The child born under these romantic circumstances became the Empress Nur Mahal, who built this mausoleum.  Her father reached Lahore, where Akbar then held his court, and through the influence of his friends attracted the Emperor’s attention.  His talents won for him speedy promotion, and under Jahangir he became first Lord High Treasurer, and afterwards Wazir, or Prime Minister.  Jahangir, in his memoirs, candidly discusses the character of his father-in-law.  He was a good scholar, with a pretty taste for poetry, possessed many social qualities and a genial disposition.  His accounts were always in perfect order, but “he liked bribes, and showed much boldness in demanding them.”  On his death his son, Asaf Khan, the father of Mumtaz Mahal, was appointed to succeed him.

Itmad-ad-daulah and his wife are buried in the central chamber; his brother and sister and other members of his family occupy the four corners.  The pavilion on the roof, enclosed by beautiful marble tracery (Plate IX.), contains only replicas of the real tombs beneath.  The mausoleum was commenced in 1622 and completed in 1628.  As a composition it may lack inspiration, but it is exceedingly elegant, and scholarly like the Lord High Treasurer himself.  In construction it marks the transition from the style of Akbar to that of Shah Jahan; from the Jahangiri Mahal to the Diwan-i-khas, the Muti Masjid, and the Taj.  The towers at the four corners might be the first suggestion of the detached minarets of the Taj.  The Hindu feeling which is so characteristic of most of Akbar’s buildings is here only shown in the roof of the central chamber over the tomb; in pure Saracenic architecture a tomb is always covered by a dome.

This change in style greatly influenced the architecture of the whole of the north of India, Hindu and Jain as well as Muhammadan.  It must be remembered that comparatively few of the master-builders who actually constructed the most famous examples of Mogul architecture were Muhammadans.  The remarkable decline of the Mogul style which set in under Aurangzib was largely due to his bigotry in refusing to employ any but true believers.

The family ties of Itmad-ud-daulah and his daughter, the Empress, were closely connected with Persia and Central Asia; and no doubt the fashion set by Jahangir’s court led to the Saracenic element becoming predominant in the Mogul style, both in construction and in decoration.  Many authorities have connected the marked difference between Itmad-ud-daulah’s tomb and Akbar’s buildings to Italian influence, only on the ground that Jahangir is known to have been partial to Europeans, and allowed them free access to his palace.  There is not, however, a trace of Italian art in any detail of the building; there is not a form or decorative idea which had not been used in India or in Central Asia for centuries.  The use of marble inlaid work on so extensive a scale was a novelty, but it was only an imitation, or adaptation, of the splendid tile-mosaic and painted tile-work which were the commonest kinds of decoration employed in Persia:  Wazir Khan’s mosque at Lahore, built in Jahangir’s time, is a fine Indian example of the latter.