Born Shehzaada Khurram, he was the third son of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and captured power after a fratricidal war.
He commissioned the building of the Taj Mahal in Agra, as a burial place for his first wife EmpressMumtaz Mahal (meaning 'the first lady of the palace').
But for the last five years of his life he was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in a room of Agra Fort, tended only by his eldest daughter Jahanara Begum, with a direct view of the Taj Mahal. This was punishment for his endorsing Dara Shikoh, Aurangzeb's older brother, in the fight for succession. Aurangazeb later killed his brother Dara and sent his head to his imprisoned father.
Shah Jahan is buried in the Taj Mahal, next to his first wife. The name Shah Jahan comes from Persian شاهجهان Shah Jahan meaning "The Ruler of the World").
Shah Jahan had seven surviving children: Dara Shikoh, Murad Baksh, Shah Shuja, Aurangzeb, Jahanara Begum, Roshanara Begum and Gauharara Begum.
Shah Jahan is best known as the builder of the Taj Mahal, a shrine to his Persian second wife, Arjumand Bano Begum, popularly known as Mumtaz Mahal ("Ornament of the Palace") whom he married on May 10, 1612, at the age of 20.
Shah Jahan was born with the name Prince Khurram to Jahangir and the Hindu Rajput Princess Manmati, and was reportedly close to his grandfather Akbar as a child.
Shah Jahan reversed this trend by putting down a Muslim rebellion in Ahmednagar, repulsing the Portuguese in the Bengal, capturing the Rajput kingdoms of Baglana and Bundelkhand to the west, and the kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda in the Deccan and the northwest beyond the Khyber Pass.
Thus Shah (or Shaha) is a title borne by the Hindu Maharajadhiraja (King of Kings) of Nepal and his male-line descendants, which was originally conferred as a title by the Muslim Sultan of Delhi on Kulananda Khan, after he made himself ruler of Kaski.
In western languages the term Shah is often used as an imprecise rendering of Shāhanshāh (meaning King of Kings), usually shortened to Shāh is the term for an Iranian monarch and was used by most of the former rulers of the Iranian empires many nationalities of Iranian origin or under cultural influence.
In the realm of a Shah (or a more lofty derived ruler style), a prince of blood were logically called Shahzada as the term is derived from Shah using the Persian patronymic suffix -zada, "son, descendant"; see "Prince" article for other uses of the suffix.
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