HARKING BACK: How Lahore’s mullahs threatened the Mughal Empire

The death of the last of the first six great Mughals, the 91-year old Emperor Aurangzeb, on the 3rd of March 1707, was followed by half a century of strife, confusion, intrigue and in-fighting. Lahore had, increasingly, become a communal city. Yet we have learned the least from this period.

From 1707 to 1759 we have a confusing 52 years in which ten Mughal emperors ruled, each with decreasing power. The first six Mughals ruled the sub-continent for 181 years. Though Emperor Aurangzeb is seen as an extreme communal character in our history, the fact remains that following Babar every Mughal tended to be incrementally more communal. Yet, amazingly, all of them did, to some degree, manage to keep a communal balance. The decreasing Mughal power saw the rise in Punjab of the Sikhs, who undoubtedly had been persecuted beyond measure and saw an opportunity of revenge. Ultimately they managed to capture power in Lahore in 1768 ousting the Afghan Durrani invaders.

In this piece we will dwell on the seventh Mughal emperor, Muhammad Mu’azzam, who went by the title of Shah Alam Bahadar Shah, who ruled from the year 1708 to 1712. He was in Kabul when Aurangzeb died and immediately headed for Lahore. The death of Aurangzeb saw the rise of the Sikhs, headed by Guru Gobind Singh. His irregular force headed by Banda Bahadar ‘Beyraggi’ wreaked havoc and Mughal power diminished immensely. But Shah Alam, after whom is named Lahore’s ‘Shahalami Gate’, was more concerned with consolidating his power all over India. The Sikhs surrounded Lahore for the first time and butchered about 200 Muslims and Hindus. But Shah Alam wanted to first eliminate the threat of the Rajputs, which he managed with some deft handling.

But the biggest threat came in Lahore, not from the Sikhs but from the ‘mullahs’ of the city. The increasing Afghan influence has been seen as responsible for the rise of the mullah. Within a year of the new emperor coming to power, the mullahs almost ousted Mughal power from Lahore. Almost the entire Muslim population of the city seemed not to want to follow an order given by the new emperor. On the 10th of February 1710, Emperor Shah Alam issued an order that in future the Friday ‘khutbah’ should always use the word ‘wasi’, meaning the heir, when referring to the fourth caliph of Islam. When the order reached Lahore and was distributed to every mosque in the city, two of Lahore’s leading religious leaders, namely Haji Yar Muhammad and Maulvi Jan Muhammad, led a delegation of Muslim scholars, as also a huge crowd of their devotees, to the houses of the ‘Qazi’ and the ‘Sadr’ asking them to forbid the use of the word ‘wasi’. They informed that they would not allow anyone to use this word.

This situation was conveyed to Emperor Shah Alam in Delhi, who reached Lahore with his army and in a fit of rage summoned Haji Yar Muhammad, Maulvi Murad Khan and four other religious leaders of the city to Lahore Fort’s ‘dewan-e-khaas’. The emperor was supported by a team of the finest Islamic scholars. But this did not deter the ‘anti-wasi’ forces, who had threatened violence if the ‘khutbah’ with the new change was enforced. Intelligence reports had informed the emperor that his own young son, Prince Azimush Shan, was also supporting the religious movement. There were rumours that one hundred thousand supporters backed the mullahs. So started the critical meeting between the ruler and the mullahs of Lahore.

The official team informed the mullahs that the fourth ‘khalifa’ of Islam was the son-in-law of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and hence the use of the word ‘wasi’ was a natural follow-up, as was the practice in the lands from where the Mughals came. They dwelt on the consequences of refusal that Islam had faced over the ages because of such bigoted refusal to follow correct history. But the stubborn Haji Yar Muhammad refused to yield any ground. As the debate heated up so did the tone of the Haji grow louder and bordered on the verge of rudeness. At one stage, so claims the historian Khafi Khan in his description in “Muntakhabul Lubaab”, there was talk of Haji Yar Muhammad being beheaded in public. But the emperor, not yielding the same power that his predecessors did, cooled matters and the debate continued.

For a full six days these talks continued, and word of this conflict reached far and wide. From nearby Kasur an army of 10,000 Afghans reached Lahore, as did other Afghans from the surrounding areas. This emboldened the Muslims inside the walled city. By the fifth day of negotiations religious slogans kept ringing all day from the city and its surroundings. This emboldened Haji Yar Muhammad to inform the emperor that: “I had hoped for four things in this life. First is ‘Iqra’ – knowledge - the first command of Allah to all humans. Second is ‘hifz kalamullah’ (preservation of Allah’s commands). Third is performing Haj. Fourth is ‘shahadat’ (martyrdom) in Allah’s name”. He then, in a rather rude tone informed the emperor that he had attained the first three, and if the emperor was kind enough he awaits the fourth.

The debate continued and ended with the emperor informing the ‘religious rebels’ that the ‘Sadr’ of Lahore would, after deep deliberation, issue new orders. These would be presented to the emperor in the form of a petition, on which he would either sign, or would reject. For over a month the entire city of Lahore lived in immense tension. Court records tell us that the Afghan population of the walled city increased dramatically and there was the threat of a revolt. There was a fear that they would overpower the Lahore Fort.

As the year drew to an end in December of 1710 the ‘Sadr’ submitted the awaited petition to the emperor Shah Alam, who signed it willingly and ordered that all ‘khutbahs’ would be restored to the manner in which they were when the emperor Aurangzeb died, except that the new emperor’s name would replace that of his father. This sealed the issue and the Afghans returned to their nearby homes. Lahore returned to its peaceful state, but it was not to be for long.

The Islamic religious forces had overpowered the State, and for the next 50 years they would increasingly influence Mughal rule. In 1759, the invading Afghans under Ahmed Shah Abdali had moved into Punjab and Lahore. But the highly mobile 12 ‘Misls’ of the Sikhs managed to, within nine years, repel the invaders.