In whose memory was the Taj Mahal built?

Mughal emperors commonly commemorated deceased family members by commissioning monumental tombs; the identity of the ruler who commissioned a monument and the identity of the deceased person being honoured are two distinct facts that should not be confused.

Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor, commissioned the Taj Mahal at Agra between 1632 and 1653 in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal (born Arjumand Banu Begum), who died in 1631 while giving birth to their fourteenth child. The mausoleum was built to house her tomb, with construction overseen by the architect Ustad Ahmad Lahori.

• Noor Jehan was the wife of Jahangir, Shah Jahan's father — a different generation and a different emperor's consort, with no connection to the Taj Mahal's origin.

• Anarkali is a folklore figure linked to Prince Salim's era and has no verified historical connection to Shah Jahan or the Taj Mahal's construction.

• Shah Jahan is the emperor who ordered the Taj Mahal's construction, but the question asks who is memorialised by the monument, not who built it — that distinction points to his wife, Mumtaz Mahal.