Alexander the Great invaded northwest India in 327 B.C., forcing his way across the Indus and to the banks of the Gharra. He founded two cities, Nicæa and Bucephala, but he withdrew without exerting any appreciable influence upon the later history of the country. In the twelve centuries that followed Alexander there were many forays into India, chiefly by nomadic, predatory tribes of Scythians and Arabs. These invaders had no wish to conquer and Occupy the country, but simply to prey upon it at their will. Race peculiarities, however, show that numbers of them remained permanently in the region they had overrun. About the beginning of the eleventh century A.D., Mahmoud, the Mahometan King of Ghizni (a part of what is now Afghanistan), made twelve famous incursions far into the west of India, and, in 1024, he succeeded in conquering and annexing the two provinces of Lahore and Mooltan. His successors gradually pushed their way to Delhi, which they

captured in 1206. They overran the Deccan in 1294, and shortly after that time all India was brought under Mahometan rule. Hardly had India been made Mahometan before the Moguls, or Mongols, overran and conquered it. As early as 1219, Genghis Khan, the great Mogul chieftain, reached the banks of the Indus, whence he made foray after foray into the heart of the country, forays so destructive that it has been said that "five centuries have not been sufficient to repair the ravages of four years." In 1398, Tamerlane, whom some writers regard as a descendant of Genghis Khan, invaded India, captured and pillaged Delhi, and ravaged most of the peninsula. Neither Genghis Khan nor Tamerlane established a permanent Mogul rule in India. After the withdrawal of the latter, matters in the peninsula, always verging upon anarchy, became even more unsettled, and remained in a state of turmoil for a century and a quarter. Two English dramas are founded upon Tamerlane's career, one by Christopher Marlowe, and the other by Nicholas Rowe.

In 1526, Baber, "The Tiger," a descendant of Tamerlane, and himself Sultan of Ferghana, in Bucharia, invaded the much-vexed country, and, at the battle of Panipat, met and overthrew the last of the Afghan successors of Mahmoud. This resulted in the subjugation of a large part of India, and the

establishment of the Mogul Empire, with its seat at Delhi. Baber, despite his ferocious surname, was much more than a conqueror. Jeffrey, reviewing his Memoirs, written by himself, and translated into Eng lish from his original Turki, says of him: "Though passing the greater part of his time in desperate military expeditions, he was an educated and accomplished man, an elegant poet, a minute and fastidious critic in all the niceties and elegancies of diction, a curious and exact observer of the statistical phenomena of every region he entered, a great admirer of beautiful prospects and fine flowers, and, though a devoted Mahometan in his way, a very resolute and jovial drinker of wine. Good-humored, brave, munificent, sagacious, and frank in his character, he might have been a Henry IV if his training had been in Europe; and, even as he is, is less stained, perhaps, by the Asiatic vices of cruelty and perfidy than any other in the list of her conquerors." He died in 1530, at the age of forty-eight, and was unable, therefore, to give final form to the empire in India. Baber was succeeded by his son, Humayoon, who was of weaker stuff. In the twenty-six years of his reign, he lost all or nearly all the territory his father had conquered, though he regained a considerable part of it in time. to turn it over to his successor. He died in 1556.

When Humayoon died, his son and heir, Akbar, was

only fourteen years old, and the empire was governed by a regency for a period of five years. Akbar was a man of much ability, and the title "the Great" has been appended to his name. Macaulay, in his History of England, speaks of him as ". . . the ablest and the best of the princes of the House of Tamerlane.” He established his capital at Agra, which he adorned with many fine buildings. He solidified and strengthened his empire by giving to the subject people, the Hindoos, an interest in the government and a share in its employment, by encouraging the abolishment of race jealousies by intermarriage, and by the largest toleration in religion. He considerably enlarged his domains, particularly by annexing several kingdoms in the Deccan. He died in 1605. Akbar was succeeded by his son, Jehangir, who reigned until 1627. Though a man of less force of character than Akbar, he continued the internal development of the empire upon the lines laid out by his father. Nour Mahal, "The Light of the Harem," afterward called Nour Jehan, "The Light of the World," was his famous, wise, and beautiful empress. See The Light of the Haram in Moore's Lalla Rookh. It was to Jehangir's court that Sir Thomas Roe went, in 1615, as ambassador from James I, as stated in the text of the Essay on Clive. See pages 18 and 110.

Jehangir was succeeded, in 1627, by his son, Shah

Jehan, who reigned till 1658. As a ruler, Shah Jehan continued the work of his father and his grandfather, and the empire reached the zenith of its glory and magnificence under his rule. He devoted himself especially to works of public utility and the erection of superb buildings. The most famous of these is the Taj Mahal, at Agra, a wonderful mausoleum for his favorite wife, which excites the admiration of all beholders. It is said to be the work of a French architect named Austin. Shah Jehan's capital was Delhi, which he beautified with many fine edifices Among these may be mentioned the Djema Mesdjid, which Bishop Heber regarded as the finest Mahometan temple in all India. During the latter days of Shah Jehan's reign, the empire was in a continual state of turmoil, brought about by the ambitions and jealousies of his four sons, each of whom aspired to succeed to the throne, and none of whom was willing to wait till the throne was vacant. Aurungzebe was successful in the end. He imprisoned his father for the rest of his life, and put his brothers to death, after which he reigned from 1658 till 1707, assuming the title "King of the World." He was a more ardent Mahometan than any of his predecessors had been, and was possessed of great vigor of mind and of body. It was his ambition to unite all India into one grand Mahometan government. He succeeded in annexing