JAHANGIR

jahangir, or jehangir (1569-1627), mogul emperor of delhi, succeeded his father akbar the great in 1605. his name was salim, but he assumed the title of jahangir, "conqueror of the world," on his accession. it was in his reign that sir thomas roe came as ambassador of james i., on behalf of the english company. he was a dissolute ruler, much addicted to drunkenness, and his reign is chiefly notable for the influence enjoyed by his wife nur jahan, "the light of the world." at first she influenced jahangir for good, but surrounding herself with her relatives she aroused the jealousy of the imperial princes; and jahangir died in 1627 in the midst of a rebellion headed by his son, khurram or shah jahan, and his greatest general, mahabat khan. the tomb of jahangir is situated in the gardens of shahdera on the outskirts of lahore. jahiz (abu 'uthman 'amr ibn bahr ul-jahiz; i.e. "the man the pupils of whose eyes are prominent") (d. 869), arabian writer. he spent his life and devoted himself in basra chiefly to the study of polite literature. a mu'tazilite in his religious beliefs, he developed a system of his own and founded a sect named after him. he was favoured by ibn uz-zaiyat, the vizier of the caliph wathiq. his work, the _kitab ul-bayan wat-tabyin_, a discursive treatise on rhetoric, has been published in two volumes at cairo (1895). the _kitab ul-mahasin wal-addad_ was edited by g. van vloten as _le livre des beautes et des antitheses_ (leiden, 1898); the _kitab ul-bu-hala_. _le livre des avares_, ed. by the same (leiden, 1900); two other smaller works, the _excellences of the turks_ and the _superiority in glory of the blacks over the whites_, also prepared by the same. the _kitab ul-hayawan,_ or "book of animals," a philological and literary, not a scientific, work, was published at cairo (1906). (g. w. t.)