Both Boabdil (Arab. Abu-Abdallah or Ez-Zogoiby, the Unlucky) the last occupant of the Moorish throne of Granada and Wajid Ali Shah, who ruled Oudh, a princely state in Uttar Pradesh India from 1847 to 1856 are separated both in space and time from each other.
Why I am putting them on the same page is that both lacked the attitude which is required to be a ruler.
The mind of Wajid Ali was on other things like arts and poetry. He was the tenth and last Nawab of Oudh.
Boabdil ascended to rule the Granada after he drove out his father Abdul-Hassan in 1481. He was captured in 1483 by the King of Castile, and made a nominal tributary, returning to Granada to resume his struggles against his father and uncle. In 1491 the Moorish capital fell to Ferdinand, though Boabdil fought with a courage strangely at variance with his infirmity of purpose.
And now the common trait which I have gleaned from the occasions of them being forced to step down from the throne and their reaction of helplessness.
Boabdil, as he rode away to the coast, he halted on a ridge at Padul, still called El Ultimo Sospiro del Mora (The Moor’s last sigh), to take a farewell look at the Alhambra, his palace, burst into tears at the sight. Whereupon his mother is said to have thus reproached him: “You may well weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man.” He died shortly afterwards on the field of battle in Africa.
In the case of Wajid Ali Shah, he was removed by the British on the pretext of failure of administration to rule the state, bad management and anarchy in the state while he was immured in the pleasures with courtesans. When he was removed which he did without any protests (only his mother tried her best to convince the British who had made their mind to remove the king). He composed a thumri, lyrics of which are as follows:
बाबुल मोरा, नैहर छूटो ही जाए
बाबुल मोरा, नैहर छूटो ही जाए
चार कहार मिल, मोरी डोलिया सजावें (उठायें)
मोरा अपना बेगाना छूटो जाए | बाबुल मोरा …
आँगना तो पर्बत भयो और देहरी भयी बिदेश
जाए बाबुल घर आपनो मैं चली पीया के देश | बाबुल मोरा …
My father! I’m leaving home.
The four bearers lift my doli( palanquin) (here it can also mean the four coffin bearers). I’m leaving those who were my own.
Your courtyard is now like a mountain, and the threshold, a foreign country.
I leave your house, father, I am going to my beloved.
This poem has been rendered by many famous singers of India, K.L.Saigal being the best to date. Both are incapable and unsuited to the job the providence offered them. But both are ruing the loss of their beloved kingdoms.