Decline of the Shah Miris and the Dughlat Interlude

Causes of decline

• Weak Sultans after Zain-ul-Abidin. Nobles (Chaks, Magreys, Rainas, Dars, Sayyids) put up and pulled down rulers.
• Shia and Sunni and Sayyid versus Kashmiri noble quarrels grew.
• Foreign raids came from the outside (Kashgar, Kabul).

Mirza Haidar Dughlat (1540 to 1551)

• Mirza Haidar Dughlat, a cousin (relative) of Babur and a general of Humayun, first invaded in 1532 to 1533 from Kashgar. In 1540 he returned and took Kashmir, ruling in the name of Sultan Nazuk Shah and later in his own right.
• He wrote Tarikh-i-Rashidi (1546 to 1547), a history of the Mongols and of Kashmir.
• He was killed in 1551 in a rising by Kashmiri nobles.

End of the dynasty

• After 1551, Chak nobles ruled in the name of puppet Sultans. In 1561, Ghazi Shah Chak took the title of Sultan. This ended the Shah Mir dynasty.

Mirza Haidar Dughlat in more detail

• Mirza Haidar Dughlat was a Turko-Mongol military general and a cousin of Babur on his mother's side.
• During the fifth rule of Sultan Muhammad Shah Shahmiri (1530 to 1537) he invaded Kashmir and suffered defeat.
• Again, during the rule of Ismail Shah (1538 to 1540), Mirza Haidar invaded and occupied Kashmir. He placed Nazuk Shah on the throne as nominal king.
• Habib Shah was the last ruler of the Shah Miri dynasty.