SHAH JAIIAN, emperor of DAB from 2Gth January 1628 till deposed by his son, Atimng zeb (Alameir I.), 16th August 1658. Shah Jahan had reig,nal for thirty years, and he was sixty seven years of age, but lived for seven yearn after he was thus rudely set aside, and died A.II. 1076, 26th Rajab, at the age of 74. Ilis reign WAS perhaps the most prosperous ever known in Ilia conduct in his youth was unamiable, but his treatment of his people wa.s beneficent and paternal, and his personal et:induct when ou the throne was blameless. Ile continued to exer cise an unremitting vigilance over the internal government, was judicious in his choice of ministers, introduced important improvements, and expended with a liberality indicating great public and private wealth. In twenty years he concluded a revenue survey of the Dekhan • he founded a new city at Dehli, built on a reguliar plan ; lie constructed a throne in the form of a peacock with a spread tail, at a cost above six millions sterling; and at Agra he erected a magnificent tomb over his queen, Mumtaz Mahal, which is known to Europeans as the Taj Mahal, a mausoleum of white marble, decorated with mosaics. And all he did was with
such economy, that he left a treasure estimated at from six to twenty-four millions sterling. His palace was a noble structure, raised on a spacious esplanade, but protected by a deep tnoat and stroner walls. It was approached by a wide street, througri which flowed a canal, excavated by Ali Mardan Khan, a Persian, and bringing the waters of the Jumna from the mountains to Dehli, a distance of 120 miles. Ile formed the gardens of Shahlimar, at Kashmir, which he annually visited. His pearl Mosque, the Moti Masjid, within the Agra fort, is perhaps the purest and loveliest house of prayer in the world. Ho planned the re-transfer of the seat of government to Deldi, and equipped that city with buildings of unrivalled magnificence. Its great mosque, or Jatna Masjid, was commenced in the fourth year of his reign and completed in the tenth. The Diwan-i-Khas, or court of private ' audience, overlooks tho river, a masterpiece of delicate inlaid work and poetic design.—Imp. Gaz.