John Shors, “Beneath a Marble Sky: A Novel of the Taj Mahal ताज महल”, 2004 was the topic of an earlier blog post.
Here I present: John Shors, “Beneath a Marble Sky: A Novel of the Taj Mahal ताज महल”, 2004, PART TWO (2).
INTRODUCTION.
This book was an historical fiction of the story behind the Taj Mahal (ताज महल) in Agra, INDIA. On the map ABOVE you see Agra in central INDIA.
The Taj Mahal (ताज महल) in Agra, INDIA is a Perso-Islamic mausoleum on the bank of the Yamuna River. Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned the construction of the Taj Mahal (ताज महल) in 1631 AD; and, the Taj Mahal (ताज महल) houses the tomb of Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal.
COMMENTS.
I mentioned that the Taj Mahal is Perso-Islamic architecture. Persian language today is written in Perso-Islamic abjad (consonant only) script. During the Mughal Empire (1526–1857 AD) the Persian language was the lingua-franca of INDIA. Today, half of the Old Persian words are cognate with New Persian words. BELOW is the script of the Old/New Persians which you see what changed most.
BELOW is table of cognate similarity with time. New Persian language words spoken today have up to one-half cognates with the earliest Old Persian words.
| Dating Time | Similarity |
| 0 BP | 100% |
| 500 BP | 86% |
| 1000 BP | 74% |
| 1500 BP | 64% |
| 2000 BP | 55% |
| 2500 BP | 47% |
| 3000 BP | 40% |
| 4000 BP | 30% |
| 5000 BP | 22% |
