(a) Discuss the role of Nur Jahan in the Mughal court politics during the reign of Jahangir. (20 marks) (b) Why did Balban prefer…

(a) Nur Jahan in Mughal court politics under Jahangir

Nur Jahan (Mehrunnisa) married Jahangir in 1611 and was given the titles Nur Mahal and then Nur Jahan in 1616. She was the most powerful woman in Mughal politics until 1627, and historians differ on how far her power was hers and how far she ruled for a weak emperor.

Sources of her power.

(i) Personal and family. She had the affection of Jahangir, who was frequently ill with asthma and drank heavily. Her father Itimad-ud-Daula was the chief minister, and her brother Asaf Khan was also high in service. Her daughter Ladli Begum was married to Shahryar, Jahangir's youngest son.

(ii) Insignia. Coins were struck in her name, with the phrase that it was by order of Jahangir, farmans bore her seal as Padshah Begum, and she sat at the jharokha.

(iii) Patronage. She raised the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daula at Agra, gardens and sarais, and appointments went through her circle.

The "Junta". Beni Prasad argued that from about 1611 to 1622 a junta of Nur Jahan, her father, Asaf Khan and Prince Khurram (Shah Jahan, who married Asaf's daughter Arjumand Banu in 1612) ran the empire.

Break-up and decline. After her father's death in 1621 the alliance broke. She sought to secure Shahryar's succession, and Khurram rebelled in 1622–25. In 1626 Mahabat Khan seized the emperor, and she rescued him. After Jahangir died in 1627 Asaf Khan put Shah Jahan on the throne, and she was pensioned at Lahore.

Historiography. Historians such as Ruby Lal and Ellison Findly see her as a politically able woman working within Mughal norms, with the emperor's sanction, more than as a usurper. Her authority was exceptional but dependent on Jahangir.

(b) Why Balban preferred consolidation to expansion

Balban (1266–87) came to a sultanate that was still fragile after Iltutmish's successors, and his priorities were internal.

(i) The nobility. The "Forty" (Turkan-i-Chahalgani) had become powerful and made and unmade sultans. He broke them by punishment and by favouring nobles loyal to himself.

(ii) Kingship. He built up royal prestige by the theory of niyabat-i-khudai (the king as God's deputy), court ceremonies such as sijda and paibos, and Persian customs.

(iii) Machinery of control. He reorganised the army under a diwan-i-arz, and used spies (barids) over nobles and officials.

(iv) Law and order. He cleared the forests and put down the robbers of Mewat and the Doab, and of Katehar.

(v) Mongol threat. The Mongols pressed on the north-west, and his heir Muhammad was killed fighting them in 1285. He built forts on the frontier, and could not spare forces for distant conquests.

(vi) Revolts. The revolt of Tughril Khan in Bengal, which he crushed in 1281–82, showed that provinces were not secure.

Expansion without a secure core would have been dangerous, so he made the sultanate secure first.

(c) European features in Mughal miniature painting

European art reached the Mughal court through Jesuit missions (from 1580, Acquaviva and Monserrate) and through prints such as the Antwerp Polyglot Bible, and gifts from embassies, like that of Sir Thomas Roe.

Features taken up.

(i) Linear perspective, recession and depth in landscape and architecture, instead of flat planes.

(ii) Shading and modelling of figures, with light and shade (chiaroscuro).

(iii) Naturalism in portraits, with individual faces, and in the drawing of plants and animals.

(iv) Motifs and symbols: angels and putti, halos, the Madonna, and European dress and scenes. Jahangir's paintings show him with a Madonna portrait and allegories of kingship in the European manner.

Artists such as Basawan, Manohar and Abu'l Hasan used them, but they kept the Persian decorative tradition of bright colour, detail and courtly theme. The result was a blend, in which European ideas were adapted to Mughal taste and not copied.