz Mahal. Prince Karam is an east seat. Jahangya is hugely admiring in his diary of his amazing ability to see beauty and to be able to match, for example, two pearls from the thousands in the in the royal collection. There's a million stories of the ways that Jahangir just adores Prince Karam. So it's increasingly clear that Noahehan has backed the wrong horse. Not only is Prince Karam clearly the more talented and the more worthy candidate for the throne. He's also backed by her own brother, Asaf Khan, who controls the army. The one thing that Sharia does have

is the imperial treasury. When news comes that Jahangir has passed away, way, Sharia uses the imperial treasury in Aghaar to recruit a new mercenary army, but it's no match for Asaf Khan and the professional troops. And as soon as Jahangir dies, Asaf Khan sends word to Shah Jahan, the team has come north immediately from the Deccan where he's fighting. And by this time, Shah Jahan is not just a brilliant east seat, but he's also a very talented general. And he immediately moves north and on January the 24th, 1628, he completes his journey from the Deccan to Agra and mounts the throne and it's game over for No Jahan. She's been completely outplayed and outwitted and outmaneuvered. And she realizes this. She is smart enough to know that there's

no point fighting this. And she retires to Lahore and she spends the next period for her life. building a tomb for her husband, Chahangir, by the banks of the Ravi, that is still there. It's lost its top story, but most of it is still completely intact and utterly gorgeous. I haven't been. What's it called? What does it look like? So when you go to Lahore, you have to go and cross the River Ravi, which is the great river river which runs through Lahore. And it's the first thing on the other bank. And it's this gorgeous, expansive, it's one of the best preserved of all the gardens. And beautiful. beautifully restored by the Pakistani antiquities authorities. They made an incredible job bringing

more mutter a stone all the way from India to restore it perfectly. And inside is this, again, this perfect marble inlay work of the sort pioneered at the Ipwood of Daoler for Nojahan's father. And at the same time, she's building a separate tomb for herself a little bit further on. And today, because of the British, the two were separated by a railway line. Oh. Because I think the railway line began the process of breaking down the wall that surrounded a tomb, it's been very severely robbed. And while Jahangir's tomb is pretty well intact, except for the top pavilion disappearing,

Nojahan's is in a state of great disrepair. And there's only, a lot of the marble has been robbed, a lot of the red stone has been robbed. and it's in a pretty shabby state. She deserved better than that. She did deserve so much better. She was a remarkable. She was absolutely remarkable woman. And her aesthetics which are developed in the tomb for her father are the thing which will plant the seeds in Shahjahan's mind for the all marble, all inlay masterpiece of Mogul architecture, which is the Taj Mahal.

So can I just read you a story about Noir Chal, because I was just looking at the difference between Shahjahan's tomb, which, as you say, is exquisite. I mean, I've not been, but I'm just looking at pictures as you were talking about them. But Norjahan's sad, sad, tiny, you know, kind of completely ravaged tomb. There is apparently, well, there was certainly a plan for a grand facelift for Noahar's tomb. Are you aware of this? I didn't know that. No, because there was, I mean, the facelift of Jahangus tomb has been taking place over the last 20 years, and it's pretty well complete. now. So the obvious next step would be to rescue his poor wife's tomb, which is a really shabby state.

Yeah. I mean, it says, you know, a building made up of redstones is the last resting place of Nourja, situation close to the rabbi, etc, etc. talks about the tunnels leading between the tombs, tunnels linking them together. But it does say, look, I mean, this is from 2016. I'm not aware that they've even started working yet, but certainly the archaeology department in Pakistan has said, funds are going to be released, but not in one go. They're released from time to time for different projects, but assuring everybody that, yes, this will be revisited. As I say, they've got a lot of work to do because all that's really there is the shell.

Most of the stones have already been robbed. I think when I last went, they'd begun a restoration, because I remember the first time I saw it, which was right back in about 1986, it was a complete, I mean, wreck. And it's definitely in a better state now. But no one, I mean, we just don't have the quality of crime. craftsmanship today to restore these mogul tombs in any way the skillful masonry work that you get at the time of the moguls. Nor buckets of jewels to stick in the inlay.

Don't have so many of those either. There was an attempt about 15 years ago to try and restore the gorgeous Diwanichas in the red fort in Delhi, which is built by Shahjahan. And the local authorities in Delhi decided to tart up the, the Duany Cuss, which had had all its stones picked out. And they abandoned the restoration simply because their work looked so shabby compared to even the ruins of the original. It just, the work was so fine that they just gave up on the attempt to imitate it

because it just looked cheap. It's an old saying, a hackneyed saying, but it is true. They don't build them like that anymore, do they? Well, they certainly don't. No one's matched the skills. Anyway, it's a wonderful story. William, thank you very much. That is it from this episode of Empire. Till the next time we meet, it's goodbye from me, Anita Arnan. And goodbye for me, William Drupal.