No wonder his father did not like him and preferred Mirza Jawan Bakht, born to his favourite queen Mumtaz Mahal II. The name was later changed to lal Bibi to give it a better connotation. Abu Zafar, the elder son of Akbar Shah Sani, was born to his concubine, a dancing girl, Kallu Bibi, who as the name suggests, was dark complexioned and probably not a Muslim. However, Amar Farooqui, professor of history at the University of Delhi, has come out with a book, Zafar and the Raj ,that seems to take the cake with its account from pre-1800 to 1862 and after. Contemporary interest in the last Mughal emperor is such that several treatises have been written on him. It might sound like an exaggeration, but is nevertheless not wrong to surmise that Bahadur Shah Zafar has hogged more limelight than even Babar and Humayun, the two founding fathers of the Mughal dynasty. Amar Farooqui, professor of history at the University of Delhi, has left uncovered no aspect of the colourful yet tragic life of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, writes RV Smith
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