Who doesn't know the Taj Mahal, the world-famous mausoleum that Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan had built for his wife in Agra, India? This masterpiece of white marble with intricate gemstone inlays impressively demonstrates the refined sense of beauty of the Mughal rulers. Annemarie Schimmel shows that architecture, garden design, painting, and literature, indeed the entire court culture of the Mughals, testify to a creative will that sought to permeate all areas of life and especially everything created by human hands. In 17th and 18th century Europe, the Mughal Empire (1526 - 1857) was regarded as a kind of fairyland with immense treasures; in fact, this fairyland was the most powerful Islamic empire in Indian history. The life of the empire's founder Babur and that of his successors is documented through court chronicles, diaries, autobiographies, and not least.