4 - Jahangir: an age of transition

Summary

Upon the death of Akbar in 1605, Muhammad Sultan Salim assumed the imperial throne. He took the title Nur al-Din Muhammad Jahangir Badshah Ghazi, hence the name Jahangir by which he is most commonly known. It is generally believed that during Jahangir's 22-year reign, half as long as Akbar's, patronage for buildings declined because of his enthusiasm for painting. Further, common belief credits Jahangir's influential wife, Nur Jahan, a leading taste setter of the time, with stimulating the construction of buildings later in the emperor's reign. Her role as patron cannot be denied, but Jahangir continually refers in his own memoirs to his patronage of tombs, pleasure pavilions, forts and gardens as well as to the restoration of older structures. In fact, Jahangir in his memoirs refers more often to architecture he found pleasing or to buildings he ordered than to paintings he commissioned, even though he is regarded as a great connoisseur of painting. During Jahangir's reign the realm was secure. Thus the nobles were encouraged to embellish cities, construct serais, gardens and dwellings and endow shrines – all concrete manifestations of a prosperous state.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Salim was the name given to Jahangir by his father, Akbar, in honor of Salim, the Chishti saint of Fatehpur Sikri who had predicted his birth. He was Akbar's oldest son and heir-apparent. Akbar gave the young prince an education befitting his rank. The leading nobles and scholars such as the great littérateur, Khan-i Khanan ^cAbd al-Rahim, and the leading theologian, Shaikh ^cAbd al-Nabi, were charged with responsibility for educating the future emperor.