Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Aurangzeb" in English language version.
learnt that in Multan and Thatta in Sind, and especially at Varanasi, Brahmins attracted a large number of Muslims to their discourses. Aurangzeb ... ordered the governors of all these provinces 'to demolish the schools and temples of the infidels'.
... Aurangzeb Bahadur Alamgir I ( Conqueror of the Universe ) , more commonly known as Aurangzeb , the 6th Mughal Emperor ruled from 1658 to
The Emperor's name and title were proclaimed in the pulpit as Abu al-Muzaffar Bahadur ' Alamgir Badshah i Ghazi
Although Aurangzeb had not raised the slogan of defending Islam before the battle of Samugarh with Dara, and had tried to befriend the Rajput rajas as we have seen, there were a number of factors which make it necessary for Aurangzeb to present himself as the defender of the sharia, and to try and win over the theologians. A principal factor was the popular revulsion against his treatment of his brothers, Murad and Dara, both of whom had the reputation of being liberal patrons of the poor and needy. Aurangzeb was shocked when as the time of his second coronation in 1659, the chief qazi refused to crown him since his father was still alive.
Shayista Khan ... was appointed [Bengal's] governor in 1664 and swept the region clean of Portuguese and Arakanese pirates ... in 1666, he recaptured the port of Chittagong ... from the king of Arakan. A strategic outpost, Chittagong would remain the principal commercial port of call before entering the waters of the delta.
... Aurangzeb and Dara Shukoh participated in Aceh's trade, and Aurangzeb even exchanged presents with Aceh's sultan in 1641. For two decades after the Dutch conquest of Portuguese Melaka in 1641, the VOC tried to attract trade to Melaka by the VOC tried to attract trade to Melaka by restricting Muslim trade to Aceh. Angered by
... 1641 , his daughter , Sultanah Safiatuddin presented Aurangzeb with eight ...
... backed out and allowed Indian traders to sail to Aceh and other southern ports without restriction.74 According to S ...
... 1660s the VOC backed down and allowed Indian traders to sail to Aceh, Perak, and Kedah without restriction.ll Another important trading community in Aceh consisted of Indians from the Coromandel Coast who had been prominent in Malay ...
The whole country was soon occupied by the imperialists, anarchy and slaughter were let loose upon the doomed state; all great towns in the village were pillaged; the temples were thrown down
'Black is the Mughal's heart towards all us Pathans', complained the Pushto poet Khushal Khan Khattak about Aurangzeb's incursions in the tribal regions of the northwest frontier of India.
Nobody knows the exact number of temples demolished or pillaged on Aurangzeb's orders, and we never will. Richard Eaton, the leading authority on the subject, puts the number of confirmed temple destructions during Aurangzeb's rule at just over a dozen, with fewer tied to the emperor's direct commands. Other scholars have pointed out additional temple demolitions not counted by Eaton, such as two orders to destroy the Somanatha Temple in 1659 and 1706 (the existence of a second order suggests that the first was never carried out). Aurangzeb also oversaw temple desecrations. For example, in 1645 he ordered mihrabs (prayer niches, typically located in mosques) erected in Ahmedabad's Chintamani Parshvanath Temple, built by the Jain merchant Shantidas. Even adding in such events, however, to quote Eaton, "the evidence is almost always fragmentary, incomplete, or even contradictory". Given this, there were probably more temples destroyed under Aurangzeb than we can confirm (perhaps a few dozen in total?), but here we run into a dark curtain drawn across an unknown past.
... الطنطاوي بأنه "بقية الخلفاء الراشدين"، وقد كان على دراية كاملة بمخططات الهندوس والشيعة، خصوصا الأفغان منهم، فحارب ...
More importantly, though, the fact that Aurangzeb did not order a universal ban on music lends support to the idea that his regime was less intolerant and repressive than has been widely believed in the past...Thus, the overwhelming evidence against a ban on musical practice in Aurangzeb's reign suggests that the nature of his state was less orthodox, tyrannical and centralised than
In early 1670, soon after the ring-leader of these rebellions had been captured near Mathura, Aurangzeb ordered the destruction of the city's Keshava Deva temple and built an Islamic structure ('īd-gāh) on its site ... Nine years later, the emperor ordered the destruction of several prominent temples in Rajasthan that had become associated with imperial enemies. These included temples in Khandela ... Jodhpur ... Udaipur and Chitor.
...Bernier reported that the emperor Aurangzeb inspected his contingents of cavalry every day. During these inspections, "the King takes pleasure also in having the blades of cutlasses tried on dead sheep, brought before him without the entrails and neatly bound up. Young Omrahs, Mansebdars and Gourze-berdars or mace bearers, exercise their skill and put forth all their strength to cut through the four feet, which are fastened together, and the body of the sheep at one blow."..."
Aurangzeb was most forthright in his efforts to stop sati. According to Manucci, on his return from Kashmir in December, 1663, he "issued an order that in all lands under Mughal control, never again should the officials allow a woman to be burnt." Manucci adds that "This order endures to this day."/26/ This order, though not mentioned in the formal histories, is recorded in the official guidebooks of the reign./27/ Although the possibility of an evasion of government orders through payment of bribes existed, later European travelers record that sati was not much practiced by the end of Aurangzeb's reign. As Ovington says in his Voyage to Surat: "Since the Mahometans became Masters of the Indies, this execrable custom is much abated, and almost laid aside, by the orders which nabobs receive for suppressing and extinguishing it in all their provinces. And now it is 237 very rare, except it be some Rajah's wives, that the Indian women burn at all; /27/ Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib (Calcutta, 1916), III, 92. /28/ John Ovington, A Voyage to Surat (London, 1929), p. 201.
...Bernier reported that the emperor Aurangzeb inspected his contingents of cavalry every day. During these inspections, "the King takes pleasure also in having the blades of cutlasses tried on dead sheep, brought before him without the entrails and neatly bound up. Young Omrahs, Mansebdars and Gourze-berdars or mace bearers, exercise their skill and put forth all their strength to cut through the four feet, which are fastened together, and the body of the sheep at one blow."..."
Modern Asian Studies 1988, p. 308; Cambridge University Press Online Journals. Asia Shah Jahan, 1975, p. 131, Henry Miers Elliot – Mogul Empire
More importantly, though, the fact that Aurangzeb did not order a universal ban on music lends support to the idea that his regime was less intolerant and repressive than has been widely believed in the past...Thus, the overwhelming evidence against a ban on musical practice in Aurangzeb's reign suggests that the nature of his state was less orthodox, tyrannical and centralised than
Some follow the Indian line that Aurangzeb was a straight-up bigot, whereas others view him as one of the few truly righteous Muslim rulers of old.
In gold there is no more type. In silver some other types like Abu al Muzaffar Muhiuddin/ Muhammad (and date) / Bahadur Alamgir/ Aurangzeb/ Badshah Ghazi or ...
[Aurangzeb] marched in the direction of Bijapur and on reaching Bidar laid siege to it ... The Qiladar of the fort was Sidi Marjan ... [The Mughals] were helped by an explosion of powder magazine in the fortress ... Sidi Marjan and two of his sons were badly burnt ... Thus was the fort of Bidar taken after a siege of 27 days ... Sidi Marjan died of his wounds soon afterwards ... Aurangzeb arrived at Kalyani.
In former times the sacred Quaranic credo (Kalma) used to be stamped on gold and silver coins, and such coins were constantly touched with the hands and feet of men; Aurangzib said that it would be better to stamp some other words ... The Emperor liked it [the couplet] and ordered that one face ... should be stamped with this verse and the other with the name of the mint-city and the year.
...Bernier reported that the emperor Aurangzeb inspected his contingents of cavalry every day. During these inspections, "the King takes pleasure also in having the blades of cutlasses tried on dead sheep, brought before him without the entrails and neatly bound up. Young Omrahs, Mansebdars and Gourze-berdars or mace bearers, exercise their skill and put forth all their strength to cut through the four feet, which are fastened together, and the body of the sheep at one blow."..."
Mir Jumla was appointed governor of Bengal (June 1660) and ordered to punish the kings of Kuch Bihar and Assam.
[Mir Jumla] left Dacca on 1st November 1661 ... the Mughal army entered the capital of Kuch Bihar on 19th December ... The kingdom was annexed to the Mughal empire ... Mir Jumla set out for the conquest of Assam on 4th January, 1662 ... triumphantly marched into Garh-gaon the Ahom capital on 17th March. Raja Jayadhwaj ... had fled .. The spoils ... 82 elephants, 3 lakhs of rupees in cash, ... over a thousand bots, and 173 stores of paddy.
[Mir Jumla] set out on his return on 10th January 1663, travelling by pālki owing to his illness, which daily increased. At Baritalā he embarked in a boat and glided down the river toward Dacca, dying on 31st March.