Shah Jahan

Shahabuddin Muhammad Shah Jahan (15 January 1592 – 31 January 1666) was the fifth Mughal Emperor of India from 1628 to 1658. Born Prince Khurram, he was the son of Emperor Jahangir and his Hindu Rajput wife, Taj Bibi Bilqis Makani (13 May 1573 – 18 April 1619).

He was chosen as successor to the throne after the death of his father in 1627. He was considered one of the greatest Mughals of the Timur family. Like his grandfather, Akbar, he was eager to expand his vast empire. In 1658, he fell ill and was confined by his son and successor Aurangzeb in Agra Fort until his death in 1666.

The period of his reign was considered the golden age of Mughal architecture. Shah Jahan erected many monuments, the best known of which is the Taj Mahal at Agra, built in 1632–1654 as a tomb for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.

Early life

Born in January 1592, Shah ab-ud-din Muhammad Khurram was the third son born to Emperor Jahangir; his mother was a Rajput princess from Marwar called Princess Manmati (her official name in Mughal chronicles was Bilquis Makani). The name "Khurram" was chosen for the young prince by his grandfather, Emperor Akbar, with whom the young prince shared a close relationship.

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal (/ˌtɑːdʒ məˈhɑːl/, more often /ˈtɑːʒ/; Persian for "Crown of Palaces", pronounced [ˈt̪aːdʒ mɛˈɦɛl]) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–1658), to house the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 42-acre complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.

Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643 but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2015 would be approximately 52.8 billion rupees (US$827 million). The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.

Mumtaz Mahal

Mumtaz Mahal (1 September 1593 – 17 June 1631) [mumˈt̪aːz mɛˈɦɛl]; meaning "the chosen one of the palace") was a Mughal Empress and chief consort of emperor Shah Jahan. The Taj Mahal in Agra was constructed by her husband as her final resting place.

She was born as Arjumand Banu Begum in Agra in a family of Persian nobility as a daughter of Abdul Hasan Asaf Khan, making her a niece and later stepdaughter-in-law of Empress Nur Jehan, the wife of the emperor Jahangir. Arjumand Banu Begum was married at the age of 19, on 10 May 1613, to Prince Khurram, later known as Emperor Shah Jahan, who conferred upon her the title "Mumtaz Mahal". Though betrothed to Shah Jahan in 1607, she ultimately became his third wife in 1612 and was his favorite. She died in Burhanpur in the Deccan (now in Madhya Pradesh) during the birth of their fourteenth child, a daughter named Gauhara Begum.

Mumtaz Mahal mothered fourteen children by Shah Jahan, including Aurangzeb; the Imperial Prince Dara Shikoh, the heir apparent anointed by Shah Jahan, who temporarily succeeded Shah Jahan until deposed by his brother Aurangzeb; and Jahanara Begum, the Imperial Princess.

Black magic

Black magic or dark magic has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes. With respect to the left-hand path and right-hand path dichotomy, black magic is the malicious, left-hand counterpart of benevolent white magic. In modern times, some find that the definition of "black magic" has been convoluted by people who define magic or ritualistic practices that they disapprove of as "black magic".

History

Like its counterpart white magic, the origins of black magic can be traced to the primitive, ritualistic worship of spirits as outlined in Robert M. Place's 2009 book, Magic and Alchemy. Unlike white magic, in which Place sees parallels with primitive shamanistic efforts to achieve closeness with spiritual beings, the rituals that developed into modern "black magic" were designed to invoke those same spirits to produce beneficial outcomes for the practitioner. Place also provides a broad modern definition of both black and white magic, preferring instead to refer to them as "high magic" (white) and "low magic" (black) based primarily on intentions of the practitioner employing them. He acknowledges, though, that this broader definition (of "high" and "low") suffers from prejudices as good-intentioned folk magic may be considered "low" while ceremonial magic involving expensive or exclusive components may be considered by some as "high magic", regardless of intent.

Mahal

Mahal may refer to:

Geography

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Films

Other

See also