List of emperors of the Mughal Empire
Shahenshah of Hindustan | |
---|---|
Imperial | |
Details | |
Style | Sultan of Delhi) |
Last monarch | Bahadur Shah II |
Formation | 21 April 1526; 497 years ago |
Abolition | 21 September 1857; 166 years ago |
Residence | |
Appointer | Hereditary |
The emperors of the
The Mughals were a branch of the Timurid dynasty of Persianized Turco-Mongol origin from Central Asia. Their founder Babur (r. 1526–1530), a Timurid prince from the Fergana Valley (modern-day Uzbekistan), was a direct descendant of both Timur and Genghis Khan.
Many of the later Mughal emperors had significant
During the reign of
Its population at the time has been estimated as between 110 and 150 million (a quarter of the world's population), over a territory of more than 4 million square kilometres (1.5 million square miles).[6] Mughal power rapidly dwindled during the 18th century and the last emperor, Bahadur Shah II, was deposed in 1857, with the establishment of the British Raj.[7]
Mughal Empire
The Mughal empire was founded by
Through warfare and diplomacy, Akbar was able to extend the empire in all directions and controlled almost the entire Indian subcontinent north of the
Akbar's son, Jahangir, was addicted to opium, neglected the affairs of the state, and came under the influence of rival court cliques.[8] During the reign of Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan, the splendour of the Mughal court reached its peak, as exemplified by the Taj Mahal. The cost of maintaining the court, however, began to exceed the revenue being levied.[8]
Shah Jahan's eldest son, the liberal Dara Shikoh, became regent in 1658, as a result of his father's illness. Dara championed a syncretistic Hindu-Muslim religion and culture. With the support of the Islamic orthodoxy, however, a younger son of Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb, seized the throne. Aurangzeb defeated Dara in 1659 and had him executed.[8] Although Shah Jahan fully recovered from his illness, there was a succession war for the throne between Dara and Aurangzeb. Finally, Aurangzeb succeeded the throne and kept Shah Jahan under house arrest.
During Aurangzeb's reign, the empire gained political strength once more, and it became the world's largest economy, over a quarter of the world GDP,[
Furthermore, at the conclusion of the conquest of the Deccan, Aurangzeb had very selectively rewarded some of the noble families with confiscated land in the Deccan, leaving aristocrats unrewarded with confiscated land feeling strongly disgruntled and unwilling to participate in further campaigns.[15] Aurangzeb's son, Shah Alam, repealed the religious policies of his father and attempted to reform the administration. "However, after his death in 1712, the Mughal dynasty sank into chaos and violent feuds. In the year 1719 alone, four emperors successively ascended the throne".[8]
During the reign of Muhammad Shah, the empire began to break up, and vast tracts of central India passed from Mughals to the Marathas hands. Mughal warfare had always been based upon heavy artillery for sieges, heavy cavalry for offensive operations and light cavalry for skirmishing and raids.[15] To control a region, the Mughals always sought to occupy a strategic fortress in some region, which would serve as a nodal point from which the Mughal army would emerge to take on any enemy that challenged the empire.[15] This system was not only expensive but also made the army somewhat inflexible as the assumption was always the enemy would retreat into a fortress to be besieged or would engage in a set-piece decisive battle of annihilation on open ground.[15] The Hindu Marathas were expert horsemen who refused to engage in set-piece battles, but rather engaged in campaigns of guerrilla warfare upon the Mughal supply lines.[15] The Marathas were unable to take the Mughal fortresses via a storm or formal siege as they lacked the artillery, but by constantly intercepting supply columns, they were able to starve Mughal fortresses into submission.[15]
Successive Mughal commanders refused to adjust their tactics and develop an appropriate counter-insurgency strategy, which led to the Mughals losing more and more ground to the Marathas.
In the next decades, the Afghans, Sikhs, and Marathas battled against each other and the Mughals, revealing the fragmented state of the empire. The Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II made futile attempts to reverse the empire's decline, but he ultimately had to seek the protection of outside powers. In 1784, the Marathas under Mahadaji Shinde won acknowledgement as the protectors of the emperor in Delhi, a state of affairs that continued until after the Second Anglo-Maratha War. Thereafter, the East India Company became the protectors of the Mughal dynasty in Delhi.[17] After 1835 the Company no longer recognised the authority of the emperor, accepting him only as 'King of Delhi' and removing all references to him from their coinage. After the Indian rebellion which he nominally led from 1857–58, the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was deposed by the British, who then assumed formal control of a large part of the former empire,[8] marking the start of the British Raj.
Titular emperors
Over the course of the empire, there were several claimants to the Mughal throne who ascended the throne or claimed to do so but were never recognized.[18]
Here are the claimants to the Mughal throne historians recognise as titular Mughal emperors.
- Shahryar Mirza (1627 - 1628)
- Dawar Baksh (1627 - 1628)
- Jahangir II (1719 - 1720)
List of Mughal Emperors
Portrait | Titular Name | Birth Name | Birth | Reign | Death |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Babur بابر |
Zahir ud-Din Muhammad ظهیر الدین محمد |
14 February 1483 Andijan, Uzbekistan
|
20 April 1526 – 26 December 1530
(4 years 8 months 4 days) |
26 December 1530 (aged 47) Agra, India
|
2 | Humayun همایوں |
Nasir ud-Din Muhammad نصیر الدین محمد |
6 March 1508 Kabul, Afghanistan
|
26 December 1530 – 17 May 1540
22 February 1555 – 27 January 1556 (10 years 3 months 25 days) |
27 January 1556 (aged 47) Delhi, India |
3 | Akbar اکبر |
Jalal ud-Din Muhammad جلال الدین محمد |
15 October 1542 Umerkot, Pakistan | 11 February 1556 – 27 October 1605
(49 years 9 months 0 days) |
27 October 1605 (aged 63) Agra, India
|
4 | Jahangir جهانگیر |
Nur ud-Din Muhammad نور الدین محمد |
31 August 1569 Agra, India
|
3 November 1605 – 28 October 1627
(21 years 11 months 23 days) |
28 October 1627 (aged 58) Jammu and Kashmir, India |
5 | Shah Jahan
شاہ جهان |
Shihab ud-Din Muhammad شهاب الدین محمد |
5 January 1592 Lahore,Pakistan |
19 January 1628 – 31 July 1658
(30 years 8 months 25 days) |
22 January 1666 (aged 74) Agra, India
|
6 | Aurangzeb اورنگزیب Alamgir |
Muhi al-Din Muhammad محی الدین محمد |
3 November 1618 Gujarat, India
|
31 July 1658 – 3 March 1707
(48 years 7 months) |
3 March 1707 (aged 88) Ahmednagar, India |
7 | Azam Shah اعظم شاه |
Qutb ud-Din Muhammad قطب الدين محمد |
28 June 1653 Burhanpur, India | 14 March 1707 – 20 June 1707
(3 months 6 days) |
20 June 1707 (aged 53) Agra, India |
8 | Bahadur Shah I بهادر شاہ Shah Alam I |
Mirza Muhammad Mu'azzam
مرزا محمد معظم |
14 October 1643 Burhanpur, India
|
19 June 1707 – 27 February 1712
(4 years, 253 days) |
27 February 1712 (aged 68) Lahore, Pakistan
|
9 | Jahandar Shah جهاندار شاہ |
Muiz ud-Din Muhammad معز الدین محمد First Puppet King |
9 May 1661 Deccan, India | 27 February 1712 – 11 February 1713
(0 years, 350 days) |
12 February 1713 (aged 51) Delhi, India |
10 | Farrukh Siyar فرخ سیر |
Sayyids of Barha
|
20 August 1685 Aurangabad, India
|
11 January 1713 – 28 February 1719
(6 years, 48 days) |
19 April 1719 (aged 33) Delhi, India |
11 | Rafi ud-Darajat رفیع الدرجات |
Sayyids of Barha
|
1 December 1699 | 28 February 1719 – 6 June 1719
(0 years, 98 days) |
6 June 1719 (aged 19) Agra, India
|
12 | Shah Jahan II شاہ جهان دوم |
Sayyids of Barha
|
5 January 1696 | 6 June 1719 – 17 September 1719
(0 years, 105 days) |
18 September 1719 (aged 23) Agra, India
|
13 | Muhammad Shah محمد شاه |
Sayyids of Barha
|
7 August 1702 Ghazni, Afghanistan | 27 September 1719 – 26 April 1748
(28 years, 212 days) |
26 April 1748 (aged 45) Delhi, India |
14 | Ahmad Shah Bahadur احمد شاہ بهادر |
Mujahid al-Din Muhammad مجاهد الدین محمد |
23 December 1725 Delhi, India | 29 April 1748 – 2 June 1754
(6 years, 37 days) |
1 January 1775 (aged 49) Delhi, India |
15 | Alamgir II عالمگیر دوم |
Aziz al-Din Muhammad عزیز اُلدین محمد |
6 June 1699 Burhanpur, India
|
3 June 1754 – 29 November 1759
(5 years, 180 days) |
29 November 1759 (aged 60) Kotla Fateh Shah, India |
16 | Shah Jahan III شاه جهان سوم |
Muhi al-Millat محی الملت |
1711 | 10 December 1759 – 10 October 1760
(282 days) |
1772 (aged 60–61) |
17 | Shah Alam II شاه عالم دوم |
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Ali Gauhar جلال الدین علی گوهر |
25 June 1728 Delhi, India | 10 October 1760 – 31 July 1788
(27 years, 301 days) |
19 November 1806 (aged 78) Delhi, India |
18 | Shah Jahan IV جهان شاه چهارم |
Bidar Bakht Mahmud Shah Bahadur Jahan Shah بیدار بخت محمود شاه بهادر جهان شاہ |
1749 Delhi, India | 31 July 1788 – 11 October 1788
(63 days) |
1790 (aged 40–41) Delhi, India |
17 | Shah Alam II شاه عالم دوم |
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Ali Gauhar جلال الدین علی گوهر Puppet King under the Maratha Empire |
25 June 1728 Delhi, India | 16 October 1788 – 19 November 1806
(18 years, 339 days) |
19 November 1806 (aged 78) Delhi, India |
19 | Akbar Shah II اکبر شاه دوم |
Muin al-Din Muhammad میرزا اکبر Puppet King under the East India Company |
22 April 1760 Mukundpur, India | 19 November 1806 – 28 September 1837
(30 years, 321 days) |
28 September 1837 (aged 77) Delhi, India |
20 | Bahadur Shah II Zafar بهادر شاه ظفر |
Abu Zafar Siraj al-Din Muhammad ابو ظفر سراج اُلدین محمد |
24 October 1775 Delhi, India | 28 September 1837 – 21 September 1857
(19 years, 360 days) |
7 November 1862 (aged 87) Rangoon, Myanmar
|
Family tree of Mughal emperors
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Notes:
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See also
References
Citations
- ^ Jeroen Duindam (2015), Dynasties: A Global History of Power, 1300–1800, page 105 Archived 6 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Cambridge University Press
- ISBN 978-8-189-83318-3.
- ISBN 9789384544980.
- ^ "The World Economy (GDP) : Historical Statistics by Professor Angus Maddison" Archived 5 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine . World Economy. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
- ^ Chandra, Satish. Medieval India: From Sultanate to the Mughals. p. 202.
- ISBN 978-0521251198.
- ^ Spear 1990, pp. 147–148
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7922-3695-5.
- ^ Keay, 293–296
- ^ Keay, 309–311
- ^ Keay, 311–319
- ^ Eraly, Abraham The Mughal Throne:The Saga of India's Great Emperors, London: Phonenix, 2004 p. 520.
- ^ Eraly, Abraham The Mughal Throne The Sage of India's Great Emperors, London: Phonenix, 2004 p. 191.
- ^ "The great Aurangzeb is everybody's least favourite Mughal – Audrey Truschke | Aeon Essays". Aeon. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j D'souza, Rohan "Crisis before the Fall: Some Speculations on the Decline of the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals" pp. 3–30 from Social Scientist, Volume 30, Issue # 9/10, September–October 2002 p. 21.
- ^ Keay, 361–363, 385–386
- ^ ISBN 978-0-203-71253-5.
- ISBN 978-1-315-44324-9, retrieved 7 January 2023
Sources
- ISBN 0002557177
- ISBN 978-0-14-013836-8.
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division. – India Archived 14 July 2012 at archive.today Pakistan Archived 29 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine
Further reading
- Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra; Pusalker, A. D.; Majumdar, A. K., eds. (1973). The History and Culture of the Indian People. Vol. VII: The Mughal Empire. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.