Empire: World History - 218. Creator of The Taj Mahal: Shah Jahan’s Rise to Power (Ep 1)

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Shah Jahan, the third son of the opium-addicted Jahangir, was born in 1592 with the name Khurram. More interested in precious gems and architecture than dancing girls at court, Khurram was reserved and carefully crafted his image as the “millennial sovereign”. Upon Jahangir's death, Khurram finds himself embroiled in a fierce succession struggle. His cunning and military experience, honed from years of avoiding his father's armies, proves invaluable in this fight for the throne.  But Khurram was not powerful on his own. He was surrounded by powerful women – raised by his step-grandmother Ruquiya Sultan, adored by his eldest daughter Jahanara, and most important of all loved and supported by his wife Mumtaz Mahal. She was his confidante and best friend, and to lose her would break his heart. But his broken heart would lead to the building of one of the most beautiful buildings in the world… Join Anita and William as they explore the early life of the fifth Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan. Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [e-mail] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producers: Anouska Lewis & Becki Hills 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. Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnan. And me, William Turinpool. I'm not even going to berate you for the cause because I think actually I would allow you to have a lie down. in between saying William and Daurample today, because you are a man up against it, are you not?

You're right, Anita. This is the first week of January, and I have now two and a half weeks till the largest literary fest from the world opens in Jaipur, and everything is sort of tottering. Remember that nice picture of Jihungia we were describing in the last episode

where he's sort of standing on a globe that's resting on an ox and shooting at an Abyssinian head representing Malik Umba. My life at the moment is a bit like that. Your example was much, much better before we came on. You said, someone, paint this. There are very talented people on the Discord.

Make this real for us. He said, Anita, it is like standing on a feather that is balanced on a snowflake, which is riding a surfboard in a force nine gale. So look, if you can make that into an image, we'd like to see it. Wait, listen, you're doing very well. Just stay with it. The festival is a bit like organizing a wedding every year. Yeah.

But it always turns up beautifully. But it's always right in the end. Listen, exciting. We've had a surge in Empire Club joiners. There are reasons. Because you get all the extras and you get sort of our series, when we do series of things, you get them all in a big blip,

so you don't have to wait and hang around every month. You can do a Netflix-style binge. Oh, God. And don't we all love a binge? The other thing, though, excitingly, I'm going to tell him. William, I'm going to do a dowrymple. I'm going to tell him.

Are you letting cats out of bags, Persian cats? All sorts of cats. every type of cat imaginable. We've got live shows coming up this year, ladies and gentlemen. Live shows will be touring Empire. Not going to say where, partly because I can't remember, but there are a few venues. I can remember if we don't know. We had to say it. No, I mean, I actually really legitimately haven't asked permission to do this. So let's just know one will notice at Goalhanger. We're going to do a tour. And with our Empire live shows, we have noticed that it sells out at light speed. I mean, my goodness, the Barbican, which I personally never thought anyone would

come to our birthday party, but you all came and it sold out within 24 hours and we do that. So if you are a member of the club, you get priority tickets. So if there was ever a reason to do something in January that might transform your lives, this is it. And you also get bonus episodes where we wang on about things that we don't wang on in the podcast. And you get to know us better. Anyway, enough of that. Because we're getting up close and personal with the man who would be Shah Jahal and the man who will ultimately be. remembered as the architect, the builder of the Taj Mahal, a place where any of you who've probably done that golden triangle visit to India, it will stick out in your mind. It's odd though

thinking about him because so often when we think about Shahjahana, it is the buildings we think of. We think of the Taj Mahat, but we also think of the Red Fort, Shah Jahanabad, and all his amazing gardens and building schemes which are dotted across North India and indeed right up to Kabul. But he himself, and I was just thinking this morning prior to doing this show, what has sort of reserved man he is and how much more inscrutable he is than his others, almost all the other moguls that we've dealt with now, like Barbo with his amazing diary and his incredible descriptions of the world he's passing through, Humayon, the Hippi-dipi, Akbar with his extraordinary...

Library Camels. Yeah, the Library Camels. And Shahjahan, is, in the sense, almost only his buildings and his sort of ceremonial. He tightly controlled his public image. Not only are the artists given total, detailed inscriptions of how he wants to be depicted in every picture, but even his court histories get written and rewritten and written a third time in different drafts at his instruction. He was kind of so obsessive. And he's a handsome guy, and we know his face very well because he had himself painted over and over again with this sort of sculpted dark beard, this slightly dark complexion because he's now three-quarters Rajput, every one of his parents and grandparents that were either Rajputs or married to Rajputs.

But he's a sort of oddly inscrutable and unemotional man personally. And like the Medici's, we used this image with Jahangir last time, but it's the same. He's both extremely sensitive to some things and capable. of cold-blooded brutality. And he has both of those features in his character. I wonder if one of the reasons that he is so controlling of his own narrative is it because he's able to be, because he comes from a long line of heavy drinkers and drug takers. And he is not. He sort of stands apart because he doesn't indulge like his father Jahangir did. In fact, he didn't like drinking at all. There was a really interesting thing I found that Johangir himself

writes about that, you know, the first time his son even tastes wine is on his 24th birth day when his father practically pours it down his throat. And this is what Johanke writes about this. It was only after a great deal of trouble that he could be persuaded to take a little wine. And so he drank a little bit, mostly when his father is forcing him to have a drink at ceremonial events. But after 1602, he gives up booze altogether because it is a lack of control. And you get this impression, the portraits give you so much, but certainly from the writing and the difference of perception between his own court writers and those from outside his role, and we'll talk about that maybe a little bit later,

he wants to control the narrative. Also, psychologically, I think, you know, obviously if you're brought up with an alcoholic father who is killing himself, that does affect you. To begin with, Johangir notes very carefully how much he's drinking and how much he's taking of opium. But by the end, he's more or less incapacitated by any self-control has gone. And Shahjahang grows up with that daily reality.

and the result is to make him this sort of controlling austere and self-controlled, reserved figure, which is why I think it's interesting that when he finally falls in love, and this is the central story that we'll be dealing with in this episode and the next, he has this extraordinary marriage. And his relationship with Mumtaz Mahal, which is the story that every tourist guide tells tourists as they come around Agra and that Taj is a symbol of love. and all that sort of hokam that actually is based on a fascinating reality. And it goes so strongly against the stereotype that everyone in the West is brought up to the moguls or the Ottomans.

These Muslim rulers are sort of massive harim guys with women on every side. Shahjahan only has one love of his life. Well, he has one true love, but he does have a great big harem. He does have a great big harrim, but one true love. But I understand that's for diplomatic reasons. There's no indication at all that he is sex. actually proflagate, certainly in the course of his wife's lifetime. And it's very interesting how far, that's true for all the moguls. I mean, many of them. If you think of Akbar,

Fara Manrique says that he's strongly disapproved of libertine behaviour. Jahangir has no Jahan, who is devoted to. It's a family with three generations of very strong marriages. And that's unusual, interesting. And we're sort of putting the cart before the horse. So let's just talk about little Shah Jahan, who wasn't called Shahjahan at all. So if he's following a our Mughal series, you'll know that there are titles that we will come to know people by which they may not have been born with. So actually, Shahjaham, he was born with the name Kurum, and Kurim itself means joyous. And he was born in Lahore. He was born on January 5th, 1592, and he was Jahangir's ninth child and his third oldest son. So the art of

succession should not have been troubling him so much, although, as we know from Mughal history, people leapfrog the succession line. But actually just numerically, he shouldn't have had any business and thinking that he would one day rule. And his mom is from the great Rajpur Kingdom of Jopo. Previously, a lot of the princes had come from Jepo wives. And Jihangir's mother is the woman known in myth as Jodhba. Jodhah, yes. I mean, in all the Bollywood films. Exactly. That has very little historic basis as a title, but she was from Jopo. And you can see that in his features. You know, he's the first of the Mughals that really does look entirely Indian. He could pass in a room full of Rajasthanis today. There's nothing Central Asian at all in his

features. There is a rather glorious little factoid that I want to throw in at this point, because yes, he will marry a Rajput princess, as you say, and these things were diplomatic alliances largely. But his father used to refer to Kouram, soon to be Shah Jahan's father-in-law, as Mota Raja, the fat king. So I think if you've spent Christmas within laws, you'll know how this goes. This is kind of a moniker that's stuck with the Rajput king, who has given over his daughter for this alliance. Motteraja is Uday Singh Rattor, more formal type of. Well, yes, to his friends.

Anyway, Coram is born a really important moment in astrology, and we've talked about how important astrology is particularly to people like, you know, Hamayu, for example, has astrology tents, even when you're not. has nothing else to his name. And tell me what this astrological moment that Curam, soon to be Shah Jahar, is born under, and why it's significant. He's known as the millennial sovereign, not in the sense of smashed avocados and that sort of millennial activity, but because he's born in the year 1,000 of the Islamic calendar. And it's very important to remember, I think, that everyone in India, Hindu and Muslim, but also beyond,

into the wider world, believed at this period of history that the stars determine everything about your fate and about your life. And therefore, to study the stars is very important, and that astrology and astronomy are one science called an India Jotisa, and that if you are born under this conjunction that Prince Karam is, then that is a very significant indicator of how your life is going to be. And as you say, this prince who is not, by any sense, dramatically destined to inherit, and the fact that he actually does proves to a lot of people that despite being the ninth child, the fact that it's this man who will succeed and in the eyes of many open up the great golden age of the moguls is something that sort of in a sense

proves the validity of this way of thinking. He's heaven ordained in the eyes of many people, and it's because he's born at a time, and this is interesting, when Saturn and Jupiter are aligned. And in the Persian world, certainly, that is. meant to be an ushering in of a new era of justice, peace and prosperity. So he grows up with that on his shoulders. You know, all right, he may be the ninth child. He may be the third son, but the heavens have touched him on the shoulder. Until he's 15, this is, again, an interesting thing. He's not raised by his mother. He's raised by his grandfather's wife, Rukia Sultan, Begum, and he's raised in Akbar's imperial harem. That's not unusual at the time. Why does this happen?

I mean, because we've talked about it before, that children have given over to other members of the household. And I've always been curious because after an emperor dies, there's such a bloodbath of killing as people want to put their own children and progeny forward. Why trust your child or why have your child given over to some other woman? Well, the woman in question, Rukhya Sultan, who's the grandmother, is typical of these very powerful Mughal matriacs. And the counterbalance to the young men sort of snarling at each other every succession crisis is this harim full of elderly respected women who are often sent as peacemakers. And this is true very much of the period of Shah Jahan, that there are a succession of women both elderly and younger. Prince Karam's future daughter, Jahanara, will play the role of United Nations peacekeeper in all the successions, the battles that will come and we'll hear a lot more about her. But Rokisseltan is one of these women. And these are powerful women at the back who are pulling the bell ropes of state with enormous influence. There's a woman based in Atlantic called Ruby Lal, who's the great professor who's studied this. And she wrote her first book, which was based on her PhD, all about the Mughal Harims. And up to this point, there'd been a lot written both by sort of Orientalist Brits and by terrible sort of pop historians after independence, painting the Mughal

Harim as this sort of pawn palace. And Ruby's work shows that it's actually full of these sort of incredibly wonderful old grannies who are keeping the whole ship of state afloat, who are peacemakers, who are holding forts in every sense, quite literally, while the men often run a mock and go off the rails. And this woman seems to provide it all the love that young Prince Karam not only needed, but received a thousand times more he was loved than if it had been her own son. And you know what? That seems really significant that he does grow up very secure and very, very loved. So Akbar clearly marks him out as his favourite. Jahangir, Kouram's father, says, My father frequently told me there was no comparison between him and my other children. And that

love is reciprocated. This little boy grows up adoring Akbar his grandfather. And when Akbar does eventually die, it is this little prince that sits by his bedside. Even though, you know what, Normally when an emperor dies and families are reshuffling and shuffling for power, people are spirited away and hidden away, but he sits by his grandfather's side and holds his hand. He's also very lucky. I mean, this whole thing about sort of star ordained. When he's seven, he's hit by smallpox. And smallpox is a ravager of children in this era. If you don't die, you're often so badly pockmarked as a result of this. But somehow he's lucky. I mean, he not only survives, but he remains un-pockmarked. I remember when I first went to India's that lots of people were very badly scarred by box. You just don't see it anymore, but I remember it was rather shocked me in my first visits in the 1980s. And they were the lucky ones. So look, right from the get-go, this is a loved, blessed little boy. And then he becomes, in a way, even more blessed because of his naughty older brother.

So tell us about Kusra. We kind of mentioned him a little bit in the Jahangir episode. We did talk about Kusra. Kusra is that character who you were very exercised. I was saying this was normal princely behaviour for the 17th century. But you were very put out by the fact that Jihangir blinded his own son, who raised against him. Oddly enough, I was, a little bit put out and perturbed by that behaviour. Things are different in different periods of history. In the 17th century in Europe and in here, there's much, much more violence within families and without.

And Kusra, who rises against Jahangir, has all his friends impaled and then is blinded. Then I think there's an intervention from one of these grandmothers in the Harim, and Jhungir is persuaded to send medicine, I think send even a European doctor, to attend Karam and his eyes. Oh, well, I take it all back. He's lovely. Karam's eyes are partially saved. Oh, he sounds like a right pushover in that case.

What dad of the year, I take it all back. Okay, but, you know, this kind of treachery from your older son, it does put your younger son, who's further down the line, in an even better light. So, you know, Jahangir has watched this boy love his father, adore his mother, and be loyal. In fact, there are some sources that suggest that he even is the one, you know, the young Quraam, who is going to be Shah Jahar, is the one who warns Jahangir that Kusra is planning against him and Kusra is plotting against him. So even then, if this is a game of chess, this is a man who is promoting, you know, from porn to queen, although not queen in this case, but would be possible emperor candidate.

And they also share a great love of the arts, which isn't a given, because not all the princes have this. As we heard in the last episode when Sue Strong was talking so brilliantly about it, Jihangir's great love was painting, and he oversees this extraordinary growth of the atelier with Mansour and Abul Hassan and all these other extraordinary artists. painting away. And this is something that young Karram is also obsessed with. It isn't just painting that Karram loves. He loves architecture. And when he's a teenager, he begins to redesign the imperial apartments in the palace in Kabul, commissioning gardens and hunting grounds around the palace. And this is a sort of incredibly nerdy, 15-year-old comes up with these brilliant plans and shows an extraordinary interest in architecture, even at that age. but the thing that really makes him stand out to his father is his obsession with jewels.

Oh, tell us that story again. We did it in the Coenowar episode about how he has eyes on the prize. Exactly. Tell us that story again because I love that story. So we have this from Jahangir's own diaries and he's amazed to see this little kid take such an interest in something that he loves, which is precious gems and jewels, and to have a real connoisseurship, even in his early teens. and Jahangir comments with pride on his son's eye for gems and tells a number of stories. He calls him the star in the forehead of accomplished desires and the brilliancy in the brow of prosperity. So he's very proud of this little boy. And he tells the story that on one occasion when Jahangir, the father, had been given an especially fine pearl and wanted to find a pair for it, young Prince Curran pops up and sends off.

the men looking after the jewels to look for the exact match, which he'd seen several years earlier, which lay in an old turban jewel and was of a weight and shape exactly equal to this pearl. And they produced the old turban jewel, and it's trafficked into court with a great sort of fanfare, and says Jhanger, it was indeed of exactly the same quality weight, shape, luster and brilliance. One might say, wrote Jhunger, that they had been shed from the same mold, placing the two pearls alongside the ruby, I banned them onto my arms. But that's not the story I was talking about. The story I was talking about, yes, the other story I was talking about. This is given to us by Edward Terry, Sir Thomas Rose Chaplain. You remember we talked about Thomas Roe, entirely neurotic,

first ambassador to the Mekul Court, who never has a good enough present for the emperor. But he tells this story that, you know, young Quram, soon to be Shah Jahar, was so fascinated by gems that there was this banquet that was thrown. And Edward Terry is. is blessed to be there. And there are 12 dancing girls who have bedecked in jewels and not much else. You know, we've talked about this in the Coenor episodes as well, that it's quite often that, you know, rows and rows and rows of pearls and diamonds and spinels. And instead of looking at these lovely ladies, and by the way, I say that with a little bit of sick in my mouth, this young lad does not look up from the jewels. Yes, he's just been brought a tray of jewels. And he just can't take his eyes off them. And, you know, it may be that Miss World is

parading in front of him, but he couldn't care less. He could not care less. So anyway, that's the guy. But let's talk about love, shall we? Because we've now got a 14, 15-year-old who is showing himself to have qualities that his father Jahangir clearly admires, that his grandfather Akbar clearly loved. And it is time to marry. The age of sort of about 14 or 15, it is not unusual for, you know, royals to marry.

In fact, anyone to marry at that time. We're talking about the 1600s. So there's a lovely story about a trip to Agra where his eye is caught by the beauty that is Arjuman Banu. Now, you don't know that name. She'll have a different name that you will know if you know anything about the Taj Mahal. Mumdaz Mahal is the name that she will be given. She's a girl from a noble Persian family. Not just a noble Persian family, the sort of grandest Persian family in the empire. Her father is Asif Khan. And actually, incidentally, he's the man who gives the jewels to Kurum, soon to be Shah Jah, which he can't take his eyes off and his

dancing girls be damned. But this young woman catches his eye and they are betrothed to each other in the year 16-07. So yeah, she's 14, he's 15, but unusually they don't marry for another five years when she's 19 and he's 20 years old. And she becomes not his first but his second wife. Now, that's interesting because the poor old first wife in the shadow of the Taj Mahal is often completely lost in this story. But there is a first wife. Now, we should talk about her a little bit. And there will be subsequent ones. There are the third and fourth wives who are again married for diplomatic reasons.

But this one is the one for Karam. And it's noted even at the time that this is something really extraordinary. And there's a court historian called Mohammed Amin Kazweeney. and he writes a little bit later, the intimacy, deep affection, attention and favor, which his majesty had for the cradle of excellence, which is another of the titles as Mum does, exceeded by a thousand times what he felt for any other. And always that lady of the age was the companion, close confidant, associate, an intimate friend of that successful ruler in hardship and comfort, joy and grief when traveling or in residence.

The mutual affection and harmony between the two reached a degree rarely seen between a husband and wife among sultans and rulers or among the ordinary people. And this was not merely out of sexual passion. The excellent qualities, pleasing habits, outward and inward virtues and physical and spiritual compatibility on both sides, cause great love and affection and extreme affinity and familiarity. Well, familiarity is right because this is a woman who will go on to. to bear 14 children to her husband. And bloody hell, you know, I did the maths on this. Do you know what this means?

Do you know what this means in her lifespan? This is a child every 16 months, William. A child every six. This woman must have been canackered with a capital K. But I'm just looking at sort of portraits of her and what it is that must have beguarded him and lots of miniatures at the time. I mean, she was loved, therefore she was painted.

And they're actually remarkably consistent. You know, you don't always have this with ancient miniatures, different artists, but different spins and may not have any access. But she's got a very oval face, sort of broad forehead, very piercing eyes, but they're sort of quite far apart, dark eyebrows, but very fair skin. She's Persian. She's not of Indian origin. She's a person. Asaf Khan as a young boy came to India with his father, Itmadadala, and his three sisters, of whom I should say, one married to Drimple, but we won't go there again. Sorry, no, that's me banging my head. It's okay. Don't worry. You go ahead. Insert Turimple here. James Durimpool in 1790 marries Muti Begham,

who is Nur Jahan's great-great niece. That's nice. You'll be pleased to hear. Oh yeah, thrilled. Can't you hear it in my voice? I will take you one day to their grave in the hundred-brand. Okay. No, that's a deal. I'd be up for that. So look, his life is sort of all coming together. He's found love. He really has found love. He's got children coming, eight sons and six daughters in all. But in 1627, something monumental happens. And the great figure who has been on the dwindle with his alcohol and opium addiction, Jahangir dies. Join us after the break and find out how all hell breaks loose. Welcome back. So, yes, we left you on a cliffhanger. Jehangir dies. Well, we all die. But his death is really Very monumental.

And we've talked about this. We've talked about him getting ill over time since, you know, the 1620s. I mean, there's age short, but opium and alcohol have ravaged the body and mind of this man. And he dies near Lahore. And at the time, notably, Coram is not nearby. He's far away, isn't he? Where is he? He's down in the deck and, yeah.

He's in the deken, miles away. And that is difficult because there is always a gallop to the throne. because who is going to claim it? And it is often the person who is nearby who has the head start, particularly if they're doing the leapfrog of succession. On the other hand, he has an army and he now has good military experience. And having fallen out with his dad various times and sort of done great sort of leaps around the country

to avoid his father's army chasing him, he is used to doing these dashes across India. Well, hang on, I mean, why is he fallen out with his dad? We've kind of leapfrogging that. That lovely factory. So, I mean, you know, this beloved child who's loved by Akbar, why does he piss Jahangir off? It's classic sort of succession issue. There's a whole range of fights between them. And at one point, famously, young Prince Karam hides on an island in the pitiful in Udipur for a year. If you go to Udaypore and stay in the lake palace, you can look onto the island where young Prince Karam hid from his father. Can I just make the observation that the love of a muggle father swings like a metronome. So one moment adored and at another moment too big for your boots and therefore you annoy your father.

And these things are actually life and death situations. It's not trivial at all. There's a wonderful Instagram site called Mad Mughal Memes, which I recommend to all listeners of Empire Pod, go and look up Mad Mughal Memes. And they once put up a picture of two leatherbound books. the kind of size of an enormous Bible and the other like a kind of thin paperback. And one is labelled the history of the moguls and the other is labeled the history of the moguls if only their fathers had hug their sons a bit more. Well, quite.

I mean, all right. Listen, absence of hugging is one thing. But sending an army after your kid is something quite else. But also, it is Jahangir's wife. It is also, Kouram, soon to be Shahjah's mother. who picks another, not the wayward son, who's now a way with son, you know, after being sort of much like... She picks a guy called Sharia.

Sharia is younger, but is her favourite. And Nurja, I remember, is not the one who's brought up, Kouram. That's why I just find it really odd that you take a child from the mother, that huge connection that should be a natural bond, so often is broken in these Moopal royal families because they haven't brought them up. They haven't, forget about sort of, you know, suckling them. There are wet nurses to do that. But that kind of emotional tie when they're little and vulnerable isn't there?

There was a moment when Nojahan and Karim were allies, but they fall out, and particularly after the marriage of Karam to Mumtaz, because that puts Karam into the camp of Nojahan's brother, Asaf Khan. Right. And they don't get on. This is really important. They got on before this, but they are rivals for power, exactly. This is so bad. So again, Christmas.

round at the muggles is a really bloody fraught affair. So you've got sort of Nojahar, primary empress, who may have got on with her brother at one point, but ends up in a position where she starts despising him and not getting on, as we've said, you know, often involves death and the pulling out of eyeballs in this particular scenario. So you've got this situation where Nojahar has selected, she's put her hand on the head of Sharia, a younger brother, to Coram, but her own brother says, no, I'm not having that. You may well be the Empress, but I'm going to put somebody else on the throne, as it were. So Sharia is sitting, I think, in Lahore, nearby Nurjahan, and Asif Khan sends off post-haste to the Deccan,

right down to the middle of India, where Karam is on campaign and where he's distinguished himself. He's captured, Armand Naga, he's done all sorts of amazing military. military feats. And he has to come racing back up to the north. And in the end, after the usual succession battle, Karam does defeat the army of Sharia, no Jahat. And then there's this sort of terrible bloodbath yet again. And there's Supriya Gandhi, who is one of my favorite historians for the period. She's going to be coming on for the next episode. And she writes this nice little sentence, which I love. She says earlier Mughal emperors had also dealt severely with their brothers and rebelled against their fathers. But in terms of the sheer number of princes killed,

Shah Jahan's route to the throne set a new standard for bloodiness. So as soon as he defeats No Jahan and Sharia, not only Sharia, but all the other brothers are killed. There's a date of death, isn't it? January 1628, his brother, his two nephews, his two cousins, are all murdered in one day. What a day that was. Imagine his diary if he was a diary keeper. Killed most of family today. But of course not directly. So he is, when all this is happening, rather like the godfather scene where all the assassins are dispatched, the godfather has the perfect alibi. This is exactly what's happening. Prince Karam, soon to be Shah Jahan, is encamped outside Agra, waiting for the astrologically perfect moment to enter and take his throne. And meanwhile, the murders take place in

Lahore. So they're going on in the background. So murder away. Asaf Khan is kind of the butcher on this occasion. Right. Okay. But this is really interesting because he doesn't enter Agra for 12 days. He waits outside the gates because he's had both Muslim and Hindu astrologers work on this, that the best moment to enter Agra. And now what is this day? Could we call it the 4th of February, 1628, but it's different, isn't it, in the Islamic calendar? It's the 8th of Jumada, 1030. in the Islamic Canada. And this is the date that he takes Shah Jahan, the king of the world, as his title. Now, in fact, he'd already been given that title after he conquered Arbenaga, at this moment of military triumph, I think a decade earlier. And then when he falls out with his dad,

his dad sort of stops calling him Shah Jahan and goes back to call him Karam again. Oh, my God. They're all so petty. I mean, they make Succession look cuddly. Honestly, they're so horrible to each other. with heads on pikes is very much the vibe. But what does he inherit now? So when he finally comes through the gates, finally, after 12 days, everyone in Agro looking at their successive sundials going,

bloody hell about time. What does he actually walk into? What is his inheritance? So he succeeds, Jahangir, who has done nothing really in the last 20 years except gather gargantuan quantities of jewelry and gems. and, well, he inherits the richest kingdom in the world.

It's almost impossible to exaggerate the wealth of the kingdom, which Shahjahan inherits. Nandini Das, in our last episode, said that the personal wealth of Jahangir was greater than the entire GDP of Europe at this period. And so Shahjahan, having succeeded in winning the throne and having succeeded, in polishing off all his rivals, inherits the kingdom when it is stretching three-quarters the way through India. It contains all of Pakistan, all of Bangladesh, three-quarters of Afghanistan and a slither of Iran. And Shahjahan knows exactly what he wants to spend all this money on, which is architecture. Which is his great passion. Exactly. You can take the boy out of

architecture. He can't take the architecture out of the boy. But he also starts splurging cash. He has money to bestow on favourites. He has money to bestow on these extraordinary building projects. But, you know, he likes gems. The gem and his family connection is his daughter, Jahanara. She is, you know, the eldest child to survive into adulthood, who's born in March 16, 14, favorite daughter of Shah Jahan. Who's a rather wonderful figure in every way? I love her. My goddaughter is called Jahanara. Is she? Oh, we call her JJ because we're lazy.

But yes, Jahanara is her name. She's fabulous. Tell us more about Jahanara because I adore her. So Jahanara, we have lots of pictures of her. She's a beauty, of course. She's an extraordinary looking woman. But she's also brilliant. She writes poetry.

We have a lot of her poetry surviving. She's highly educated. But what is most wonderful about her is that she is eternally the peacemaker and the family. And at every stage, right up to the end, she is the reconciler of all these warring men. And she goes out of a way. A lot of her letters survive to try and keep the brothers together, to keep the family together,

to look after her dad as he gets older and crankier. And everyone loves her. She's the only member of the family. Nobody wants to kill. Nobody wants to kill her at all. They're all quite a fond of it. She's very unusual in this family. Literally no one wants to kill Jahanara, which is amazing.

Unique, unique. speaks very highly of her. And then there's her brother who we're going to hear a lot more about in the next episode, Darushuko. And there are a whole variety of different brothers. But very quickly, after the accession of Shahjahan, when he retreats back to the Deccan where he's been campaigning as a prince, he goes back down there to Burhanpur, which I'm going to go and visit for the first time next month, funny enough. I've got a trip with Sam to Bohanpur schedule for February. Sam is a younger Dalrympal, by the way, a spit of his father and also a very good historian and writer. We'll talk about that one day.

I mean, you know, if you were a mogul, you would have had his eyes plugged up by now. The young child, Sam would have been running scared. Luckily to Sam, he's not going to hide on an island somewhere in the Hebrides to escape your jealousy. My jealousy in Rawls. It'll be all right. It'll be all right. But coming back to our mogul story and leaving the Dalrymple story that could have been, Let's talk about who is actually ruling, because it is a triumvirate.

Exactly that. I think this is something that our guest for a future episode, Supriya Gandhi is going to talk about. There's very much a triumvirate that takes over at the accession. It's not just Shah Jahan on his own. He's ruling very much with Jhannaara and Dara Shuka and with Mumtaz. Mumtaz is his advisor and his absolute confidant in all things. She's really busy.

I can't stress this enough. 16 months, this woman, this poor woman is giving birth to children. And so Johanara and Dara Shuko end up sort of having another pregnancy, another sort of either brother or sister on its way in June 1631. That's when this baby is due. This 38-year-old, I would like to say entirely knackered, but yeah, much loved, okay, Montaaz Mahal, but entirely knackered woman is going into labour. Her 14th pregnancy. 14th pregnancy, right? Okay. 30 hours in labour. And she probably suffers from what in modern medicine we would call a postpartum hemorrhage because she bleeds out and while she's still conscious she's losing blood she's losing consciousness she knows she's

going to die she calls for jahara her daughter and says bring shajahar and he comes and he is a broken man this is the love of his life he is going to lose his love and he's a man that doesn't have other friends no she's it she's everything they form a very tight unit crying by the of her bed and she slips away. So, you know, hideous. He is immediately broken. He puts on white. This man who's very formal and has never missed an audience in his life does not appear in public for a week. No business is transacted. One chronicler says that he wrecks his eyesight for life with the amount of weeping he does. And there were some spectacles which turned up, supposedly belonging to Shah Jahan on the market a couple of years ago, which were then copied.

I don't know whether you're into Farrell, the rapper. I'm into him so much that I know he's pronounced Farrell. Or maybe you're talking about different. And that he's not a rapper but a singer. That's okay. You go on. You're so street. It aches me.

I nearly had my street moment and I fluffed it. Oh, my God. It just reminds me of going to latitude. You should really not try. But I'm so glad you do. Farrell, as you say rightly, call him, spotting the deliberate mistake. Anishka, you better leave this in, man, because it's too funny. Farrell had started wearing two years ago these glasses with little diamonds, little sort of egg-shaped glasses with these diamonds around them.

And these are modelled on the original, which was up for sale in Sutherbeys a couple of years ago, which I got the chance to put on. But what's Farrell wearing? Is he wearing the new Oakley? I see. Okay. Well, listen, we're going to leave it there because with the death of Mumdhaas Mahal, you have the birth of the idea of a mausoleum that will be fitting for the love and grief that a broken Sharjah is feeling. So join us next time. Until then, from me, Anita Arnand, and from Farrell's greatest father. That's given you such pleasure. I can't tell you.

And from very streetwise, William Drupal. Goodbye. She can't even. She can't even finish it.