Jahangir, Akbar's son, inherited a large and orderly empire. The European presence in India continued to grow, as the English competed with the Dutch and Portuguese in establishing trading posts. The European traders bought and commissioned carpets from provincial weaving centers that operated outside the court workshops.

Jahangir continued his father’s enlightened policies toward religion. He encouraged court patronage of the arts, commissioned portrait albums of members of his court, and collected European paintings.

Jahangir kept a diary, where he recorded his thoughts and impressions as well as trivia and unusual events of court life. He documented the story of how his four-year-old grandson accidentally plunged from a palace window and how a carpet being spread below broke the boy’s fall and saved his life. Jahangir wrote about birds and animals, and the flowers of Kashmir especially impressed him. He described them in this passage:

"Kashmir is a garden of eternal spring . . . Wherever the eye reaches, there are verdure and running water. The red rose, the violet, and the narcissus grow of themselves; in the fields, there are all kinds of flowers and all sorts of sweet-scented herbs more than can be calculated. In the soul-enchanting spring the hills and plains are filled with blossoms; the gates, the walls, the courts, the roofs, are lighted up by the torches of banquet-adorning tulips. . . . "

Jahangir collected exotic animals for display and for sport. A popular entertainment was to pit the animals against each other in an arena, goading them to fight while the emperor and his guests placed bets on the outcome. Jahangir is pictured in a manuscript illustration from the Metropolitan's collection, watching two elephants in combat.

Carpets during the reign of Jahangir: