Shah Jahan by Fergus Nicoll is the story of an enlightened despot, a king who dispensed largesse to favoured courtiers but ignored plague in the countryside. Khurram Shah Jahan, a title meaning ` King of the World`, ruled the Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1659. His reign marked the cultural zenith of the Mughal dynasty: a period of multiculturalism, poetry, fine art & stupendous architecture. His legacy in stone embraces not only the Taj Mahal
- the tomb to his beloved second wife Mumtaz
- but also for the Pearl Mosque, the Red Fort, Jama Masid in Delhi, the Shalimar Gardens in Kashmir & the priceless Peacock Throne. But Shah Jahan was also a ruthless political operator, who only achieved power after ordering the murder of two brothers & at least six other relatives, one of them the legitimately crowned Emperor Dawar- Bakhsh. Fergus Nicoll travelled widely through India & Pakistan to follow in Shah Jahan`s footsteps & find new evidence of his passing. As a result, many aspects of the conventional wisdom have had to be re-examined.