Jahangir's reign was characterized by a complex relationship with his nobility and family, notably reflected in his marriage to Mehar-un-Nisa (later known as Empress Nur Jahan), who wielded significant political influence behind the throne.

Jahangir's foreign policy included interactions with the Safavids of Persia and the Ottoman Empire, as well as with the English East India Company, marking the beginning of European influence in Indian politics and commerce.

His poor health, caused by a lifetime of opium and alcohol use, led to his death in 1627, precipitating a brief succession crisis before the throne passed to his son, Shah Jahan.

[15][16][17][18][19] Grief-struck, Akbar took Mariam-uz-Zamani along with him after their sons' demise as he set out for a war campaign, and, during his return to Agra, he sought the blessings of Salim Chishti, a reputed khawaja (religious leader) who lived at Fatehpur Sikri.

[21][22] When Akbar was informed of the news that his chief Hindu wife was expecting a child, an order was passed for the establishment of a royal palace in Fatehpur Sikri near the lodgings of Salim Chishti, where the Empress could enjoy the repose in the vicinity of the saint.

[citation needed] During this time, Jahangir grew up fluent in Persian and premodern Urdu, with a "respectable" knowledge of Persianified courtly Chaghatai ("Turki"), the Mughal ancestral language.

She gave birth to two daughters of Salim, both of whom died during childhood and Prince Khurram, the future emperor Shah Jahan, who was Jahangir's successor to the throne.

[citation needed] On 26 June, Jahangir married a second Rathore Rajput princess, Kunwari Sujas Deiji, daughter of Raja Rai Singh of Bikaner, an offshoot of Jodhpur.

In 1587, he married a Bhati Rajput princess (name not known) entitled Malika Jahan Begum daughter of Rawal Bhim Singh of the Kingdom of Jaisalmer.

He married a third Rathore Rajput princess, Kunwari Karamsi Deiji, daughter of Rao Keshav Das of Merta linked with the house of Marwar.

In 1594, Jahangir was dispatched by his father, Akbar, alongside Asaf Khan also known as Mirza Jafar Beg and Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak to defeat the renegade Raja Vir Singh Deo Bundela and to capture the city of Orchha which was considered the centre of the revolt.

After tremendous casualties and the start of negotiations between the two, Vir Singh Deo handed over 5000 Bundela infantry and 1000 cavalry and submitted to the command of Jahangir along with taking up imperial services at the court later.

[35] Then the deposed Bundela chief escaped and continued to fight the Mughals for two years until he was finally arrested in 1607 and put in prison at Gwalior only later to be given the territory of Chanderi as his patrimony.

From the time of his marriage with Mehr-un-Nissa, later known as Empress Nur Jahan, Jahangir left the reins of government in her hands and appointed her family and relatives to high positions.

[52][53] In 1613, Jahangir issued a sanguinary order for the extirpation of the race of the Kolis who were notorious robbers and plunders living in the most inaccessible parts of the province of Gujarat.

Jahangir then gathered his forces under the command of Ali Kuli Khan and fought Raja Lakshmi Narayan Bhup of the Kingdom of Koch Bihar in the far eastern province of Bengal.

[citation needed] In 1614, The East India Company persuaded King James I to send a British ambassador to the Mughal court, Thomas Roe.

At the Mughal court, Roe allegedly became a favourite of Jahangir and may have been his drinking partner; he arrived with gifts of "many crates of red wine"[58]: 16  and explained to him what beer was and how it was made.

While no major trading privileges were conceded by Jahangir, "Roe's mission was the beginning of a Mughal-Company relationship that would develop into something approaching a partnership and see the "EIC" gradually drawn into the Mughal nexus".

[citation needed] Khan Alam soon returned with valuable gifts and groups of masters of the hunt (Persian: میر شکار, romanized: mir shikār) from both Safavid Iran and the Khanates of Central Asia.

This included nobles especially like Shaykh Farid, Jahangir's trusted Mir Bakhshi, who held firmly the citadel of orthodoxy in Muslim India.

[73] It is noted by historians that this influence has been significantly recorded during the conquest of Kangra under Jahangir, that at the presence of Ahmad Sirhindi who observed the campaign, the Mughal forces had the Idols broken, a cow slaughtered, Khutbah sermon read, and other Islamic rituals performed.

[76] It is unclear whether Jahangir even understood what a Sikh was, referring to Guru Arjan as a Hindu, who had "captured many of the simple-hearted of the Hindus and even of the ignorant and foolish followers of Islam, by his ways and manners... for three or four generations (of spiritual successors) they had kept this shop warm."

According to Ali, Jahangir wrote his memoirs with his intended audience of Persian-speaking Muslims in mind and sought to portray himself as an anti-idolatry sultan and thus "modified" facts.

[81][82] According to Richard M Eaton, Emperor Jahangir issued many edicts admonishing his nobles not to convert the religion of anybody by force, but the issuance of such orders also suggests that such conversions must have occurred during his rule in some measure.

In his autobiography, the Jahangirnama, Jahangir recorded events that occurred during his reign, descriptions of flora and fauna that he encountered, and other aspects of daily life, and commissioned court painters such as Ustad Mansur to paint detailed pieces that would accompany his vivid prose.

It had black markings, and every feather on its wings, back, and sides was extremely beautiful," and then recorded his command that Ustad Mansur paint a portrait of it after it perished.

In the foreword to W. M. Thackston's translation of the Jahangirnama, Milo Cleveland Beach explains that Jahangir ruled during a time of considerably stable political control, and had the opportunity to order artists to create art to accompany his memoirs that were "in response to the emperor's current enthusiasms".

At times, he would have artists travel with him for this purpose; when Jahangir was in Rahimabad, he had his painters on hand to capture the appearance of a specific tiger that he shot and killed because he found it to be particularly beautiful.

"[96] According to John F. Richards, Jahangir's frequent withdrawal to a private sphere of life was partly reflective of his indolence, brought on by his addiction to a considerable daily dosage of wine and opium.