ABSTRACT
Jalal al-Dcn Akbar (1556-1605) and Shah ‘Abbas I (1587-1629) were the institutional architects of their respective states – Mughal India and Safavid Iran. These energetic rulers established the basic military-administrative, economic and religious institutions for their fledgling empires. In addition to institutional reorganisation, these men also imposed a new architectural order. Both were responsible for planning and building imperial centres, large and magnificent capital cities that reflected the structure of their emerging states. The founding and layout of Fathpur Sikri and Isfahan and the relationships among the dominant architectural structures reflected the characteristic patterns of institutional integration in these two seventeenthcentury west and south Asian states. For both Akbar and ‘Abbas, establishing a new capital was an exercise in political legitimacy. Fathpur Sikri and Isfahan each symbolised the new imperial system that its builder was in the process of introducing.
