"...how Mughal is the name Taj Mahal anyway? It is usually said that the name derives from Mumtaz Mahal, the title given to the empress which means ‘select of the palace.’ There is room for doubt about this; ‘taj’ need not be abbreviation of ‘mumtaz’ since it is itself a perfectly good Persian word meaning ‘crown’. It is also worth noting that the building is not called Taj Mahal in the contemporary Mughal sources. Abdul Hamid Lahauri, the author of Padshahnama, the official history of Shah Jahan’s reign calls it rauza-i munawwara, meaning the illumined or illustrious tomb (where rauza implies specifically a tomb in a garden."