Aurangzeb’s youngest son, Muhammad Kam Bakhsh, maintains a competing base in the Deccan as ruler at Bijapur during the broader 1707–1709 succession conflict, refusing to fully accept Bahadur Shah I’s supremacy.
Emperor Aurangzeb dies while campaigning in the Deccan, leaving no uncontested succession settlement and precipitating a struggle among his sons and their factions.
Prince Muhammad Azam Shah declares himself emperor soon after Aurangzeb’s death, creating an immediate rival claim to the throne against his half-brother Mu'azzam (later Bahadur Shah I).
Following Jajau, Mu'azzam becomes emperor as Bahadur Shah I and begins consolidating authority after the violent succession contest, including eliminating remaining close rivals.
In a decisive succession battle near Agra, Mu'azzam defeats Azam Shah; Azam Shah and his son Bidar Bakht are killed, clearing Mu'azzam’s path to the throne.
Bahadur Shah I’s forces defeat Kam Bakhsh near Hyderabad; Kam Bakhsh is mortally wounded and dies the next day, ending the principal armed challenge to Bahadur Shah I from Aurangzeb’s sons.
Bahadur Shah I dies after a short reign, reopening the succession question among his sons and setting off a new round of court and military maneuvering.
Prince Azim-ush-Shan, a major contender among Bahadur Shah I’s sons and father of Farrukhsiyar, dies during the struggle for power that follows Bahadur Shah I’s death, narrowing the field of claimants.
Jahandar Shah takes the throne amid intense factional politics, with powerful nobles (notably Zulfiqar Khan) playing a decisive role—an early marker of increasing kingmaker influence in Delhi.
Forces backing Farrukhsiyar (aligned with influential Sayyid leaders) clash with Jahandar Shah’s army near Agra, a turning point that brings Jahandar Shah’s short reign to an end.
Farrukhsiyar ascends the throne with decisive support from the Sayyid brothers (Abdullah Khan and Husain Ali Khan), illustrating the growing power of elite brokers who could make—or unmake—emperors.
After defeat and flight to Delhi, Jahandar Shah is captured and executed on Farrukhsiyar’s orders; the episode underscores the accelerating cycle of deposition and violence in Mughal succession politics.
The Sayyid brothers elevate Rafi ud-Darajat to the throne as a short-lived emperor, continuing a pattern of rapid successions in which court factions dominated imperial legitimacy.
After conflict with his former patrons, Farrukhsiyar is deposed and executed, demonstrating the Sayyid brothers’ effective control over the imperial succession during the later Mughal period.
Rafi ud-Darajat dies after only a few months on the throne, further destabilizing the imperial center and prompting another swift succession arranged by the same power brokers.
Rafi-ud-Daulah is enthroned as Shah Jahan II immediately after his brother’s death, extending the 1719 sequence of rapid, faction-driven successions that marked the post-Aurangzeb crisis era.
The Mughal succession crises after Aurangzeb (1707–1719)
