Editing Taj Mahal (section)

== Inspiration ==
{{Multiple image
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| image1 = Shahjahan on globe, mid 17th century.jpg
| caption1 = [[Shah Jahan]], 17th century painting
| image2 = Mumtaz Mahal.jpg
| caption2 = Artistic depiction of [[Mumtaz Mahal]]
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The Taj Mahal was commissioned by [[Shah Jahan]] in 1631, to be built in the memory of his wife [[Mumtaz Mahal]], who died on 17 June that year while giving birth to their 14th child, [[Gauhara Begum]].{{sfn|Asher|1992|p=210}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Taj Mahal: Memorial to Love |url=https://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/taj_nav/main_tajfrm.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013173327/https://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/taj_nav/main_tajfrm.html |archive-date=13 October 2017 |access-date=7 February 2015 |publisher=PBS}}</ref> Construction started in 1632, and the mausoleum was completed in 1648, while the surrounding buildings and garden were finished five years later.{{sfn|Sarkar|1919|pages=30, 31}}<ref name="Creation History">{{cite web |title=Creation History of Taj Mahal |url=https://www.tajmahal.gov.in/creation-history-of-taj-mahal.aspx |access-date=19 October 2023 |publisher=[[Government of India]] |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114192123/https://www.tajmahal.gov.in/creation-history-of-taj-mahal.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref>

The imperial court documenting Shah Jahan's grief after the death of Mumtaz Mahal illustrates the love story held as the inspiration for the Taj Mahal.{{sfn|Chaghtai|1938|p=46}} According to contemporary historians Muhammad Amin Qazvini, [[Abdul Hamid Lahori]] and [[Muhammad Saleh Kamboh]], Shah Jahan did not show the same level of affection for others as he had shown Mumtaz while she was alive. After her death, he avoided royal affairs for a week due to his grief and gave up listening to music and lavish dressing for two years. Shah Jahan was enamoured by the beauty of the land at the south side of [[Agra]] on which a mansion belonging to Raja [[Jai Singh I]] stood. He chose the place for the construction of Mumtaz's tomb after which Jai Singh agreed to give it to emperor [[Shah Jahan]] in exchange for a large palace in the centre of Agra.{{sfn|Chaghtai|1938| p=54}}<ref>{{cite book |first1=Wayne |last1=Edison Begley |title=Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb : an Anthology of Seventeenth-century Mughal and European Documentary Sources |first2=Ziauddin |last2=Abdul Hayy Desai |publisher=Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture |year=1989 |pages=13–14, 22, 41–43}}</ref>