James Baquet

History can occasionally be inadvertently kind. Consider the decision to call today’s conflict “Farrukhsiyar’s Rebellion” instead of using Farrukhsiyar’s full name: Abu’l Muzaffar Muin ud-din Muhammad Shah Farrukh-siyar Alim Akbar Sani Wala Shan Padshah-i-bahr-u-bar Ahmed amin abbas khan rahim shah (Shahid-i-Mazlum). Imagine history students having to learn that!

From 1713 to 1719, Farrukhsiyar was the titular emperor of the Mughal Empire, which covered much of the Indian subcontinent, but the Sayyid brothers, a pair of “kingmakers,” were the powers behind the throne. When the sixth emperor, Aurangzeb, died in 1707, a period of struggle left his grandson Jahandar Shah on the throne. By all accounts, Jahandar Shah — who ruled only from Feb. 27, 1712 to Feb. 11, 1713 — was a wastrel unworthy to rule an empire. One modern textbook describes him as “a worthless debauch who became emperor after liquidating his three brothers.” Jahandar Shah had taken the throne by defeating Farrukhsiyar’s father (and Jahandar Shah’s brother), Azim-ush-Shan. Vowing revenge, Farrukhsiyar set out against him and on Jan. 10, 1713, they met at a place 9 miles east of Agra (where the Taj Mahal had been built over a half century earlier). Jahandar Shah’s forces were defeated, and Farrukhsiyar declared himself emperor the next day.

Captured at Delhi, Jahandar Shah was imprisoned with his wife Lal Kunwar, a former dancing girl who had helped destroy his reputation. On Feb. 12, 1713, Farrukhsiyar sent henchmen to strangle Jahandar Shah, then marched into Delhi, the Mughal capital. An executioner on an elephant carried Jahandar Shah’s head on a bamboo stick.

Farrukhsiyar was deposed by those same intriguing Sayyid brothers on Feb. 28, 1719. Blinded, he was placed in prison, where he was mistreated until he, too, was strangled, on April 19. He was buried next to his father.

But, as they say, what goes around comes around. The Sayyids were murdered (one in 1720, one in 1722) by Farrukhsiyar’s third successor, Muhammad Shah. It is said, however, that there were no great Mughal emperors after Aurangzeb.

Vocabulary:

Which words above mean:

1. self-indulgent, sensual person

2. in title only

3. removed from power

4. one who wastes resources

5. choked by the neck

6. people who place rulers in power

7. bad actions can return

8. accidentally

9. criminal assistants

10. eliminating, killing