Emperor Muhammad Shah

King and Emperor Muhammad Shah

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Emperors & Empresses

Muḥammad Shah

Mughal emperor

Also known as: Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad Shah, Roshan Akhtar

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Last Updated: Aug 3, 2024 • Article History

Muḥammad Shah (born August 7, 1702, Ghaznā [now Ghaznī], Afghanistan—died April 6, 1748, Delhi [India]) was an ineffective, pleasure-seeking Mughal emperor of India from 1719 to 1748.

Quick Facts

In full: Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad Shah

Original name: Roshan Akhtar

Born: August 7, 1702, Ghaznā [now Ghaznī], Afghanistan

Died: April 6, 1748, Delhi [India] (aged 45)

House / Dynasty: Mughal dynasty

Notable Family Members: son Aḥmad Shah

Role In: Battle of Karnal

Roshan Akhtar was the grandson of the emperor Bahādur Shah I (ruled 1707–12) and the son of Jahān Shah, Bahādur Shah’s youngest son. Jahān Shah was killed in 1712, early in the succession struggle following Bahādur Shah’s death that ultimately was won by Farrukh-Siyar (ruled 1713–19), Roshan Akhtar’s cousin. In early 1719 Farrukh-Siyar was imprisoned and later killed by the powerful Sayyid brothers ʿAbdullāh and Ḥusayn ʿAlī, and in September, after the quick deaths (from disease) of two others whom the brothers had installed on the throne, they made Roshan Akhtar emperor (as Muḥammad Shah).

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In 1720 the assassination of Ḥusayn ʿAlī and the defeat of ʿAbdullāh at the battle of Hasanpur (southwest of Delhi) liberated Muḥammad Shah from effective Sayyid control. In 1721 he married the daughter of Farrukh-Siyar. After Nizam al-Mulk Āṣaf Jāh, who was the court-appointed vizier, had left court in disgust in 1724, the provinces steadily slipped out of imperial control: Sādāt Khan, the nawab of Oudh (now Ayodhya), became practically independent there; the Afghan Rohilla tribesmen made themselves masters of Rohilkhand (southeast of Delhi); Bengal paid only an annual tribute to Delhi; and the leaders of the Marathas, under the peshwa Baji Rao, made themselves lords of the regions of Gujarat, Malwa, and Bundelkhand and, in 1737, raided Delhi. In 1739 Nāder Shah of Iran took advantage of Mughal neglect of the North-West Frontier areas (now in Pakistan) to rout the Mughals at Karnal and occupy Delhi. In March 1748 Muḥammad Shah defeated the Afghan ruler Aḥmad Shah Durrānī, at Sirhind, thus achieving a success in his final years.