Alamgir II

• 1. Introduction

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  Alamgir II ruled the Mughal Empire from 1754 to 1759, a reign of only five years that ended with a knife in a courtyard. Born on the 6th of June 1699 at Burhanpur, he spent forty years as a prisoner before anyone placed a crown on his head. The man who finally freed him was the same man who would eventually have him killed.

  His name at birth was Mirza Aziz-ud-Din. His father was Jahandar Shah, whose own defeat at the hands of the emperor Farrukhsiyar set off a chain of captivity that swallowed the young prince whole. From 1714 until 1754, he lived behind bars, with no practice in statecraft and no experience on a battlefield. He was fifty-five years old when the throne came to him.

  The vizier who freed him, Imad-ul-Mulk, had chosen him precisely because he seemed pliable. A frail man emerging from decades of confinement, Alamgir II seemed unlikely to challenge anyone's grip on power. What Imad-ul-Mulk had not counted on was that the empire itself was entering one of its most turbulent periods, and that even a ceremonial emperor could become a threat simply by existing.

• 2. A Life in Captivity

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  Aziz-ud-Din was seven years old when his great-grandfather Aurangzeb died in the Deccan. That death sent the Mughal succession into turmoil. His grandfather Bahadur Shah I died not long after, and the war of succession that followed proved fatal for his father Jahandar Shah, defeated by the emperor Farrukhsiyar.

  His mother was a Rajput princess named Anup Bai, though historical records say little about her life. The details of Aziz-ud-Din's own childhood are similarly sparse. What is clear is that in 1714, when he was still a teenager, Asaf Jah I imprisoned him under the orders of Farrukhsiyar. He would not taste freedom again for forty years.

  The man who finally ordered his release was Ghazi ud-Din Khan Feroze Jung III, the vizier who would later take the name Imad-ul-Mulk. He had just deposed Ahmad Shah Bahadur and needed a figurehead to occupy the throne. He perceived Aziz-ud-Din as a frail personality who would offer no resistance. On the 2nd of June 1754, Aziz-ud-Din was given the title Alamgir II by Imad-ul-Mulk himself, chosen in deliberate echo of the great centralizing emperor Aurangzeb, the first Alamgir.

• 3. Power Behind the Throne

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  Imad-ul-Mulk wasted no time making clear where real authority lay. He hired Maratha mercenaries to enforce his will, diverted the imperial revenues into his own hands, and left Alamgir II's family without adequate resources. He also persecuted Ali Gauhar, the emperor's elder son.

  The Amir-ul-Umara and Mir Bakhshi at Alamgir II's court was Mirza Ashraf, the son of Khan Dowran VII, a noble who had served back in the reigns of Farrukhsiyar and Muhammad Shah. The institutional machinery of the empire was thus staffed by men whose loyalties ran sideways to the throne rather than toward it.

  What Imad-ul-Mulk had not anticipated was that some of the empire's regional rulers would seek to use the emperor against him. After Alamgir II's accession, many Nawabs began to curry the new emperor's favor and coordinate resistance to the Marathas through the imperial court. This drift toward re-centralization was exactly what the vizier did not want, and it deepened his hostility toward the man he had placed on the throne. Alamgir II's growing relationship with Ahmad Shah Durrani would raise those tensions to a breaking point.

• 4. The Durrani Alliance

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  In 1755, the Mughal viceroy of Punjab, Moin-ul-Mulk, died. His widow Mughlani Begum turned to Ahmad Shah Durrani for help in managing the succession and suppressing Sikh rebels in the eastern Punjab. That appeal drew the Durrani forces into the subcontinent once again.

  In January 1757, Alamgir II rode out with his courtiers, including Shah Waliullah and the noble Najib-ul-Daula, to receive Ahmad Shah Durrani in person. The meeting was more than diplomatic courtesy. The Durrani forces moved against the Marathas and threatened to bring down Imad-ul-Mulk's entire arrangement.

  The alliance was sealed with two marriages. Ahmad Shah Durrani's son Timur Shah Durrani was chosen as the suitor of Alamgir II's daughter Zuhra Begum. Ahmad Shah Durrani himself married Hadrat Begum, the daughter of the former emperor Muhammad Shah. Alamgir II also received the support of Mohammad Bahawal Khan II, Nawab Amir of Bhawalpur, and Muhammad Nasir Khan I of the Khanate of Kalat. In Lahore, Timur Shah Durrani's forces, with the help of Mughal metalsmiths, established the Zamzama cannon inside the city's garrisons. The Durrani-Mughal axis had real military weight, which made it a genuine threat to the vizier and his Maratha partners.

• 5. Delhi Under Siege

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  In July 1757, the Marathas under Raghunathrao rejected the Durrani-Mughal alliance and moved to besiege Delhi. They encamped roughly 30 kilometers from the Red Fort, occupied the villages along the Jamuna, and set the river ferries ablaze to cut off food supplies reaching the city.

  Defending the capital was Najib-ul-Daula, Alamgir II's Mir Bakhshi, with lieutenants Qutub Shah and Aman Khan and a Mughal garrison of only 2,500 soldiers. Unable to reach Ahmad Shah Durrani, who was occupied putting down rebellions near Herat, Najib-ul-Daula held out for more than five months before conceding defeat and withdrawing to Najibabad.

  Alamir II and the royal family had fled to Bharatpur State before the Marathas entered Delhi. The Marathas looted the city and desecrated mosques and shrines built by the Mughals. The Peshwa conspired to place Vishwasrao on the Mughal throne. It was the forces of the Jat ruler Suraj Mal who eventually made possible the emperor's return: a Jat regiment entered Delhi after the Marathas, conducted their own plunder, but soon opened the way for Alamgir II to come back. Najib-ul-Daula and his allies continued to contest Maratha control from positions at Saharanpur and Shahabad Markanda, while the Marathas struck back by ravaging the inhabitants of Taraori, Karnal, and Kunjpura. That last attack on Kunjpura triggered Ahmad Shah Durrani to cross back into India with his forces.

• 6. A Fractured Empire

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  In 1756, Alamgir II took the side of his loyal Nawabs of Kurnool, Cuddapah, and Savanur, whose territories had been ravaged by the Maratha chieftain Balaji Baji Rao from 1756 until 1757. The empire's reach was stretching across the subcontinent even as its center crumbled.

  In Bengal, Alamgir II mourned the death of Alivardi Khan, the Nawab who had pledged 5 million dams annually to the imperial court. His successor Siraj-ud-Daula was recognized by Alamgir II, but internal rivals refused to honor that imperial firman. Siraj-ud-Daula hastily seized Calcutta from the English East India Company without seeking the emperor's permission. The British commander Clive recaptured Calcutta and defeated Siraj-ud-Daula at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Siraj-ud-Daula then fled and was killed by the forces of Mir Jafar. The Mughal courtier Ghulam Husain Tabatabai criticized the dead Nawab's conduct in the imperial court, and Alamgir II refused to recognize Mir Jafar as the next Nawab of Bengal. In retaliation, Mir Jafar allied with Imad-ul-Mulk against the imperial family.

  In the Deccan, French commandant de Bussy had been awarded the title Saif-ud-Daula Umdat-ul-Mulk and the rank of Mansabdar of 7,000 by Alamgir II in recognition of his service against the Marathas. Salabat Jung's forces had even deployed a new weapon called Catyocks, heavy muskets fixed to the ground that fired faster than a cannon. But in 1758, British forces under Forde retook the Northern Circars from De Bussy, who was recalled to France. Salabat Jung then reconciled with the English East India Company and was soon overthrown by his own brother Nizam Ali Khan.

• 7. Murder at Kotla Fateh Shah

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  In the summer of 1759, Prince Ali Gauhar escaped from Delhi. The escape alarmed Imad-ul-Mulk. He and the Maratha leader Sadashivrao Bhau concluded that Alamgir II was about to use his son to displace them from power.

  The plot they formed was comprehensive. Imad-ul-Mulk organized a mob drawn from various ethnic groups, with instructions to kill the Mughal Emperor and prominent members of the imperial family. A few princes, including Ali Gauhar, managed to escape beforehand.

  In November 1759, Alamgir II was told that a holy man had arrived and wished to meet him. The emperor was known for his eagerness to meet pious figures, and he set out immediately. The destination was Kotla Fateh Shah. There, the assassins sent by Imad-ul-Mulk stabbed him repeatedly. His death was mourned across the Mughal Empire, particularly by its Muslim populace. Imad-ul-Mulk then placed Shah Jahan III on the throne, but the consequences of the murder extended far beyond the court: Ali Gauhar, the prince who had escaped, would eventually become the emperor Shah Alam II, and it was under that name that he presided over the aftermath of the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761.