The siege of Golconda occurred in January 1687, when the

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 ...

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 ...

led his forces to besiege the Qutb Shahi dynasty at

Golconda Fort Fort (Telugu: గోల్కొండ, romanized: ''Gōlkōnḍa'') is a historic fortress and ruined city located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It was originally called Mankal. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparud ...

, home of the

Kollur Mine Kollur Mine was a series of gravel-clay pits on the south bank of the Krishna River in the Golconda Sultanate of India. It currently falls within the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is thought to have produced many large diamonds, known as Golcond ...

. The siege of

Golconda Fort (Telugu: గోల్కొండ, romanized: ''Gōlkōnḍa'') is a historic fortress and ruined city located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It was originally called Mankal. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparu ...

lasted 8 months, and on various occasions it pushed the massive Mughal army to its limits. The Golconda Fort was considered to be an impregnable fort on the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

. At the end of the Siege,

and the

Mughals 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 ...

entered Golconda in a decisive victory.

Command

After the

and the Mughal army had conquered two Muslim kingdoms: Nizamshahis of

Ahmednagar Ahmednagar (), is a city located in the Ahmednagar district in the state of Maharashtra, India, about 120 km northeast of Pune and 114 km from Aurangabad. Ahmednagar takes its name from Ahmad Nizam Shah I, who founded the town in 1494 ...

and the

Adilshahi The Adil Shahi or Adilshahi, was a Shia,Salma Ahmed Farooqui, ''A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: From Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century'', (Dorling Kindersley Pvt Ltd., 2011), 174. and later Sunni Muslim,Muhammad Qasim Firishta's ...

s of

Bijapur Bijapur, officially known as Vijayapura, is the district headquarters of Bijapur district of the Karnataka state of India. It is also the headquarters for Bijapur Taluk. Bijapur city is well known for its historical monuments of architectural ...

; the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb assembled a Mughal army and began his siege on

. Aurangzeb had assigned Mir Jumla who served to Golconda till 1655 and later to Mughal Sultanate. Ghaziuddin Khan Siddiqi Firuz Jang son of Khwaja Abid Siddiqi Kilich Khan and Father of Nizam I of Hyderabad Qamaruddin Khan Siddiqi was assigned to bombard the walls of the fort using almost 100 cannons. The Mughal admiral Munnawar Khan was assigned to deliver food and weapons to the besieging Mughal army. The general Dilir Khan was assigned to command the

Matchlock A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Before ...

Sepoy ''Sepoy'' () was the Persian-derived designation originally given to a professional Indian infantryman, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its oth ...

s that tried to penetrate the defenses of

. While

Shaista Khan Mirza Abu Talib (22 November 1600 – 1694), better known as Shaista Khan, was a general and the subahdar of Mughal Bengal. A maternal uncle to the emperor Aurangzeb, he acted as a key figure during his reign. Shaista Khan initially governed ...

Murshid Quli Khan Murshid Quli Khan ( fa, , bn, মুর্শিদকুলি খান; 1660 – 30 June 1727), also known as Zamin Ali Quli and born as Surya Narayan Mishra, was the first Nawab of Bengal, serving from 1717 to 1727. Born a Hindu in the De ...

and Ibrahim Khan commanded the rest of the army and it's reserves around

and throughout all the Qutbshahi territory.

Siege

As the Qutbshahi ruler of

Abul Hasan Qutb Shah Abul Hasan Qutb Shah, also known as Abul Hasan Tana Shah was the eighth and last ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, sovereign of the Kingdom of Golconda in South India. He ruled from 1672 to 1686. The last Sultan of this Shia Islamic dynasty, Tan ...

refused to surrender to the Mughals, he and his servicemen fortified themselves at

, and fiercely protected the

, which was then the world's only

diamond mine There are a limited number of commercially available diamond mines currently operating in the world, with the 50 largest mines accounting for approximately 90% of global supply. Diamonds are also mined alluvially over disperse areas, where dia ...

at that time. His most experienced Golconda commander Muqarrab Khan defected to the Mughals. The Qutbshahis had constructed massive fortifications throughout successive generations on a granite hill over 400 feet high with an enormous 8-mile wall enclosing the city. The main gates of

had the ability to repulse any

War elephant A war elephant was an elephant that was trained and guided by humans for combat. The war elephant's main use was to charge the enemy, break their ranks and instill terror and fear. Elephantry is a term for specific military units using elephant ...

attack, as they had iron spikes on the gates to damage the advancing Mughal elephants. In January 1687, the

Aurangzeb led his grand Mughal army against the

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 ...

Qutbshahi ruler taking refuge in

. Aurangzeb had surrounded

and alongside about 100

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

s began siege operations. In order to breach the

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

walls of

, Firuz Jang was appointed to utilize the massive ''Rahban'', ''Fateh Rahber'' and the most impressive cannon during the siege known as the ''Azhdaha-Paikar'' (python body) it had the ability to shoot cannonballs weighing over 50 kg. In response to the Mughal bombardment

fired from his powerful high-vicinity mortar called the ''Pata Burj'', and according to Saqi Mustad Khan bamboo rockets were also utilized day and night against Mughal encampments. Meanwhile, due to heavy rains the Manjera River over-flooded and the scarcity of food supplies became a dire complication, this led to the death of many animals and caused malnourished troops to get ill. Fearing a possible counterattack organized from the fort, Aurangzeb ordered the construction of a fortified position made of wood and mud, which would house and organize Mughal attacking parties. The intense cannon fire from

against the approaching

eventually caused the death of the experienced Mughal commander Kilich Khan Khwaja Abid Siddiqi and furthermore Aurangzeb was grieved by the death of his long-time commander Gaziuddin Khan Siddiqi Bahadur Firuz Jang, who died of natural causes. Although the Qutbshahi's maintained impregnable efforts defending their walls, at night the

Aurangzeb and his infantry of assembled and erected complex

scaffold Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other man-made structures. Scaffolds are widely used ...

ing that allowed them to scale the high walls. Aurangzeb also ordered his men to throw ''huqqa'' (

grenades A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade gene ...

) while scaling the fortified wall and were reinforced by

s and

Composite bow A composite bow is a traditional bow made from horn, wood, and sinew laminated together, a form of laminated bow. The horn is on the belly, facing the archer, and sinew on the outer side of a wooden core. When the bow is drawn, the sinew (stret ...

s. While most of these attacks remained largely unsuccessful, they managed to demoralize the defenders of

. During the eight-month siege the Mughals faced many hardships like small-scale famines for weeks at a time, but whenever the Mughal Admiral Munnawar Khan arrived with supplies and weapons with his river fleet,

would intensify the siege. Although the Qutbshahi's maintained formidable efforts defending their walls, the siege had become unbearable for the officials in service of the Qutbshahi's and finally Sarandaz Khan revealed a back door that led directly to the

, immediately after the Mughals stormed the fort, Sarandaz Khan opened the gates that allows the

's army to enter. The Mughal army led by

Ghazi ud-Din Khan Feroze Jung I Mir Shahâb ud-Din Siddiqi titled Farzand-i-Arjumand, Nawab Ghazi ud-din Khan Siddiqi Bayafandi Bahadur, Feroze Jung I, Sipah Salar (c. 1649–1710) was the son of Kilich Khan Khwaja Abid Khan Siddiqi Bayafandi the ''Sadr us Sudur'' of Mughal ...

, the son of the fallen Kilich Khan Khwaja Abid Siddiqi was among the first to enter the gates. He immediately charged towards the citadel of

, eventually taking him prisoner by surprise. Firuz Jang and his forces occupied

and the Mughal reserves, disarmed the defenders of the fort and paved their way for the entry of victorious

was later repaired and armed with superior cannons.

is known to have spared the Qutbshahi servicemen, the ruler of

, however, was imprisoned in

Daulatabad Fort Daulatabad Fort, also known as Devagiri Fort or Deogiri Fort, is a historic fortified citadel located in Daulatabad village near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. It was the capital of the Yadava dynasty (9th century–14th century CE), for a br ...

by the orders of the

Aftermath

The

and his army managed to penetrate the walls by capturing a gate prompting the Qutbshahi's of

and the ruler

to surrender peacefully and hand over the Nur-Ul-Ain Diamond, Great Stone Diamond, Kara Diamond, Darya-e-Nur, the

Hope Diamond The Hope Diamond is a diamond originally extracted in the 17th century from the Kollur Mine in Guntur, India. It is blue in color due to trace amounts of boron. Its exceptional size has revealed new information about the formation of diamonds. ...

, the

Wittelsbach Diamond The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond is a deep-blue diamond with internally flawless clarity, originating in the Kollur Mine, India. Laurence Graff purchased the Wittelsbach Diamond in 2008 for £16.4 million. In 2010, Graff revealed he had h ...

and the

Regent Diamond The Regent Diamond is a diamond owned by the French state and on display in the Louvre, worth £48,000,000. History Discovery According to legend, the diamond was discovered by an enslaved man in the Kollur Mine near the Krishna River a ...

References

{{Authority control

History of Telangana 1687 in India