CHARACTER OF SHAH JAHAN 89

prostration before the throne, upon which Jahangir had laid great stress; and his unfailing kindness and benev- olence, joined to a gracious publicity and display, en- deared him to the people. He was the most popular of all the great Moghuls, though not specially the idol of the Hindus. There was a tinge of intolerance in his perfectly orthodox, if not very ardent, profession of Sunni Mohammedanism, and this slightly bigoted twist was encouraged by his ever-beloved wife, Arjumand Banu, known as Mumtaz-i-Mahal, " the elect of the palace," the mother of his fourteen children, whose exquisite monument, the Taj at Agra, still witnesses to her husband's devotion. Good Moslem as he was, Shah Jahan was a man of sound judgment and knowl- edge of the world, and he was the last king to dream of letting religion override statesmanship. Many of his generals were Hindus, and his great minister, Sa'd- Allah, though converted, was a Hindu by birth. Jesuit missionaries still laboured at Agra, where their tomb- stones may still be seen in the " Padre Santo," and where, as Bernier records, they had a large and very fair church, with a great steeple and bell, which might be heard all over the town in spite of the Moslem's prejudice against the devil's musical instrument. Never- theless, this toleration did not extend to the Portuguese of Hugli, whose piracy led to their destruction in 1631, save such as were sent as prisoners to Agra, where the church was then partly destroyed in the temporary excitement of fanaticism. The result of all the popularity and good statesman-