Akbar to Aurangzeb: Mughal Zenith and Fracture

Akbar's successors, Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) and Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658), presided over a period of consolidation, cultural flourishing, and growing European contact — Jahangir received the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe (1615-1619), opening the way for a permanent East India Company presence. Shah Jahan's reign is considered the empire's architectural and artistic peak: he commissioned the Taj Mahal (1632-1653) in Agra as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, built the new capital Shahjahanabad with its Red Fort, and commissioned the jewel-encrusted Peacock Throne. In 1657-1658 a violent war of succession among his four sons ended with Aurangzeb victorious; Aurangzeb deposed and imprisoned his own father until Shah Jahan's death in captivity in 1666.