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balcony, i.e. the Jharokha in East direction. Below, a crowd wanted to have a look
of the emperor.
• Court histories of the Mughals were written in Persian language in the 10th /17th
centuries came from different parts of the subcontinents and they are now the
Indian languages.
• All Mughal government officials held rank with two designation—zat and sawar. In
the 17th century, mansabdar of 1,000 Zat or above was ranked as nobles.

The monarchs of the Mughal Empire considered themselves as legitimate rulers of vast
Indian sub-continent. They appointed court historians to write on accounts of their
achievements. Modern historians called these texts as chronicles, as they presented a
continuous chronological record of events.

The Mughals and Their Empire:

• The name Mughal derives from the term ‘Mongol’. The Mughals were
descendants of the Turkish ruler Timur on the paternal side. Zahiruddin Babur was
related to Ghenghis Khan from his mother’s side.
• Babur was driven from Farghana by the warring Uzbeks. First he established
himself at Kabul and then in 1526 came to Indian sub-continent.
• Babur’s successor, Nasiruddin Humayun (1530-40, 1555-56) expanded the
frontiers of the empire, but lost it to the Afghan leader Sher Shah Sur. In 1555,
Humayun defeated the Surs, but died a year later.
• Jalaluddin Akbar (1556-1605) was the greatest of all the Mughal emperors. He
expanded and consolidated his empire making it the largest, strongest and richest.
• Akbar had three fairly able successors Jahangir (1605-27), Shah Jahan (1628-58)
and Aurangzeb (1658-1707). After the death of Auranzeb (1707), the power of
Mughal dynasty diminished.

Different Chronicles of Mughals:

• Chronicles commissioned by the Mughal emperors are an important source for
studying the empire and its court.
• The authors of Mughal chronicles were invariably courtiers. The famous chronicles
are Akbar Nama, Shahjahan Nama and Alamgir Nama.
• Turkish was the mother tongue of Mughals, but it was Akbar who made Persian
the leading language of Mughal court.
• Persian became Indianised by absorbing local idioms. Urdu sprang from the
interaction of Persian with Hindavi.
• All books in Mughal India were handwritten manuscripts and were kept in
Kitabkhana . i.e. scriptorium.
• The creation of a manuscript involved paper makers, scribes or calligraphers,
gilders, painters, bookbinders, etc.
• Akbar’s favourite calligraphy style was the nastaliq, a fluid style with long
horizontal strokes. Muhammad Husayn of Kashmir was one of the finest