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These People Were The Real Power Behind The Throne

Khalid Elhassan July 13, 2023 32 min

A terrified Claudius pleads for mercy, as the Praetorians prepare to enthrone him. Imgur

9. The Sayyid Brothers Made and Unmade Emperors Seemingly at Will

Power - Syed Hussain Ali Khan — Syed Hussain Ali Khan. British Museum

Open warfare finally erupted in 1719, and ended when the Sayyid brothers removed Farrukhsiyar from power. Not in a mood to forgive and forget, they imprisoned, blinded, and finally murdered him. The brothers replaced Farrukhsiyar with Rafi ad Darajat, a grandson of a previous emperor. They 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 death 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 died only a few months after he was crowned. So the Sayyids picked a new emperor, the third appointed by the brothers in 1719, Muhammad Shah. Unfortunately for the siblings, 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 brother. Sayyid Abdullah was captured, and executed in October of 1722.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.