Bahadur Shah II
Encyclopedia
His Royal Highness Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar , also known as Bahadur Shah or Bahadur Shah II (October 1775 – 7 November 1862) was the last of the Mughal emperors
in India
, as well as the last ruler of the Timurid Dynasty
.
He was the son of Akbar Shah II
and Lalbai, who was a Hindu
Rajput
. He became the Mughal Emperor upon his father's death on 28 September 1837. Zafar ( ), meaning “victory” was his nom de plume (takhallus) as an Urdu poet
and was popularly also known as Bahadur Shah Zafar .
, ruled over a rapidly disintegrating empire between 1806 to 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 Zafar who succeeded him was not Akbar Shah Saani’s choice as his successor. Akbar Shah was, in fact, under great pressure by one of his queens, Mumtaz Begum to declare her son Mirza Jahangir as the successor. Akbar Shah would have probably accepted this demand but Mirza Jahangir had fallen afoul of the British and they would have none of this.
's Red Fort. The British were the dominant political and military power in 19th-century India. Outside British 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 British and allowed a pension, 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 II himself did not take an interest in statecraft or possess any imperial ambitions. After the Sepoy Mutiny the British Administration exiled him from Delhi
. This has been well documented in William Dalrymple's book The Last Mughal
and is well corroborated from many other archival sources.
Bahadur Shah Zafar was a noted Urdu poet
. He wrote a large number of Urdu ghazals
. While some part of his opus was lost or destroyed during the Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858
, a large collection did survive, and was later compiled into the Kulliyyat-i-Zafar. The court that he maintained, although somewhat decadent and arguably pretentious for someone who was effectively a pensioner of the British East India Company
, was home to several Urdu writers of high standing, including Ghalib, Dagh, Mumin, and Zauq.
Even in defeat it is traditionally believed that he said
Emperor Bahadur Shah is seen as a freedom fighter (he was Commander-In-Chief of the mutiny army), fighting for India's independence from the British. As the last ruling member of the imperial Timurid Dynasty
he was surprisingly composed and calm when MajorHodson
presented decapitated heads of his own sons to him as Nowruz
gifts. He is famously remembered to have said.
the previous day reached Delhi and asked for a formal audience. On the 12th, it was granted, and he was petitioned. While it is questionable that he did so unforced, and eyewitness described how the mutineers treated him with contempt, he never-the-less gave his assent issued the following decree, a Shahi Firman (King's decree), on May 12, 1857:
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
, 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. In an incident in which one of his followers was bitten by a snake, Zafar attempted to cure him by sending a "seal of Bezoar
" (a stone antidote to poison) and some water on which he had breathed, and giving it to the man to drink.
The emperor also had a staunch belief in ta'aviz or charms, especially as a palliative for his constant complaint of piles, or to ward off evil spells. During one period of illness, he gathered a group of Sufi pirs and told them that several of his wives suspected that some party or the other had cast a spell over him. Therefore, he requested them to take some steps to remedy this so as to remove all apprehension on this account. They replied that they would write off some charms for him. They were to be mixed in water which when drunk would protect him from the evil eye. A coterie of pirs, miracle workers and Hindu astrologers were in constant attendance to the emperor. On their advice, he regularly sacrificed buffaloes and camels, buried eggs and arrested alleged black magicians, in addition to wearing a special ring that cured indigestion. On their advice, he also regularly donated cows to the poor, elephants to the sufi shrines and a horse to the khadims or clergy of Jama Masjid
.
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Zafar 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. For instance, the Hindu elite used to frequently visit the dargah
or tomb of the great Sufi pir, Nizam-ud-din Auliya. They could quote Hafiz and were very fond of Persian poetry. Their children, especially those belonging to the administrative Khatri and Kayasth castes studied under maulvis and attended the more liberal madrasas, bringing food offerings for their teachers on Hindu festivals. On the other hand, the emperor's Muslim subjects emulated him in honouring the Hindu holy men, while many in court, including Zafar himself, followed the old Mughal custom, originally borrowed from high class Hindus, of only drinking the water from the Ganges.
Zafar and his court used to celebrate Hindu festivals. During the spring festival of Holi
, he would spray his courtiers, wives and concubines with different coloured paints, initiating the celebrations by bathing in the water of seven wells. The autumn Hindu festival of Dusshera
was celebrated in the palace by the distribution of nazrs or presents to Zafar's Hindu officers and the colouring of the horses in the royal stud. In the evening, Zafar would then watch the Ram Lila processions annually celebrated in Delhi with the burning of giant effigies of Ravana and his brothers. He even went to the extent of demanding that the route of the procession be changed so that it would skirt the entire flank of the palace, allowing it to be enjoyed in all its glory. On Diwali
, Zafar would weigh himself against seven kinds of grain, gold, coral, etc., and directed their distribution among the city's poor.
He was reputedly known to have profound sensitivities to the feelings of his Hindu subjects. One evening, when Zafar was riding out across the river for an airing, a Hindu waited on the king and disclosed his wish to become a Muslim. Hakim Ahsanullah Khan, Zafar's prime minister flatly denied this request and the emperor had him removed from his presence. During the Phulwalon ki Sair or Flower-sellers fair held annually at the ancient Jog Maya Temple and the Sufi dargah of Qutb Sahib, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki
in Mehrauli
, Zafar declared that he would not accompany the pankah into the shrine as he could not accompany it into the temple.
Closely woven into the history of the last remains of Mughal rule is the history of Zafar Mahal
in Mehrauli
, a locality of Delhi. Zafar Mahal was originally built by Akbar II, but it was his son, Bahadur Shah Zafar, who constructed the gateway and added to the palace in the mid-19th century. Mehrauli was then a popular venue for hunting parties, picnics and jaunts, and the dargah was an added attraction. The emperor visited often with his retinue - and stayed in royal style at Zafar Mahal. Another interesting feature of Zafar Mahal is that it literally spans centuries. A plastered dome near the gate is probably 15th century; other sections are relatively newer and show definite signs of Western influences. There is, for instance, a fireplace in one of the walls that stands near the Moti Masjid. And the staircase to the balcony is a wide one with low steps - very unlike the steep, narrow staircases of most Indian Islamic architecture.
The balcony, with its 'jharokha’ windows, is where the emperor and his family could look out over the road. In Bahadurshah’s time, the main Mehrauli-Gurgaon road passed in front of Zafar Mahal, and all passersby were expected to dismount as a sign of respect for the emperor. When the British refused to comply, Bahadurshah solved the problem creatively - he bought the surrounding land and diverted the road so that it would pass well away from Zafar Mahal! The Phool Walon Ki Sair
gradually turned into a major three day celebration during the time when Bahadur Shah Zafar, son and successor to Akbar Shah Saani ruled from Delhi.
Zafar used to move his court to a building adjacent to the Shrine of Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki and stayed at Mehrauli
for a week during the celebrations. The building where he stayed during the period was originally built by his father and Zafar added an impressive gate and a Baaraadari to the structure and renamed it Zafar Mahal
.
The celebrations spread out in different parts of Mehrauli with the Jahaz Mahal
, (a Lodhi
period structure, that was once in the middle of the Hauz-e-Shamsi
but is now at one end of the much depleted Hauz, becoming a center where Qawwali
mehfils would be organised while the Jharna, built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq and later added to by Akbar Shah II became a place where the women of the court relaxed.
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.
When the victory of the British became certain, Zafar took refuge at Humayun's Tomb
, in an area that was then at the outskirts of Delhi, and hid there. British 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, Mirza Khizr Sultan, and grandson Mirza Abu Bakr under his own authority at the Khooni Darwaza
(the bloody gate) near Delhi Gate
. On hearing the news Zafar reacted with shocked silence while his wife Zeenat Mahal
was content as she believed her son was now Zafar's heir.
Numerous male members of his family were killed by British forces, who imprisoned or exiled the surviving members of the Mughal dynasty. After a show trial, Zafar himself was exiled to Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon
, Union of Myanmar) in 1858 along with 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 Mughal rule in India.
Bahadur Shah died in exile on 7 November 1862. He was buried near the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, at the site that later became known as Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah. His wife Zeenat Mahal died in 1886.
In a marble enclosure adjoining the dargah
of Sufi saint, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki
at Mehrauli
, an empty grave or Sardgah marks the site where he had willed to be buried along with some of his Mughal predecessors, Akbar Shah II
, Bahadur Shah I
(also known as Shah Alam I) and Shah Alam II
.
or Urdu
have depicted his role during the rebellion of 1857. Roads bearing his name
are found in New Delhi
, Lahore
, Varanasi
, and other cities. A statue of Bahadur Shah Zafar has been erected at the Vijayanagaram palace in Varanasi
. In Bangladesh
, the Victoria Park in old Dhaka
has been renamed "Bahadur Shah Zafar Park
". And in several Pakistan
i cities, avenues, roads, shopping centres, and other landmarks carry the name of the last Mughal emperor.
Bahadur Shah Zafar is known to have had four wives. His wives were:
His legitimate sons include:
His legitimate daughters include:
Most of his sons and grandsons were killed during or in the aftermath of the rebellion of 1857. Of those who survived, the following four lines of descent are known:
Descendants of Mughal rulers other than Bahadur Shah Zafar also survive to this day. They include the line of Jalaluddin Mirza
in Bengal, who served at the court of the Maharaja of Dighapatia, and the Toluqari family.
Zafar 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
(Video search) as his own epitaph.
In his book, The Last Mughal
, William Dalrymple states that, according to Lahore scholar Imran Khan, the verse beginning umr-e-darāz māńg 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.
by Javed Siddiqui
, which was also stage at Purana Qila, Delhi ramparts by Nadira Babbar
and 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.
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
in India
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
, as well as the last ruler of the Timurid Dynasty
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...
.
He was the son of Akbar Shah II
Akbar Shah II
Akbar Shah II , also known as Mirza Akbar, was the second-to-last of the Mughal emperors of India. He held the title from 1806 to 1837. He was the second son of Shah Alam II and the father of Bahadur Shah Zafar II....
and Lalbai, who was a Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
Rajput
Rajput
A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...
. He became the Mughal Emperor upon his father's death on 28 September 1837. Zafar ( ), meaning “victory” was his nom de plume (takhallus) as an Urdu poet
Urdu poetry
Urdu poetry is a rich tradition of poetry and has many different types and forms. Borrowing much from the Persian language, it is today an important part of Pakistani and North Indian culture....
and was popularly also known as Bahadur Shah Zafar .
Ascent to the Throne / Masnad
Zafar's father, Akbar Shah IIAkbar Shah II
Akbar Shah II , also known as Mirza Akbar, was the second-to-last of the Mughal emperors of India. He held the title from 1806 to 1837. He was the second son of Shah Alam II and the father of Bahadur Shah Zafar II....
, ruled over a rapidly disintegrating empire between 1806 to 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 Zafar who succeeded him was not Akbar Shah Saani’s choice as his successor. Akbar Shah was, in fact, under great pressure by one of his queens, Mumtaz Begum to declare her son Mirza Jahangir as the successor. Akbar Shah would have probably accepted this demand but Mirza Jahangir had fallen afoul of the British and they would have none of this.
As emperor
Bahadur Shah Zafar presided over a Mughal empire that barely extended beyond DelhiDelhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
's Red Fort. The British were the dominant political and military power in 19th-century India. Outside British 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 British and allowed a pension, 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 II himself did not take an interest in statecraft or possess any imperial ambitions. After the Sepoy Mutiny the British Administration exiled him from Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. This has been well documented in William Dalrymple's book The Last Mughal
The Last Mughal
The Last Mughal, The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 is a 2006 historical book by William Dalrymple.-Summary:The book, Dalrymple's sixth, won praise for its use of "The Mutiny Papers", which included previously ignored Indian accounts of the events of 1857...
and is well corroborated from many other archival sources.
Bahadur Shah Zafar was a noted Urdu poet
Urdu poetry
Urdu poetry is a rich tradition of poetry and has many different types and forms. Borrowing much from the Persian language, it is today an important part of Pakistani and North Indian culture....
. He wrote a large number of Urdu ghazals
Ghazal
The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...
. While some part of his opus was lost or destroyed during the Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
, a large collection did survive, and was later compiled into the Kulliyyat-i-Zafar. The court that he maintained, although somewhat decadent and arguably pretentious for someone who was effectively a pensioner of the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, was home to several Urdu writers of high standing, including Ghalib, Dagh, Mumin, and Zauq.
Even in defeat it is traditionally believed that he said
Emperor Bahadur Shah is seen as a freedom fighter (he was Commander-In-Chief of the mutiny army), fighting for India's independence from the British. As the last ruling member of the imperial Timurid Dynasty
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...
he was surprisingly composed and calm when MajorHodson
William Stephen Raikes Hodson
Brevet Major William Stephen Raikes Hodson was a British leader of irregular light cavalry during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 . He was known as "Hodson of Hodson's Horse."His most notable action was to apprehend the Emperor of India...
presented decapitated heads of his own sons to him as Nowruz
Nowruz
Nowrūz is the name of the Iranian New Year in Iranian calendars and the corresponding traditional celebrations. Nowruz is also widely referred to as the Persian New Year....
gifts. He is famously remembered to have said.
Role in the Rebellion of 1857
On May 11th the regiments that had rebelled at LucknowLucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
the previous day reached Delhi and asked for a formal audience. On the 12th, it was granted, and he was petitioned. While it is questionable that he did so unforced, and eyewitness described how the mutineers treated him with contempt, he never-the-less gave his assent issued the following decree, a Shahi Firman (King's decree), on May 12, 1857:
To all the Hindus and Muslims of India, taking my duty by the people into consideration at this hour, I have decided to stand by my people. Whoever shows cowardice at this delicate hour, or whoever in innocence will help the cunning English, believing in their promises, he would stand disillusioned very soon. He should remember that the English will pay him for his faithfulness to them in the same manner as they have paid the rulers of OudhAwadhAwadh , also known in various British historical texts as Oudh or Oude derived from Ayodhya, is a region in the centre of the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh...
. It is the imperative duty of Hindus and Mussalmans (Muslims) to join the revolt against the English. They should work and be guided by their leaders in their towns and should take steps to restore order in the country. It is the bounden duty of all people that they should, as far as possible, copy out this Firman and display it at all important places in the towns. But before doing so, they should get themselves armed and declare war on the English.
Religious attitudes
Pir (Sufism)
Pir or Peer is a title for a Sufi master equally used in the nath tradition. They are also referred to as a Hazrat or Shaikh, which is Arabic for Old Man. The title is often translated into English as "saint" and could be interpreted as "Elder". In Sufism a Pir's role is to guide and instruct his...
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
Dervish
A Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...
, 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. In an incident in which one of his followers was bitten by a snake, Zafar attempted to cure him by sending a "seal of Bezoar
Bezoar
A bezoar is a mass found trapped in the gastrointestinal system , though it can occur in other locations. A pseudobezoar is an indigestible object introduced intentionally into the digestive system....
" (a stone antidote to poison) and some water on which he had breathed, and giving it to the man to drink.
The emperor also had a staunch belief in ta'aviz or charms, especially as a palliative for his constant complaint of piles, or to ward off evil spells. During one period of illness, he gathered a group of Sufi pirs and told them that several of his wives suspected that some party or the other had cast a spell over him. Therefore, he requested them to take some steps to remedy this so as to remove all apprehension on this account. They replied that they would write off some charms for him. They were to be mixed in water which when drunk would protect him from the evil eye. A coterie of pirs, miracle workers and Hindu astrologers were in constant attendance to the emperor. On their advice, he regularly sacrificed buffaloes and camels, buried eggs and arrested alleged black magicians, in addition to wearing a special ring that cured indigestion. On their advice, he also regularly donated cows to the poor, elephants to the sufi shrines and a horse to the khadims or clergy of Jama Masjid
Jama Masjid
Jama Masjid also Jami Masjid, refers to the Friday Mosque, where Jummah or weekly Friday noon congregation prayers of Muslims take place...
.
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
. In one of his verses, Zafar explicitly stated that both Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
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. For instance, the Hindu elite used to frequently visit the dargah
Dargah
A Dargah is a Sufi shrine built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint. Local Muslims visit the shrine known as . Dargahs are often associated with Sufi meeting rooms and hostels, known as khanqah...
or tomb of the great Sufi pir, Nizam-ud-din Auliya. They could quote Hafiz and were very fond of Persian poetry. Their children, especially those belonging to the administrative Khatri and Kayasth castes studied under maulvis and attended the more liberal madrasas, bringing food offerings for their teachers on Hindu festivals. On the other hand, the emperor's Muslim subjects emulated him in honouring the Hindu holy men, while many in court, including Zafar himself, followed the old Mughal custom, originally borrowed from high class Hindus, of only drinking the water from the Ganges.
Holi
Holi , is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. Holi is also known as festival of Colours. It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and countries with large Indic diaspora populations following Hinduism, such as Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, United...
, he would spray his courtiers, wives and concubines with different coloured paints, initiating the celebrations by bathing in the water of seven wells. The autumn Hindu festival of Dusshera
Vijayadashami
Vijayadashami also known as Dasara, is one of the most important festivals celebrated in various forms, across India, Nepal and Bangladesh...
was celebrated in the palace by the distribution of nazrs or presents to Zafar's Hindu officers and the colouring of the horses in the royal stud. In the evening, Zafar would then watch the Ram Lila processions annually celebrated in Delhi with the burning of giant effigies of Ravana and his brothers. He even went to the extent of demanding that the route of the procession be changed so that it would skirt the entire flank of the palace, allowing it to be enjoyed in all its glory. On Diwali
Diwali
Diwali or DeepavaliThe name of the festival in various regional languages include:, , , , , , , , , , , , , popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a festival celebrated between mid-October and mid-December for different reasons...
, Zafar would weigh himself against seven kinds of grain, gold, coral, etc., and directed their distribution among the city's poor.
He was reputedly known to have profound sensitivities to the feelings of his Hindu subjects. One evening, when Zafar was riding out across the river for an airing, a Hindu waited on the king and disclosed his wish to become a Muslim. Hakim Ahsanullah Khan, Zafar's prime minister flatly denied this request and the emperor had him removed from his presence. During the Phulwalon ki Sair or Flower-sellers fair held annually at the ancient Jog Maya Temple and the Sufi dargah of Qutb Sahib, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki
Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki
Qutub ul Aqtab Hazrat Khwaja Syed Muhammad Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki was a renowned Muslim Sufi mystic, saint and scholar of the Chishti Order from Delhi, India. He was the disciple and the spiritual successor of Moinuddin Chishti as head of the Chishti order. Before him the Chishti order in India...
in Mehrauli
Mehrauli
Mehrauli is a neighbourhood in the South West district of Delhi in India. It represents a constituency in the legislative assembly of Delhi. The area is located close to Gurgaon.-History:...
, Zafar declared that he would not accompany the pankah into the shrine as he could not accompany it into the temple.
Zafar Mahal
Zafar Mahal
Zafar Mahal, in Mehrauli village, in South Delhi, India is considered the last monumental structure built as a summer palace during the fading years of the Mughal era...
in Mehrauli
Mehrauli
Mehrauli is a neighbourhood in the South West district of Delhi in India. It represents a constituency in the legislative assembly of Delhi. The area is located close to Gurgaon.-History:...
, a locality of Delhi. Zafar Mahal was originally built by Akbar II, but it was his son, Bahadur Shah Zafar, who constructed the gateway and added to the palace in the mid-19th century. Mehrauli was then a popular venue for hunting parties, picnics and jaunts, and the dargah was an added attraction. The emperor visited often with his retinue - and stayed in royal style at Zafar Mahal. Another interesting feature of Zafar Mahal is that it literally spans centuries. A plastered dome near the gate is probably 15th century; other sections are relatively newer and show definite signs of Western influences. There is, for instance, a fireplace in one of the walls that stands near the Moti Masjid. And the staircase to the balcony is a wide one with low steps - very unlike the steep, narrow staircases of most Indian Islamic architecture.
The balcony, with its 'jharokha’ windows, is where the emperor and his family could look out over the road. In Bahadurshah’s time, the main Mehrauli-Gurgaon road passed in front of Zafar Mahal, and all passersby were expected to dismount as a sign of respect for the emperor. When the British refused to comply, Bahadurshah solved the problem creatively - he bought the surrounding land and diverted the road so that it would pass well away from Zafar Mahal! The Phool Walon Ki Sair
Phool Walon Ki Sair
Phool Walon Ki Sair meaning "procession of the florists" is an annual celebration by the flowers sellers of Delhi. It is a three-day festival, generally held in the month of September, just after the rainy season in the region of Mehrauli, Delhi...
gradually turned into a major three day celebration during the time when Bahadur Shah Zafar, son and successor to Akbar Shah Saani ruled from Delhi.
Zafar used to move his court to a building adjacent to the Shrine of Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki and stayed at Mehrauli
Mehrauli
Mehrauli is a neighbourhood in the South West district of Delhi in India. It represents a constituency in the legislative assembly of Delhi. The area is located close to Gurgaon.-History:...
for a week during the celebrations. The building where he stayed during the period was originally built by his father and Zafar added an impressive gate and a Baaraadari to the structure and renamed it Zafar Mahal
Zafar Mahal
Zafar Mahal, in Mehrauli village, in South Delhi, India is considered the last monumental structure built as a summer palace during the fading years of the Mughal era...
.
The celebrations spread out in different parts of Mehrauli with the Jahaz Mahal
Jahaz Mahal
Jahaz Mahal , is located next to Hauz-i-Shamsi in Mehrauli, Delhi on its northeastern corner. It was so named, since its reflection in the surrounding reservoir looked like a ship floating on a lake...
, (a Lodhi
Lodhi dynasty
Lodi Dynasty was a Pashtun dynasty that was the last dynasty to rule the Delhi Sultanate. The dynasty founded by Bahlul Lodi ruled from 1451 to 1526...
period structure, that was once in the middle of the Hauz-e-Shamsi
Hauz-i-Shamsi
Hauz-i-Shamsi is a water storage reservoir or tank built by Iltumish of the Slave Dynasty in 1230 AD, at a location revealed to him in a dream by the Islamic prophet Muhammad...
but is now at one end of the much depleted Hauz, becoming a center where Qawwali
Qawwali
Qawwali is a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia, particularly in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan, Hyderabad, Delhi, and other parts of northern India...
mehfils would be organised while the Jharna, built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq and later added to by Akbar Shah II became a place where the women of the court relaxed.
Events of 1857
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
spread, Sepoy regiments seized Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. Seeking a figure that could unite all Indians, Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
and Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
alike, most rebelling Indian kings and the Indian regiments accepted Zafar as the Emperor of India
Emperor of India
Emperor/Empress of India was used as a title by the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II, and revived by the colonial British monarchs during the British Raj in 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
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
was more acceptable a uniting force to most allied kings than the domination of any other Indian kingdom.
When the victory of the British became certain, Zafar took refuge at Humayun's Tomb
Humayun's Tomb
Humayun's tomb is the tomb of the Mughal Emperor Humayun. The tomb was commissioned by Humayun's wife Hamida Banu Begum in 1562 AD, and designed by Mirak Mirza Ghiyath, a Persian architect...
, in an area that was then at the outskirts of Delhi, and hid there. British forces led by Major William Hodson
William Stephen Raikes Hodson
Brevet Major William Stephen Raikes Hodson was a British leader of irregular light cavalry during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 . He was known as "Hodson of Hodson's Horse."His most notable action was to apprehend the Emperor of India...
surrounded the tomb and compelled his surrender on 20 September 1857. The next day Hodson shot his sons Mirza Mughal, Mirza Khizr Sultan, and grandson Mirza Abu Bakr under his own authority at the Khooni Darwaza
Khooni Darwaza
Khooni Darwaza , also referred to as Lal Darwaza , is located near Delhi Gate, on the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in Delhi, India. It is one of the 13 surviving gates in Delhi...
(the bloody gate) near Delhi Gate
Delhi Gate (Delhi)
Delhi Gate is the southern gate of one of the many gates of the historic walled city of Delhi, or Shahjahanabad. The gate links the New Delhi city with the old walled city of Delhi...
. On hearing the news Zafar reacted with shocked silence while his wife Zeenat Mahal
Zeenat Mahal
Begum Zeenat Mahal was the wife of Emperor Bahadur Shah II and de facto Empress of the Mughal Empire on behalf of the Emperor. She married Bahadur Shah II in 1840 and bore him his favourite son, Mirza Jawan Bakht...
was content as she believed her son was now Zafar's heir.
Yangon
Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...
, Union of Myanmar) in 1858 along with his wife Zeenat Mahal
Zeenat Mahal
Begum Zeenat Mahal was the wife of Emperor Bahadur Shah II and de facto Empress of the Mughal Empire on behalf of the Emperor. She married Bahadur Shah II in 1840 and bore him his favourite son, Mirza Jawan Bakht...
and some of the remaining members of the family. His departure as Emperor marked the end of more than three centuries of Mughal rule in India.
Bahadur Shah died in exile on 7 November 1862. He was buried near the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, at the site that later became known as Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah. His wife Zeenat Mahal died in 1886.
In a marble enclosure adjoining the dargah
Dargah
A Dargah is a Sufi shrine built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint. Local Muslims visit the shrine known as . Dargahs are often associated with Sufi meeting rooms and hostels, known as khanqah...
of Sufi saint, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki
Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki
Qutub ul Aqtab Hazrat Khwaja Syed Muhammad Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki was a renowned Muslim Sufi mystic, saint and scholar of the Chishti Order from Delhi, India. He was the disciple and the spiritual successor of Moinuddin Chishti as head of the Chishti order. Before him the Chishti order in India...
at Mehrauli
Mehrauli
Mehrauli is a neighbourhood in the South West district of Delhi in India. It represents a constituency in the legislative assembly of Delhi. The area is located close to Gurgaon.-History:...
, an empty grave or Sardgah marks the site where he had willed to be buried along with some of his Mughal predecessors, Akbar Shah II
Akbar Shah II
Akbar Shah II , also known as Mirza Akbar, was the second-to-last of the Mughal emperors of India. He held the title from 1806 to 1837. He was the second son of Shah Alam II and the father of Bahadur Shah Zafar II....
, Bahadur Shah I
Bahadur Shah I
Bahadur Shah was a Mughal Emperor, who ruled India from 1707 to 1712. His original name was Qutb ud-Din Muhammad Mu'azzam later titled as Shah Alam by his father. He took the throne name Bahadur Shah in 1707. His name Bahādur means "brave" & "hero" in Turko-Mongol languages...
(also known as Shah Alam I) and Shah Alam II
Shah Alam II
Shah Alam II , also known as Ali Gauhar, was a Mughal emperor of India. A son of Alamgir II, he was exiled to Allahabad in December 1759 by Ghazi-ud-Din, who appointed Shah Jahan III as the emperor. Later, he was nominated as the emperor by Ahmad Shah.Shah Alam II was considered the only and...
.
Legacy
In 1959, the All India Bahadur Shah Zafar Academy was founded expressly to spread awareness of his contribution to the first major anti-British movement in India. Several movies in HindiHindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
or Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
have depicted his role during the rebellion of 1857. Roads bearing his name
Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg , is a road in Delhi, India. It is named after the last Mughal Emperor of India, Bahadur Shah II...
are found in New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, Varanasi
Varanasi
-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...
, and other cities. A statue of Bahadur Shah Zafar has been erected at the Vijayanagaram palace in Varanasi
Varanasi
-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...
. In Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, the Victoria Park in old Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...
has been renamed "Bahadur Shah Zafar Park
Bahadur Shah Zafar Park
Bahadur Shah Zafar Park is a park located in old Dhaka, Bangladesh. Originally established by the British in early nineteenth century, this park was previously known as Victoria Park. The name was changed after independence from the British in 1947 in respect for the last emperor of Mughal India,...
". And in several Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i cities, avenues, roads, shopping centres, and other landmarks carry the name of the last Mughal emperor.
Family
- Begum Ashraf Mahal
- Begum Akhtar Mahal
- Begum Zeenat Mahal
- Begum Taj Mahal
His legitimate sons include:
- Mirza Dara BakhtMirza Dara BakhtMirza Dara Bakht Miran Shah Bahadur was the eldest son of Emperor Bahadur Shah II and Crown Prince of the Mughal Empire from 1837 to 1849. He highly influenced his aged father's decisions and was favoured by every one at the court, including his charismatic but younger stepmother Begum Zeenat Mahal...
Miran Shah - Mirza Shah Rukh
- Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk BahadurMirza Fath-ul-Mulk BahadurHis Royal Highness The Prince Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur also known as Mirza Fakhru was the last Crown Prince of the Mughal Empire and a senior Prince of the Imperial Family of India, the...
(alias Mirza Fakhru) - Mirza MughalMirza MughalHH Prince Mirza Mughal was an Imperial Prince of the Royal Family of India; the fifth son of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, the 12th and last Mughal emperor. His mother, Sharif-ul-Mahal Sayyidini, came from an Aristocratic Sayyid family that claimed descent from The Prophet Muhammad...
- Mirza Khazr Sultan
- Jawan Bakht
- Mirza Quaish
- Mirza Shah AbbasMirza Shah AbbasHis Royal Highness The Prince Mirza Shah Abbas Bahadur a Prince of the Imperial Family of India, the son of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar , the last Emperor of India through his wife Mubarak un-nisa KhanumBegum.He was a younger brother of Prince Mirza...
His legitimate daughters include:
- Rabeya Begum
- Begum Fatima Sultan
- Kulsum Zamani Begum
- Raunaq Zamani Begum (possibly a granddaughter)
Most of his sons and grandsons were killed during or in the aftermath of the rebellion of 1857. Of those who survived, the following four lines of descent are known:
- Delhi line—son: Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk BahadurMirza Fath-ul-Mulk BahadurHis Royal Highness The Prince Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur also known as Mirza Fakhru was the last Crown Prince of the Mughal Empire and a senior Prince of the Imperial Family of India, the...
(alias Mirza Fakhru); grandson: Mirza Farkhunda Jamal; great-grandchildren: Ahmad Shah, Hamid Shah and Begum Qamar Sultan; Children of Ahmad Shah: Farrukh Mirza, Nadir Mirza, Mirza Taimur, Akbar Shah, Mohammad Shah Temuri; eldest of daughters, Chunni Appa (Nick Name, real name Ismat Temuri,a great artist,died on 23 June,2010 at Al Ain UAE was married to Nurul Hasan Ansari (died in Al Ain on 5 Feb 2005). Chunni Apa's (Ismat Temuri) four sons Flt. Lt. (Shaheed)Jamal, died in an air crash near Karachi on 6 Feb,1973), Dr Tariq works in Al Ain, UAE, Bilal in Canada & Nadeem in U.K.); Munni Appa (Nick Name,actual name Ishrat Temuri, resides in Irvine, California, USA, with her son Safi Qureshy, Founder of AST computers; Sarwat Temuri, died in 1996 in Murree, Pakistan and Hashmat Temuri who lives with her son Dr. Faraz in Iowa, USA; Children of Farrukh Mirza: Parvez Mirza, Javed Mirza, Mulahat Mirza, Zahid Mirza, Shahid Mirza; Children of Mohammad Shah temuri: Mirza Babar Shah Temuri, Mirza Birjees Shah Temuri, Sabahat Temuri, Mirza Zafar Shah Temuri, Saira temuri and Mirza Azfar Shah Temuri.Children of Mirza Zafar Shah Temuri: Hoor Temuri, Zuhaab Mirza Temuri, Harris Mirza Temuri. Children of Mirza Azfar Shah Temuri: Eshaal Temuri. Children of Mirza Babar Shah Temuri: Jhangir Temuri, Hamza Temuri, Reja Temuri. - Howrah line—son: Jawan Bakht, grandson: Jamshid Bakht, great-grandson: Mirza Muhammad Bedar Bakht (married Sultana Begum). Madhu Begum daughter of Mirza Muhammad Bedar Bakht married Sultana Begum.
- Varanasi line -- [Shah Alam Ameer of Delhi, Son: Mirza Jahaandar Shah Alais Mirza Khan Bakht (Married - Jahanbaad Begum)], [Ali Gohar Mirza Ali Bahadur had five sons], [Mirza Kazim Bakht married Birjis Ara Begum, Son: Mirza Yousuf Bakht married Hasina Sultan Begum, Grandson: Mirza Zaheeruddin Alim Bakht married Khurshid Laqah Begum (had five sons - two daughters), Great Grandson: Mirza Daud Bakht married Fakhre Ara Kaniz Mehndi Begum (D/O. Late Mobarrak Bakht Mirza Illyas Hussain Bahadur, grandson of late king of Oudh - Wife: Sultan Bano Mehndi Begum (In Kolkata).
- Hyderabad line—son: Mirza Quaish, grandson: Mirza Abdullah, great-grandson: Mirza Pyare (married Habib Begum), great-great-granddaughter: Begum Laila Ummahani (married Moinuddin Tucy), great-great-great-granddaughter: Lalarukh Ummahani (married Shaik Umer) she has two daughters (Humera Fatima & Zubera Fatima) and two sons (Abrar Umer and Asrar Umer).
Descendants of Mughal rulers other than Bahadur Shah Zafar also survive to this day. They include the line of Jalaluddin Mirza
Jalaluddin Mirza
Jalaluddin Mirza was a prince of the Mughal Royal Family, Gurkhan-e-Mirza.Most of his life was spent hiding from the British. He took refuge under the Zamindari Dighapatia family in Natore, Rajshahi. He had four sons and two daughters. His son Mirza Zafar eventually came to be an official in the...
in Bengal, who served at the court of the Maharaja of Dighapatia, and the Toluqari family.
Epitaph
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
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
Ghazal
The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...
(Video search) as his own epitaph.
| Original Urdu | Devanagari transliteration | Roman transliteration | English Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
In his book, The Last Mughal
The Last Mughal
The Last Mughal, The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 is a 2006 historical book by William Dalrymple.-Summary:The book, Dalrymple's sixth, won praise for its use of "The Mutiny Papers", which included previously ignored Indian accounts of the events of 1857...
, William Dalrymple states that, according to Lahore scholar Imran Khan, the verse beginning umr-e-darāz māńg 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.
In popular culture
He is also featured in the play 1857: Ek Safarnama set in Indian Rebellion of 1857Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
by Javed Siddiqui
Javed Siddiqui
Javed Siddiqui is a Hindi and Urdu screenwriter, dialogue writer and playwright from India. He has written over 50 storylines, screenplays and dialogues....
, which was also stage at Purana Qila, Delhi ramparts by Nadira Babbar
Nadira Babbar
Nadira Babbar is an Indian theatre actress, director and an actress in Hindi cinema, who is the recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2001. A leading name in Indian theatre, Nadira founded a Mumbai-based theatre group called Ekjute, a known name in Hindi theatre in 1981...
and National School of Drama
National School of Drama
National School of Drama is a theatre training institute situated at New Delhi, India, established . It is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It was set up in 1959 by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and became an independent school in 1975...
Repertory company, in 2008.
A Hindi/Urdu black and white movie called 'Lal Quila' (1960), directed by Nanabhai Bhatt
Nanabhai Bhatt
Nanabhai Bhatt was a well-known Indian film director and producer of Bollywood and Gujarati cinema, known for making over a hundred fantasy and mythological films, including Mr. X , Zimbo Comes to Town , Lal Qila and the blockbuster Kangan starring Nirupa Roy and Ashok Kumar...
featured Bahadur Shah Zafar extensively.
See also
- Mughal Emperor
- Urdu poetryUrdu poetryUrdu poetry is a rich tradition of poetry and has many different types and forms. Borrowing much from the Persian language, it is today an important part of Pakistani and North Indian culture....
- List of Indian monarchs
- List of Urdu poets
- Indian rebellion of 1857Indian Rebellion of 1857The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
External links
- Bahadur Shah Zafar at Kavita Kosh (Hindi)
- BBC Report on Bahadur Shah's possible descendants in Hyderabad
- An article on Bahadur Shah's descendants in Delhi and Hyderabad
- Another article on Bahadur Shah's descendants in Hyderabad
- An article on Bahadur Shah's descendants in Kolkata
- Forgotten Empress: Sultana Beghum sells tea in Kolkata
- Extracts from a book on Bahadur Shah Zafar, with details of exile and family
- Links to further websites on Bahadur Shah Zafar
- Poetry on urdupoetry.com
- Extract of talk by Zafar's biographer William Dalrymple (British Library)
- Moghul Empire Wallpapers for mobile phones.
- Kalaam e Zafar - Select verses in Hindi
- http://www.royalark.net/India/loharu3.htm -- Loharu
- Selected Urdu Poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar in Punjabi/Gurmukhi at punjabi-kavita.com