Mawlawiyah,

Turkish MEVLEVIYAH,  fraternity of  Sufis (Muslim mystics) founded in  Konya (Qonya),
Anatolia, by the Persian Sufi poet  Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi (d. 1273), whose popular title mawlana (Arabic: "our master") gave the order its name. The order, propagated throughout Anatolia, controlled Konya and environs by the 15th century and in the 17th century appeared in Constantinople (Istanbul). European travelers identified the Mawlawiyah as dancing (or whirling) dervishes, based on their observations of the order's ritual prayer (  dhikr), performed spinning on the right foot to the accompaniment of musical instruments.

After the dissolution of all Sufi brotherhoods in Turkey by a decree of September 1925, the Mawlawiyah survived in a few monasteries in Aleppo, Syria, and a scattering of small towns in the Middle East. Special permission granted by the  Turkish government in 1954 allowed the Mawlawi dervishes of Konya to perform their ritual dances for tourists during two weeks of every year. Despite government opposition the order continued to exist in Turkey as a religious body into the late 20th century. The tomb of ar-Rumi at Konya, although officially a museum, attracted a steady stream of devotees.
 

Shah Jahan
  also  spelled SHAHJAHAN, also called (until 1628) PRINCE KHURRAM (b. Jan. 5, 1592, Lahore,  India--d. Jan. 22, 1666, Agra), Mughal emperor of India (1628-58) and builder of the  Taj Mahal.

Mughal DYNASTY,

also  spelled MOGUL, Arabic MONGOL, Muslim dynasty that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid-18th century. The Mughal dynasty was notable for about two centuries of effective rule over much of India, for the ability of its rulers, who through seven generations maintained a record of unusual talent, and for its administrative organization. A further distinction was the attempt of the Mughals, who were Muslims, to integrate Hindus and Muslims into a united Indian state.

The dynasty was founded by a Chagatai Turkic prince named  Babur (reigned 1526-30), who was descended from the Turkic conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) on his father's side and from Chagatai, second son of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, on his mother's side. Ousted from his ancestral domain in Central Asia, Babur turned to India to satisfy his appetite for conquest. From his base in Kabul, he was able to secure control of the Punjab, and in 1526 he routed the forces of the Delhi sultan Ibrahim Lodi at the First Battle of Panipat. The following year he overwhelmed the Rajput confederacy under Rana Sanga of Mewar, and in 1529 he defeated the Afghans of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. At his death in 1530 he controlled all of northern India from the Indus River on the west to Bihar on the east and from the Himalayas south to Gwalior.

Babur's son Humayun (reigned 1530-40 and 1555-56) lost control of the empire to Afghan rebels, but Humayun's son  Akbar (reigned 1556-1605) defeated the Hindu usurper Hemu at the Second Battle of Panipat (1556) and thereby reestablished his dynasty in Hindustan. The greatest of the Mughal emperors and an extremely capable ruler, Akbar reestablished and consolidated the Mughal Empire. Through incessant warfare, he was able to annex all of northern and part of central India, but he adopted conciliatory policies toward his Hindu subjects and sought to enlist them in his armies and government service. The political, administrative, and military structures that he created to govern the empire were the chief factor behind its continued survival for another century and a half. At Akbar's death in 1605 the empire extended from Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal and southward to Gujarat and the northern Deccan.

Akbar's son  Jahangir (reigned 1605-27) continued both his father's administrative system and his tolerant policy toward Hinduism and thus proved to be a fairly successful ruler. His son,  Shah Jahan (reigned 1628-58), had an insatiable passion for building and left the Taj Mahal and the Great Mosque of Delhi, among other monuments. His reign marked the cultural zenith of Mughal rule, but his military expeditions brought the empire to the brink of bankruptcy. Jahangir's tolerant and enlightened rule stood in marked contrast to the Muslim religious bigotry displayed by his more orthodox successor,  Aurangzeb (reigned 1658-1707). Aurangzeb annexed the Muslim Deccan kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda and thereby brought the empire to its greatest extent, but his political and religious intolerance laid the seeds of its decline. He excluded Hindus from public office and destroyed their schools and temples, while his persecution of the Sikhs of the Punjab turned that sect against Muslim rule and roused rebellions among the Rajputs, Sikhs, and Marathas. The heavy taxes he levied steadily impoverished the farming population, and a steady decay in the quality of Mughal government was thus matched by a corresponding economic decline. When Aurangzeb died in 1707, he had failed to crush the Marathas of the Deccan and his authority was disputed throughout his dominions.

During the reign of  Muhammad Shah (1719-48), the empire began to break up, a process hastened by dynastic warfare, factional rivalries, and the Iranian conqueror Nadir Shah's brief but disruptive invasion of northern India in 1739. After the death of Muhammad Shah in 1748, the Marathas overran almost all of northern India. Mughal rule was reduced to only a small area around Delhi, which passed under Maratha (1785) and then British (1803) control. The last Mughal,  Bahadur Shah II (reigned 1837-57), was exiled to Rangoon (Yangon) by the British after his involvement with the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

India

Akbar in historical perspective.
 
 

  Development of the
  Mughal Empire
   [Image] By 1600 the Mughals in India had achieved a fairly compact and
efficient state system, for which          genius deserves much credit.  However, the Mughal system must be studied in the context of broad historical developments of the 16th and 17th centuries. Long before Akbar's schemes, Sher Shah Sur's short-lived reforms had included demand for cash  payment from the peasants, surveys of agricultural lands and of crops grown, and a reliable, standardized, and high-quality coinage. The Sur ruler insisted on a uniform rate for the entire empire, which was certainly a major flaw in contrast to Akbar's consideration for regional variations. It is striking, however, that the chief zabt territories under Akbar were largely made up of the provinces already controlled by Sher Shah  .

Another major development of Sher Shah's brief period, namely the building of a network of  roads to improve the connections already started by Babur between Hindustan and the great trading routes extending into Central and western Asia via Kabul and Qandahar, foreshadowed in a measure the later imperial edifice and economy. By laying a road between Sonargaon and Attock, the Sur ruler had made a first attempt at bringing the economy of Bengal into closer contact with that of northern India. The expansion under Akbar followed in logical sequence what had already occurred. The network based on Sher Shah's routes had extended considerably by 1600. Agra came to be linked not only to Burhanpur but also to Cambay, Surat, and Ahmadabad. Lahore and Multan were now the gateway to Kabul as well as to the ports of the mouth of the Indus. The link with Sonargaon became a far more secure control over the ports of Bengal. Many other changes initiated in the late 16th century were to be consolidated only later, in conjunction with further political unification.