27. The Siblings Who Made and Unmade Emperors at Will
To reward the Sayyid brothers, Farrukhsiyar appointed them to high positions in his court and government. However, the emperor’s gratitude waned within a few years, and when he began to favor other courtiers over the Sayyids, the relationship soured. Open warfare finally erupted in 1719, and the brothers won, deposed Farrukhsiyar, then imprisoned, blinded, and ended him. They replaced Farrukhsiyar with Rafi ad Darajat, a grandson of a previous emperor. The Sayyids then proceeded to rule the realm, with the new emperor as their puppet. It was a short-lived puppet show, however, and ended with the new emperor’s demise within a few months.
So the Sayyids elevated his younger brother, Rafi ad Dawla, to the throne, and continued to rule through their new puppet emperor. However, just like his brother, Rafi ad Dawla perished 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 Sayyid Hussain Ali assassinated in 1720, then defeated his brother Hassan in 1722, after the latter gathered an army to avenge his brother. Sayyid Hassan was captured, and executed in October of 1722. That finally ended the Sayyid brothers’ kingmaker era. By then, however, they had already inflicted permanent damage on the Mughal Dynasty, from which it never recovered.
