| Akbar Shah II | |
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| Reign | 19 November 1806-28 September 1837 (30 years, 313 days) |
| Coronation | 19 November 1806 at Red Fort, Delhi |
| Predecessor | Shah Alam II |
| Successor | Bahadur Shah II |
| Issue | |
| 14 sons, several daughters | |
| Full name | |
| 'Abu Nasir Mu'in ud-din Muhammad Akbar Shah II | |
| House | Timurid |
| Father | Shah Alam II |
| Mother | Qudsia Begum (3rd wife of Shah Alam II) |
| Born | 22 April 1760 Mukundpur, Mughal Empire |
| Died | 28 September 1837 (age 77) Delhi, Mughal Empire |
| Burial | Mehrauli, Delhi |
| Religion | Islam |
Akbar Shah II (1760–1837), 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.
Akbar had little real power due to the increasing British control of India through the East India Company. Shortly before his death he sent Ram Mohan Roy as an ambassador to Britain. During his regime, in 1835, the East India Company (EIC) discontinued calling itself the lieutenant of the Mughal Emperor and issuing coins in his name. The Persian lines in the Company's coins to this effect were deleted.
His grave lies, next to the dargah of 13th century, Sufi saint, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki at Mehrauli, in a marble enclosure, along with that of Bahadur Shah I (also known as Shah Alam I) and Shah Alam II.
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Prince Akbar was born on 22 April 1760 to Emperor Shah Alam II at Mukundpur, Rewa, while his father was in exile. On 2 May 1781, at the Red Fort, the prince was made Crown Prince with the title of Wali Ahd Bahadur, after the death of his elder brother. When the renegade eunuch Ghulam Qadir captured Delhi, the young Prince Mirza Akbar was forced to nautch dance together along with other Mughal princes and princesses. He witnessed how the members of the imperial Mughal family were humiliated, as well as starved. When Jahan Shah IV fled, Mirza Akbar was titular Emperor with the title of Akbar Shah II, and was to remain acting emperor even after the reinstation of his father Shah Alam II, till December 1788.
Emperor Akbar Shah II presided over an empire titularly large but in effect limited to the Red Fort in Delhi alone. The cultural life of Delhi as a whole flourished during his reign. However, his attitude towards East India Company officials, especially Lord Hastings, to whom he refused to grant an audience on terms other than those of subject and sovereign, although honourable to him, increasingly frustrated the British, who regarded him as merely their pensioner. The British therefore reduced his titular authority to 'King of Delhi' in 1835 and the East India Company ceased to act as the mere lieutenants of the Mughal Empire as they did from 1803 to 1835. Simultaneously they replaced Persian text with English text on the company's coins, which no longer carried the emperor's name. The British encouraged the Nawab of Oudh and the Nizam of Hyderabad to take royal titles in order to further diminish the Emperor's status and influence. Out of deference, the Nizam did not, but the Nawab of Awadh did so. However, Akbar Shah II's prestige was honored in Sindh, particularly when the Mughal Emperor issued a Firman in the year 1783, which designated Mir Fateh Ali Khan Talpur as the new Nawab of Sindh, and mediated peace particularly after ferocious fighting and the defeat of the ruling Kalhora by the Talpur tribes[1].
Akbar Shah II appointed the Bengali reformer Ram Mohan Roy, to appeal against his treatment by the East India Company, Ram Mohan Roy then visited England, as the Mughal envoy to the Court of St. James, conferring on him the title of Raja. Ram Mohan Roy submitted a well argued memorial on behalf of the Mughal ruler, but to no avail.
His grave lies, next to the dargah of 13th century, Sufi saint, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki at Mehrauli, Delhi in a marble enclosure, along with that of Bahadur Shah I (Shah Alam I) and Shah Alam II.
After the mutiny, cousins of Mirza Mughal, son of Bahadur Shah Zafar son of Akbar Shah II escaped to neighboring areas in fear of capture by the British. Prince Mirza Mughal, the heir apparent was himself killed in battle. Many princes settled in various provinces of India, but some settled in Burma and Bengal since a large number of imperial family members, along with Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar were exiled to Rangoon in Burma. In 1858, after the Imperial family was abolished, the capital of the Empire was moved to Bengal and remained as such till 1912.
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Akbar Shah II
Born: 1760 Died: 1837 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Shah Alam II Mughal Emperor |
Mughal Emperor 1806-1837 |
Succeeded by Bahadur Shah II |
Akbar Shah II was born in Mukundpur, REWA, MP INDIA