Shahjahanabad

What is today the overcrowded neglected city of Old Delhi was once the magnificent capital of the Mughal Empire. At its heart was the spectacular Qila-e-Mubarak now known as the Red Fort. ComPaper Backsioned by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1639 the beautiful city of Shahjahanabad was built around the spectacular Qila-e-Mubarak (Red Fort) on the banks of the Yamuna. Almost a decade later in 1648 Shah Jahan entered through the river gate and celebrated the completion of this 'paradise on earth' filled with gardens palaces water bodies mosques and temples. About two hundred years later the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar left the fort by the same gate after the failed Mutiny against the British in 1857. Subsequently both the fort and the city fared badly as they faced the wrath of the British.

The final instalment in Rana Safvi's informative illustrated series of books on Delhi Shahjahanabad: The Living City of Old Delhi describes the magnificence of the fort and the city through its buildings that are a living monument to the grandeur and strife of the past.