Sayyid brothers
The Sayyid brothers were Abdullah Khan II and Syed Hussain Ali Khan, two powerful Mughal nobles who were active during the decline of the Mughal Empire.
They were Punjabi Muslims belonging to the Sadaat-e-Bara clan of the Barha dynasty, who claimed to be Sayyids or the descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Their claim was generally not accepted, and they were said to be descendants of peasants from Punjab who migrated to the eastern part of Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. According to historian Richard M. Eaton, they were "as native to South Asia as were Jats, Rajputs or Marathas."
The brothers became highly influential in the Mughal court after Aurangzeb's death in 1707 and became de facto sovereigns of the empire when they began to seat and unseat emperors. They restored Mughal authority to Ajmer in Rajasthan with the surrender of Maharaja Ajit Singh, and the Jat leader Churaman. During their rule, the Sikh rebel Banda Singh Bahadur was captured and executed. The Sayyids engaged in recruitment of soldiers, very few of whom were not Sayyids, or inhabitants of Barha, or non-Muslims.
Emperor Bahadur Shah I died in 1712, and his successor Jahandar Shah was assassinated on the orders of the Sayyid brothers. In 1713, Jahandar's nephew Farrukhsiyar (r. 1713–1719) became the emperor also with the help of the brothers. His reign marked the ascendancy of the brothers, who monopolised state power and reduced the emperor to a figurehead. The brothers conspired to send Nizam-ul-Mulk to the Deccan, away from the Mughal court to reduce his influence. In 1719, the brothers blinded, deposed and murdered Farrukhsiyar. They then arranged for his first cousin, Rafi ud-Darajat, to be the next ruler in February 1719. When Rafi ud-Darajat died of lung disease in June, they made his elder brother, Rafi ud-Daulah (Shah Jahan II), ruler. After the latter died of lung disease in September, Muhammad Shah (r. 1719–1748) ascended the throne at the age of 17 with the Sayyid brothers as regents until 1720.
To restore his de facto power, Muhammad Shah arranged for the brothers to be killed with the help of Nizam-ul-Mulk. Syed Hussain Ali Khan was murdered at Fatehpur Sikri in 1720, and Syed Hassan Ali Khan was fatally poisoned in 1722.