| Siege of Golconda (1687) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Mughal conquests in the Deccan | |||||||||
 Painting of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb at the Siege of Golconda Fort, c. 1760 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Mughal Empire |
 Qutb Shahi dynasty | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Aurangzeb Kilich Khan † Feroze Jung I Saf Shikan Khan Azam Shah Ruhullah Khan Anup Singh |
Abul Hasan Qutb Shah Shaikh Nizam (defector) | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
~50,000 infantry | |||||||||
The Siege of Golconda (1687 CE) was an eight-month military siege of the Golconda Fort (in present-day Telangana, India). This siege was personally directed by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb against the Golconda Sultanate, ruled by king Abul Hasan Qutb Shah. It was the second Mughal siege of the fort, following an aborted attempt by Aurangzeb in 1656 as a prince of emperor Shah Jahan. The event served as the climax of the Golconda Sultanate, which was annexed into the Mughal Empire as a result of the victory of the siege. The military confrontation was one of the final stages in the Mughal Empire's expansion southwards in the Indian subcontinent.
The siege was lengthy and laborious, hampered by the strength of the fort, environmental conditions, and dissent within the Mughal administration. The siege was won only through treachery. It exacerbated drought, famine and epidemic in the region.