Bahadur shah ii biography of donald
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BAHADUR SHAH ZAFAR His Last Days in Burma
Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah, popularly known as Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal ruler, was the eldest son of Mughal Emperor Akbar Shah II, born to his Hindu wife Lalbai in Bahadur Shah was born when the British were still a modest coastal power in India. He ascended the Mughal throne in at the age of
Bahadur Shah was a ruler with wide interest. William Dalrymple (The Last Mughal, ), describes him as “a calligrapher, Sufi, theologian, patron of paintings of miniatures, creator of gardens and a very serious mystical poet…” Interestingly, many remember him for his Urdu poetry more than for his role in the great uprising of He wrote poetry using Zafar, meaning ‘victory’ as the pen-name (takhallus). A large collection of his poetry was compiled later under the title Kulliyat-i Zafar. Bahadur Shah’s reign of 20 years () was regarded as the most ‘creative period’ of the Urdu literature. During his reign Delhi College was
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GEOFFREY Moorhouse, while reviewing William Dalrymple’s book The gods Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi for The Guardian, wrote: “Dalrymple has here written an account of the Indian mutiny such as we have never had before”.
Well, maybe. Dalrymple’s book on Bahadur Shah Zafar is considered an konto to reckon with and both he and his books are now looked at with awe. But how much Dalrymple knows about our history and culture can be judged by the fact that he has made many silly mistakes in City of Djinns, another book by him. In her review of City of Djinns, Tayyaba Tehseen has pointed out a number of such errors. A peculiar western bias and quoting from some barely reliable historians notwithstanding, what Dalrymple says needs to be rechecked as his knowledge about some basic cultural and religious phenomenon of the subcontinent may be hilariously incorrect. Dalrymple, for example, she wrote, has given a false definition of ‘mehr’, the amount of money paid at the time of ‘nik
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Remembering the last Mughal emperor
The great Mughal empire had lost much of its influence and territory by the end of the s. When Zafar came to the throne in , his rule extended only to Delhi and its surroundings. But for his subjects, he always remained Badshah - the King.
Like other Mughal emperors he's said to be a direct descendent of Mongol rulers such as Genghis Khan and Timur. With his death, one of the world's greatest dynasties came to an end.
The British buried him in an unmarked grave to keep his followers away. News of his death took a fortnight to reach India and almost went unnoticed.
Then, for more than years, Zafar faded from memory.
But in recent decades interest in his legacy has been revived.
A s Indian TV serial rekindled memories, and roads bear his name in Delhi and Karachi. Dhaka renamed a park after him.
"Zafar was a remarkable man," historian William Dalrymple, author of The Last Mughal, told the BBC.
"A calligrapher, notab