Shahzada Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur also known as Mirza Fakhru ( 1816 or 1818 – 10 July 1856) was the last Crown Prince of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

Biography

A senior Prince of the Mughal Royal Family, he was the son of

Bahadur Shah Zafar Bahadur Shah II, usually referred to by his poetic title Bahadur Shah ''Zafar'' (; ''Zafar'' Victory) was born Mirza Abu Zafar Siraj-ud-din Muhammad (24 October 1775 – 7 November 1862) and was the twentieth and last Mughal Emperor as well a ...

, the last

Mughal Emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...

, through his wife Rahim Bukhsh Bai Begum.The House of Timur:: Delhi's Royal Family
Fath-ul-Mulk was named Crown Prince in 1853. However he predeceased his father, dying of

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

in 1856. Other sources suggest that he was poisoned.

Family

Fath-ul-Mulk was an older brother of Prince

Mirza Mughal Sultan Muhammad Zahir ud-din, better known as well Mirza Mughal (1817 – 23 September 1857), was a Mughal prince. He played a significant role during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He was one of the Mughal princes shot dead at one of the gat ...

and the younger brother of former Crown Prince Mirza Dara Bakht. Fath-ul-Mulk married several wives and was the father of several children. Among his wives was Wazir Khanum, daughter of a rich jeweller and a well-known beauty of the time. Wazir Khanum had previously been married to Shamshuddin, Nawab of

Ferozepur Jhirka Ferozepur Jhirka, also known as Ferojpur Jhirka, is a town, near Nuh city in Nuh district in the state of Haryana, India. History Ferozepur Jhirka was founded in 1419 by Wali (patriarch) of Mewat, Khanzada Feroz Khan who styled himself as Raj ...

, a relative and close friend of

Mirza Ghalib ) , birth_date = , birth_place = Kala Mahal, Agra, Maratha Confederacy , death_date = , death_place = Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, Delhi, British India , occupation = Poet , language ...

, and she had borne Nawab Shamshuddin a son, the noted poet Dagh Dehlvi. After the Nawab was hanged for plotting and paying for the murder of British officer William Fraser, Wazir Khanum married Fath-ul-Mulk, and he thus became the step-father of Dagh Dehlvi, who would later become a famous poet. Among Fath-ul-Mulk's own sons were

Mirza Abu Bakht Shahzada Mirza Abu Bakht (1835–1857) was a Mughal prince. Abu Bakht was the son of Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur who was the last crown prince of the Mughal Empire and the eldest son of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. He was the olde ...

and Mirza Fakhrunda Jamal. Among his daughters was Sikander Jehan Begum, who was married to a sufi mystic and became the mother of two daughters and a son, Mirza Qutb-e-Alam.

Sources

External links

{{commons category-inline, Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk 1810s births 1856 deaths Mughal princes Timurid dynasty People from Delhi Deaths from cholera Heirs apparent who never acceded