The Lives of the Mughal Emperors

One of the most powerful of all the world’s great dynasties, the Mughals ruled India for over three hundred years. Beginning in 1526, the first six emperors—Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb—invaded, lost, regained, and greatly expanded an empire that at its peak covered most of preindependent India. But the later rulers were seriously overstretched, increasingly lacking authority, resources, or ability, and by the time the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was deposed in 1857, the once-great dynasty held power over just the Red Fort in Delhi.

           

In The Lives of the Mughal Emperors, John Reeve tells the individual stories of the Mughal emperors and other key officials through the art that was produced at the time. The Mughals were great patrons of the arts, and Reeve reveals them to be not only an enormously powerful dynasty but also one beset by problems of opium and alcohol addiction, brutal familial infighting, and territorial pressures from other political powers. A beautifully illustrated introduction to the Mughal period, this volume will appeal to anyone interested in how the Mughals built and then lost a great empire.

John Reeve was formerly Head of Education at the British Museum and now teaches at the Institute of Education, University of London. He is the author of several books on Asian art and world religion and editor of Sacred, an exhibition catalogue published by the British Library.