One of the important pillars of the Mughal kingship was its nobility. As long as the emperor was strong, it served him with loyalty and sincerity but as the emperors became weak, it got involved in intrigues and mutual conflicts to acquire more power and wealth.

They emerged as a powerful factor during the wars of succession when different claimants to the throne fought against each other and tried to win the support of nobles. The nobles, too, took advantage of the situation and supported the candidateof their choice. After the war, the winning prince and his supporters took revenge from those who were on the opposite side; their properties were confiscated and they were tortured, imprisoned, exiled or killed.

The result of this was that the coronation of each successful contender began with bloody scenes. When the son of Azim-ash Shan (1712), prince Karim, was taken prisoner after the civil war in which his father was defeated and killed by Jahandar Shah (1712-1713), he had been hungry and thirsty for three days. He beseeched his captors to give him some food and water which was blatantly refused and he was killed immediately.

On the occasion of Farrukhsiyar's (1713-1719) succession, he ordered the execution of his opponent noble, Zulfiqar khan, who had sided against his father. His dead body was paraded in the city for public display.

The practice of bloody coronations ended when the emperor became the stipend holder of the East India Company whose resident had the authority to nominate the successor.

As the Empire declined there were no new conquests which required good generals nor was there efficient administration which had to be supervised by talented men, therefore the character of the nobility readjusted according to the new situation. Those nobles who were masters of flattery and knew how to exploit the emperor's weaknesses gained his favour. If he was fond of women, they lured beautiful girls to the royal palace to please him. If he liked music or was accustomed to listening to jokes, they gathered musicians and jesters to entertain him; and if he had a taste for wine and opium, they provided them in great quantity to satisfy him.

Their main objective was to please the king by all means and get grant of jagirs, high titles, and costly gifts and extract as much money as they could from the royal treasury. One of the examples was Husamuddin, Shah Alam's minister, whose task was to get beautiful women for him. The man became very influential though he had neither intelligence nor talent.

As most of the state officials were not paid their salaries regularly, they met their expenses by accepting bribes. The king's favourite nobles demanded huge amounts in exchange of recommendations. The adopted sister of Muhammad Shah (1719-1748) was famous for taking gifts and money to recommend the cases of people. In this way she amassed great wealth.

As the court became a centre of intrigues, the nobles, fearful that that they might be dislodged in their absence by their rivals, did not like to leave the court. Instead of going to their jagirs and supervising them, they started to give them on contract. The contractors paid an agreed amount to the nobles and extracted revenue from the peasants forcibly; they had their private armies and extorted every penny from the peasants leaving nothing for their survival.

In case of resistance, they tortured and killed the rebels.

As a result the villages became barren. In some cases peasants left the villages to avoid  the contractors' brutal methods and took refuge in forests or mountains. This destroyed agriculture which dried up the sources of revenue.

However, the nobles accumulated wealth by taking bribes, accepting gifts, and exploiting peasants. They felt insecure because they knew that at any time, as a result of some intrigue, they could lose everything; their property might be confiscated and their wealth be looted. Therefore, the general trend among the nobility was to spend it on their luxury and debauchery, on frequent celebrations, feasts, dresses, and keeping carriages and elephants. They built grand palaces for themselves and to show their religious devotion constructed mosques and imambargahs. They donated large amounts of money to shrines and spent generously in order to earn a good name and be considered kind-hearted and merciful. They also built their own tombs so they could be remembered by posterity.

Thus, the nobility had contradictory qualities and balanced them with great skill. On the one hand they were callous and cruel towards their peasants and took away their produce forcibly. They were corrupt and intriguing and accumulated wealth by violating all moral values. On the other hand, they posed as refined and cultured and religious persons by their acts of generosity and devotion to faith.

It is an art to combine both qualities together. We find these characteristics in our society as well where religion and hypocrisy are combined very well.