The Sayyid Brothers Appointed and Deposed Moghul Emperors at Whim
In the 1710s, two Indian courtiers, the brothers Syed Hassn Ali Khan Bahra and Syed Abdullah Khan, became powerful kingmakers in the Moghul Empire, appointing and deposing emperors as they saw fit. The Sayyid brothers became extremely influential – when they were not outright ruling through puppet emperors – and dominated the Moghul realm until the early 1720s.
They were born into a military family, sons of a general who faithfully served the Emperor Aurangzeb, the Moghul Empire’s last powerful and effective ruler. The Sayyid brothers followed in their father’s footsteps, serving as officers in the Moghul army, and growing steadily more influential in the Moghul court. However, they quit the court in high dudgeon over a slight by an imperial prince, Jahandar.
When Jahandar became emperor in 1712, the Sayyid brothers remembered the slight, and paid him back by backing one of his nephews, Farrukhsiyar, who rose up in rebellion against his uncle. With the Sayyid brothers’ help, Farrukhsiyar defeated his uncle in 1713, and became Moghul emperor. Jahandar was captured, imprisoned, and murdered soon thereafter.
Farrukhsiyar rewarded the Sayyid brothers by appointing them to high ranking positions in his court and government. However, the emperor’s gratitude began to wane within a few years, and when he began favoring other courtiers over the Sayyids, the relationship soured. Open warfare finally erupted in 1719, and ended with the brothers deposing Farrukhsiyar, whom they imprisoned, blinded, and murdered.
The brothers replaced Farrukhsiyar with Rafi ad Darajat, a grandson of a previous emperor. The Sayyids then proceeded to rule the realm, with the new emperor acting as their puppet. It was a short lived puppet show, however, and ended with the new emperor’s death within a few months. So the Sayyids elevated his younger brother, Rafi ad Dawla, to the throne, and continued ruling through their new puppet emperor.
However, just like his brother, Rafi ad Dawla died within a few months of ascending the throne. So the Sayyids picked a new emperor, the third appointed by the brothers in 1719, Muhammad Shah. Unfortunately for the Sayyids, the new emperor was made of sterner stuff than his predecessors, and refused to act as anybody’s puppet. Muhammad Shah had Hassan Ali assassinated in 1720, then defeated his brother Abdullah in 1722, after the latter gathered an army to avenge his sibling. Sayyid Abdullah was captured, and executed in October of 1722, finally ending the brothers’ era of kingmaking.