Jahangir

Jahangir or Jehangir , 1569-1627, Mughal emperor of India (1605-27), son of Akbar . He continued his father's policy of expansion. The Rajput principality of Mewar (Udaipur) capitulated in 1614. In the Deccan, Ahmadnagar was taken in 1616 and half of its kingdom annexed. In the northwest, however, the Persian ruler, Shah Abbas , retook (1622) Kandahar. In 1611, Jahangir married a Persian widow, Nur Jahan, and she and her relatives soon dominated politics, while Jahangir devoted himself to cultivation of the arts, especially miniature painting. He welcomed foreign visitors to his court, granting trading privileges first to the Portuguese and then to the British East India Company. Civil strife and court intrigues marked the last years of Jahangir's reign. Shah Jahan, his son, succeeded him.

Bibliography: See B. Prasad, History of Jahangir (1922).

Jahangir (1569–1627) Mogul Emperor of India (1605–27). He succeeded his father, Akbar I, and continued the expansion of the Empire. He granted trading privileges to the Portuguese and the British, and was a patron of poetry and painting.

Jahangir (1569–1627) Emperor of India (1605–27), whose contribution to MOGUL greatness was artistic rather than military. His name means ‘holder of the world’, but control over the huge empire he inherited was threatened by court quarrels and by the dominance of his Persian wife, Nur Jahan. He was criticized for addiction to alcohol and opium, but his own artistic interests encouraged a new naturalism in the work of his court painters.