5. Shah Jahan may have built the Taj Mahal for romantic reasons, but he was also an ambitious ruler who and blinded, imprisoned and killed his siblings
The fifth Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, is best known for his architectural commissions. More specifically, he is remembered as the man who ordered the construction of the Taj Mahal, built as a testament to his love for his favorite wife. But he wasn’t just a hopeless romantic. As with almost all rulers of the time, Shah Jahan was also an incredibly ruthless man, especially when it came to keeping rivals at bay. And so, even if one of those rivals was his own brother, he wasn’t afraid of taking the ultimate course of action.
Born Mirza Shahab-ud-din Baig Muhammad Khan Khurram in 1592, he was the third son of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. Of the Emperor’s four brothers, he was widely regarded as being the best man to follow his father, including by the man himself. However, his ascension to the throne was by no means guaranteed. Indeed, when Jahangir died at the end of 1627, the four young men all vied for control. In the end, the war of succession was a short one. The third-born emerged victorious and crowned himself Shah Jahan in February 1628. But, of course, his rivals still remained. One of his brothers was blinded and imprisoned for a short while before being executed. The others were simply murdered right away. Several other potential rivals or threats were similarly eliminated.
With his siblings’ taken care of, Shah Jahan was free to rule over the empire for 30 years. Under him, the Mughal Empire enjoyed a period of relative stability and prosperity. While he may have been a murderer and brother-killer, Shah Jahan was also a man of learning and culture and oversaw an architectural revolution, with the Taj Mahal the high point of his reign. In 1657, he fell seriously ill, sparking another war of succession among his own sons. The third eldest, Aurangzeb emerged victorious and put his own father under house arrest. Shah Jahan died, a prisoner in his own palace, just over a year later.