In his time, Shah Jahan was the richest monarch in the world. He displayed his wealth through the splendour of his dress and the opulence of his court. In 1631, his wife Mumtaz Mahal died. Her final resting place would be next to his. His father's mausoleum was being built under the supervision of the widow, Nur Jahan. Shah Jahan decided that his final resting place must be the most beautiful building in the world and he built the Taj.

The building of mausoleums is not an Islamic tradition. The Mughals loved gardens and laid out many in North India. Each garden was meant to be a vision of paradise on earth. The Timurids did not reside permanently at any location. The court moved with their tent city. A well laid out garden meant that there was a ready site at which to set up their court. Babur had gardens laid out at Agra (the Ram Bargh) and Kabul (the Babur Bargh). When he died his body was taken and buried in a simple grave at the garden in Kabul. The structures built at his grave were constructed much later by his grandson Jahangir and great grandson Shah Jahan.

Akbar was influenced by Sufism. Sufism was brought to the Indian subcontinent in the thirteenth century by Muinuddin Chishti who settled in Ajmer. He attracted a substantial following and when he died his gravesite became a pilgrimage destination. Akbar himself undertook a pilgrimage on foot to Ajmer. According to Sufi belief, on the death anniversary of a Sufi saint, the grave was in union with god. The death anniversary of Sufi saints became occasions of piety and celebration at the burial site of the saint. Since the Mughal Emperors viewed themselves as God's shadow on earth, Akbar wanted their grave sites to be equally venerated. To encourage this veneration, Akbar began the Mughal practice of mausoleum building. During his reign, he built a mausoleum set in a garden paradise at Delhi for his father, Humayan. He began the construction of his own mausoleum at Sikri. This was completed by his son Jahangir. The Empress Nur Jahan decided that her father, Itmaduddaulah, merited the same veneration as the Mughal Emperors and built a mausoleum for him. She also supervised the construction of Jahangir's mausoleum at Lahore which was completed during the reign of Shah Jahan.