Origins And Architecture Of The Taj Mahal
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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 Shah Jahan commissioned the project upon the death of one of his favorite wives Mumtaz Mahal. Today it is one of the most famous and recognizable buildings in the world and while the large, domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar part of the monument, the Taj Mahal is an extensive complex of buildings and gardens that extends over The UNESCO evaluation omits the Bazaar, Caravenserai (Taj Ganji) and Moonlight garden (Mahtab Bagh) from its area calculations – the total area with the historic Taj Ganji is 26.95 ha and includes subsidiary tombs, waterworks infrastructure, the small town of Taj Ganji to the south and a 'moonlight garden' to the north of the river. Construction of Taj Mahal began ...
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Taj Mahal 2, Agra, India
Taj may refer to: Buildings *Taj Mahal, a medieval mausoleum in the Indian city of Agra *Taj Palace, an Abbasid palace in medieval Baghdad *Taj-ul-Masajid, mosque in Bhopal * Taj building, Nowshera, Pakistan *Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, international hotel chain * The Taj Exotica Hotel & Resort, Dubai Transport *Tadji Airport, Papua New Guinea (IATA: TAJ) *Taj International Airport, proposed airport in Delhi *Taj Express, train between New Delhi and Agra Sport * Taj Ahvaz Football Club, Iranian football (soccer) club * Taj Abadan Football Club, Iranian football (soccer) club * Taj Tehran Football Club, Iranian football (soccer) club * Taj F.C. (Palau), Palauan football team Other *Taj (name), including a list of people with the name *Taj Mahotsav, annual festival in Agra *Taj Ultimate, annual "Ultimate" tournament in Tajima, Japan *Taj Television Ltd., Mumbai *Former name pre-1979 of Esteghlal Tehran FC Esteghlal Football Club ( fa, باشگاه فوتبال استقل ...
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Arjumand Banu Begum
Mumtaz Mahal (/'/; ), born Arjumand Banu Begum (27 April 1593 – 17 June 1631) was the empress consort of the Mughal Empire from 19 January 1628 to 17 June 1631 as the chief consort of the 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. Mumtaz Mahal was born Arjumand Banu Begum in Agra to a family of Persian nobility. She was the daughter of Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan, a wealthy Persian noble who held high office in the Mughal Empire, and the niece of Empress Nur Jahan, the chief wife of Emperor Jahangir and the power behind the emperor. She was married at the age of 19 on 10 May 1612 or 16 June 1612 to Prince Khurram, later known by his regnal name Shah Jahan, who conferred upon her the title "Mumtaz Mahal" (Persian: the exalted one of the palace). Although betrothed to Shah Jahan since 1607, she ultimately became his second wife in 1612. Mumtaz and her husband had 14 children, in ...
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Persian Gardens
The tradition and style of garden design represented by Persian gardens or Iranian gardens ( fa, باغ ایرانی), an example of the paradise garden, has influenced the design of gardens from Andalusia to India and beyond. The gardens of the Alhambra show the influence of Persian garden philosophy and style in a Moorish palace scale, from the era of al-Andalus in Spain. Humayun's Tomb and the Taj Mahal have some of the largest Persian gardens in the world, from the era of the Mughal Empire in India. Concept and etymology From the time of the Achaemenid Empire, the idea of an earthly paradise spread through Persian literature and example to other cultures, both the Hellenistic gardens of the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemies in Alexandria. The Avestan word ''pairidaēza-'', Old Persian *''paridaida-'',Although the genuine Old Persian form must have been *''paridaida-'', Modern Persian ''palīz'' 'garden' from Middle Persian ''palēz'' presupposes a variant *''pardaiza-'' (with ...
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Lodhi Dynasty
The Lodi dynasty ( ps, لودي سلسله; fa, سلسله لودی) was an Afghan dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1451 to 1526. It was the fifth and final dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, and was founded by Bahlul Khan Lodi when he replaced the Sayyid dynasty. Bahlul Lodi Bahlul Khan Lodi () was the nephew and son-in-law of Malik Sultan Shah Lodi, the governor of Sirhind in (Punjab), India and succeeded him as the governor of Sirhind during the reign of Sayyid dynasty ruler Muhammad Shah. Muhammad Shah raised him to the status of an Tarun-Bin-Sultan. He was the most powerful of the Punjab chiefs and a vigorous leader, holding together a loose confederacy of Afghan and Turkish chiefs with his strong personality. He reduced the turbulent chiefs of the provinces to submission and infused some vigour into the government. After the last Sayyid ruler of Delhi, Alauddin Alam Shah voluntarily abdicated in favour of him, Bahlul Khan Lodi ascended the throne of the Delhi su ...
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Babur
Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively.F. LehmannẒahīr-al-Dīn Moḥammad Bābor In Encyclopædia Iranica. Online Ed. December 1988 (updated August 2011). "Bābor, Ẓahīr-al-Dīn Moḥammad son of Umar Sheikh Mirza, (6 Moḥarram 886-6 Jomādā I 937/14 February 1483 – 26 December 1530), Timurid prince, military genius, and literary craftsman who escaped the bloody political arena of his Central Asian birthplace to found the Mughal Empire in India. His origin, milieu, training, and education were steeped in Muslim culture and so Bābor played significant role for the fostering of this culture by his descendants, the Mughals of India, and for the expansion of Islam in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and histo ...
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Mughal Garden
Mughal gardens are a type of garden built by the Mughals. This style was influenced by the Persian gardens particularly the Charbagh structure, which is intended to create a representation of an earthly utopia in which humans co-exist in perfect harmony with all elements of nature. Significant use of rectilinear layouts are made within the walled enclosures. Some of the typical features include pools, fountains and canals inside the gardens. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan have a number of Mughal gardens which differ from their Central Asian predecessors with respect to "the highly disciplined geometry". History The founder of the Mughal empire, Babur, described his favourite type of garden as a charbagh. The term '' bāgh'', ''baug'', ''bageecha'' or ''bagicha'' is used for the garden. This word developed a new meaning in South Asia, as the region lacked the fast-flowing streams required for the Central Asian charbagh. The Aram Bagh of Agra is thought to have ...
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Jahanara Begum Sahib
Jahanara Begum (23 March 1614 – 16 September 1681) was a Mughal princess and later the Padshah Begum of the Mughal Empire from 1631 to 1658 and again from 1668 until her death. She was the second and the eldest surviving child of Emperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. After Mumtaz Mahal's untimely death in 1631, the 17-year-old Jahanara was entrusted with the charge of the royal seal and conferred the title of ''Padshah Begum'' (First lady) of the Mughal Empire, despite the fact that her father had three surviving wives. She was Shah Jahan's favourite daughter, wielded major political influence during her father's reign, and has been described as "the most powerful woman in the empire" at the time. Jahanara was an ardent partisan of her brother, Dara Shikoh, and supported him as her father's chosen successor. During the war of succession which took place after Shah Jahan's illness in 1657, Jahanara sided with the heir-apparent Dara and ultimately joined her father in Agra For ...
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Layla And Majnun
''Layla & Majnun'' ( ar, مجنون ليلى ; '''Layla's Mad Lover) is an old story of Arab origin, about the 7th-century Bedouin poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah and his ladylove Layla bint Mahdi (later known as Layla al-Aamiriya). "The Layla-Majnun theme passed from Arabic to Persian, Turkish, and Indian languages", through the narrative poem composed in 584/1188 by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, as the third part of his ''Khamsa''. It is a popular poem praising their love story. Qays and Layla fell in love with each other when they were young, but when they grew up Layla's father didn't allow them to be together. Qays became obsessed with her. His tribe Banu 'Amir and the community gave him the epithet of ''Majnūn'' ( "crazy", lit. "possessed by Jinn"). Long before Nizami, the legend circulated in anecdotal forms in Iranian ''akhbar''. The early anecdotes and oral reports about Majnun are documented in ''Kitab al-Aghani'' and Ibn Qutaybah's ''Al-Shi'r wa-l-Shu'ara'.'' Th ...
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Ebba Koch
Ebba Koch is an Austrian art and architectural historian, who defines and discusses cultural issues of interest to political, social and economic historians. Presently she is a professor at the Institute of Art History in Vienna, Austria and a senior researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She completed her doctorate in philosophy and her Habilitation at Vienna University. Koch has spent much of her professional life studying the architecture, art, and culture of the Mughal Empire, and is considered a leading authority on Mughal architecture. In 2001 she became the architectural advisor to the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative. Professional life Early Modern India Koch's work has made considerable contributions to the historical understanding of early modern India. In collaboration with the Indian architect Richard A. Barraud she conducted major surveys of the palaces and gardens of Shah Jahan, reconstructed the Mughal city of Agra, and produced the first, compreh ...
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Tapti River
The Tapti River (or Tapi) is a river in central India located to the south of the Narmada river that flows westwards before draining into the Arabian Sea. The river has a length of around and flows through the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. It flows through Surat, and is crossed by the Magdalla, ONGC Bridge. On 7 August 1968, before the construction of the Ukai Dam to bring its waters under control and provide hydroelectric power, the Tapti River overflowed its banks during heavy rains during the monsoon season. More than 1,000 people drowned in the flood, and the city of Surat was submerged beneath 10 feet of water for several days. After the floodwaters receded, at least 1,000 more people died in Gujarat during a cholera epidemic from the contamination of the drinking water. Its basin covers the parts of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Course The Tapti River rises in Multai, in Madhya Pradesh, and has a total length of around . It is the se ...
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Deccan Plateau
The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges. A rocky terrain marked by boulders, its elevation ranges between , with an average of about .Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2014), ''Deccan plateau India''Encyclopaedia Britannica/ref> It is sloping generally eastward. Thus, its principal rivers—the Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri (Cauvery)—flow eastward from the Western Ghats to the Bay of Bengal. The plateau is drier than the coastal region of southern India and is arid in places. It produced some of the major dynasties in Indian history, including the Pallavas, Satavahana, Vakataka, Chalukya, and Rashtrakuta dynasties, also the Western Chalukya Empire, the Kadambas, the Yadava dynasty, the Kakatiya Empire, the Musunuri Nayakas regime, the Vijayana ...
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Gauhara Begum
Gauhar Ara Begum (; 17 June 1631 – 1706) was a Mughal princess and the fourteenth and youngest child of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Her mother died giving birth to her in 1631. Gauhar Ara, however, survived the childbirth and lived for another three quarters of a century. Little is known about her and whether she was involved in the war of succession for her father's throne. Gauhar Ara died in 1706, aged about 75. Life Born on 17 June 1631, the day her mother Mumtaz Mahal died, Gauhar Ara Begum appears to have kept a fairly low profile throughout the reigns of her father and brother. Evidence vaguely indicates that she may have supported her fourth brother Murad Bakhsh's bid for the throne during the War of Succession. Were this to be true, this role was unlikely to have been particularly active since, unlike her father and sister Jahanara, she was not imprisoned afterwards by her victorious brother Aurangzeb. She, following her father's ...
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