Shah Jahan

The Rise and Fall of the Mughal Emperor
By Fergus Nicoll

Khurram Shah Jahan, a title meaning 'King of the World', ruled the Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1659. His reign marked the cultural zenith of the Mughal dynasty: a period of multiculturalism, poetry, fine art and stupendous architecture. His legacy in stone embraces not only the Taj Mahal - the tomb to his beloved second wife Mumtaz - but also for the Pearl Mosque, the Red Fort, Jama Masid in Delhi, the Shalimar Gardens in Kashmir and the priceless Peacock Throne.

But Shah Jahan was also a ruthless political operator, who only achieved power after ordering the murder of two brothers and at least six other relatives, one of them the legitimately crowned Emperor Dawar-Bakhsh. This is the story of an enlightened despot, a king who dispensed largesse to favoured courtiers but ignored plague in the countryside. Fergus Nicoll travelled widely through India and Pakistan to follow in Shah Jahan's footsteps and find new evidence of his passing. As a result, many aspects of the conventional wisdom have had to be re-examined.

Fergus Nicoll has been a current affairs journalist for the BBC since 1988. His work has enabled him to travel widely throughout the Middle East and South Asia.

Review in the TLS on 14th May 2010 by Francis Robinson

'But his [Nicoll's] real claim to novelty is in providing the first book-length study of this remarkable emperor since R. N. Saksena in 1932, and doing so in manner which deserves to bring a new following to Mungal history.'