Shah Jahan
Padshah Shah Jahan I (
1592 -
1666) was the ruler of the
Mughal Empire from
1627 until
1658. He commissioned the building of the
Taj Mahal in
Agra, for his first wife
Empress Mumtaz Mahal (meaning 'the first lady of the palace'). But for the last five years of his life he was imprisoned by his son
Aurangzeb in a room Agra Fort, tended only by his eldest daughter
Jahanara Begum, with a direct view of the building. This was punishment for his endorsing Dara Shikoh, Aurangzeb's older brother in the fight for succession, but it was a better fate than he might have expected; most
Mughal Emperors killed their fathers upon succession.
