Page 163 - Lohgarh

Death of Emperor Bahadur Shah w 163

th
Bahadur Shah. Finally, after a period of 43 days, on the 12 of April
1712, the dead- body of the Emperor was taken to Delhi under the
escort of his widow Mehar Parvar and one Mohammed Khan. 11 It
reached Delhi on the 16 th of May, and, after decay and ‘insult’ of 67
days, it was buried in the compound of a mosque built by Aurangzeb,
near the mausoleum of Bakhtiar Kaki, close to Qutub Minar.

Battle For Succession

After the death of Bahadur Shah, all the generals of the royal army,
including Mohammed Amin Khan, who had been engaged in the
expedition against the Sikhs, returned to Lahore. This gave some relief
to the Sikhs.
At Lahore, all the four sons of Bahadur Shah fought a bloody battle
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for the throne of Delhi. On the 3 of March 1712, a fierce battle was
fought between the forces of Jahandar Shah and Azimushan on the
banks of river Raavi. The first royal casualty of this battle was prince
12
Azimushan (father of Farukhsiyar) who was killed by Abdus Samad Khan
(father of Zakaria Khan, later the Governor of Lahore). Abdus Samad
Khan was fully loyal to prince Jahandar Shah. When Azimushan was
dead, Abdus Samad Khan carried his dead-body and threw it in front of
Jahandar Shah.
The second battle was fought between the armies of Jahandar Shah
on one hand and the armies of Rafiushan (Rafi-ul-Qadir) and Jahan Shah
(Khuzishta Akhtar) on the other hand. At first, Jahan Shah had an upper
hand; his companions Rustam Dil Khan, Jani Khan and Mukhlis Khan
defeated the forces of Jahandar Shah and they also arrested Azz-ud-
Din (son of Jahandar Shah). The next day, when Jahan Shah,
accompanied by his son Farkhanda Akhtar, was going to his camp, Abdus
Samad Khan fired a ball from cannon and killed both of them. After
this, the companions of Jahan Shah surrendered and also released Azz-
Ud-Din (son of Jahandar Shah).
After the death of Azimushan and Jahan Shah, now, Jahandar Shah
and Rafiushan fought against each other. In the wee hours of the next
morning, Rafiushan made a forceful attack on the army of Jahandar