A man of thirty seven, Salim succeeded Akbar in 1605 with the name Jahangir - Seizure of the World.  Unlike his predecessor, he was no conqueror, he just inherited pretty stable empire of his father.  Historians tend to award Jahangir low marks as being alcoholic and dependent on the decisions of his wife.  His wife was steering the politics being an epicentre in his life, but Jahangir was was the most sympathetic of the Great Mughals.  His memoirs was no inferior to that of Babur's and under his guidance court painters reached great heights.

The first seventeen years of his reign was rather calm and peaceful except the rebellion of his son Khusrau.  However when Khusrau revolted at Lahore, Jahangir marched towards northern provinces and imprisoned Khusrau and had his followers severely punished.  It was for the same reason, Sikh Guru Arjun was executed which stirred up the anger of the Sikh towards Mughal power.  After a year, when Khusrau was released from his chains, he plotted assassination attempt on Jahangir which further lead him to permanent blindness.  Repeated reconciliation effort failed Jahangir to show any sign of openness and Khusrau led rest of his life in chain.

The most important development of the first half of Jahangir reigns was that he fell madly in love with a persian woman Mihr-Un-Nisa.  In 1611, Jahangir married her and henceforth she was called Nur Mahal - Light of the Palace before becoming Nur Jahan.  Leading positions of the court were filled by her father and brother and Nur Jahan started strengthening the muslim orthodoxy, but Jahangir avoided all religion conflicts and respected the principles of Hinduism and even Christianity.

During the height of Jahangir's reign, majority of the advisers were Nur Jahan's family including Khurram, and their voices could easily influence Jahangir.  Khurram showed great interest and soon played major role in defence.  Khurram suppressed Rana of Mewar and was given command of the forces in Deccan replacing brother Parviz.

Emperor showed personal interest in paintings and minting of high quality coins.  Having grown up at Fatehpur Sikhri in the busy days of Akbar's studio, Jahangir developed the skill of appreciating art.  He minted coins with zodiac signs and even with his own portrait.  Jahangir was weakened by alcohol and asthma, in 1620, he could not dominate affairs of court.  Nur Jahan shifted her support to her son-in-law Shahriyar than supporting Khurram.  Khurram's drift into rebellion was mainly due to Nur Jahan's new policy of pushing him aside and due to Khurram's drifted faith.  In the Deccan, Nizam Shah kings of Ahmednagar were having troubles and Khurram was put in charge to subdue Deccan and Khurram subdued the south and built a strong army.  It was when Khurram captured Ahmednagar and some other strongholds in 1616 AD, father Jahangir rewarded Khurram with the title 'Shah Jahan', the King of the World.  But, Nur Jahan was transferring Shah Jahan's jagirs to Shahriyar to safeguard her interest of getting the future throne to her son-in-law Shahriyar.

Jahangir's disposition towards his subjects appears to have been invariably human and considerate.  He removed vexatious transit duties and taxes and made an attempt to prohibit traffic in enuchs.  He fastened up the chair of justice so that people could pull or shake the chain seeking justice.
 

THE COINAGE

Jahangir was fortunate being away from the tensions of military defence and endowed with a well administered empire.  Jahangir had enough time in hand to pay special attention to the arts and to fanciful experiments in every aspects of life.  His coinage reflects his interest in art.  He increased his weight of the Muhar and rupee by 20% and it took a new name Nur Jahani and Jahangiri respectively.  In the same year, the weight of his coins was further increased by 5%.  His courtiers, followers and Amirs were issued special coins bearing his portrait.  His artistic talent and innovation never ceased with the engravement of his epigy alone, the new zodiac coins appeared every month.  It carried the figure of a constellation of the month it was minted.

Jahangir's heavy coin of unit 1000 muhar has now become world's heritage and remains unrivalled world wide.  During his reign, he minted even coins of value 100, 200, 500 and 1000, but it was meant to recompense the service rendered by officials of the state.  In diameter, 1000 muhar coin measured 20.3 cm, and weighs 11,935.8 gms. It is evident fro the coin that striking such a huge coin would have strained the technical resources of the mint.  The die slippage on the obverse bottom indicates that several blows would have required to meticulously set the inscriptions at the outer edge of the coin.  The inscription on the coin is in Persian with Nastaliq style of script.  The engravement of two couplets demonstrates how neatly the calligraphic rules are observed throughout the minting process.  It was Asaf Khan's composition of the wonderful couplet that decorated the gigantic muhar though the author of this couplet is still unknown.  It is worth of being reproduced below :

Ba Hukm Shah Jahangir yaft sad zewer,
Banam Nur Jahan Badshah Begum zar.

By the order of Jahangir, gold attained a hundred times its beauty
when the name of Nur Jahan, the First Lady of the court was impressed upon it.
 

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