Name: ムガル帝国と歴史的評判。クラッシュコース世界史 #217 (The Mughal Empire and Historical Reputation: Crash Course World History #217)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T06:24:34.000Z
Duration: 11 min 44 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

Hi, I’m John Green, this is Crash Course World History and today we’re going talk

about the Mughal Empire. And we’re also going to talk about the two most important Mughal

基礎受動態

emperors, Akbar and Aurangzeb and how their historical reputations were made.

Mr Green, Mr Green? Don’t you mean the Mongol Empire?

Oh, Me From The Past, that reminds of the

time that you conflated the word forte with the word forté - which of course you pronounced

fort. But on this occasion you aren’t entirely

wrong the Mughals were kind of the Mongols. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

So, the Mughals were Muslims who created an

empire in India that held power for roughly 200 years between the early 16th and early

18th centuries, although, technically the Mughal empire didn’t come to an end until

after the Indian Rebellion against the British in 1857.

Now the Mughals weren’t the first Muslims in India, those would have been merchants,

and they weren’t even the first Muslims to rule significant parts of India. That honor

goes to the Delhi sultanate which began in 1206 in northern India.

But the Delhi Sultanate didn’t last very long, and it was replaced by a bunch of regional

kingdoms, and one of them, the Lodi sultanate had the misfortune of falling to the founder

of the Mughal dynasty, Babur in 1526. Not Babar, although that would have been awesome.

Babur was descended from Timur, the last great Central Asian conqueror in the Mongol tradition,

and also from Chinggis Khan, which explains why Babur and his followers are called the

Mughals; it’s the Persian-Arabic word for Mongols.

Now I know what you’re saying, something like 12% of human beings currently living

in the world are descended from Chinggis Khan, but Babur got in on the ground floor of it.

Anyway, I think we have some footage of Babur raiding the Lodi sultanate, don’t we Stan?

Ehhh… I don’t feel like that was actual file footage from 1206. I feel like that was

a racist Hercules movie from Italy in the 1950’s.

So the Mughal Empire is really important in India’s cultural history. I mean, the Taj

Mahal was built during this time. In architecture and painting, we see a blending of Indian

and Persian styles that demonstrate how cosmopolitan the empire was.

But probably the most important aspect of the Mughals at least as far as the contemporary

world is concerned, is that they consolidated Muslim rule over much of India and they’re

largely the reason that today there are so many Indians who are also Muslims.

And the Mughals were also a really interesting example of like how to build and maintain

an empire. All right, Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

Muslims were a small minority ruling class vastly outnumbered by Hindus, and like many

empires they relied on military power and pursued expansionist policies.

Like most of the Mughal rulers, especially Akbar and Aurangzeb spent a considerable amount

of time trying to extend Mughal control over the entire Indian subcontinent. And they created

a pretty effective empire. They were able to incorporate Indian princes into the ruling

class while still retaining top positions for Muslims. They reorganized the bureaucracy

and instituted an effective tax collection system, which was important because the empire

was of course very expensive to run - as empires always are.

This meant that it was important to make accurate tax assessments and taxes were usually collected

by local leaders called zamindars. Taxes had to be paid in cash, and this contributed to

the growing commercialization of the Mughal empire. Reliance on zamindars, who were important

men in their communities, meant that the empire could collect revenue without being too disruptive

to local village life. And although almost all of the revenue came from taxes on agriculture,

the Mughals also taxed trade. Another way that the Mughals were a typical

empire is that their rulers engaged in building projects to enhance their prestige. From Persepolis

to Rome to the Forbidden City, building monuments to one’s greatness is what emperors do,

and the Mughals were no exception. As Muslims, many of their building projects were mosques,

but the Mughals also built forts and, most spectacularly, mausoleums.

Thanks, Thought Bubble. So, most history classes that mention the Mughals focus on the contrast

between Akbar and Aurangzeb. Akbar comes off as a good ruler, and Aurangzeb is painted

as the guy who ruined the empire. The typically positive historians’ view

of Akbar, who ruled from 1556 until 1605, can be summed up in this quote from Asher

and Talbot’s India before Europe: “Through his reforms of administration and

taxation Akbar created a sound and enduring foundation for Mughal governance, while his

tolerant attitude and inclusive policies toward Hindus and Jains helped create a state that

was more Indian in character.” That tolerance aspect is especially important.

Like Akbar rescinded the jizya – the tax that non-Muslims had to pay – and in 1580

he gave all non-Muslims the same rights as Muslims instituting a policy called sulh-i kul,

which translates to “universal toleration.” Now in part, this policy was designed to lessen

the power of Muslim religious scholars, who might have been disturbed by the way that

Akbar blended Islamic and Indian ideas of kingship, especially the idea that he was,

you know, kind of a little bit divine. Slightly problematic idea to a lot of Muslim

scholars given that the foundation of the Islamic faith is the statement “there is

no God but God” but.. you know... In addition to the sulh-i kul, Akbar built

his reputation for toleration by sponsoring discussions of religion and philosophy. He

even commissioned a building for religious discussions, the Ibadat Khana, where Muslims,

and Brahmins, and Zoroastrians, Jains, Christians, all of them could talk theology.

Akbar’s support for intellectual pursuits are the kinds of things that modern historians

like, and it’s not all that surprising that he is remembered so favorably.

Historians are far less kind to Akbar’s grandson, Aurangzeb who ruled from 1658 until 1707.

This partly due to the work of J.N. Sakar who promoted the idea that Aurangzeb built

an Islamic state that discriminated against Hindus and other non-Muslims.

Which in turn led to a loss of unity across the Indian sub-continent and eventually the

decline of the empire. And it’s true that by the time of Aurangzeb’s

death in 1707 the Mughals were losing control of their empire. I mean the stark reality

of that decline came in 1757 when the British East India Company established itself permanently

in Bengal and began its inexorable efforts to colonize all of India.

But that was, you know, 50 years after Aurangzeb died so maybe he shouldn’t get all the blame.

In fact, whether these guys deserve their reputations really depends both on what aspects

of their reign you look at and how you interpret them. As conquerors Akbar and Aurangzeb had

a lot in common. Like Akbar might have sponsored high-minded

discussion but he was also willing to use extreme violence to keep his subjects in line.

For example, he slaughtered thousands of inhabitants of the fort at Chittor and ordered his generals

to pile up the skulls of Indian princes to frighten them into submission. That’s not

especially tolerant. And here’s another detail about Akbar’s

rule that’s meant to paint him as a modern, enlightened ruler. Because he was interested

in science, Akbar arranged an experiment. “… He had infants moved to a special house

where no person was to talk to them, so that the natural language of mankind might be revealed.

The experiment failed, but it is a reflection of Akbar’s desire to explore in a scientific

manner the nature of humans and what he believed to be their common condition.”

Now you can read that as a leader trying to understand the underlying connections among

all humans no matter their religious backgrounds. Or you can read it as horrifying child abuse.

And then we have Aurangzeb was a devout Muslim and did try to introduce Islamic principles

into Mughal rule, but the trend towards orthodoxy and away from Akbar’s toleration had begun

with his predecessor, Shah Jahan. He is best known for building the Taj Mahal

- good work. Stan, he build it by himself? Oh, apparently he had some help.