o8 LAHORE CITY
and Kandahar. In the struggle between Humaytin and Sher Shah;
Lahore was the military head-quarters of the Mughals, and narrowly
escaped; destruction on their temporary defeat. Humaycit' pntered
Lahore triumphantly in 1554, being received with: every expression
of joy; but after Akbar had come to the throne, the place was
seized in 1563 by his younger brother Hakim, who, though expelled,
made another assault in 15811, from which he was repelled by Akbar
in person. Akbar held his court at Lahore from 1584 to r5g8;
where he was visited by some Portuguese missionaries, and by the
Englishmen I itch, Newbery, Leedes, and Story. He enlarged and
repaired the fort, and surrounded the town' ith a wall, portions
of which still remain, embedded- in the modern work of Ranjit
Singh. Specimens of the mixed Hindu and Saracenie style adopted
by Akbar survive within the" fort, _though largely defaced by later
alterations. Under that great emperor, Lahore rapidly -increased
in area and population. The most thickly inhabited portion covered
the site of the existing city, but long bazars and 'populous suburbs
spread over the now desolate tract without the walls.
Some time after Jahangir's succession in z6©5 prince Khusru escaped
from Agra, seized the suburbs of Lahore, and .besieged the citadel;
but he was quickly defeated and his followers put to death with great
barbarity. Gura Arjun was implicated in this rebellion and died
in. captivity, or, as the Sikh tradition has it, disappeared miraculously
beneath the waters of the Ravi. His shrine still- stands between the
Mughal palace and the mausoleum of Ranjit Singh. Jahangtr fixed,
his court, at Lahore in x622 and died near by in 1627. He erected
the greater KhwAbgah or sleeping-place,' the Moti Masjid or `pall
mosque,' ,and the tomb of Anarkali, now used as a repository of secre-
tariat records. The palace originally consisted of a large quadrangle,
surrounded on three sides by a colonnade of red stone pillars, with
c4pitals intricately carved with figures of peacocks, elephants, and
griffins. In the centre of the fourth side, overlooking the Ravi, stood
a lofty pavilion in the Mughal style, flanked by two chambers with
elaborately decorated verandas of Hindu- architecture. A garden
filled the interior space of the quadrangle, with a raised platform'
of marble mosaic, while beneath the colonnade and pavilion under-
ground chambers afforded cool retreats from the midday sun. Th :
beauty of this building was largely disfigured by Sikh and European
alterations, but a great deal has been done recently towards its
restoration: Jahlngir's mausoleum at Shahdara forms one of the
chief ornaments of Lahore, though even, this has suffered. The tombs
of Nur Japan, his devoted wife, and of her brother Asaf Khan, have
fared worse, having been stripped of their marble facings and coloured
enamels by the Sikhs.
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