The Mughal emperor who was deposed by his own bureaucrats and eventually strangled
In short: Farrukhsiyar reigned as the tenth Mughal Emperor from 1713 to 1719, yet he was an emperor in name only. His rise to power relied entirely on the military might of the Sayyid brothers, who quickly seized control of the state and ultimately orchestrated his brutal downfall and execution.
Born in 1683, Farrukhsiyar was a grandson of the emperor Aurangzeb. His path to the throne was forged in the chaos following the death of his grandfather and his father, Azim-ush-Shan. After his uncle Jahandar Shah seized power, Farrukhsiyar sought revenge, securing the crucial military backing of two powerful courtiers: Abdullah Khan and Husayn Ali Khan Bāraha. With their support, he defeated his uncle in 1713 at Samugarh, near Agra, and claimed the imperial title.
The partnership between the new emperor and the Sayyid brothers fractured almost immediately. Abdullah Khan demanded the position of vizier, a post Farrukhsiyar had initially promised elsewhere. Although the emperor eventually conceded, the relationship was poisoned by mutual suspicion. Aides such as Mir Jumla III and Khan Dauran encouraged Farrukhsiyar to fear that his benefactors intended to usurp his throne. In return, the Sayyids viewed the emperor as a man of no faith who disregarded the services they had performed to secure his position.
As the Sayyid brothers maintained control over the strongest segments of the imperial army, they effectively became the de facto rulers of the Mughal Empire. Farrukhsiyar’s reign was characterized by a lack of decisive leadership and failed attempts to undermine his own ministers. By 1719, the bureaucracy turned against him entirely. The Sayyids deposed the emperor, subjected him to blinding and imprisonment, and finally had him strangled to death in April 1719. He was later interred at Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, marking a tragic end for a ruler who became the first Mughal emperor to be removed by his own officials.
This period reflected the broader instability of the era, as Mughal authority struggled against the rise of local powers, including the Jats and the Marwari nobles. Despite Farrukhsiyar’s efforts to restore control, such as sending Husayn Ali Khan to subjugate Ajit Singh of Marwar, the internal rot caused by the power struggle between the emperor and his viziers rendered his administration largely ineffective.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Farrukh-Siyar | Mughal ruler | Britannica
- Also: Farrukhsiyar
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