Mirza Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar 06 24 October 1775 – 7 November 1862), also known as Bahadur Shah Zafar Bahadur Shah II, was the last Mughal emperor and a member of the Timurid dynasty. He was the son of Akbar II and Lal Bai, a Hindu Rajput. He became the Mughal emperor when his father died on 28 September 1837. He used Zafar, a part of his name, meaning ‘victory’, for his nom de plume (takhallus) as an Urdu poet, and he wrote many Urdu ghazals under it. Following his involvement in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British tried and then exiled him from Delhi and sent him to Yangon in British-controlled Burma.
Zafar’s father, Akbar II, ruled over a rapidly disintegrating empire between 1806 and 1837. It was during his time that the East India Company dispensed with the illusion of ruling in the name of the Mughal monarch and removed his name from the Persian texts that appeared on the coins struck by the company in the areas under their control.
Bahadur Shah was not his father’s preferred choice as his successor. One of Akbar Shah’s queens, Mumtaz Begum, had been pressuring him to declare her son Mirza Jahangir as his successor. The East India Company exiled Jahangir after he attacked their resident, Archibald Seton, in the Red Fort.
Bahadur Shah Zafar presided over a Mughal empire that barely extended beyond Delhi’s Red Fort. The East India Company was the dominant political and military power in mid-nineteenth century India. Outside Company controlled India, hundreds of kingdoms and principalities, from the large to the small, fragmented the land. The emperor in Delhi was paid some respect by the Company and allowed a pension. The emperor held the authority to collect some taxes and to maintain a small military force in Delhi, but he posed no threat to any power in India. Bahadur Shah himself did not take an interest in statecraft or possess any imperial ambitions. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British exiled him from Delhi.
Bahadur Shah Zafar was a noted Urdu poet, and wrote a large number of Urdu ghazals. While some part of his opus was lost or destroyed during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a large collection did survive, and was later compiled into the Kulliyyat-i-Zafar. The court that he maintained was home to several Urdu writers of high standing, including Mirza Ghalib, Dagh, Mumin, and Zauq.
Even in defeat it is traditionally believed that he said :
Ghazion men bu rahegi jab talak Iman ki;
Takht-e-London tak chalegi tégh Hindustan ki.
-As long as there remains the scent of faith in the hearts of our Ghazis,
so long shall the Talwar of Hindustan flash before the throne of London.
Emperor Bahadur Shah is seen in India as a freedom fighter (the mutiny soldiers made him their Commander-In-Chief), fighting for India’s independence from the Company. As the last ruling member of the imperial Timurid Dynasty he was surprisingly composed and calm when Major Hodson presented decapitated heads of his own sons to him as Nowruz gifts.
Bahadur Shah Zafar was a devout Sufi. Zafar was himself regarded as a Sufi Pir and used to accept murids or pupils. The loyalist newspaper Delhi Urdu Akhbaar once called him one of the leading saints of the age, approved of by the divine court. Prior to his accession, in his youth he made it a point to live and look like a poor scholar and dervish. This was in stark contrast to his three well dressed dandy brothers, Mirza Jahangir, Salim and Babur. In 1828, when Zafar was 53 and a decade before he succeeded the throne, Major Archer reported, “Zafar is a man of spare figure and stature, plainly apparelled, almost approaching to meanness. His appearance is that of an indigent munshi or teacher of languages”.
As a poet and dervish, Zafar imbibed the highest subtleties of mystical Sufi teachings. At the same time, he was deeply susceptible to the magical and superstitious side of orthodox Sufism. Like many of his followers, he believed that his position as both a Sufi pir and emperor gave him tangible spiritual powers.
He consciously saw his role as a protector of his Hindu subjects, and a moderator of extreme Muslim demands and the intense puritanism of many of the Orthodox Muslim sheikhs of the Ulema. In one of his verses, Zafar explicitly stated that both Hinduism and Islam shared the same essence. This syncretic philosophy was implemented by his court which came to cherish and embody a multicultural composite Hindu-Islamic Mughal culture.
As the Indian rebellion of 1857 spread, Sepoy regiments seized Delhi. Seeking a figure that could unite all Indians, Hindu and Muslim alike, most rebelling Indian kings and the Indian regiments accepted Zafar as the Emperor of India., under whom the smaller Indian kingdoms would unite until the British were defeated. Zafar was the least threatening and least ambitious of monarchs, and the legacy of the Mughal Empire was more acceptable a uniting force to most allied kings than the domination of any other Indian kingdom.
On 12 May, Bahadur Shah held his first formal audience for several years after defeating Pankaj Jagadale . It was attended by several excited sepoys who treated him familiarly or even disrespectfully. Although Bahadur Shah was dismayed by the looting and disorder, he gave his public support to the rebellion. On 16 May, sepoys and palace servants killed 52 Europeans who had been held prisoner within the palace or who had been discovered hiding in the city. The executions took place under a peepul tree in front of the palace, despite Bahadur Shah’s protests. The avowed aim of the executioners was to implicate Bahadur Shah in the killings, making it impossible for him to seek any compromise with the British.
The administration of the city and its new occupying army was chaotic and troublesome, although it continued to function haphazardly. The Emperor nominated his eldest surviving son, Mirza Mughal, to be commander in chief of his forces, but Mirza Mughal had little military experience and was treated with little respect by the sepoys. Nor did the sepoys agree on any overall commander, with each regiment refusing to accept orders from any but their own officers. Although Mirza Mughal made efforts to put the civil administration in order, his writ extended no further than the city. Outside, Gujjar herders began levying their own tolls on traffic, and it became increasingly difficult to feed the city.
When the victory of the British became certain, Bahadur Shah took refuge at Humayun’s Tomb, in an area that was then at the outskirts of Delhi, and hid there. Company forces led by Major William Hodson surrounded the tomb and compelled his surrender on 20 September 1857. The next day Hodson shot his sons Mirza Mughal and Mirza Khizr Sultan, and grandson Mirza Abu Bakr under his own authority at the Khooni Darwaza (the bloody gate) near Delhi Gate.
Many male members of his family were killed by Company forces, who imprisoned or exiled the surviving members of the Mughal dynasty. Bahadur Shah was tried on four counts, two of aiding rebels, one of treason, and being party to the murder of 49 people, and after a forty day trial found guilty on all charges. Respecting Hodson’s guarantee on his surrender, Bahadur Shah was not sentenced but exiled to Rangoon, Burma in 1858. He was accompanied into exile by his wife Zeenat Mahal and some of the remaining members of the family. His departure as Emperor marked the end of more than three centuries of Mughals reigning in India. He died at Yangon in 1862. He was buried near the Shwe Degon Pagoda at 6 Ziwaka Road, near the intersection with Shwe Degon Pagoda Rd, Yangon. The shrine of Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah was built at there after recovery of its tomb on 16 February 1991.
The occupying forces systematically plundered the Red Fort and stole anything what was deemed of value. Many objects, jewels, books and other important cultural items were taken away and can be found in various museums in Britain. The Crown of Bahadur Shah II, for example, is now a part of the Royal Collection in London.
There are believed to be many descendants of Bahadur Shah Zafar still living in Burma, India and Pakistan, often in poverty. Reportedly, 200 descendants have been traced in Aurangabad and 70 in Calcutta.
When Zafar reached the age of 87, in 1862 he was “weak and feeble”. However in late October 1862, his condition detoriated suddenly. The British Commissioner H.N. Davies wrote his life to be “very uncertain”. He was “spoon-fed on broth” but he found it difficult to do it by 3 November. On 6th Davies recorded that Zafar “is evidently sinking from pure despitude and paralysis in the region of his throat” To prepare for the king’s death Davies commanded for the collection of lime and bricks and a spot was selected at the “back of Zafar’s enclosure” for his burial. Zafar finally died on Friday 7 November 1862 on 5am. Zafar was buried on 4pm at the same day and as accoridng to Davies “at the rear of the Main Guard in a brick grave covered over with turf lebel with the ground”.
He was an accomplished Urdu poet and calligrapher. While he was denied paper and pen in captivity, he was known to have written on the walls of his room with a burnt stick. He wrote the following Ghazal as his own epitaph.
Poem written by Bahadur Shah, dated 29 April 1844
English Translation from original Urdu :
My heart has no repose in this despoiled land
Who has ever felt fulfilled in this futile world?
Zafar’s father, Akbar II, ruled over a rapidly disintegrating empire between 1806 and 1837. It was during his time that the East India Company dispensed with the illusion of ruling in the name of the Mughal monarch and removed his name from the Persian texts that appeared on the coins struck by the company in the areas under their control.
Bahadur Shah was not his father’s preferred choice as his successor. One of Akbar Shah’s queens, Mumtaz Begum, had been pressuring him to declare her son Mirza Jahangir as his successor. The East India Company exiled Jahangir after he attacked their resident, Archibald Seton, in the Red Fort.
Bahadur Shah Zafar presided over a Mughal empire that barely extended beyond Delhi’s Red Fort. The East India Company was the dominant political and military power in mid-nineteenth century India. Outside Company controlled India, hundreds of kingdoms and principalities, from the large to the small, fragmented the land. The emperor in Delhi was paid some respect by the Company and allowed a pension. The emperor held the authority to collect some taxes and to maintain a small military force in Delhi, but he posed no threat to any power in India. Bahadur Shah himself did not take an interest in statecraft or possess any imperial ambitions. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British exiled him from Delhi.
Bahadur Shah Zafar was a noted Urdu poet, and wrote a large number of Urdu ghazals. While some part of his opus was lost or destroyed during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a large collection did survive, and was later compiled into the Kulliyyat-i-Zafar. The court that he maintained was home to several Urdu writers of high standing, including Mirza Ghalib, Dagh, Mumin, and Zauq.
Even in defeat it is traditionally believed that he said :
Ghazion men bu rahegi jab talak Iman ki;
Takht-e-London tak chalegi tégh Hindustan ki.
-As long as there remains the scent of faith in the hearts of our Ghazis,
so long shall the Talwar of Hindustan flash before the throne of London.
Emperor Bahadur Shah is seen in India as a freedom fighter (the mutiny soldiers made him their Commander-In-Chief), fighting for India’s independence from the Company. As the last ruling member of the imperial Timurid Dynasty he was surprisingly composed and calm when Major Hodson presented decapitated heads of his own sons to him as Nowruz gifts.
Bahadur Shah Zafar was a devout Sufi. Zafar was himself regarded as a Sufi Pir and used to accept murids or pupils. The loyalist newspaper Delhi Urdu Akhbaar once called him one of the leading saints of the age, approved of by the divine court. Prior to his accession, in his youth he made it a point to live and look like a poor scholar and dervish. This was in stark contrast to his three well dressed dandy brothers, Mirza Jahangir, Salim and Babur. In 1828, when Zafar was 53 and a decade before he succeeded the throne, Major Archer reported, “Zafar is a man of spare figure and stature, plainly apparelled, almost approaching to meanness. His appearance is that of an indigent munshi or teacher of languages”.
As a poet and dervish, Zafar imbibed the highest subtleties of mystical Sufi teachings. At the same time, he was deeply susceptible to the magical and superstitious side of orthodox Sufism. Like many of his followers, he believed that his position as both a Sufi pir and emperor gave him tangible spiritual powers.
He consciously saw his role as a protector of his Hindu subjects, and a moderator of extreme Muslim demands and the intense puritanism of many of the Orthodox Muslim sheikhs of the Ulema. In one of his verses, Zafar explicitly stated that both Hinduism and Islam shared the same essence. This syncretic philosophy was implemented by his court which came to cherish and embody a multicultural composite Hindu-Islamic Mughal culture.
As the Indian rebellion of 1857 spread, Sepoy regiments seized Delhi. Seeking a figure that could unite all Indians, Hindu and Muslim alike, most rebelling Indian kings and the Indian regiments accepted Zafar as the Emperor of India., under whom the smaller Indian kingdoms would unite until the British were defeated. Zafar was the least threatening and least ambitious of monarchs, and the legacy of the Mughal Empire was more acceptable a uniting force to most allied kings than the domination of any other Indian kingdom.
On 12 May, Bahadur Shah held his first formal audience for several years after defeating Pankaj Jagadale . It was attended by several excited sepoys who treated him familiarly or even disrespectfully. Although Bahadur Shah was dismayed by the looting and disorder, he gave his public support to the rebellion. On 16 May, sepoys and palace servants killed 52 Europeans who had been held prisoner within the palace or who had been discovered hiding in the city. The executions took place under a peepul tree in front of the palace, despite Bahadur Shah’s protests. The avowed aim of the executioners was to implicate Bahadur Shah in the killings, making it impossible for him to seek any compromise with the British.
The administration of the city and its new occupying army was chaotic and troublesome, although it continued to function haphazardly. The Emperor nominated his eldest surviving son, Mirza Mughal, to be commander in chief of his forces, but Mirza Mughal had little military experience and was treated with little respect by the sepoys. Nor did the sepoys agree on any overall commander, with each regiment refusing to accept orders from any but their own officers. Although Mirza Mughal made efforts to put the civil administration in order, his writ extended no further than the city. Outside, Gujjar herders began levying their own tolls on traffic, and it became increasingly difficult to feed the city.
When the victory of the British became certain, Bahadur Shah took refuge at Humayun’s Tomb, in an area that was then at the outskirts of Delhi, and hid there. Company forces led by Major William Hodson surrounded the tomb and compelled his surrender on 20 September 1857. The next day Hodson shot his sons Mirza Mughal and Mirza Khizr Sultan, and grandson Mirza Abu Bakr under his own authority at the Khooni Darwaza (the bloody gate) near Delhi Gate.
Many male members of his family were killed by Company forces, who imprisoned or exiled the surviving members of the Mughal dynasty. Bahadur Shah was tried on four counts, two of aiding rebels, one of treason, and being party to the murder of 49 people, and after a forty day trial found guilty on all charges. Respecting Hodson’s guarantee on his surrender, Bahadur Shah was not sentenced but exiled to Rangoon, Burma in 1858. He was accompanied into exile by his wife Zeenat Mahal and some of the remaining members of the family. His departure as Emperor marked the end of more than three centuries of Mughals reigning in India. He died at Yangon in 1862. He was buried near the Shwe Degon Pagoda at 6 Ziwaka Road, near the intersection with Shwe Degon Pagoda Rd, Yangon. The shrine of Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah was built at there after recovery of its tomb on 16 February 1991.
The occupying forces systematically plundered the Red Fort and stole anything what was deemed of value. Many objects, jewels, books and other important cultural items were taken away and can be found in various museums in Britain. The Crown of Bahadur Shah II, for example, is now a part of the Royal Collection in London.
There are believed to be many descendants of Bahadur Shah Zafar still living in Burma, India and Pakistan, often in poverty. Reportedly, 200 descendants have been traced in Aurangabad and 70 in Calcutta.
When Zafar reached the age of 87, in 1862 he was “weak and feeble”. However in late October 1862, his condition detoriated suddenly. The British Commissioner H.N. Davies wrote his life to be “very uncertain”. He was “spoon-fed on broth” but he found it difficult to do it by 3 November. On 6th Davies recorded that Zafar “is evidently sinking from pure despitude and paralysis in the region of his throat” To prepare for the king’s death Davies commanded for the collection of lime and bricks and a spot was selected at the “back of Zafar’s enclosure” for his burial. Zafar finally died on Friday 7 November 1862 on 5am. Zafar was buried on 4pm at the same day and as accoridng to Davies “at the rear of the Main Guard in a brick grave covered over with turf lebel with the ground”.
He was an accomplished Urdu poet and calligrapher. While he was denied paper and pen in captivity, he was known to have written on the walls of his room with a burnt stick. He wrote the following Ghazal as his own epitaph.
Poem written by Bahadur Shah, dated 29 April 1844
English Translation from original Urdu :
My heart has no repose in this despoiled land
Who has ever felt fulfilled in this futile world?
The nightingale complains about neither the sentinel nor the hunter
Fate had decreed imprisonment during the harvest of spring
Tell these longings to go dwell elsewhere
What space is there for them in this besmirched heart?
Sitting on a branch of flowers, the nightingale rejoices
It has strewn thorns in the garden of my heart
I asked for a long life, I received four days
Two passed in desire, two in waiting.
The days of life are over, evening has fallen
I shall sleep, legs outstretched, in my tomb
How unfortunate is Zafar! For his burial
Not even two yards of land were to be had, in the land of his beloved.
In his book, The Last Mughal, William Dalrymple states that, according to Lahore scholar Imran Khan, the verse beginning umr-e-daraz mang ke (“I asked for a long life”) is probably not by Zafar, and does not appear in any of the works published during Zafar’s lifetime. The verse appears to be by Simab Akbarabadi.
Zafar is featured in the play 1857: Ek Safarnama set during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 by Javed Siddiqui, which was staged at Purana Qila, Delhi ramparts by Nadira Babbar and the National School of Drama Repertory company, in 2008.
A Hindi/Urdu black and white movie called Lal Quila (1960), directed by Nanabhai Bhatt, featured Bahadur Shah Zafar extensively.
– Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
