(b. June 6, 1699, Multan [now in Pakistan]; d. Nov. 29, 1759, Delhi), in full Aziz-ud-Din Alamgir II , Mughal emperor of India, a weak man with little regard for his subjects' -welfare. The son of Emperor Jahandar Shah (reigned 1712?13), Alamgir was placed on the throne by the imperial vizier (wazir) Imad ul-Mulk Ghazi-ud-Din, who had -deposed his predecessor. On ascending the throne, he took the title of Alamgir II and tried to follow the approach of Aurangzeb Alamgir. Provoked by the vizier's attempt to reassert control over the Punjab, the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani had his agents occupy an "unprotected" Delhi in January 1757. After the city was secured, Alamgir was confirmed emperor of Hindustan but in name only . He was in effect Ahmad Shah's puppet. Threatened in 1759 with another Afghan invasion and the possibility of Alamgir's being captured and used against him, Ghazi-ud-Din had the emperor murdered.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
AHMAD SHAH DURRANI
(b. 1722, Multan, Punjab [now in Pakistan]; d. Oct. 16/23, 1772, Toba Maruf, Afghanistan), founder of the state of Afghanistan and ruler of an empire that extended from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean and from Khorasan into Kashmir, the Punjab, and Sind. Ahmad headed the central government and had full control over all affairs of the state - domestic and foreign, civil, and military. A prime minister and a council of nine life-term advisers that he selected from the chiefs of the leading Afghan tribes assisted him.
Ahmad, a member of the noble Sadozai clan, was the second son of Mohammad Zaman Khan, a hereditary chief of the Ab-dali tribe of Afghans. He rose to command an Abdali cavalry group under Nadir Shah of Persia. After Nadir Shah's assassination, he was crowned as the Shah in 1747 near Qandahar (now Kandahar), where coins were struck in his name and where he set up his capital. He invaded India nine times between 1747 and 1769. In 1757, after an unopposed march, he plundered Delhi, Agra, Mathura, and Vrindavan.
Ahmad married Hazrat Baygam, daughter of the Indian Mughal emperor, Muhammad Shah. An outbreak of cholera among his troops forced his return to Afghanistan. His son Timur remained behind as viceroy of the Punjab and married the daughter of India's "puppet emperor", Alamgir II. Timur was driven out in 1758 by a force of Sikhs, Mughals, and Marathas, but in 1759-61 Ahmad Shah defeated the Marathas in Punjab and destroyed their large army at Panipat, north of Delhi. In the 1760s, he made four unsuccessful attempts to crush the Sikhs, but with serious revolts nearer home, he lost control of Punjab. He is buried in a mausoleum in Ahmad Shahi, the new capital he had built.
AHAMAD SHAH
(b. Dec. 24, 1725, Delhi; d. Jan. 1, 1775, Delhi), in full Ahmad Shah Bahadur Mujahid-ud-din Abu Nasr , ineffectual Mughal emperor of India from 1748 to 1754 who lacked personality, training, and leadership qualities. He was entirely dominated by others, including the queen mother, Udham Bai, and the emperor's vicar, Javed Khan. Twice during his reign, the Afghan Ahmad Shah Durrani plundered northwest Punjab, extorting money and land from him. At a demonstration by the Marathas in Sikandarabad, Ahmad Shah fled, abandoning the women of his family to captivity. In 1750, Ahmad Shah's wazir (vizier), Safdar Jang, who had been defeated by Afghans of the Doab, joined the Marathas of southwest India in attempting to gain the spoils of Ahmad Shah's empire. Ahmad Shah was blinded and deposed by the Marathas and their allies in 1754, after which he lived in confinement until his death.