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Bahadur Shah Zafar or Bahadur Shah II (Persian: بهادرشاه ظفر) (born as Mirza Abu Zafar Siraj-ud-din Muhammad) was the last Mughal emperor. He was the second son of and became the successor to his father, Akbar II, upon his death on 28 September 1837. He was a nominal Emperor, as the Mughal Empire existed in name only and his authority was limited only to the walled city of Old Delhi (Shahjahanbad). Following his involvement in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British exiled him to Rangoon in British-controlled Burma (now in Myanmar), after convicting him on several charges.
Zafar's father, Akbar II had been imprisoned by the British and he was not his father's preferred choice as his successor. One of Akbar Shah's queens, Mumtaz Begum, pressured him to declare her son, Mirza Jahangir, as his successor. However, The East India Company exiled Jahangir after he attacked their resident, in the Red Fort, paving the way for Zafar to assume the throne. |
