Farrukhsiyar

Farrukhsiyar receiving Hussain Ali Khan, ca. 1715

Abu'l Muzaffar Muin ud-din Muhammad Shah Farrukh-siyar Alim Akbar Sani Wala Shan Padshah-i-bahr-u-bar (Persian: ابو المظفر معید الدین محمد شاه فرخ‌ سیر علیم اکبر ثانی والا شان پادشاه بحر و بر‎), also known as Shahid-i-Mazlum (Persian: شهید مظلوم‎), or Farrukhsiyar (Persian: فرخ‌ سیر‎) (20 August 1685 – 19 April 1719), was the Mughal emperor from 1713 to 1719 after he murdered Jahandar Shah. Reportedly a handsome man who was easily swayed by his advisers, he lacked the ability, knowledge and character to rule independently. Farrukhsiyar was the son of Azim-ush-Shan (the second son of emperor Bahadur Shah I) and Sahiba Nizwan.

Quotes

• A heart is mad with wine, give it wine,
  It is consumed with fire, give it fire.
  To him who asks the state of my heart,
  Breathe but a sigh, give that as answer.
  • Later Mughals, Vol. 1, p. 39, these verse attributed to him during his imprisonment

• Farrukh Siyar s order abolishing the Jizyah, passed largely due to the exigencies of the Civil War, did not continue in force for long In April 1717. It was abrogated at the instance of Inayatullah Khan, the ex-Munshi and blind admirer of Aurangzeb.’ Explaining the reimposition of Jizyah, Farrukh Siyar wrote to Raja Sawai Jai Singh... Inayatullah Khan has placed before me a letter from the Sheriff of Mecca that the collection of Jizyah is obligatory according to sharia. In a matter of faith, I am helpless (I cannot interfere).” The real causes, however, were different. At the time Farrukh Siyar was engaged in building a bloc against the Sayyids. By consenting to Jizyah he won over Inayatullah Khan to his side, and also hoped to rally orthodoxy to his cause.
  • Explaining the reimposition of Jizyah. Farrukh Siyar letter to Raja Sawai Jai Singh on 4 Jamadi II, Saneh 6/15 May 1717, in: "Mughal Religious Policies The Rajputs And The Deccan" also quoted in Jain, M. (2013). Rama and Ayodhya., p 109

• …The dust of whose feet is the crown of all. Farrukh Siyar the king, by the fame of whose justice, the creation and the world are in the cradle of repose. The sky of beneficence, Haidar Qulî Khãn during whose reign tyranny has become extinct… By the grace of God he completed it… He laid waste several idol temples, in order to make this strong building firm… (1) “[During] the period of the second ‘Ãlamgîr, king of the faith, Farrukh Siyar, whose sword became the guardian of the realm of Islãm. The hand of his justice struck a blow on the head of Naushîrwãn (i.e., surpassed him in justice), the country and the nation everywhere secured tranquility by his justice. Mîr ‘Ãlam, sincere friend of Haidar Qulî Khãn, a reservoir of water constructed in Sûrat, which became life-giving to the high and the low. Salsabîl (a fountain of Paradise) of the Ka‘ba of heart, this reservoir of the water of life. The inspirer communicated this chronogram and showed eloquence. As its bricks were taken from an idol temple, one rose and said, Mîr ‘Ãlam became the founder of this reservoir by revelation 1130. (2)
  • Two Persian inscriptions in Surat, Gujarat. Gopî Talão. ca. 1718. Epigraphia Indo - Moslemica. 1933-34, p. 41-42. quoted from Shourie, A., & Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II.

External links

• Jadunath Sarkar: Later Mughals, Volume 1, Edition M. C. Sarkar & Sons, Calcutta, India, 1922