Kashmír, long coveted and many times vainly attacked, which more than doubled the area of his possessions. This strange and beautiful land of mountain and valley, rising in successive ranges from the low hills of Jammu and the Punjab border line to the giant peaks of everlasting snow double the height of the Alps, had been for several centuries the prize of successive conquerors, who specially valued it for its delightful climate in the summer months, when the plains of India were as a furnace, and the invaders from the north thought longingly of their cool and pleasant homes in Teherán and Kábul.
Until the beginning of the thirteenth century Kashmír had been ruled by its Hindu princes; then a Muhammadan dynasty succeeded for two hundred and fifty years; and, after several unsuccessful expeditions, Akbar the Great, in 1588, established the Mughal rule, which lasted for a century and a half. It was during this period that the fame of Kashmír for loveliness among the mountain regions of the world became so great. Powerful emperors, more wealthy and luxurious than any then reigning in Europe, Aurangzeb, Akbar, Jahángír and Sháh Jahán, made annual visits to its pleasant valleys, carrying with them their entire court, the transport of which exhausted the resources of the country. In Kashmír they built palaces and pleasure grounds, some of which still remain to testify to the magnificence and selfishness of the monarchs, who took so much from the people and gave so little in return.
