Shahryar (Mughal prince)

Shahryar
شهريار

Shahryar

Shahryar
Mughal Emperor
(de facto)
Reign 7 November 1627 – 23 January 1628
Predecessor Jahangir
Successor Shah Jahan
Born 16 January 1605
Agra
Died 23 January 1628(1628-01-23) (aged 23)
Lahore
Burial Lahore
Spouse Mihr-un-nissa Begum
Issue Arzani Begum
Full name
Salef-ud-din Mohammed Shahryar
Dynasty Timurid
Father Jahangir
Religion Sunni Islam
Mughal emperors
Babur 1526 – 1530
Humayun 1530 – 1540
1555 – 1556
Akbar 1556 – 1605
Jahangir 1605 – 1627
Shahryar (de facto) 1627 – 1628
Shah Jahan 1628 – 1658
Aurangzeb 1658 – 1707
Muhammad Azam Shah (titular) 1707
Bahadur Shah I 1707 – 1712
Jahandar Shah 1712 – 1713
Farrukhsiyar 1713 – 1719
Rafi ud-Darajat 1719
Shah Jahan II 1719
Muhammad Shah 1719 – 1748
Ahmad Shah Bahadur 1748 – 1754
Alamgir II 1754 – 1759
Shah Jahan III (titular) 1759 – 1760
Shah Alam II 1760 – 1806
Jahan Shah IV (titular) 1788
Akbar II 1806 – 1837
Bahadur Shah II 1837 – 1857
Empire abolished and replaced by British Raj

Shahryar (16 January 1605 – 23 January 1628) was the fifth and youngest son of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. After Jahangir's death, Shahryar made an attempt to become emperor and was successful with the help of his powerful stepmother Nur Jehan, who was also his mother-in-law. However, he was only titular and suffered defeat and was killed at the orders of his victorious brother Shah Jahan. His only daughter was married to Aurangzeb.

Early life

Shazada Salef ud din Muhammad Sheharyar was born a few months before his grandfather, Emperor Akbar's death (in 1605). His mother was a Daughter of Raja Birbal. He was the younger halfbrother of Rebel Prince Khusrau Mirza, The Drinker Muhammad Parviz. He was cared by also of Nur Jahan.

The prince was educated by Muhammad All Irfan and Fatima Bibi Kashmiri appointed by Nur Jahan. [1] In the 16th year of Jahangir's reign, Shahryar married Mihr-un-nissa Begum, the daughter of his step-mother Nur Jahan by her first marriage to Sher Afghan. Shahryar and Mihr-un-nissa had a daughter Arzani Banu Begum.[2][3]

At Nur Jahan's request, he was given the pargana of Dholpur and its fort from Jahangir which Prince Khurram wanted for himself. He appointed Daria Khan, an Afghan, as its in-charge. This led to a skirmish between Nur Jahan's appointed in-charge Sharifu-l-Mulk, who was a servant of both Shahryar and Daria Khan. Sharifu-l-Mulk arrived on the scene shortly, and tried to force himself into the fort.[4]

On October 13, 1625, Jahangir appointed Shahryar as Governor of Thatta. Sharif-ul Mulk carried out the administration as the Deputy of the Prince.[5]

Ascension and death

After the death of his father Jahangir on 28 October 1627, Shahryar ascended to the Mughal throne (only for 3 months), as Nur Jahan desired. Since he was in Lahore at the time, he immediately took over the imperial treasury and distributed over 70 lakh 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-in-law 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. Shahryar lost and fled into the fort, where the next morning he was presented in front of Dawar Baksh, who placed him in confinement and two to three days later he was blinded by Asaf Khan, thus bringing his short reign to a tragic end. It is 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 Shahryar's death, Shah Jahan ruled the empire for 30 years, when Aurangzeb imprisoned Shah Jahan until Shah Jahan died eight years later.

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 her daughter Mihr-un-nissa Begum, the widow of Shahryar.[10] Nur Jahan died in 1645 at age 68.[11]

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Ref:Empire of the Moghul series:The Tainted Throne by Alex Rutherford.Page no.-136.Ch.name-Light of the Palace
  2. ↑ The Grandees of the Empire - Jahángír's children, Sultan Shahryar Ain-i-Akbari, by Abul Fazl, Volume I, Chpt. 30.
  3. ↑ Ali Q Ain-i-Akbari, by Abul Fazl, Volume I, chpt. 310, "'Alí Q.'s daughter, who, like her mother, had the name of Mihrunnisa, was later married to Prince Shahryar, Jahangir's fifth son.".
  4. ↑ Dholpur The Riyazu-s-Salatin (Gardens of the Sultans), a History of Bengal, by Ghulam Husain Salim ‘Zayadpuri’. 1787-8.
  5. ↑ Shahryar Governor The Calligraphers of Thatta By Muhammad Abdul Ghafur, 1968, Pakistan-Iran Cultural Association. Page 18.
  6. ↑ Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, By Asiatic Society of Bengal, Asiatic Society (Calcutta, India). Published 1868. p. 218.
  7. ↑ Dictionary of Indo-Persian Literature, by Nabi Hadi, page 554.
  8. ↑ Death of the Emperor (Jahangir) The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period, Sir H. M. Elliot, London, 1867–1877, Vol 6.
  9. ↑ Shahryar Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India, by Ellison Banks Findly, Oxford University Press US, page 275-282, 284, "23 January...".
  10. ↑ Noor Jahan University of Alberta.
  11. ↑ Shah Jahan britannica.com.
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