Shah Jahan II

• 1. Introduction

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  Shah Jahan II ruled the Mughal Empire for exactly one hundred and three days in 1719. His birth name was Mirza Rafi-ud-Daulah, and he was the second son of a prince named Rafi-ush-Shan and a grandson of Emperor Bahadur Shah. He took the throne not because anyone believed in his abilities, but because two powerful kingmakers needed a name to put on the seat. Who were these kingmakers? What did they gain from placing a sick, powerless man on the most storied throne in India? And what does the brevity of his reign reveal about the state of the empire he nominally led?

• 2. The Sayyid Brothers' Instrument

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  On the 6th of June 1719, Shah Jahan II was placed on the Mughal throne at the Diwan-i-Khas of the Red Fort. He had succeeded his younger brother Rafi ud-Darajat, who had just died from tuberculosis. The men who arranged this were the Sayyid brothers, a pair of nobles who had made themselves the real power behind the Mughal throne. Without the presence of one of the Sayyid brothers, the new emperor was not permitted to meet any noble or even to attend the jummah prayer gathering. His name was read aloud in the khutbah, the Friday sermon affirming a ruler's legitimacy, for the first time on the 13th of June. His first public appearance at the Diwan-i-Am, the hall of public audience, came on the 11th of June. Every ceremonial marker of rule was permitted; every exercise of actual power was denied.

• 3. A Fragile Life

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  Shah Jahan II's exact date of birth is not recorded, though he is believed to have been about eighteen months older than his brother Rafi ud-Darajat. He was born around June 1696, and whether he ever married or had children is unknown. He suffered from tuberculosis, the same disease that had killed his younger brother before him. Historians note that he was physically and mentally unfit to perform the duties of a ruler even before he ascended. He died on the 17th of September 1719 at Bidyapur, and was buried beside Rafi ud-Darajat at the dargah of Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki at Mehrauli in Delhi.

• 4. A Disputed Death

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  A writer named Muhammad Hadi Kamwar Khan alleged that the Sayyid brothers had poisoned Shah Jahan II. The historian William Irvine examined this claim and rejected it. Irvine argued that the emperor's fatal diarrhoea was caused by opium withdrawal, not poison. He also pointed out that Kamwar Khan had personal reasons to be resentful: his own prospects had been ruined by the emperor's death, which gave him motive to cast blame on the Sayyids. Irvine's third argument was direct: the Sayyid brothers had nothing to gain from Shah Jahan II's death. The man who came next to the throne was Muhammad Shah, whose long reign would eventually see the Sayyids themselves fall from power.