Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c6.s2.1

v1.c6.s2.1

Muhammad Shāh* had come to the throne in 1719 at the age of 17. For seven years before that event he had been kept under confinement in the palace harem and had received no education such as might fit a man to rule a kingdom or lead an army. He possessed natural intelligence and a good deal of foresight; but the fate of his predecessors, who had been set up and pulled down by their wazirs, effectually crushed any desire that he might have once had to rule for himself and to keep his nobles under control. He, therefore, totally withdrew himself from public business, leaving it to his ministers, and plunged into a life of pleasure and amusement, hardly ever going out of Delhi during his 28 years of reign, except to visit parks in the neighbourhood (usually at Loni) and occasionally to see the annual fair at Garh Mukteshwar (a hundred miles east of Delhi). His only two military movements were to follow in his wazir's train in the short and futile campaigns against Nādir Shāh and Ali Muhammad Ruhela.