Jahan Shah | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Emperor of Mughal Empire | |||||
17th Mughal Emperor | |||||
Reign | 31 July 1788 - 16 October 1788 | ||||
Coronation | 31 July 1788 at Red Fort, Delhi | ||||
Predecessor | Shah Alam II | ||||
Successor | Shah Alam II | ||||
Regent | Ghulam Qadir (1788) | ||||
Born | 1749 | ||||
Died | 1790 | ||||
Issue | Najabat Afruz Banu Begum Muhammadi Begum Sahiba |
||||
|
|||||
Dynasty | Timurid | ||||
Father | Ahmad Shah Bahadur |
Full name | |
---|---|
Bidar Bakht Mahmud Shah Bahadur |
Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad Kuchuk Jahan Shah Padshah Ghazi also called Bidar Bakht Mahmud Shah Bahadur (1749 – 1790), was Mughal Emperor of India for a brief period in 1788 as a puppet of Ghulam Qadir, after Shah Alam II had been deposed and blinded. He was the son of the former Mughal Emperor Ahmad Shah Bahadur. He was deposed in the same year by the Marathas and killed in 1790 on the orders of Emperor Shah Alam II, though it was he who had helped Shah Alam II during his brief reign by sending him water and food secretly when Ghulam Qadir had ordered that no food or water be supplied to the deposed Emperor. He had been made Subahdar of Punjab on 12 November 1752 as a child.
Shahzada Bidar Bakht was born to Emperor Ahmad Shah in the year 1749, and afterwards given the titles Mahmud Shah Bahadur and Banka (champion). Little is known about his childhood except that he was appointed as the titular Subahdar (governor) of the province of Punjab on 12 November 1752 (when in fact, the province had already been ceded to Ahmad Shah Abdali).
After his father's deposition in 1754, he was kept in confinement in the Salatin quarters of Delhi, where the progeny of all previous Mughal Emperors resided in poverty and neglect. As a result, these princes had in them a desire to be named Mughal Emperor at any cost, even though they knew that their reigns, imposed only through usurpation of any previous emperor's rule, would likely be short and fatal. This would manifest itself very clerly in the case of Prince Mahmud Shah.
In 1788, Ghulam Qadir took over the Red Fort of Delhi from Emperor Shah Alam II's supporters through false promises, and an opportunity presented itself to the children of the ex-emperor Ahmad Shah. The ex-queens, Malika-uz-Zamani and Sahiba Begum, widows of emperor Muhammad Shah, entreated Ghulam Qadir to place Prince Mahmud Shah, the eldest living son of Ahmad Shah, as the new emperor, upon payment of 1.2 million Rupees. Ghulam Qadir, already looking for a way lo legitimize to some extent his treatment of the Timurid family, accepted. Hence, Mahmud Shah ascended the throne on 31 July as Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad Kuchuk Jahan Shah Padshah Ghazi.