Conqueror of the World
In 1657 the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan presided over the world’s wealthiest empire, sprawled across Afghanistan in the north and deep into southern India. Under his tenure the empire reached new heights of wealth, power and prestige, manifested in his magnificent architectural wonders such as the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and the sparkling new, white marble-clad city of Shahjanabad.
However, the emperor was deathly ill, and his four sons knew exactly what that meant. To the Mughals, succession was a bloody form of natural selection. The fact that Shah Jahan had already appointed his eldest son, Dara Shikoh, his heir meant nothing. If you were an emperor’s son, as one Persian phrase put it, it was, “either the throne or the grave.”
News of Shah Jahan’s illness spread like wildfire. Based in the royal court, Dara boasted considerable administrative and martial experience and a huge army, ready to kill and die for his cause. Yet the same could be said of all his brothers, Shuga, the governor of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa; Aurangzeb, governor of the Deccan; and Murad, governor of Gujarat and Malwa.
In the ensuing civil war, Aurangzeb proved himself a remarkable general, allying with Murad to drive Dara from the capital of Agra and take it for himself. By now their father had made a miraculous recovery, but it was too late; Aurangzeb had already
