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Lot Essay
This is one of the most exquisite extant firmans of those produced for the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II (r. 1761-1805), the “handsome and talented Mughal prince whose life was dogged by defeat and bad luck” (William Dalrymple, The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, New York, 2019, xvii). In it, he decrees an in’am (land grant with no obligation of service), in effect absolute possession, of the places Janta Kanu (?) and Akla ‘Amala (?) in the pargana (district area) of Kandapur, sarkar (district) of Daulatabad, suba (province) of Aurangabad to Haibat Rao, son of Khandoji Nagari (?), and his sons.
The firman is dated 1 Jumada I of the 29th regnal year of Shah ‘Alam II, who ordered his accession to be counted from the 8th Rabi‘ II 1173 AH (29 November 1759 AD; Shahpurshah Hormasji Hodivala, Historical Studies in Mughal Numismatics, Bombay, 1976, p.288). The same year is on the seal impression next to the tughra. The date is corroborated in a note by officials on the reverse.
Shah Alam II ruled during troubling times for the Mughal dynasty, with both his vassals and the British East India Company gaining land and power within his domains. Following a decisive defeat against the latter at the Battle of Buxar (1764), Shah Alam II was forced to legalize the Company’s position in the Bengal and effectively giving it sovereign status, with a right to collect taxes and select a puppet deputy in the place of the Mughal Governor (Cary Stuart Welch, India: Art and Culture 1300-1900, p.419). Shah Alam II is seen handing Robert Clive a firman decreeing an in’am to that effect in a posthumous painting from circa 1818 in the British Library (acc.no.F29).
In 1787 in particular, Shah Alam II was in a difficult situation politically and financially. Five years earlier, his able chief minister had died and one-third of the rural population suffered from a famine. In 1785, he had desperately asked Mahadaji Sindhia (1768- 1794), leader of the Marathas, long-time foes of the Mughals, to support him. Despite a cash injection from the East India Company in December as part of the power struggle with the Marathas in North India, Shah Alam II’s household expenses remained five months in arrears in February 1787 (Kalikinkar Datta, Shah Alam II and The East India Company, Calcutta, 1965, pp.89-92).
Disaster struck in July 1788, when the leader of the Afghan Rohilla, Ghulam Kadir (d. 1789), captured Delhi, took full possession of the Red Fort and blinded Shah Alam II ten days later. This occupation lasting until October when Shah ‘Alam II was reinstated by the Marathas. Most portraits of him, therefore, show him as a blind old man, but a painting of his court dated ca. 1770-80 was sold in these Rooms, 10 October 2006, lot 177.
Thus, despite its ornate illumination and fine nasta’liq surrounded by a lustrous gold and deep lapis lazuli, all worthy of the seal of the House of Timur and an Emperor with the penname Aftab (‘The Sun’), this firman paradoxically documents the continuing loss of revenue for the dwindling Mughal Empire. This situation was, in 1784, poignantly described by the first Viceroy of India, Warren Hastings, “Fallen as the House of Timur is, it is yet the relic of the most illustrious line of the Eastern World, its sovereignty is universally acknowledged, though the substance of it no longer exists and the company itself derives its constitutional dominions from the ostensible bounty” (op.cit., p.90).
Following the British victory in the Second Maratha War in 1803, Shah Alam II submitted entirely to the British. They recognised him as Emperor but disregarded his wish on all levels and confined him to the fort of Delhi on a minimal allowance, where he died in 1806.
A similar, but unilluminated firman of Shah Alam II dated 1776 and in a similar hand was sold in these Rooms, 12 October 2004. Another unilluminated example of an in’am firman dated 1798 was sold in Bonhams London, 13 October 2005, lot 34. A later example dated 1801 in a different style was sold at Sotheby’s London, 30 April 2003, lot 21. For other examples of Mughal firmans sold in these Rooms, see 30 October 2025, lot 80; 24 October 2024, lot 139; 25 June 2020, lot 66; 10 April 2014, lot 133.
The firman is dated 1 Jumada I of the 29th regnal year of Shah ‘Alam II, who ordered his accession to be counted from the 8th Rabi‘ II 1173 AH (29 November 1759 AD; Shahpurshah Hormasji Hodivala, Historical Studies in Mughal Numismatics, Bombay, 1976, p.288). The same year is on the seal impression next to the tughra. The date is corroborated in a note by officials on the reverse.
Shah Alam II ruled during troubling times for the Mughal dynasty, with both his vassals and the British East India Company gaining land and power within his domains. Following a decisive defeat against the latter at the Battle of Buxar (1764), Shah Alam II was forced to legalize the Company’s position in the Bengal and effectively giving it sovereign status, with a right to collect taxes and select a puppet deputy in the place of the Mughal Governor (Cary Stuart Welch, India: Art and Culture 1300-1900, p.419). Shah Alam II is seen handing Robert Clive a firman decreeing an in’am to that effect in a posthumous painting from circa 1818 in the British Library (acc.no.F29).
In 1787 in particular, Shah Alam II was in a difficult situation politically and financially. Five years earlier, his able chief minister had died and one-third of the rural population suffered from a famine. In 1785, he had desperately asked Mahadaji Sindhia (1768- 1794), leader of the Marathas, long-time foes of the Mughals, to support him. Despite a cash injection from the East India Company in December as part of the power struggle with the Marathas in North India, Shah Alam II’s household expenses remained five months in arrears in February 1787 (Kalikinkar Datta, Shah Alam II and The East India Company, Calcutta, 1965, pp.89-92).
Disaster struck in July 1788, when the leader of the Afghan Rohilla, Ghulam Kadir (d. 1789), captured Delhi, took full possession of the Red Fort and blinded Shah Alam II ten days later. This occupation lasting until October when Shah ‘Alam II was reinstated by the Marathas. Most portraits of him, therefore, show him as a blind old man, but a painting of his court dated ca. 1770-80 was sold in these Rooms, 10 October 2006, lot 177.
Thus, despite its ornate illumination and fine nasta’liq surrounded by a lustrous gold and deep lapis lazuli, all worthy of the seal of the House of Timur and an Emperor with the penname Aftab (‘The Sun’), this firman paradoxically documents the continuing loss of revenue for the dwindling Mughal Empire. This situation was, in 1784, poignantly described by the first Viceroy of India, Warren Hastings, “Fallen as the House of Timur is, it is yet the relic of the most illustrious line of the Eastern World, its sovereignty is universally acknowledged, though the substance of it no longer exists and the company itself derives its constitutional dominions from the ostensible bounty” (op.cit., p.90).
Following the British victory in the Second Maratha War in 1803, Shah Alam II submitted entirely to the British. They recognised him as Emperor but disregarded his wish on all levels and confined him to the fort of Delhi on a minimal allowance, where he died in 1806.
A similar, but unilluminated firman of Shah Alam II dated 1776 and in a similar hand was sold in these Rooms, 12 October 2004. Another unilluminated example of an in’am firman dated 1798 was sold in Bonhams London, 13 October 2005, lot 34. A later example dated 1801 in a different style was sold at Sotheby’s London, 30 April 2003, lot 21. For other examples of Mughal firmans sold in these Rooms, see 30 October 2025, lot 80; 24 October 2024, lot 139; 25 June 2020, lot 66; 10 April 2014, lot 133.