Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Muhammad Shah (Mughal)

Muhammad Shah was the Mughal emperor from 1719 to 1748. In 1724 his court made Mubariz Khan, governor of Hyderabad, viceroy of the whole Deccan against Nizam-ul-Mulk, and ordered the chiefs of Kurnool, Kadapa and the Karnatak to help him. Mubariz Khan was killed at Shakar Kheda, and the emperor then sent the victor the title Asaf Jah. Coins in Muhammad Shah's name were struck at Adoni and Gooty, and his farman of 1733 confirmed Dost Ali as Nawab of Arcot.

Muhammad Shah was the Mughal emperor from 1719 to 1748.1 In his reign Nizam-ul-Mulk settled at Hyderabad and, in the Nellore manual’s words, “conducted himself in other respects as an independent prince”.2 His court tried to stop this by turning the governor of Hyderabad against Nizam-ul-Mulk, and failed.34 See Mughals in the Telugu country.

The order of 1724

In 1724 Nizam-ul-Mulk left the court and marched back to the Deccan.3 His enemies at Delhi acted first.3 On 3 February 1724 a farman (royal order) was handed to the son of Mubariz Khan, governor of Hyderabad.3 It appointed Mubariz Khan to the whole Deccan, at first as deputy for an infant prince and later in his own name.3 Five lakhs of rupees were granted from the imperial treasury to raise an army.3

Orders went out to other chiefs of the south to join him.3 They included Bahadur Khan, Abdun-nabi Khan and Saadatullah Khan.3 Mubariz Khan’s father-in-law wrote from Delhi that by opposing Nizam-ul-Mulk he would win “the greatest favour in the eyes of Muhammad Shah”.5 The Kurnool manual says that Mubariz Khan received “secret instructions from the Emperor of Delhi” for Nizam-ul-Mulk’s destruction.6

The Telugu chiefs at Hyderabad

When the order reached him, Mubariz Khan was besieging the fort of Phulchari near Machilipatnam.7 He settled the siege and returned to Hyderabad.7 There he was joined by Bahadur Khan Panni, faujdar (military governor) of Kurnool, and by a son of the faujdar of Kadapa.7 An officer came on behalf of Saadatullah Khan of the Karnatak.7 The Kurnool manual names the Kurnool chief in this campaign as Ibrahim Khan, and says that he died in the battle.6 See Ibrahim Khan.

The armies met at Shakar Kheda in Berar.4 By the end of the day Mubariz Khan and his chief men had been killed.8 Khafi Khan says that Nizam-ul-Mulk then won over Mubariz Khan’s son, who was holding the fort near Hyderabad.9 The emperor accepted the result.9 He sent Nizam-ul-Mulk an elephant, jewels and the title of Asaf Jah, “with directions to settle the country”.9

Arcot and the coins

The Nellore manual says that the Nawabship of the Karnatak, or Arcot, included the Nellore district.2 Muhammad Burhanuddin’s history (1905) prints a farman said to come from the emperor, dated 13 January 1733.10 In it Muhammad Shah confirms Dost Ali Khan in the place of the late Saadatullah Khan.10

Coins in his name were struck at Telugu-country mints.1112 Stanley Lane-Poole noted small gold coins in the southern style from Imtiyazgarh, the Mughal name for Adoni, in Muhammad Shah’s reign.11 J. R. Henderson wrote that a Mughal pagoda (gold coin) of the Gooty mint “was first coined during the reign of Muhammad Shah”.12 Haidar Ali later copied it there as his “new Muhammad Shahi” pagoda.12

Where the sources disagree

  • The date of Shakar Kheda. The Kurnool manual gives 22 Muharram AH 1137, which it equates with 24 September 1724.6 Burhanuddin also gives 24 September 1724.13 Irvine dates the battle to 23 Muharram 1137, which he equates with 11 October 1724.4

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

  3. William Irvine, ed. Jadunath Sarkar, Later Mughals, Vol. II (1922), p. 137 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. II (1922), p. 145 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. II (1922), p. 139 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District (1886), p. 30 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased except for the short phrase quoted. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. II (1922), p. 140 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. Irvine, Later Mughals, Vol. II (1922), p. 148 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  9. Khafi Khan, in H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (eds.), The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. VII (1877), pp. 526–527 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Muhammad Burhanuddin Siddiqui, The Carnatic & Kurnool, their Last Muhammedan Rulers (1905), p. 23 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. Lane-Poole, Coins of the Moghul Emperors (1892), p. lviii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  12. J. R. Henderson, The Coins of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan (1921), p. 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  13. Burhanuddin, The Carnatic & Kurnool (1905), p. 61 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

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 (7)
  1. William Irvine (ed. Jadunath Sarkar), Later Mughals, Vol. II: 1719-1739 (opens in a new tab), M. C. Sarkar and Sons, Calcutta; Luzac and Co., London, 1922, pp. 137–140, 145. [Public domain]
  2. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1886, pp. 30. [Public domain]
  3. Muhammad Burhanuddin Siddiqui (Moulvi), The Carnatic & Kurnool, their Last Muhammedan Rulers (opens in a new tab), Commercial Press, Madras, 1905, pp. 23, 60–61. [Public domain]
  4. H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (eds.), The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. VII (opens in a new tab), Trübner and Co., London, 1877, pp. 526–527. [Public domain]
  5. 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, lviii. [Public domain]
  6. J. R. Henderson, The Coins of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan (Bulletin of the Madras Government Museum, New Series, General Section, Vol. I, Part 2) (opens in a new tab), Superintendent, Government Press, Madras, 1921, pp. 1. [Public domain]
  7. 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]

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