MUHAMMAD SHAH

in full Nasir-ud-din Muhammad Shah born Aug. 7, 1702, Ghazna, Afghanistan died April 6, 1748, Delhi [now in India] ineffective, pleasure-loving Mughal emperor of India from 1719 to 1748. The son of Shah Jahan, Muhammad Shah was made emperor in 1719 by the powerful Sayyid brothers, 'Abdullah and Husayn 'Ali, who had killed the emperor Farrukh-Siyar. In 1720 the assassination of Husayn 'Ali and the defeat of 'Abdullah at the battle of Hasanpur (southwest of Delhi) liberated Muhammad Shah from effective Sayyid control. In 1721 he married the daughter of Farrukh-Siyar. After Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, who was the court-appointed vizier, had left court in disgust in 1724, the provinces steadily slipped out of imperial control: Sadat Khan became practically independent in Oudh; the Afghan Rohilla tribesmen made themselves masters of Rohilkhand (southeast of Delhi); Bengal paid only an annual tribute to Delhi; and the leaders of the Maratha, under the peshwa Baji Rao, made themselves lords of the regions of Gujarat, Malwa, and Bundelkhand and, in 1737, raided Delhi. In 1739 Nader Shah of Iran took advantage of Mughal neglect of the North-West Frontier areas (now in Pakistan) to rout the Mughals at Karnal and occupy Delhi. In March 1748 Muhammad Shah defeated the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani, at Sirhind, thus achieving a success in his final years.