Aurangzeb

• In 1657, Shah Jehan fell seriously ill. His sons started fighting for the throne, and all of them were of mature age, governed important parts of the empire and had large armies.
• The four sons were Dara Shikoh, Aurangzeb, Murad and Shah Shuja and they all fell into a succession dispute.
• Aurangzeb and Murad joined forces and defeated Dara Shikoh despite Shah Jehan miraculously recovering and ordering his sons not to fight. However, Aurangzeb said it was too late that Shah Jehan had lost control and that he, Aurangzeb should take over and re-establish order.
• Aurangzeb took his father captive and let him stay in Agra till his death in 1666.
• Aurangzeb spent a lot of the empires money on fighting.
• Aurangzeb had wars and campaigns with the Rajput's, Sikhs, Satnamis,Jats and Marathas.
• Aurangzeb appointed censors of public morals, banned alcohol, stopped singing and dancing at court and determining the maximum length for beards.
• Aurangzeb made himself popular with traders by abolishing many local taxes, but generally taxation was very high during his reign. Tax was high as he had to pay for his military campaigns and pay for building luxurious palaces.
• Aurangzeb became unpopular because of his high taxation and how that money was being put to use.
• Aurangzeb died in 1707 at 89 years old afte ruling the empire for 50 years.
• Since Aurangzeb didnt want his sons fighting like he did for the throne, he divided the empire between his 3 sons, but they fought and prince Muazzum was victorious, and only a few years after that, his sons fought for the throne and the victor of that fight was murdered in a year of succession. Thus the Mughal Empire was weak and divided.