Emperor Shah Alam II (r. 1760-1806) was born in 1728. His birth name was Ali Gauhar (or Ali Gohar). He was the Crown Prince of his father, Emperor Alamgir II (r. 1754-1759), who was assassinated in 1759 by Imad ul-Mulk (d. 1800), the grand vizier of the Mughal Empire who was allied with the Maratha Empire. After being tortured and fearing for his life, Ali Gauhar fled Delhi with the help of the Lucknow Nawab Shuja al-Daula (r. 1754–75). In 1760 the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani (r. 1747–1772) sacked Delhi, deposed Imad ul-Mulk’s puppet Emperor Shah Jahan III (r. 1759-1760), and installed Shah Alam II as the emperor. Shah Alam II inherited a weakened Mughal Empire plagued by military incursions, including by the Afghan Rohilla chief Ghulam Qadir (d. 1789), who sacked Delhi and blinded Shah Alam II in 1788. In 1803 the British occupied Delhi during the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803-1805), and Shah Alam II continued to rule under British protection.
The blind Shah Alam II is seated on a replacement Peacock Throne, the original of which was plundered by the Iranian King Nadir Shah (r. 1736-1747) during his sack of Delhi in 1739. He is granting an audience, perhaps to a minister. A Persian inscription on the reverse lists the emperor’s epithets, the signature of the artist, Khairullah Musawir (India, active 1800-1815), and the date AH 1215 (1800-1801 CE). (Translation by Z. A. Desai.)
Another version of this portrait is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (IS.114-1986).
