Shah Alam II: Did you mean...?

Women in ancient Persia had more rights and greater freedom than any other ancient civilization including, according to some scholars, even ancient Egypt which is famous for its respect for the feminine principle in religion as well as daily...

The spices clove, nutmeg, and mace originated on only a handful of tiny islands in the Indonesian archipelago but came to have a dramatic, far-reaching impact on world trade. In antiquity, they became popular in the medicines of India and...

Under the Seljuk rule, Persia gained a period of economic and cultural prosperity. The innovative techniques of the Seljuk period and style in architecture and the arts had a strong influence on later artistic developments. Seljuk art is...

A map illustrating the British Raj around 1930, a period of direct British rule over the Indian subcontinent that began in 1858. Following the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, also known as the First War of Independence, the British Parliament passed...

Wazir Khan Mosque, Lahore, Pakistan, built between 1634 and 1641 under the reign of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and named after the renowned physician and later Viceroy of Punjab Hakim Ilmud Din Ansari, who was given the title "Wazir Khan"...

The First Peace of Nisibis (299 CE) established a rare moment of stability in the long rivalry between the Roman and Sasanian Empires, fixing their borders in the Caucasus after Emperor Diocletian (reign 284–305 CE) and his co-emperor Galerius...

Zal Consults the Magi, Folio 73v from the Shahnameh (The Persian Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp. Painting attributed to Sultan Muhammad, Tabriz, Iran, c. 1530–35. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Taj Mahal, Agra. Built in 1634 CE by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahall.

A silk scroll painting by Shen Du depicting a giraffe given in tribute by King Saif Al-Din Hamzah Shah of Bengal to the Yongle Emperor (r. 1403-1424 CE) of China's Ming Dynasty. The tribute was one of the many collected by Admiral Zheng He...

A 1632 portrait of Jahanara Begum (1614-81), daughter of Queen Mumtaz Mahal (1593-1631) and Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658), emperor of the Mughal Empire. (British Library, London)