| Shahryar | |
|---|---|
| Mughal Prince | |
| House | Timurid |
| Father | Jahangir |
| Born | 1605 |
| Died | 1628 |
| Religion | Islam |
Prince Sheharyar (شاهزاد شهريار) (1628–1605) was the fifth and youngest son of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. After Jahangir's death, Shahryar made an attempt to become emperor, with the help of his powerful stepmother Nur Jehan, who was also his mother-in-law. However he suffered defeat and was killed at the orders of his victorious brother Shah Jahan.
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Sheharyar was born a few months before his grandfather Akbar's death (in 1605) to Jahangir's seventh wife (first name unknown), who was also the mother of Sultan Jahandar [1] In the 16th year of Jahangir's reign, Shahryar married Mehrunnisa, also known as Ladli Begum, the daughter of his own step-mother Nur Jahan, by her first marriage to Sher Afghan. Shahryar and Ladli had a daughter Arzani Begum [2][3]
At Nur Jahan request, he was given the pargana of Dholpur and its fort from Jahangir,which Prince Khurram wanted for himself and appointed Daria Khan, an Afgan as its in-charge, this led to a skirmish between Nur Jahan appointed, Sharifu-l-Mulk, who was a servant of Sheharyar and Daria Khan who arrived on the scene shortly, and tried to force himself into the fort, eventually the Sharifu-l-Mulk ended up losing an eye, due to a war injury [4]
On October 13. 1625, Jahangir appointed Sheharyar as Governor of Thatta, and Sharif-ul Mulk carried out the administration as the Deputy of the Prince [5]
After the death of his father Jahangir on October 28, 1627, Shahryar ascended to the Mughal throne, as Nur Jahan desired. Since he was in Lahore at the time, he immediately took over the royal treasury and distributed over 70 lac rupees amongst old and new noble men to secure his throne. Meanwhile, Mirza Baisinghar, son of the late Prince Daniyal, on the death of the Emperor, fled to Lahore, and joined Shahryar.
Soon near Lahore, his forces met those of Asaf Khan,(father of Mumtaz Mahal who wanted his son inlaw Shah Jahan to ascend the throne), who has already proclaimed Dawar as the Emperor near Agra, as a stop-gap arrangement, to save the throne of Shah Jahan, in which Shahryar lost, fled into the fort, where the next morning he was presented in front of Dawar Baksh, who placed him in confinement and two-three days later he was blinded by Asaf Khan, thus bringing his short reign to a tragic end. It s said that he also had a form of leprosy due to which he had lost all his hair including his eyebrows and eyelashes. [6]
Like all Mughal princes, Shahryar too had training in poetry and after he was blinded towards the end of his life, he wrote a poignant verse titled, Bi Gu Kur Shud didah-i-Aftab [7] On the 2nd Jumada-l awwal, 1037 A.H., (1628), Shah Jahan ascended to the throne at Lahore, and on the 26th Jumada-l awwal, January 23, 1628, upon his orders, Dawar, his brother Garshasp, Shahryar, and Tahmuras and Hoshang, sons of the deceased Prince Daniyal, were all put to death by Asaf Khan.[8][9]
After his death, all the brothers of Shah Jahan were now dead, and he ruled the empire till 1658.
Asaf Khan, was made the prime minister of Mughal Empire, and Nur Jahan, with an annual pension of two lakh and spent the rest of her days, confined in her palace in Lahore, along with Ladli Begum, the widow of Shahryar.[10] Nur Jahan died in 1645 at age 72.[11]