The Mughal Empire, founded by Babur, began in India and lasted until 1857. Mongol rule, which fused Indian traditions with the Islamic religion, thus followed nearly four centuries of Islamic rule over much of India. Mughal emperors married Hindu wives, the Islamic lunar calendar was abandoned, but many Hindu traditions were fused with Islamic ones. It was only in 1803, when the Indian subcontinent was divided between Hindu kingdoms and British colonial dominions, that India was declared no longer an Islamic country by the leader of the Ulama of Delhi.
