The baburid foreign policy in the Reign of Shah Jahan

Shah Jahan, who was the fifth emperor of the Baburid Empire, came to the throne in 1628. His priorities in foreign policy were conquering Kandahar from the Safavids, recapturing the lands on the border of the Khanate of Bukhara, which once belonged to his ancestors, establishing sovereignty over the sultanates in Deccan region and ending their relationships with the Safavids. Each of these objectives concerned the Safavids directly or indirectly. When Shah Jahan attacked Kandahar, his aim was forming an alliance with the Khanate of Bukhara and when he attacked the Khanate of Bukhara his aim was ensuring the neutrality of the Safavids. In order to conquer Kandahar, Shah Jahan tried to form a Sunni alliance with the Ottoman Empire and the Khanate of Bukhara against the Safavids. Even though he could not form this Sunni alliance, he was successful in capturing Kandahar. Subsequently, he attacked the Khanate of Bukhara in order to recapture the lands of his ancestors. Nadr Muhammad, the governor of Balkh asked for help from the Safavids. Shah Jahan sent messengers to Shah Abbas II to avoid this help and he claimed that he sent his army to Balkh region because of the killing of some sayyids, which resulted from the domestic unrest in the region. Furthermore, after putting an end to Nizamshah Sultanate, Shah Jahan put pressure on Kutbshah Sultanate and he ensured that they adopted Sunni Islam; however, he did not ask the same thing from the Shia Adilshahids. He avoided a possible alliance of these two sultanates by ensuring that they have different religious sects. Besides, these sultanates' having different religious sects was a move that would reduce the Shia Safavid influence on them as this situation would cause them to have conflicts with each other. The conflicts mentioned above and the conflicts with Lesser Tibet and Great Tibet were affairs that took place in accordance with Shah Jahan's political goals, yet, the conflicts with the Portuguese and Ahom Kingdom did not occur in line with his political goals. It can be seen that after his accession to the throne, Shah Jahan took into consideration the political and religious conditions of the states that were related to his political goals directly or indirectly before taking any action in foreign policy. As a result, in accordance with his interests, the language he used in his diplomatic relations with these states was shaped accordingly. Particularly the diplomatic language, which he used by resorting to religious references can be seen as means of achieving his political objectives.