2 B. The Mughal Empire, 1526–~1707 (and its long fall to 1857)

The great six:1. Babur (1526–30): the Timurid prince out of Kabul — Panipat (1526, gunpowder and matchlocks against Lodhi's elephants) — the dynasty founded; the Baburnama's candour (the memoir: gardens missed, melons praised).2. Humayun (1530–40, 1555–56): the interregnum (Sher Shah Suri's brilliant five years — the Grand Trunk Road, the rupiya (the rupee's ancestor), land measurement — the administrative template the Mughals kept) and the restoration (dying on his library stairs).3. Akbar (1556–1605) — the organiser:Panipat II (1556, aged 13, Bairam Khan's regency); the conquest of the north and the Deccan's edge; the administration (the syllabus's core — learn the nouns): subahs (provinces) under governors; the mansabdari system (every noble ranked numerically — zat and sawar — for pay and troops: a merit-and-service aristocracy,revocable — the anti-feudal design); the zabti revenue system (Todar Mal's measurement- and-assessment — the ain of the empire's agrarian law); religious policy: the sulh-i-kul (peace with all — the Ibadat Khana's debates; the jizya abolished; Rajput marriages and service — the coalition state); the Din-i-Ilahi's brief syncretism. Akbar as law-giver: the imperial orders' consistency (the Ain-i-Akbari's administrative codification — regulation by record).4. Jahangir (1605–27): the aesthete; the justice-chain legend (the bell of justice rung for any subject against any official — imperial accessibility as theatre — the syllabus-worthy emblem); East India Company's first factory (1617's firman);…