This episode tells the story of the coming of Islam to the Indian subcontinent, culminating in one of the most glamorous ages of world civilization — the Moghul Empire.

This episode tells the epic story of possibly the greatest of all clashes of civilization - the coming of Islam to the Indian subcontinent. The story culminates in one of the most glamorous ages of world civilization - the Moghul Empire. Michael Wood visits the shrines of wandering Muslim Sufi saints in Old Delhi, where people of all religions come to worship; viewers see desert fortresses in Rajasthan and the fabulous cities of Lahore and Agra, where Wood offers a new theory on the design of arguably the most famous building in the world, the Taj Mahal. He tells the story of Akbar, a Muslim emperor who decreed that no single religion could hold the ultimate truth and that humans should try to find the common basis of all creeds ("an idea that would be unthinkable today," says Wood). At its height in 1600, Moghul India had the world's highest GDP, but Akbar's dream of unity ended in a savage civil war. And waiting in the wings to pick up the spoils was a new invader - the British.