Mumtaz Mahal (pictured), wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, died in childbirth; Jahan spent the next seventeen years constructing her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.

Mumtaz Mahal

Empress of the Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1633

Mumtaz Mahal was the empress consort of Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1631 as the chief consort of the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan. The Taj Mahal in Agra, often cited as one of the Wonders of the World, was commissioned by her husband to act as her tomb.

List of emperors of the Mughal Empire

The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty, ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were monarchs of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern…

Shah Jahan

Mughal emperor from 1628 to 1658

Shah Jahan I, also called Shah Jahan the Magnificent, was the Emperor of Hindustan from 1628 until his deposition in 1658. As the fifth Mughal emperor, his reign marked the zenith of Mughal architectural and cultural achievements.

Origins and architecture of the Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal represents the finest and most sophisticated example of Indo-Islamic architecture. Its origins lie in the moving circumstances of its commission and the culture and history of an Islamic Mughal empire's rule of large parts of India. The distraught Mughal Emperor…

Taj Mahal

Marble mausoleum in Agra, India

The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, to house the tomb of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan…