Nasir-ud-Din Muḥammad Shah (born Roshan Akhtar) (7 August 1702 – 26 April 1748) was Mughal emperor from 1719 to 1748. He was son of Khujista Akhtar, the fourth son of Bahadur Shah I. With the help of the Sayyid brothers, he ascended the throne at the young age of 17. He later got rid of them with the help of Asaf Jah I – Syed Hussain Ali Khan was murdered at Fatehpur Sikri in 1720 and Syed Hassan Ali Khan Barha was fatally poisoned in 1722. Muhammad Shah was a great patron of the arts, including musical, cultural and administrative developments. His pen-name was Sada Rangila ("ever joyous") and he is often referred to as "Muhammad Shah Rangila".

Although he was a patron of the arts, Muhammad Shah's reign was marked by rapid and irreversible decline of the Mughal Empire. The Mughal Empire was already decaying, but the invasion by Nader Shah of Persia and the subsequent sacking of Delhi, the Mughal capital, greatly accelerated the pace. The course of events not only shocked and mortified the Mughals themselves, but also foreign invaders, including the British.

Muhammad Shah was born in 1702 in Ghazna (in modern-day Afghanistan) to Prince Khujista Akhtar, during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. His grandfather Bahadur Shah I defeated and eliminated his own brother Muhammad Azam Shah on 19 June 1707 at the Battle of Jajau. During another war of succession, following the death of Bahadur Shah, his father was killed, and the 12-year-old prince and his mother were imprisoned by his uncle Jahandar Shah but spared from death. The prince was handsome and quick to learn, and his mother took good care of his education, while his father enhanced his administrative abilities. After the overthrow of Farrukhsiyar in 1719, several Mughal Emperors briefly ascended the throne, but the Sayyid Brothers eventually chose 17-year-old Muhammad Shah as emperor.

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