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Bahadur Shah I (Shah Alam I)

Bahadur Shah, also called Shah Alam I, was the Mughal emperor from 1707 to 1712, the son of Aurangzeb. He came south to fight his brother Kam Bakhsh, who had made himself emperor at Hyderabad. On 13 January 1709 Kam Bakhsh was defeated and captured near Hyderabad and died the same night, and Bahadur Shah visited the palaces of Hyderabad before going north. Kirmani says he gave Kadapa as a jagir to Abdul Nabi Khan, later Nawab of Cuddapah.

Bahadur Shah, also called Shah Alam I, was the Mughal emperor from 1707 to 1712.12 He came to the Telugu country to fight his brother Kam Bakhsh, who had seized Hyderabad.23 His victory near Hyderabad in 1709 decided the Mughal succession in the Deccan.45 See Mughals in the Telugu country.

The war with Kam Bakhsh

When Aurangzeb died in 1707, his youngest son Kam Bakhsh was on his way to govern Bijapur.2 Kam Bakhsh proclaimed himself emperor and marched on Hyderabad.26 The Nellore manual says that he refused to accept his elder brother, Prince Muazzam, who had taken the throne as Bahadur Shah.7 So Bahadur Shah marched to the Deccan against him.7

On the morning of 13 January 1709 the imperial army advanced on Kam Bakhsh’s camp, a grove near Hyderabad.38 William Irvine tells how Kam Bakhsh, with only a small force, charged the far larger army and shot two quivers of arrows.4 At last, weak from loss of blood, he was surrounded and captured by the Afghans of Daud Khan Panni.4

Kam Bakhsh was brought to Bahadur Shah in the afternoon.5 The emperor went to his brother’s bedside and said, “I had no desire to see you reduced to this state.”5 He washed the dried blood from his brother’s wounds with his own hands and covered him with his own shawl.5 But Kam Bakhsh died during the night.5

Hyderabad and the south

On 17 January 1709 the emperor moved nearer to Hyderabad and visited the battlefield.8 Then he visited the palaces of Hyderabad.8 Before he went north, the Nellore manual says, he gave the viceroyalty of the Deccan to Zulfiqar Khan.7 Zulfiqar Khan stayed at court and left the government to Daud Khan Panni as his deputy.7

R. B. Whitehead’s catalogue of the Lahore Museum coins notes a change at the Hyderabad mint.9 Under Aurangzeb its coins called the city Daru-l-jihad, “abode of holy war”.9 Under Shah Alam I this title was changed to Farkhunda bunyad, “of auspicious foundation”.9

Kadapa

Kirmani, the historian of Haidar Ali, says that Bahadur Shah gave “Kirpa in Jageer”, that is Kadapa as a land grant, to Abdul Nabi Khan.10 The Cuddapah gazetteer calls him “the first Nawab of Cuddapah to assert his control of the district”.11 See the Nawabs of Cuddapah. See Abdul Nabi Khan.

Where the sources disagree

  • When Abdul Nabi Khan received Kadapa. Kirmani says it was a grant of Bahadur Shah, who died in 1712.10 The Cuddapah gazetteer (1915) dates the start of Abdul Nabi Khan’s governorship to 1714.11
  • Who died of the wounds. Irvine’s text, following two court writers, says that Kam Bakhsh’s son Bariqullah died of an arrow wound soon after the battle.5 Khafi Khan says it was another son, Firuzmand.5

Footnotes

  1. Stanley Lane-Poole, The Coins of the Moghul Emperors of Hindustan in the British Museum (1892), pp. xlvii–xlix, table of mint cities (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  2. William Irvine, ed. Jadunath Sarkar, Later Mughals, Vol. I (1922), pp. 50–51 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. I (1922), p. 62 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. I (1922), p. 63 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. I (1922), p. 64 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  6. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. I (1922), p. 52 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District (1873), p. 444 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. I (1922), pp. 66–67 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. R. B. Whitehead, Catalogue of Coins in the Panjab Museum, Lahore, Vol. II (1914), p. xcviii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Mir Husain Ali Khan Kirmani, The History of Hydur Naik, tr. W. Miles (1842), p. 271 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (1915), p. 41 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Photos

Dynasties

Mughals in the Telugu country

1636–1724 CE

The Mughal emperors were overlords of Golconda from 1636, when Abdullah Qutb Shah accepted Shah Jahan as his suzerain. They ruled the whole Telugu country from 1687, when Aurangzeb took Golconda and made the kingdom the subah of Haidarabad. The province was governed through a subahdar at Hyderabad, faujdars in the districts and the old Telugu revenue officers, the deshmukhs and deshpandes. The coast formed the Northern Sarkars and the south the Haidarabadi Karnatak. Maratha raids, a prince's rebellion at Hyderabad in 1708–09 and the rising of the toddy-seller Pap Rai marked the years of decline. In 1724 Nizam-ul-Mulk defeated and killed the subahdar Mubariz Khan at Shakar Kheda and founded the Asaf Jahi state.

References

Sources (6)
  1. William Irvine (ed. Jadunath Sarkar), Later Mughals, Vol. I: 1707-1720 (opens in a new tab), M. C. Sarkar and Sons, Calcutta; Luzac and Co., London, 1922, pp. 50–52, 62–66. [Public domain]
  2. Stanley Lane-Poole, The Coins of the Moghul Emperors of Hindustan in the British Museum (opens in a new tab), Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1892, xlvii–xlix. [Public domain]
  3. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras, 1873, pp. 444. [Public domain]
  4. R. B. Whitehead, Catalogue of Coins in the Panjab Museum, Lahore, Vol. II: Coins of the Mughal Emperors (opens in a new tab), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1914, xcviii. [Public domain]
  5. Mir Husain Ali Khan Kirmani, tr. W. Miles, The History of Hydur Naik, otherwise styled Shums ul Moolk, Ameer ud Dowla, Nawaub Hydur Ali Khan Bahadoor, Hydur Jung (opens in a new tab), Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1842, pp. 271. [Public domain]
  6. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, pp. 41. [Public domain]

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