Bahadur Shah I

Title & tenure

10th Mughal Emperor (1707–1712)

In office: 19 June 1707 – 27 February 1712

Predecessor:

Azam Shah

Successor:

Jahandar Shah

Biography

Bahadur Shah I, born Prince Muazzam, was Aurangzeb's eldest surviving son and already in his sixties when he won the war of succession against his brothers to become emperor, inheriting an empire increasingly strained by decades of warfare and growing regional defiance.

Achievements

• Attempted to stabilize relations with the Rajputs and other regional powers through negotiation rather than continued war
• Sought a degree of reconciliation with the Sikh community, though conflict with Sikh forces under Banda Singh Bahadur continued

Key events

• Defeated and killed his brother Azam Shah at the Battle of Jajau (1707) to secure the throne
• Spent much of his reign campaigning against Sikh resistance in Punjab, particularly forces led by Banda Singh Bahadur

Legacy

Bahadur Shah I is sometimes seen as the last Mughal emperor to exercise genuine, if diminished, imperial authority; after his death, the empire fell into a rapid cycle of short reigns and powerful kingmaker nobles often called the era of the "later Mughals".

How it ended

Died of natural causes at Lahore in 1712, after which his sons fought yet another war of succession.