Read Empire of the Moghul: Ruler of the World Online
Authors: Alex Rutherford
The Chittorgarh campaign took place in 1567-8.
Chapter 8
Although Akbar certainly married a Rajput princess of Amber (Jaipur) she was not his first wife and the chroniclers are not entirely clear on her name and give no details of the nature of her relationship with Akbar other than that she was Salim’s mother. Their relationship has been fictionalised in various ways in films and novels. It is my own thought that she might have been hostile to Akbar because of his subjection of the Rajputs.
Chapter 9
Akbar visited Shaikh Salim Chishti in 1568 and Salim was born on 30 August 1569. The word
sufi
means ‘those who wear rough woollen garments’ and derives from the Arabic word for wool –
suf
. Sufi mystics adopted such garb as a symbol of aestheticism and poverty.
Chapter 10
Abul Fazl was born in January 1551 and entered Akbar’s service in 1574.
Akbar’s use of ‘tens’ in designating his officials as commanders of a certain number of troops was based on zero, an Indian invention. It was brought to Europe via the Middle East. Hence what we know as Arabic numerals are really Indian numerals.
Europeans wrote of how Akbar ordered sections of buildings to be prefabricated and himself laboured in the quarries cuting sandstone.
The uses of individual buildings at Fatehpur Sikri are not recorded by Abul Fazl or any other chroniclers in detail and are a fertile subject of debate among architectural historians, despite the certainty with which guides speak of them.
Chapter 11
The Gujarat campaign was in 1572.
Chapter 12
The Patna campaign and the invasion of Bengal began in 1574. Shah Daud’s death was in 1576.
Chapter 13
Murad was born in June 1570, Daniyal in September 1572.
The distinction between Shia and Sunni derived from the first century of Islam and originally related to who was Muhammad’s legitimate successor and whether the office should be an elected one or restricted, as the Shias claimed, to the descendants of the prophet through his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. ‘Shia’ is the word for ‘party’ and comes from the phrase ‘the party of Ali’. ‘Sunni’ means ‘those who follow the custom –
sunna
– of Muhammad’. By the sixteenth century further differences had grown between the two sects, such as the nature of required daily prayer.
The first Jesuit mission including Father Monserrate, a Spaniard, arrived at Akbar’s court in 1580.
Chapter 14
Chronicles record the story of Ghiyas Beg’s hazardous journey during which in 1577 Mehrunissa was born.
Chapter 16
John Newberry arrived in India with Ralph Fitch in 1584.
Some commentators have suggested that Akbar’s trances, of which this was by no means the only one, were because, like Julius Caesar, he suffered from epilepsy.
Chapter 18
Many reasons have been advanced for the abandonment of Fatehpur Sikri. Lack of water is one. Another is the distance from the Jumna, a main transport artery at the time. Yet another is that Akbar moved his capital to Lahore simply to be nearer the front lines of his campaigns.
The invasion of Kashmir was in 1586.
Chapter 19
The campaign in Sind was from 1588-91.
Salim married Man Bai in 1585.
Khusrau was born in August 1587.
Chapter 21
Khurram was born on 5 January 1592 in Lahore. Parvez was born in 1589. Abul Fazl wrote in the
Akbarnama
that Akbar ‘loved grandsons more than sons’. Akbar did indeed take Khurram into his own household, placing him with one of his wives, Rukhiya.
Chapter 22
The Kandahar campaign culminated in the city’s fall in May 1595.
Chapter 23
The story of Salim’s seduction of Akbar’s concubine Anarkali was first mentioned by another English merchant William Finch who visited Hindustan between 1608 and 1611 and claimed while in Lahore to have seen a sumptuous tomb erected for Anarkali by Salim after he became emperor. Though there is no other contemporary evidence for this tragic romance, the story of Anarkali was clearly part of the oral tradition and was taken up by later Moghul writers. It is my own invention that she was Venetian.
Chapter 26
Salim indeed turned to wine, spirits and opium. His hands shook so badly he couldn’t hold a glass and court physicians gave him six months to live unless he reformed.
Chapter 27
Salim left for Allahabad in July 1600. In his own memoirs the
Jahangirnama
, Salim describes Abul Fazl as ‘no friend of mine’ and admitted responsibility for his killing.
Murad died of drink in May 1599.
Salim returned to Agra in April 1603.
Chapter 28
Hamida died in August 1604 and Daniyal in March 1605.
Chapter 29
The western philosopher spoken of by Akbar is Sophocles.
Akbar died on 15 October 1605. According to the western calendar it was his sixty-third birthday. Intriguingly one of his most famous contemporaries William Shakespeare also died on his own birthday, 23 April 1616, at the age of fifty-two.