Ahmad Shah Bahadur

أحمد شاه بهادر

–

Delhi

Ahmad Shah Bahadur (23 December 1725 – 1 January 1775) was the fourteenth Mughal emperor, a son of Muhammad Shah, reigning from 1748 to 1754. As a prince he defeated Ahmad Shah Abdali at Manupur in 1748, but as emperor he left the state to rival factions until the vizier Imad-ul-Mulk deposed and blinded him; he spent the rest of his life a prisoner at Delhi.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
sultan
Region
South Asia
Identifiers
Wikidata
Review

Life in time

1675170017251750177518001825
The Colonial Era · The Gunpowder Empires Contemporaries: Abdulaziz ibn Muhammad Al Saud · Ahmed Resmi Efendi (Ottoman statesman, envoy and historian, 1700–1783) · Azad Bilgrami · Damat Melek Mehmet Pasha · Ibrahim Haqqi al-Erzurumi

In space

Delhi

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Place in the story

    Unknown (unknown)

    Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

    Summary

    Ahmad Shah Bahadur (23 December 1725 – 1 January 1775) was the fourteenth Mughal emperor, reigning from 29 April 1748 to 2 June 1754, a son of the emperor Muhammad Shah and Qudsia Begum 1.

    Reign and fall

    As a prince he won his reputation at the Battle of Manupur in 1748, defeating Ahmad Shah Abdali's invasion 1. Crowned the same year on his father's death, he left the affairs of a weakening empire to rival court factions, and power gathered in the hands of the vizier Imad-ul-Mulk, who deposed and blinded him in 1754 and raised Alamgir II in his place 1. He spent the remaining twenty years of his life a prisoner at Delhi and died there on 1 January 1775; he was buried at the Moti Masjid in Mehrauli 1 2.

    Faith

    His legal school is unattested in the sources consulted. The English article's infobox gives Sunni Islam (Hanafi) 1, but the Arabic article's infobox leaves the religion field blank 3 and Wikidata records Islam generically 2; a single structured attestation does not settle a school.

    Notes for researchers

    The English article and Wikidata agree at day precision on both his birth (23 December 1725) and his death (1 January 1775) 1 2. His father Muhammad Shah has no museum record yet, so no father edge is recorded. He was not a son of Alamgir II — Alamgir II was the successor placed on the throne after his deposition.

    Connections

    Explore the connections

    Born in
    Delhi
    Died in
    Delhi

    People and things also explored

    Coronation of Aurangzeb at Delhi· Founding of Shahjahanabad· Humayun returns to Delhi, 962 AH· Ibn Battuta named envoy to China· Completion of the Jama Masjid of Delhi· Nadir Shah sacks Delhi (1739)· Inauguration of the Red Fort, Delhi· Siege of Delhi

    Sources

    1. Ahmad Shah Bahadur — English Wikipedia
    2. Ahmad Shah Bahadur — Wikidata Q400807
    3. أحمد شاه بهادر — Arabic Wikipedia
    • احمد شاہ بہادر — Urdu Wikipedia
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “Ahmad Shah Bahadur”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/ahmad-shah-bahadur/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-01.

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    Related

    Coronation of Aurangzeb at Delhi

    Aurangzeb crowned himself Mughal emperor at Delhi in 1659, after the war of succession against his brothers.