When Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built his royal palace in Delhi, which opened in 1648, he inscribed the words of Persian poet Amir Khusrau (1253-1325 AD) on the wall of the Diwan-i-Khas or the hall of special audience in the Lal-Qila, now known as the Red Fort. While Khusrau’s famed quote – “If there is Paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this” - is said to have been inspired by the beauty of Kashmir, the emperor is thought to have used it to describe the grandeur and majesty of the Mughal empire, which experienced a golden age of art and spanned the reigns of its three greatest emperors: Akbar (1556-1605), his son Jahangir (1605-1627), and his grandson Shah Jahan (1628-1658), who built of the majestic Taj Mahal.