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Islamic art
The Rise and Fall of the Mughal Empire
Examining the Mughals through an art-history lens
The Mughal court was founded in 1526 by Babur, a prince from Central Asia who traced his descent back to Timur and Genghis Khan. The success of Babur’s conquest of the subcontinent was due to his use of gunpowder techniques, as well as the combination of artillery and mounted archers. Due to this use of gunpowder in their military tactics, the Mughals are termed a “gunpowder empire”, alongside the contemporaneous empires of the Ottomans and Safavids. The Mughals, however, didn’t produce or use gunpowder as effectively as either the Europeans or the Ottomans, buying it on the open market rather than manufacturing it themselves. Whilst in the latter days of the empire the Mughals started to fall behind the Europeans in terms of military technology, this did not matter much due to their superiority in comparison to their enemies within South Asia.
The Mughal court was deeply rooted in the Persian sphere, and the Mughal emperors were avid collectors of art — particularly of the Timurid manuscripts and paintings of their forebears. Whilst the Emperors spoke in Chaghatay Turkish, Persian was spoken at court and was used in administration. This allowed for artistic practices to be easily shared between the Persian and Mughal empires, due to the ease of movement of artists, craftsmen, poets, and calligraphers between the two realms. As the Mughal’s wealth was far superior to either the Persian’s or Ottomans’, the Mughal court attracted artisans from outwith their Empire such that the Mughal Empire became the centre of Persian culture.
Whilst the Timurid dynasty in India was founded by Babur, the Mughal empire is really the achievement of Akbar, who acceded to the Mughal throne in 1556. By the end of the reign of Akbar, the Mughal Empire stretched from Afghanistan through to Bangladesh, and it was during a military expedition to Gujarat that Akbar first met Europeans. The Portuguese had established a trading post in Goa, and these men - along with the arts and crafts which they brought - intrigued Akbar and left him wanting to know more. Akbar, therefore, sent a delegation to Goa in 1575, and his eagerness to learn about Christianity from practising Christians led to the first Jesuit mission…
