Mughal Royal Family

The Mughal dynasty () or the House of Babur (), was a Central Asian dynasty of Turco-Mongol origin that ruled large parts of the Indian subcontinent from the early 16th to the 19th century. The dynasty was a cadet branch of the Timurid dynasty, which had ruled in parts of Central Asia and Iran in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The Mughals originated as a branch of the Central Asian Timurid Dynasty which belonged to the Barlas tribe, which was a branch of the Borjigin Clan. Babur (1483–1530), the founder of the Mughal dynasty, was a direct descendant of the Asian conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) through his father and Mongol emperor Genghis Khan through his mother. Many of the later Mughal emperors had significant Indian and Persian ancestry through marriage alliances.

During much of the Empire's history, the emperor functioned as the absolute Head of State, Head of government and Head of the military, while during its declining era much of the power shifted to the office of the Grand Vizier and the empire became divided into many regional kingdoms and princely states. However, even in the declining era, the Mughal Emperor continued to be the highest manifestation of sovereignty on the Indian subcontinent. Not only the Muslim gentry, but the Maratha, Rajput, and Sikh leaders took part in ceremonial acknowledgements of the Emperor as the sovereign of India.

After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was arrested by the British East India Company and put on trial for treason. He was then deposed and exiled to Rangoon in Burma, where he spent the last days of his life, marking the formal abolishment of the Mughal Empire on 21 September 1857.

The British Empire declared the establishment of the British Raj the following year.

Name

History

The Mughal dynasty was founded in 1526 by Babur, a Timurid prince from Andijan in the Fergana Valley (present-day Uzbekistan), After losing his ancestral domains in Central Asia, Babur first established himself in Kabul and ultimately moved towards the Indian subcontinent. Mughal rule was interrupted for 16 years when Babur's son, Humayun briefly lost control of the empire to Sher Shah Suri but later reclaimed it in 1555.

The Mughal imperial structure was founded by Akbar the Great around the 1580s which lasted until the 1740s, until shortly after the Battle of Karnal. During the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, the dynasty reached its zenith in terms of geographical extent, economy, military and cultural influence.

Around 1700, the dynasty was ruling the wealthiest empire in the world, with also the largest military on earth. Mughals had approximately 24 percent share of the world's economy and a military of one million soldiers. At that time the Mughals ruled almost the whole of South Asia with over 150 million subjects, approximately one-quarter of the global population. The Dynasty's power rapidly dwindled during the 18th century with internal dynastic conflicts, incompatible monarchs, foreign invasions from Persians and Afghans, as well as revolts from Marathas, Sikh, Rajputs and regional Nawabs. The power of the last emperor was limited only to the Walled city of Delhi.

Dynastic Succession

The Mughals followed the Turco-Mongol tradition of not following a strict rule of primogeniture, instead the throne was open to contest by any male member of the dynasty, even though an heir apparent was appointed several times in dynastic history. This led to internal struggles, civil wars and even fratricide between the princes who wanted to win the Peacock Throne. To go into greater detail about these processes, the history of succession between Emperors can be divided into two eras: Era of Imperial successions (1526–1713) and Era of Regent successions (1713–1857).

Disputed claimants to the dynasty

After the fall of Delhi in 1857 and the exile of Bahadur Shah Zafar II to Rangoon, the Mughal dynasty effectively ceased to exist as a ruling power. With the formal abolition of the Mughal Empire by the British in 1858, members of the imperial family were either imprisoned, exiled, or scattered across the subcontinent.

The Mughal Emperors practiced polygamy. Besides their wives, they also had several concubines in their harem, who produced children. This makes it difficult to identify all the offspring of each emperor.

A man in India named Habeebuddin Tucy claims to be a descendant of Bahadur Shah II, but his claim is not universally believed. Another woman named Sultana Begum who lives in the slums of Kolkata has claimed that her late husband, Mirza Mohammad Bedar Bakht was the great-grandson of Bahadur Shah II.

After 1858, the British did not agree on restoring any sort of Mughal authority. However a few descendants were recognized as the Representatives of the Mughal Dynasty, gaining pensions and symbolic recognition, although they held no actual political power. In the years since, various individuals have claimed Mughal descent, occasionally gaining Media attention, but these claims are disputed and mostly incorrect without legal or official standing.

Nevertheless, certain branches of the family were recognized by the British and the Governments of India and Pakistan, and some descendants to this day are regarded as the symbolical and ceremonial heirs of the Mughal Empire.

Heads of the Mughal Dynasty (Since 1857)

References

Further reading

* {{cite book , last=Asher , first=Catherine Ella Blanshard , year=2003 , orig-year=First published 1992 , title=Architecture of Mughal India , series=The New Cambridge History of India , volume=I:4 , publisher=Cambridge University Press , page=368 , isbn=978-0-521-26728-1

Emperors of the Mughal Empire
Mughal nobility
Maturidis
Dynasties of India