Muhammad Murad Bakhsh ( fa, ), (9 October 1624 – 14 December 1661) was a Mughal prince and the youngest surviving son of Mughal Emperor

Shah Jahan Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...

and Empress

Mumtaz Mahal Mumtaz Mahal (/'/; ), born Arjumand Banu Begum (27 April 1593 – 17 June 1631) was the empress consort of the Mughal Empire from 19 January 1628 to 17 June 1631 as the chief consort of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. The Taj Mahal in Agra, oft ...

. He was the

Subedar Subedar is a rank of junior commissioned officer in the Indian Army; a senior non-commissioned officer in the Pakistan Army, and formerly a Viceroy's commissioned officer in the British Indian Army. History ''Subedar'' or ''subadar'' was the ...

Balkh ), named for its green-tiled ''Gonbad'' ( prs, گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 , pushpin_map=Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_relief=yes , pushpin_label_position=bottom , pushpin_mapsize=300 , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Afghanistan ...

, till he was replaced by his elder brother

Aurangzeb Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...

in the year 1647.

Family

Muhammad Murad Bakhsh was born on 9 October 1624, at the

Rohtasgarh Fort The Rohtasgarh or Rohtas Fort is located in the Son River valley, in the small town of Rohtas in Bihar, India. Location Rohtasgarh is situated on the upper course of the river Son, 24° 57′ N, 84° 2′E. It takes around two hours from Sas ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

, as the sixth and youngest surviving son of Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Murad's siblings included his two politically powerful sisters, the princesses

Jahanara Begum Jahanara Begum (23 March 1614 – 16 September 1681) was a Mughal princess and later the Padshah Begum of the Mughal Empire from 1631 to 1658 and again from 1668 until her death. She was the second and the eldest surviving child of Emperor Shah ...

and

Roshanara Begum Roshanara Begum ( fa, , lit=Adorned in Light); 3 September 1617 – 11 September 1671) was a Mughal princess and the third daughter of Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Roshanara was a brilliant woman and a talented poet. She ...

, as well as the

heir-apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

to his father, his eldest brother, Crown Prince

Dara Shikoh Dara Shikoh ( fa, ), also known as Dara Shukoh, (20 March 1615 – 30 August 1659) was the eldest son and heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. Dara was designated with the title ''Padshahzada-i-Buzurg Martaba'' ("Prince of High Rank" ...

and the future Mughal Emperor

Personal life

In 1638, Murad Bakhsh, at the age of fourteen years, married the

Safavid Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

princess, Sakina Banu Begum, daughter of Shah Nawaz Khan Safavi. She was the younger sister of his elder sister-in-law,

Dilras Banu Begum Dilras Banu Begum (; 1622 – 8 October 1657) was the first wife and chief consort of Emperor Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor. She is also known by her posthumous title, Rabia-ud-Daurani (" Rabia of the Age"). The Bibi Ka Maqbara in Auranga ...

, who was Aurangzeb's wife.

Governorship

Mogul- Murad Bakhsh - Münzkabinett, Berlin - 5548598

He was appointed as the

Subadar Subedar is a rank of junior commissioned officer in the Indian Army; a senior non-commissioned officer in the Pakistan Army, and formerly a Viceroy's commissioned officer in the British Indian Army. History ''Subedar'' or ''subadar'' was the ...

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

(1642), of

(16 February 1646 to 9 August 1646), of Kashmir (20 August 1647 to July 1648), of

Deccan The large Deccan Plateau in South India, southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bou ...

(25 July 1648 to 14 September 1649), and

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

(23 January 1650 to 1654), of Gujarat (March 1654), and

Malwa Malwa is a historical region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range. Politically and administratively, it is also syno ...

Courtiers

* Raja Aman Khan Bahadur – Died in 1661, Mewat * Darar Khan – Died 1673, Mewat * Muhammad Rustam Shaikh – Died 1648, Deccan. * Muhammad Allahauddin Shaikh – Died 1655. He was brother of Rustam Shaikh. * Miah Khan – Died 1653, Deccan. * Rajkumar Hariram Singh – 1622–1678(56), The Deputy of Murad Baksh from 1646-1651. He was second son of Raja Gaj Singh of Nagpur and the brother of Raja Amar Singh of Nagpur * Rajkumar Veer Singh – 1636–1680(44), Eldest son of Amar Singh of Nagpur.

War of succession

On 30 November 1657, he proclaimed himself emperor at

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

, after reports that his father was ill. During the same year, he received the Ottoman ambassador Manzada Husain Agha, who arrived in the port of

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

and was on his way to meet

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...

. Manzada Husain Agha mentions his disappointment regarding the wars between

's sons. Murad Bakhsh joined hands with

to defeat

Dara Shikhoh Dara Shikoh ( fa, ), also known as Dara Shukoh, (20 March 1615 – 30 August 1659) was the eldest son and heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. Dara was designated with the title ''Padshahzada-i-Buzurg Martaba'' ("Prince of High Rank ...

, the eldest son of Shah Jahan. In fact, it was the ferocious charge led by Murad Bakhsh and his

Sowar Sowar ( ur, سوار, also ''siwar'' meaning "the one who rides" or "rider", from Persian ) was originally a rank during the Mughal Empire and Maratha Empire. Later during the British Raj it was the name in Anglo-Indian usage for a horse-soldi ...

s that eventually turned the outcome of the battle in favor of Aurangzeb during the

Battle of Samugarh Battle of Samugarh, Jang-e-Samugarh, (May 29, 1658), was a deciding battle in the struggle for the throne during the ''Mughal war of succession (1658–1659)'' between the sons of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan after the emperor's serious illness ...

. On 7 July 1658, while he was in a tent with his brother Aurangzeb, he was intoxicated, secretly sent to the prison and transferred to

Gwalior Fort The Gwalior Fort commonly known as the ''Gwāliiyar Qila'', is a hill fort near Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. The fort has existed at least since the 10th century, and the inscriptions and monuments found within what is now the fort campus ind ...

from January 1659. He faced a trial that sentenced him to death for having murdered former Diwan clerk named Ali Naqi, in 1661. Aurangzeb then replaced Murad Bakhsh as the

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

, and placed Inayat Khan as the new Mughal commander of

Death

On 14 December 1661, after spending three years in prison, he was executed at

. With the last of his brothers now dead, Aurangzeb was the undisputed emperor 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 ...

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murad Baksh 1624 births 1661 deaths Mughal princes Timurid dynasty Indian Muslims People from Bihar Subahdars of Gujarat Indian people of Iranian descent