Introduction by the Editor

When Akbar the Great, the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth, ascended the throne of India, it was with a heart inspired by the highest ideals ever held by a ruler of Islamitic blood, and the manner in which he lived up to these ideals made him the noblest monarch, after Asoka, that ever reigned over the land beyond the river Indus.

Akbar was followed by his son Jahangir, the Great Moghul, and he by Shah Jahan, the Magnificent, who was succeeded in turn by Aurangzib, the Puritan Emperor and last of the line of great Moghuls. Mohammedan India reached the culmination of its glory in the fortunes of this dynasty. The subsequent rise of the Marathas heralded a new era, and signs of the beginnings of European power in India were now at hand.

The interesting story of these events, as told by Professor Lane-Poole, has been supplemented by including in this volume two selections from native Mohammedan chroniclers found in that inexhaustible mine of material, Elliot’s “History of India as Told by Its Own Historians” in Professor Dowson’s edition, the indebtedness to which is acknowledged.

With reference to the preparation of the text of the present volume editorially and with regard to the illustrations, I have been guided in general by the principles laid down in the preceding volumes of the series. Besides the assistance previously acknowledged in respect to illustrative material and other matter, I desire to unite with the publishers in thanking Mr. Frederick J. Agate, of New York, who was with me in my travels through India, for the use of certain photographs in his collection, and also to thank Dr. Edward S. Holden, Librarian of the United States Military Academy at West Point, for the pictures of two Mohammedan heroines, Nur Jahan and Mumtaz-i-Mahal, reproduced from miniatures in the British Museum, through the courtesy of Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons, of New York.

A. V. Williams Jackson.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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