Shah Jahān, (born January 5, 1592, Lahore [now in Pakistan]—died January 22, 1666, Agra [now in India]), Mughal emperor of India (1628–58) who built the Taj Mahal.
He was the third son of the Mughal emperor Jahāngīr and the Rajput princess Manmati. In 1612 he married Arjūmand Bānū Begum, niece of Jahāngīr’s wife Nūr Jahān, and became, as Prince Khurram, a member of the influential Nūr Jahān clique of the middle period of Jahāngīr’s reign.
In 1622 Khurram, ambitious to win the succession, rebelled, ineffectually roaming the empire until reconciled to Jahāngīr in 1625. After Jahāngīr’s death in 1627, the support of Āṣaf Khan, Nūr Jahān’s brother, enabled Shah Jahān to proclaim himself emperor at Agra (February 1628).
