Shahzada Muhammad Hideyat Afza or, in short Mirza Ilahi Baksh (1809 – 21 March 1878), the 23rd head of the
Mughal Dynasty
The Mughal dynasty ( fa, ; ''Dudmân-e Mughal'') comprised the members of the imperial House of Babur
( fa, ; ''Khāndān-e-Āl-e-Bābur''), also known as the Gurkanis ( fa, ; ''Gūrkāniyān''), who ruled the Mughal Empire from to 1857.
Th ...
, was born in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...
in the reign of
Akbar Shah II, the son of Mirza Muhammad Shuja'at Afza Bahadur (c.1750 – 1833), Mirza Ilahi Baksh as lineages he was a great-great-great-great-grandson in a direct male line from
Bahadur Shah I
Bahadur Shah I (14 October 1643 – 27 February 1712), also known as Muhammad Mu'azzam and Shah Alam I. was the eighth Mughal Emperor who ruled from 1707 until his death in 1712. In his youth, he conspired to overthrow his father Aurangzeb, t ...
; as well, through his paternal grandmother Nawab Umdat us-Zamani Begum Sahiba, he was a great-grandson of
Alamgir II.
Little is known of his early life. During the
First War of Independence, he assisted the British forces in their efforts, provided intelligence on the activities of the revolutionaries, attempted to save Christians caught in the fighting and organised the peaceful surrender of
Bahadur Shah II. For his services, Muhammad Hideyat Afza was given the title of Chief Representative and Head of the Royal House of
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...
in 1858, along with the title of
Shahzada and a pension of
Rs.
Rupee is the common name for the currencies of
India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...
22,830. He was granted a ''jagir'' of several villages in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...
and
Meerut
Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capital ...
districts three years later-a far cry from the vast empire his ancestors had ruled. In India and Pakistan, he is widely seen as "traitor". He died in his seventieth year on 21 March 1878.
Family
Shahzada Muhammad Hideyat Afza had 8 wives, by whom he had three sons (by his first wife Abadi Begum) and three daughters:
*Sarwar Sultan Begum Sahiba (1837–1875); married, one daughter.
*Mah Siti Begum Sahiba (1839–1920); married, one son.
*Shahzada Muhammad Sulaiman Shah Bahadur - 24th Head of the
Mughal Dynasty
The Mughal dynasty ( fa, ; ''Dudmân-e Mughal'') comprised the members of the imperial House of Babur
( fa, ; ''Khāndān-e-Āl-e-Bābur''), also known as the Gurkanis ( fa, ; ''Gūrkāniyān''), who ruled the Mughal Empire from to 1857.
Th ...
*Shahzada Muhammad Kaiwan Shah Gorkwani - 25th Head of the Mughal Dynasty
*Mirza Muhammad Iqbal Shah Bahadur (1858–1892)
{{morecat, date=November 2020
1809 births
1878 deaths