Misplaced Pages

Grand Vizier of Hindustan
Last to hold office Asaf-ud-Daula
Appointer	Mughal emperor
Formation	21 April 1526
First holder	Amir Nizamu-d din Khalifa
Final holder	Asaf-ud-Daula
Abolished	21 September 1797

The Grand Vizier of Hindustan (Hindustani: Vazir-ul-Mamlikat-i-Hindustan) was the highest ranking minister in the Mughal Empire and the chief adviser to the emperor himself. The position acted as the de facto head of government of the Mughal Empire and had responsibility for leading the ministers of the Empire. This is the list of grand viziers (vazīr-e azam) of the Mughal Empire.

History

The seniormost official under the Mughals, or the Prime Minister, held different titles such as Vakil, Vakil-us-Sultanat, Wazir, Diwan, Diwan-i-Ala and Diwan Wazir under different Mughal emperors. Under Babur and Humayun, the institution of the wazirat was not fully developed owing to a lack of an entrenched nobility and political upheaval. Nonetheless, individuals under both rulers did rise to positions equivalent to the position of prime minister and under Humayun reforms were first attempted to clarify the roles of Vakil and Wazir.

In the early years of Akbar's reign, the position of prime minister was first officially held by Bairam Khan as Vakil-us-Sultanat, and he exercised considerable influence over the emperor. Over time the power of the Vakil gradually declined, and during the reign of his successor Jahangir the role of Wazir replaced the Vakil as the most important officer in government. Mughal wazirs were specifically appointed from the ahl-i-qalam(men of the pen) as distinct from the ahl-i-saif(men of the sword). With the abolishment of the post of Wakil, the post was divided into the two offices of Wazir and Mir Bakhshi, where the chief Wazir was the head of the finance department, while the Mir Bakhshi was the head of the military department. These two offices were made jointly responsible for the administration by a system of signatures and counter-signatures. Until the death of Aurangzeb, the post of Wazir was never a threat to the monarchy as the Wazir could not act too independently. However, after the death of Aurangzeb, the pre-mughal tradition in India of the Wazir being the premier noble at the court and leading counsellor of the king apart from being the head of the financial administration had been re-established.

List of grand viziers

Portrait	Name	Term of office		Notable events	Emperor
	Amir Nizamuddin Khalifa	21 April 1526	17 May 1540	1st Battle of Panipat Battle of Khanwa	Babur (1526 – 1530) & Humayun (1530 – 1540)
	Qaracha Khan	1540	?	He was a governor of Qandahar and Humayun appoint him as Grand-Vizier of the Mughal State.	Humayun (1530 – 1556)
	Bairam Khan	1556	March/April 1560		Akbar-i-Azam اکبر اعظم (1556-1605)
	Munim Khan	1560	1561
	Ataga Khan	November 1561	16 May 1562	He was assassinated by Adham Khan
	Muzaffar Khan Turbati	1575	1579	No Vakil was appointed after his appointment to governorship in Bengal from 1579 until 1589
	Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak	1579	22 August 1602
	Sharif Khan	1605	1611		Jahangir جہانگیر (1605-1627)
	Mirza Ghias Beg	1611	1622
	Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan	1622	1630
	Afzal Khan Shirazi	1630	1639		Shah Jahan شاہ جہان (1628-1658)
	Islam Khan Mashadi	1639	1640
	Shaikh Ilam-ud-Din Ansari	1640	1642
	Sadullah Khan	1642	1656	Taj Mahal completed
	Mir Jumla	1656	1657		Alamgir I عالمگیر (1658-1707)
	Jafar Khan	1657	1658
	Fazil Khan	1658	1663
	Jafar Khan	1663	1670
	Asad Khan	1675	1707	Mughal–Maratha Wars Anglo-Mughal War
	Mun'im Khan Khan-i-Khanan	1707	1711		Bahadur Shah I بہادر شاہ (1707-1712)
	Hidayatullah Khan Kashmiri	1711	1713		Jahandar Shah جہاندار شاہ (1712-1713)
	Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung	1712	1713
	Mir Rustam Ali Khan	1710	1737		Farrukhsiyar فرخ سیر (1713–1719)
	Qutb-ul-Mulk Abdullah Khan Barha	1713	1720	Mughal throne occupied by a series of puppet rulers under the Syed brothers.
	Muhammad Amin Khan Turani	1720	1721		Muhammad Shah محمد شاہ (1719-1748)
	Mir Qamar-ud-Din Khan Asaf Jah I	1721	1723
	Roshan-ud-Daulah Zafar Khan	1724	1733
	Mir Fazil Qamar-ud-Din Khan	1733	1748	Battle of Bhopal Nader Shah's invasion of Mughal Empire Battle of Karnal First invasion of Ahmad Shah Durrani Battle of Manupur (1748)
	Safdar Jang	1748	1753	Second invasion of Ahmad Shah Durrani Third invasion of Ahmad Shah Durrani Battle of Lahore (1752)	Ahmad Shah Bahadur احمد شاہ بہادر (1748-1754)
	Intizam-ud-Daulah	1753	1754
	Imad-ul-Mulk Feroze Jung	1754	1760	Black Hole of Calcutta Battle of Plassey	Alamgir II عالمگیر دوم (1754-1759)
	(de-facto wazir-i-azam Shuja ud-Daulah) (Original shahjada-wazir-i-azam Mirza Jawan Bakht)	1760 1760	1775 1784	Third Battle of Panipat Battle of Buxar Treaty of Allahabad	Shah Alam II شاہ عالم دوم (1760-1806)
	Najaf Quli Khan	1772	1791

See also

• Mughal emperors
• Mughal Empire

References

1. Batra, Ravi (January 2012). The Splendour of Lodi Road. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). ISBN 978-81-7993-446-3. Safdarjung was appointed the Chief Minister of the Mughal Empire. He was given the title of 'Wazir ul-Mamalik-i-Hindustan', though, by then the empire had considerably shrunk to just northern India. His fame and power were, unfortunately, short lived as court politics overtook him and he was dismissed by the new emperor.
2. Experts, Disha (July 2020). Amazing Uttar Pradesh. Disha Publications. p. 49. ISBN 978-93-90486-72-4. Wazir ul-Mamalik-i-Hindustan, Asaf Jah, Jamat ul-Mulk, Shuja ud-Daula, Nawab Abu'l Mansur Khan Bahadur, Safdar Jang, popularly known as Safdarjung was the second Nawab of the Awadh dynasty.
3. ^ Sharma, Gauri (2006). Prime Ministers Under the Mughals 1526-1707. Kanishka, New Delhi. ISBN 8173918236.
4. Satish Chandra (2005). Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals Part - II. Har-Anand Publications. ISBN 978-81-241-1066-9.
5. Abdul Qadir Husaini (Saiyid.) (1952). Administration Under the Mughuls. the University of Michigan.
6. Jagadish Narayan Sarkar (1984). Mughal Polity. University of Michigan. p. 132.
7. Gauri Pandit (2004). Status And Role Of Prime Ministers Under The Mughals 1526 To 1707. Panjab University, Chandigarh. p. 60.
8. Collier, Dirk (March 1, 2016). The Great Mughals and their India. Hay House, Inc. ISBN 9789384544980 – via Google Books.
9. Satish Chandra (2005). Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals Part - II. Har-Anand Publications. p. 136. ISBN 978-81-241-1066-9.
10. Alfred J. Andrea, James H. Overfield (1998). The Human Record: To 1700. Houghton Mifflin. p. 476. ISBN 978-0-395-87087-7. Abul Fazl(1551-1602), the emperor's chief advisor and confidant from 1579 until Abul Fazl's assassination at the instigation of Prince Salim, the future Emperor Jahangir(r. 1605-1627)
11. Abraham Richard Fuller (1990). The Shah Jahan Nama of 'Inayat Khan: An Abridged History of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan). University of Michigan. p. 602. ISBN 978-0-19-562489-2.
12. Adolf Simon Waley (1927). The Shah Jahan Nama of 'Inayat Khan: An Abridged History of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, Compiled by His Royal Librarian : the Nineteenth-century Manuscript Translation of A.R. Fuller (British Library, Add. 30,777). Constable.
13. ^ Indian Institute of Public Administration (1976). The Indian Journal of Public Administration: Quarterly Journal of the Indian Institute of Public Administration, Volume 22. The Institute.
14. ^ Indian History Congress - Proceedings: Volume 42. Indian History Congress. 1981.
15. Indian History Congress Proceedings: Volume 42. Indian History Congress. 1981.
16. Krieger-Krynicki, Annie (2005). Captive Princess: Zebunissa, Daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb. University of Michigan. ISBN 0195798376.
17. Kaicker, Abhishek (3 Feb 2020). The King and the People: Sovereignty and Popular Politics in Mughal Delhi. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0190070687.
18. William Irvine (1971). Later Mughals. p. 128.
19. John F. Richards, The New Cambridge History of India: The Mughal Empire (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 262
20. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. (2009). Britannica Guide to India. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. ISBN 978-1593398477.
21. C. K. Srinivasan (1962). Baji Rao I, the Great Peshwa. p. 22.
22. ^ Disha Experts (17 Dec 2018). The History Compendium for IAS Prelims General Studies Paper 1 & State PSC Exams 3rd Edition. Disha Publications. ISBN 978-9388373036.
23. Praveen Kumar (2017). Complete Indian History for IAS Exam. Educreation Publishing. p. 267.
24. Satish Chandra (1999). Medieval India: Mughal Empire, 1526-1748. Har-Anand Publications. ISBN 978-81-241-0522-1.
25. ^ Khwaja, Sehar. "Fosterage and Motherhood in the Mughal Harem: Intimate Relations and the Political System in Eighteenth-Century India." Social Scientist 46, no. 5-6 (2018): 39-60. Accessed August 7, 2020. doi:10.2307/26530803.
26. Bhatia, O. P. Singh (1968). History of India, from 1707 to 1856. Surjeet Book Depot.
27. Rima Hooja (2006). A History of Rajasthan. the University of Michigan. p. 737. ISBN 978-81-291-0890-6.

• Grand viziers of the Mughal Empire