In the Name of the Fathers
Mughal Genealogical Strategies from Babur to Shah Jahan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.v5i1/2.409Keywords:
Chingīz Khān, dynastic genealogy, iconography, legitimacy, Mughal empire, TīmūrAbstract
Genealogy has always been a kingly preoccupation, especially in the Indic world where ksatriya status (whether genuine or fabricated) was a sine qua non for the exercise of legitimate power. It was no less true of the Turco-Mongol dynasty known as ‘Mughal’ which came to dominate vast expanses of the subcontinent from the sixteenth century onwards. True, the Mughals could boast of such illustrious ancestors as the world-conquerors Chingiz Khan and Timur. Yet, from the moment they set foot in India, they became aware of the limited legitimacy they would be able to derive from such genealogical credentials in a region where neither Chingiz Khan and his successors nor Timur had left very good memories. On the other hand, their descent from such famous figures constituted a real asset vis-à-vis their Ottoman, Safavid and Uzbek competitors and among the Turco-Mongol and Iranian elements of their nobility. The fact that the Mughals could afford neither to alienate their Indian subjects nor to dispense with the international prestige they derived from their lineage explains to a large extent the fluctuating genealogical strategies they adopted during the first century or so of their dominance.
References
Ahmad, Kabir-ud-din, and 'Abd-ur-Rahim (eds). 1983 [1866–72]. Badshah Nama, by 'Abd-ul-Hamid Lahauri. 3 vols. Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag.
Aigle, Denise. 2000. ‘Les transformations d’un mythe d’origine: L’exemple de Gengis Khan et de Tamerlan.’ In Denise Aigle (ed.), Figures mythiques des mondes musulmans (REMM, 89–90): 151–68. Aix-en-Provence: Édisud.
Alam, Muzaffar (ed.). 1980. Tazkirat us-Salatin Chaghta: A Mughal Chronicle of Post-Aurangzeb Period, 1707–1724, by Muhammad Hadi Kamwar Khan. Mumbai: Asia Publishing house.
Alam, Muzaffar, and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (eds). 2000 [1998]. The Mughal State (1526–1750). Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Anooshahr, Ali. 2009. The Ghazi Sultans and the Frontiers of Islam: A Comparative Study of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods. New York: Routledge.
Balabanlilar, Lisa Ann. 2007. The Lords of the Auspicious Conjunction: Turco-Mongol Imperial Identity on the Subcontinent. PhD thesis, Ohio State University.
Beach, Milo Cleveland. 2000 [1992]. Mughal and Rajput Painting. New Cambridge History of India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Beach, Milo Cleveland, Ebba Koch and Wheeler M. Thackston. 1997. King of the World: The Padshahnama. An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. London and Washington, DC: Azimuth Editions/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
Begley, W. E., and Z. A. Desai (eds). 1990. The Shahjahannama of 'Inayat Khan: An Abridged History of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, Compiled by his Royal Librarian, by Muhammad Tahir 'Inayat Khan (Ashna), trans. A. R. Fuller. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Bernardini, Michele. 2008. Mémoire et propagande à l’époque timouride. Studia Iranica, 37. Paris: Association pour l’Avancement des Études Iraniennes.
Beveridge, h. (trans.). 2000 [1902–39]. Akbar Nama, by Abu'l Fazl. 3 vols. Kolkata: Asiatic Society.
Busch, Allison. 2005. ‘Literary Responses to the Mughal Imperium: The historical Poems of Kesavdas.’ South Asia Research 25.1: 31–54.
Canby, Sheila (ed.). 1994. Humayun’s Garden Party: Princes of the House of Timur and Early Mughal Painting. Mumbai: Marg Publications.
— 1998. Princes, Poets and Paladins: Islamic Paintings from the Collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khân. London: Trustees of the British Museum.
Chandra, Satish. 1993. Mughal Religious Policies, the Rajputs and the Deccan. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.
Dawud, 'Ali Al (ed.). 1999–2000. Tarikh-i alfi: Tarikh-i Iran wa kishwarha-yi hamsaya dar salha-yi 850–984. Tehran: Intisharat-i Kulbah/Fikr-i Ruz.
Delhi Museum of Archaeology. 1911. Loan Exhibition of Antiquities. Coronation Durbar, 1911: An Illustrated Selection of the Principal Exhibits. Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.
Elliot, Henry Miers, and John Dowson (trans.). 2001 [1867–77]. The History of India as Told by its Own Historians. 8 vols. Delhi: Low Price Publications.
Esin, Emel. 1989. ‘Hanlar Ulaki (the Succession of Kings): On the Illustrated Genealogy, with Uygur Inscriptions, of Mongol and Temürid Dynasties, at the Topkapi Library.’ In Walther Heissig and Kalus Sagaster (eds), Gedanke und Wirkung: Festschrift zum 90. Geburstag von Nikolaus Poppe: 113–27. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Ettinghausen, Richard. 1961. ‘The Emperor’s Choice.’ In M. Meiss (ed.), De Artibus Opuscula XL: Essays in Honor of Erwin Panofsky: 98–120. New York: New York University Press.
Faruqui, Munis Daniyal. 2005. ‘The Forgotten Prince: Mirza Hakim and the Formation of the Mughal Empire.’ Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 48.4: 487–523.
Foltz, R. C. (trans.). 1998. Conversations with Emperor Jahangir, by Mutribi-ul-Asamm Samarqandi. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers.
Foster, William (ed.). 1999 [1921]. Early Travels in India, 1583–1619. Delhi: Low Price Publications.
Gallop, Annabel Teh. 1999. ‘The Genealogical Seal of the Mughal Emperors of India.’ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (3rd series) 9.1: 77–140.
Goswamy, B. N. 1999. Painted Visions: The Goenka Collection of Indian Paintings. Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi/Rabindra Bhavan.
Green, Nile. 2008. ‘Tribe, Diaspora and Sainthood in Afghan history.’ Journal of Asian Studies 67.1: 171–211.
Habib, Irfan. 1997. ‘Timur in the Political Tradition and Historiography of Mughal India.’ In Maria Szuppe (ed.), L’héritage timouride: Iran—Asie centrale—Inde, XVe–XVIIIe siècles: 297–312. Tashkent and Aix-en-Provence: Édisud.
Hashim, M. (ed.). 1980. Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, by Nur-ud-din Muhammad Jahangir. Tehran: Intisharat-i Bunyad-i Farhang-i Iran.
Hodivala, Shahpurshah Hormasji. 1923. Historical Studies in Mughal Numismatics. Kolkata: Numismatic Society of India.
Khan, Iqtidar Alam. 1972. ‘The Turko-Mongol Theory of Kingship.’ In Medieval India: a Miscellany, Vol. 2: 8–18. Mumbai: Asia Publishing House.
Kühnel, Ernst. 1941. ‘Eine Stammtafel der Moghulkaiser in Miniaturbildnissen.’ Berliner Museen 62.3: 30–33.
Kumar, Sunil. 2007. The Emergence of the Delhi Sultanate, 1192–1286. Delhi: Permanent Black.
Kurz, Otto. 1967. ‘A Volume of Mughal Drawings and Miniatures.’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 30: 251–71.
Lefèvre, Corinne. 2007. ‘Recovering a Missing Voice from Mughal India: The Imperial Discourse of Jahangir (r. 1605–1627) in his Memoirs.’ Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 50.4: 452–89.
Lentz, Thomas W., and Glenn D. Lowry. 1989. Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Marek, J., and H. Knížková. 1963. The Jenghiz Khan Miniatures from the Court of Akbar the Great. London: Spring Books.
Miles, Col. [William] (trans.). 1838. The Shajrat ul Atrak, or Genealogical Tree of the Turks and Tatars. London: W. H. Allen and Co.
Moin, Ahmed Azfar. 2010. Islam and the Millennium: Sacred Kingship and Popular Imagination in Early Modern India and Iran. PhD thesis, University of Michigan.
Muqtadir, Maulavi Abdul. 1977. Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library. Vol. 7: Indian History. Patna: Superintendent of Government Printing, Bihar.
Naushahi, A., and M. Nizami (eds). 2006. Majalis-i Jahangiri, by 'Abd-us-Sattar bin Qasim Lahauri. Tehran: Miras-i Maktub.
Necipoglu, Gülru. 2000. ‘The Serial Portraits of Ottoman Sultans in Comparative Perspective.’ In Topkapi Palace Museum (ed.), The Sultan’s Portrait: Picturing the House of Osman: 22–61. Istanbul: Isbank.
Okada, Amina. 1992. Le Grand Moghol et ses peintres: Miniaturistes de l’Inde aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Paris: Flammarion.
Pal, Pratapaditya. 1993. Indian Painting: A Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection. Vol. 1: 1000–1700. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Quinn, Sholeh A. 1989. ‘The Mu'izz al-Ansab and Shu'ab-i Panjganah as Sources for the Chaghatayid Period of History.’ Central Asiatic Journal 33.3–4: 229–53.
— 2000. Historical Writing During the Reign of Shah 'Abbas: Ideology, Imitation, and Legitimacy in Safavid Chronicles. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.
Richards, John F. 2000. ‘The Formulation of Imperial Authority under Akbar and Jahangir.’ In Alam and Subrahmanyam 2000: 126–67.
Roxburgh, David J. (ed.). 2005. Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600–1600. London: Royal Academy of Arts.
Smith, Edmund W. 1994 [1909]. Akbar’s Tomb, Sikandarah, near Agra, Described and Illustrated. Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.
Soudavar, Abolala. 1992. Art of the Persian Courts: Selections from the Art and History Trust Collection (with a Contribution by M. C. Beach). New York: Rizzoli.
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. 1992. ‘The Mughal State: Structure or Process? Reflections on Recent Western Historiography.’ Indian Economic and Social History Review 26.3: 291–321.
— 1994. ‘A Note on the Kabul Kingdom under Muhammad hakim Mirza (1554–85).’ La transmission du savoir dans le monde musulman périphérique: Lettre d’information 14: 89–101.
— 2001. ‘Du Tage au Gange au XVIe siècle: Une conjoncture millénariste à l’échelle eurasiatique.’ Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales 56.1: 51–84.
Szuppe, Maria. 1997. ‘L’évolution de l’image de Timour et des Timourides dans l’historiographie safavide, XVIe–XVIIIe siècles.’ In Szuppe (ed.), L’héritage timouride: Iran—Asie centrale—Inde, XVe–XVIIIe siècles: 313–31. Tashkent and Aix-en-Provence: Édisud.
— 2004. ‘Historiography—V. Timurid Period.’ In Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. 12: 356–62. New York: Encyclopædia Iranica foundation.
Taft, Frances H. 1994. ‘Honor and Alliance: Reconsidering Mughal-Rajput Marriages.’ In Karine Schomer et al. (eds), The Idea of Rajasthan: Explorations in Regional Identity. Vol. 2: Institutions: 217–41. Delhi: Manohar/American Institute of Indian Studies.
Talbot, Cynthia. 2007. ‘The Mewar Court’s Construction of History.’ In Joanna Williams (ed.), Kingdom of the Sun: Indian Court and Village Art from the Princely State of Mewar: 13–33. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum/Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture.
— 2009. ‘Becoming Turk the Rajput Way: Conversion and Identity in an Indian Warrior Narrative.’ Modern Asian Studies 43.1: 211–43.
— Forthcoming. ‘Justifying Defeat: Rajput Honor in the Age of Akbar.’ In Corinne Lefèvre and Ines G. Županov (eds), Cultural Dialogue in South Asia and Beyond: Narratives, Images and Community (16th–19th centuries) (special issue of the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient).
Terry, Edward. 1777 [1655]. A Voyage to East-India wherein Some Things are Taken Notice of in our Passage Thither but Many More in our Abode There, within that Rich and Most Spacious Empire of the Great Mogul: Mixt with some Parallel Observations and Inferences upon the Story, to Profit as well as Delight the Reader. London: J. Wilkie.
Thackston, Wheeler M. (trans.). 1996. Babur Nama, by Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur. New York: Oxford University Press.
— (trans.). 1999. The Jahangir Nama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India, by Nur-ud-din Muhammad Jahangir. New York: Oxford University Press.
Topsfield, Andrew. 2008. Paintings from Mughal India. Oxford: Bodleian Library.
Trautmann, Thomas R. 1997. Aryans and British India. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Welch, Anthony, and Stuart Cary Welch. 1982. Arts of the Islamic Book: The Collection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Welch, Stuart Cary, et al. 1987. The Emperors’ Album: Images of Mughal India. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Woods, John E. 1987. ‘The Rise of Timurid Historiography.’ Journal of Near Eastern Studies 46.2: 81–108.
— 1990. ‘Timur’s Genealogy.’ In Michel M. Mazzaoui and Vera B. Moreen (eds), Intellectual Studies on Islam: Essays Written in Honor of Martin B. Dickson: 85–126. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.
Wright, Elaine. 2008. Muraqqa': Imperial Mughal Albums from the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (with Contributions by S. Stronge, W. M. Thackston, S. Cohen, C. Horton, and R. Smith with J. Baldwin). Alexandria, VA: Art Services International.
Ziegler, Norman P. 2000. ‘Some Notes on Rajput Loyalties during the Mughal Period.’ In Alam and Subrahmanyam 2000: 168–210.
