24 Hours in Lahore, 1641 | Inside Shah Jahan’s Mughal City

Step inside Lahore in the spring of 1641, when Emperor Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal, was living in the city where he was born. From before dawn to midnight, we follow one day: the emperor appearing at his window, the hall of public audience, the Mosque of Wazir Khan in its final months of tiling, the bazaars and bath house, the shrines of Lahore and Prince Dara Shikoh, and a banquet where the emperor was handed plates of pearls. Built from period sources: Mughal paintings of the 1630s–40s, the eyewitness account of Fray Sebastien Manrique (in Lahore in 1641), the Padshahnama chronicles, and our own 3D reconstruction of the city in Blender. The day is a composite of events from spring 1641. CHAPTERS 0:00 Spring, 1641 0:38 4 AM · Before dawn 1:58 5:30 AM · First light on the river wall 2:45 Sunrise · The emperor at the window 3:49 8 AM · The Hall of Public Audience 4:58 10 AM · Delhi Gate and Wazir Khan's mosque 6:25 Noon · Bath house and bazaars 7:29 3 PM · Saints and a doomed prince 8:47 6 PM · Sunset over the Ravi 9:19 8 PM · A banquet of pearls 10:21 11 PM · The night watch 11:01 What happened next SOURCES Manrique, Travels of Fray Sebastien Manrique 1629–1643 (Hakluyt Society); E. Maclagan, "The Travels of Fray Sebastian Manrique in the Panjab, 1641", Journal of the Panjab Historical Society 1 (1911); Abdul Hamid Lahori, Padshahnama; Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture; Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Wazir Khan Mosque conservation reports; UNESCO, Fort and Shalamar Gardens in Lahore. 3D reconstruction and animation: History ReSeen (Blender, After Effects). Narration: synthetic voice (Kokoro TTS). MUSIC: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): "Teller of the Tales", "Hidden Wonders", "Mystery Bazaar", "Ibn Al-Noor", "Ancient Rite", "Private Reflection". PAINTINGS: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access CC0 (Shah Jahan Album folios; Prince Riding an Elephant; Attendants at an Imperial Durbar). Public domain: Windsor Padshahnama (Darbar of Shah Jahan); Dara Shikoh with Mian Mir and Mulla Shah; Mian Mir portrait; Mumtaz Mahal on ivory; Lockwood Kipling Album photos (1880s); W. G. Osborne, Shalimar Gardens lithograph. PHOTOS (Wikimedia Commons): Mueezbeyg, Azhar, Muhammad Umair Mirza, AnoshNadeemButt, Umaimaumi, Yann/Jim Carter, Romero Maia, Moiz Ismaili, Tahsin Shah (CC BY-SA 4.0); Asif Nawaz, Meemjee, Muhammad Ashar, Rohaan Bhatti (CC BY-SA 3.0); Guilhem Vellut (CC BY 2.0). MAPS: Natural Earth (public domain). AMBIENT SOUND (Internet Archive / radio aporee): loukovikas, "Crowded Bazaar Ambience" (CC BY 3.0); JF Cavro, "Dashashwamedh Ghat"; Gerrit Kalsbeek, "Markala morning birds"; Ivan Guillaume Cosenza, "Crickets and nocturnal sounds" (Public Domain Mark); Albert Murillo, "Riera Sant Cugat" (CC0). 3D: MakeHuman/MPFB community assets (CC0); motion capture from mocap.cs.cmu.edu (created with funding from NSF EIA-0196217); textures from Poly Haven (CC0). Clothing, buildings and animation: our own. #Lahore #MughalEmpire #ShahJahan