Muhi al-Din Muhammad (b. November 3, 1618, Dahod, Gujarat, India – d. March 3, 1707, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, India), commonly known as Aurangzeb (Persian: "Ornament of the Throne") and by his regnal title "Alamgir" (Persian: "Conqueror of the World"), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling from July 1658 until his death in 1707. Under his emperorship, the Mughals reached their greatest extent with their territory spanning nearly the entirety of South Asia. Widely considered to be the last effective Mughal ruler, Aurangzeb compiled the Fatawa 'Alamgiri and was amongst the few monarchs to have fully established sharia and Islamic economics throughout South Asia.
Belonging to the aristocratic Timurid dynasty, Aurangzeb's early life was occupied with pious pursuits. He held administrative and military posts under his father Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658) and gained recognition as an accomplished military commander. Aurangzeb served as the viceroy of the Deccan in 1636–1637 and the governor of Gujarat in 1645–1647. He jointly administrated the provinces of Multan and Sindh in 1648–1652 and continued expeditions into the neighboring Safavid territories. In September 1657, Shah Jahan nominated his eldest son Dara Shikoh as his successor, a move repudiated by Aurangzeb, who proclaimed himself emperor in February 1658. In April 1658, Aurangzeb defeated the allied army of Shikoh and the Kingdom of Marwar at the Battle of Dharmat. Aurangzeb's decisive victory at the Battle of Samugarh in May 1658 cemented his sovereignty and his suzerainty was acknowledged throughout the Empire. After Shah Jahan recovered from illness in July 1658, Aurangzeb declared him incompetent to rule and imprisoned his father in the Agra Fort.
Under Aurangzeb's rule, the Mughal Empire reached its greatest extent with their territory spanning nearly the entire South Asia. His reign was characterized by a period of rapid military expansion, with several dynasties and states being overthrown by the Mughals. His conquests acquired him the regnal title Alamgir ('Conqueror'). The Mughals also surpassed Qing China as the world's largest economy and biggest manufacturing power. The Mughal military gradually improved and became one of the strongest armies in the world. A staunch Muslim, Aurangzeb is credited with the construction of numerous mosques and patronizing works of Arabic calligraph. He successfully imposed the Fatawa al-Alamgir as the principal regulating body of the empire and prohibited religiously forbidden activities in Islam. Although Aurangzeb suppressed several local revolts, he maintained cordial relations with foreign governments.
Aurangzeb is generally considered by historians to be one of the greatest emperors of the Mughals. While there is considerable admiration for Aurangzeb in the contemporary sources, he has been criticized for his political executions and demolition of Hindu temples. Furthermore, his Islamization of the region, introduction of the jizya tax and abandonment of un-Islamic practices caused resentment among non-Muslims. Aurangzeb is commemorated by Muslims as a just ruler and as the Mujaddid (centennial reviver) of the 11th-12th Islamic century.
Aurangzeb, also spelled Aurangzib (Arabic: Awrangzīb), kingly title ʿAlamgir, original name Muḥi al-Din Muḥammad, emperor of India from 1658 to 1707, the last of the great Mughal emperors. Under Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire reached its greatest extent, although his pro-Islamic policies would ultimately lead to the Empire's dissolution.
Aurangzeb was the third son of the emperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal (for whom the Taj Mahal was built). He grew up as a serious-minded and devout youth, wedded to the Muslim orthodoxy of the day and free from the royal Mughal traits of sensuality and drunkenness. He showed signs of military and administrative ability early. These qualities, combined with a taste for power, brought him into rivalry with his eldest brother, the brilliant and volatile Dara Shikoh, who was designated by their father as his successor to the throne. From 1636, Aurangzeb held a number of important appointments, in all of which he distinguished himself. He commanded troops against the Uzbeks and the Persians with distinction (1646–47) and, as viceroy of the Deccan provinces for two terms (1636–44, 1654–58), reduced the two Muslim Deccan kingdoms to near-subjection.
When Shah Jahan fell seriously ill in 1657, the tension between the Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb made a war of succession seem inevitable. By the time of Shah Jahan’s unexpected recovery, matters had gone too far for either son to retreat. In the struggle for power (1657–59), Aurangzeb showed tactical and strategic military skill, great powers of dissimulation, and ruthless determination. Decisively defeating Dara at Samurgarh in May 1658, he confined his father in his own palace at Agra. In consolidating his power, Aurangzeb caused one brother’s death and had two other brothers, a son, and a nephew executed.
Aurangzeb’s reign falls into two almost equal parts. In the first, which lasted until about 1680, he was a capable Muslim monarch of a mixed Hindu-Muslim empire and as such was generally disliked for his ruthlessness but feared and respected for his vigor and skill. During this period he was much occupied with safeguarding the northwest from Persians and Central Asian Turks and less so with the Maratha chief Shivaji, who twice plundered the great port of Surat (1664, 1670). Aurangzeb applied his great-grandfather Akbar's recipe for conquest: defeat one’s enemies, reconcile them, and place them in imperial service. Thus, Shivaji was defeated, called to Agra for reconciliation (1666), and given an imperial rank. The plan broke down, however; Shivaji fled to the Deccan and died, in 1680, as the ruler of an independent Maratha kingdom.
After about 1680, Aurangzeb’s reign underwent a change of both attitude and policy. The pious ruler of an Islamic state replaced the seasoned statesman of a mixed ethnic and religious kingdom. Hindus became subordinates, not colleagues, and the Marathas, like the southern Muslim kingdoms, were marked for annexation rather than containment. The first overt sign of change was the re-imposition of the jizya, or poll tax, on non-Muslims in 1679 (a tax that had been abolished by Akbar). This, in turn, was followed by a Rajput revolt in 1680–81, supported by Aurangzeb’s third son, Akbar. Hindus still served the empire, but no longer with enthusiasm. The Deccan kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda were conquered in 1686–87, but the insecurity that followed precipitated a long-incipient economic crisis, which in turn was deepened by warfare with the Marathas. Shivaji’s son Sambhaji was captured and executed in 1689 and the Maratha kingdom was broken up. The Marathas, however, then adopted guerrilla tactics, spreading all over southern India amid a sympathetic population. The rest of Aurangzeb’s life was spent in laborious and fruitless sieges of forts in the Maratha hill country.
Aurangzeb’s struggles in the south prevented him from maintaining his former firm hold on the north. The administration weakened, and the process was hastened by pressure on the land by Mughal grantees who were paid by assignments on the land revenue. Agrarian discontent often took the form of religious movements, as in the case of the Satnamis and the Sikhs in the Punjab.
In 1675, Aurangzeb arrested and executed the Sikh Guru (spiritual leader) Tegh Bahadur, who had refused to embrace Islam. The succeeding Guru, Gobind Singh, was in open rebellion for the rest of Aurangzeb’s reign. Other agrarian revolts, such as those of the Jats, were largely secular.
In general, Aurangzeb ruled as a militant orthodox Sunni Muslim. He put through increasingly puritanical ordinances that were vigorously enforced by muḥtasibs, or censors of morals. The Muslim confession of faith, for instance, was removed from all coins lest it be defiled by unbelievers, and courtiers were forbidden to salute in the Hindu fashion. In addition, Hindu idols, temples, and shrines were often destroyed.
Aurangzeb maintained the empire for nearly half a century and in fact extended it in the south as far as Tanjore (now Thanjavur) and Trichinopoly (now Tiruchchirappalli). Behind this imposing facade, however, were serious weaknesses. The Maratha campaign continually drained the imperial resources. The militancy of the Sikhs and the Jats boded ill for the empire in the north. The new Islamic policy alienated Hindu sentiment and undermined Rajput support. The financial pressure on the land strained the whole administrative framework. When Aurangzeb died after a reign of nearly 49 years, he left an empire not yet moribund but troubled with a number of menacing problems. The failure of the Mughals to cope with these problems after the reign of Aurangzeb's son, Bahadur Shah I, led to the collapse of the Mughal Empire in the mid-18th century.
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Adamec, Ludwig W. (2009), Historical Dictionary of Islam; Scarecrow Press.
Durant, Will (1993) [First published 1935]. The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage. Simon & Schuster.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurangzeb
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aurangzeb
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