Search results
- Bahadur Shah II (born Mirza Abu Zafar Siraj-ud-din Muhammad (24 October 1775 – 7 November 1862), usually referred to by his poetic title Bahadur Shah Zafar (Persian pronunciation: [ba.hɑː.ˈduɾ ʃɑːh za.ˈfaɾ]; Zafar lit. 'Victory'), was the twentieth and last Mughal emperor and a Hindustani poet.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahadur_Shah_Zafar
People also ask
Who was the last Mughal emperor?
Who ruled the Mughal Empire?
What was the Mughal dynasty called?
Who was the first emperor of the Mughal dynasty?
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, [11] marking the start of the British Raj.
- Overview
- Bābur and the establishment of the Mughals
- Humāyūn
The Mughal Empire reached across much of the Indian subcontinent. By the death of Akbar, the third Mughal ruler, the Mughal Empire extended from Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal and southward to what is now Gujarat state and the northern Deccan region of India.
How was the Mughal dynasty founded?
The Mughal dynasty was founded by Bābur, a dispossessed Timurid prince who reestablished himself in Kabul. From there he conquered the Punjab and subsequently unseated the Delhi sultanate before extending his rule across northern India.
When did the Mughal Empire end?
The Mughal Empire began to decline in the 18th century, during the reign of Muḥammad Shah (1719–48). Much of its territory fell under the control of the Marathas and then the British. The last Mughal emperor, Bahādur Shah II (1837–57), was exiled by the British after his involvement with the Indian Mutiny of 1857–58.
Why was the Mughal Empire important?
The dynasty was founded by a Chagatai Turkic prince named Bābur (reigned 1526–30), who was descended from the Turkic conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) on his father’s side and from Chagatai, second son of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, on his mother’s side. Bābur’s father, ʿUmar Shaykh Mīrzā, ruled the small principality of Fergana to the north of the Hindu Kush mountain range; Bābur inherited the principality at a young age, in 1494.
In 1504 he conquered Kabul and Ghaznī and established himself there. In 1511 he captured Samarkand, only to realize that, with the formidable Safavid dynasty in Iran and the Uzbeks in Central Asia, he should rather turn to the southeast toward India to have an empire of his own. As a Timurid, Bābur had an eye on the Punjab, part of which had been Timur’s possession. He made several excursions in the tribal habitats there. Between 1519 and 1524—when he invaded Bhera, Sialkot, and Lahore—he showed his definite intention to conquer Hindustan, where the political scene favoured his adventure.
Having secured the Punjab, Bābur advanced toward Delhi, garnering support from many Delhi nobles. He routed two advance troop contingents of Ibrāhīm Lodī, Delhi’s sultan, and met the sultan’s main army at the First Battle of Panipat. By April 1526 he was in control of Delhi and Agra and held the keys to conquer Hindustan.
The Rajput confederacy, however, under Rana Sanga of Mewar threatened to revive their power in northern India. Bābur led an expedition against the rana and crushed the rana’s forces at Khanua, near Fatehpur Sikri (March 1527), once again by means of the skillful positioning of troops. Bābur then continued his campaigns to subjugate the Rajputs of Chanderi. When Afghan risings turned him to the east, he had to fight, among others, the joint forces of the Afghans and the sultan of Bengal in 1529 at Ghaghara, near Varanasi. Bābur won the battles, but the expedition there too, like the one on the southern borders, was left unfinished. Developments in Central Asia and Bābur’s failing health forced him to withdraw. He died near Lahore in December 1530.
Bābur’s son Humāyūn inherited the hope rather than the fact of empire, because the Afghans and Rajputs were merely restrained but not reconciled to Mughal supremacy by the Mughal victories at Panipat (1526), Khanua (1527), and the Ghaghara (1529). Bahādur Shah of Gujarat, encouraged by Afghan and Mughal émigrés, challenged the Mughals in Rajasthan, and, although Humāyūn occupied Gujarat in 1535, the danger there ended only with Bahādur’s death in 1537. Meanwhile, an Afghan soldier of fortune, Shēr Shah of Sūr, had consolidated his power in Bihar and Bengal. He defeated Humāyūn at Chausa in 1539 and at Kannauj in 1540, expelling him from India.
Special offer for students! Check out our special academic rate and excel this spring semester!
Learn More
Reaching Iran in 1544, Humāyūn was granted military aid by Shah Ṭahmāsp and went on to conquer Kandahār (1545) and to seize Kabul three times from his own disloyal brother, Kāmrān, the final time being in 1550. Taking advantage of civil wars among the descendants of Shēr Shah, Humāyūn captured Lahore in February 1555, and, after defeating Sikandar Sūr, the rebel Afghan governor of the Punjab, at Sirhind, he recovered Delhi and Agra that July. Humāyūn was fatally injured by falling down the staircase of his library. His tomb in Delhi, built several years after his death, is the first of the great Mughal architectural masterpieces; it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
After a crushing defeat in the war of 1857–1858 which he nominally led, the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was deposed by the British East India Company and exiled in 1858. Zafar was exiled to Rangoon , Burma. [ 73 ]
The best-known members of the Mughal dynasty are its first emperors—Babur and five of his lineal descendants: Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb. These six emperors are sometimes collectively known as the Great Mughals, and the military, artistic, and political glories of the empire are inextricably connected to their ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Bahādur Shāh II (born October 24, 1775, Delhi, India—died November 7, 1862, Rangoon, Burma [now Yangon, Myanmar]) was the last Mughal emperor of India (reigned 1837–57). He was a poet, musician, and calligrapher, more an aesthete than a political leader.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Mar 3, 2021 · Bahadur Shah II, known as Bahadur Shah Zafar, was the twentieth and last Mughal emperor, reigning from 1806 until 1837, and an accomplished Urdu poet. His rule was largely nominal, with real power being exercised by the British East India Company .
Nov 1, 2007 · The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II, also known as Zafar, died in a British prison in Burma in 1862.
