Abul Mansur Khan Safdar Jang
Qaraqoyunlu, 1708-1754
Safdar Jang’s ancestors
As
has been said in Chapter III the original name of Abul Mansur Khan Safdar Jang
was Mirza Muhammad Muqim and he was the second son of Jafar Beg Khan and the
eldest sister of Saadat Khan Burhan-ul-mulk. Jafar Beg Khan was a descendant of
Qara Yusuf, a Turk of Qaraqonilu tribe and ruler of Tabriz in the province of
Azerbaijan in Persia. Qara Yusuf, who traced his pedigree, on his mother’s
side, to Taaus, a descendant of Hasan the second imam, was driven out of his country by Amir Timur (1369-1405 A.
D.), the illustrious ancestor of Babur and Akbar of India. During the reign of
Shah Rukh Mirza, second son of Timur, Tabriz was, however, recovered by Jahan
Shah, son of Qara Yusuf, whose descendants continued to rule over their
paternal state till Mansur Mirza, a contemporary of Shah Abbas I (1582-1627 A.
D.), was deprived of it by that Persian monarch. Abbas, the Great, brought the
Mirza to his capital and directed him to settle in the town of Nishaour and
gave him a jagir for his maintenance.
Jafar Beg Khan, the father of Mirza Muhammad Muqim was, it is said, sixth in
descendent from Mansur Mirza.
Boyhood and education, 1708-1722
Of
his several wives, Jafar Beg Khan was most passionately attached to the sister
of Saadat Khan. By her he had two sons Mirza Muhsin and Mirza Muhammad Muqim.
Mirza Muqim was only six months and his elder brother only four years when
their mother died, leaving them to be taken care of by her bereaved husband.
Both the children were, therefore, brought up by Saadat Khan’s second sister
who was married to Mir Muhammad Shah, son of Burhan-ul-mulk’s uncle, Mir
Muhammad Yusuf. In her home, Mirza Muhammad Muqim grew up a gallant and
promising boy. Reason has been given in section sixth of Chapter III for
believing that the Mirza was about sixteen of age in 1724 A. D. He must,
therefore, have been born in or about the year 1708 A. D.
Mirza
Muqim was highly educated and cultured. His letters, written during and after
the lifetime of Saadat Khan, with their easy, flowing style, show the Mirza’s
mastery of the Persian language. They are also mostly free from useless
rhetoric, difficult figures of speech and round-about expression so common in
Persian composition of that age. Contemporaries like Murtaza Husein Khan, who
knew him intimately, bear testimony to his pleasing and dignified manners,
cultured disposition and refined taste as early as the year 1731 A. D., which
indicate good breeding from an early age. It seems almost certain that, if not
a finished scholar, Mirza Muhammad Muqim had come to India, having at least
finished his schooling in the country of his birth.
We
have no materials to ascertain his acquirements as a soldier during his boyhood
in Persia. But eighteenth century, like all others of the medieval age, was a
time when military qualifications were considered indispensable even for those
employed in civil service or civic avocations of life. Mirza Muqim would not
have been an exception to the rule, for his boyhood passed during a critical
period of Persia’s history, when she was being overrun by Afghan usurpers, and
when there was great confusion in his province of Khurasan. He must have
acquired at least the rudiments of military science of his time. Though
battlefield was not his special province, yet he remained a fairly active
soldier throughout his career in India.
The period of apprenticeship, 1724-1739
When
Muhammad Muqim was about fifteen years of age he was invited from Nishapur by
his maternal uncle Saadat Khan Burhan-ul-mulk, then governor of Awadh. The
youngman landed at Surat in April, 1723, and, after a laborious journey of more
than 700 miles arrived at Faizabad in about two months time. As he was gifted
with the noble qualities of head and heart, Saadat Khan gave his eldest
daughter, Sadr-un-nisa alias Nawab
Begum, in marriage to him in preference to his brother’s son, Nisar Muhammad
Khan Sher Jang. The Nawab then appointed him his Deputy in Awadh and obtained
for him the title of Abulmansur Khan from Emperor Muhammad Shah.
As
deputy-governor of Awadh (1724-39) Abulmansur Khan was required to familiarize
himself with civil and military affairs which enabled him to have much
administrative experience that stood him in good stead when he succeeded his
uncle and father-in-law in the office of governor. Saadat Khan, who looked upon
him as his son, nominated him his successor and associated him in the
administration of the province. Under his fostering care and that of Diwan Atma
Ram, a competent financier, Abulmansur Khan learnt the intricacies of a
government and acquired so much practical knowledge of civil and military
administration that, during the last few years of his rule, Saadat Khan was
pleased to leave to him the sole charge of the government of Awadh, himself
devoting a major part of his time to the Delhi politics.
During
the period of his apprenticeship Abulmansur Khan acquired no less training and
experience in the conduct of war. In all the important battles that Saadat Khan
fought after 1724 we find his son-in-law by his side. Abulmansur Khan fought
along with his father-in-law against Bhagwant Singh Khichi of Kora Jahanabad in
November, 1735. When Saadat Khan returned to Delhi after the successful
termination of the campaign, he was left at Kora in command of the Awadh army
to help Shaikh Abdulla Ghazipuri, the governor’s deputy in the district, to
reduce the new territory to order and to guard against a possible invasion of
the Marathas who had been invited by Rup Sing, a fugitive son of the deceased
Bhagwant Singh. In March, 1737, he outwitted Malhar Rao Holkar and his troops
near the town of Jalesar, by drawing them slowly to near Saadat Khan’s main
force whose one cavalry charge scattered the Marathas about and drove them out
of the field. In June, 1737, he quelled an insurrection in southern Awadh by
defeating a combination of several Rajput chiefs led by their leader Nawal Singh,
Raja of Tiloi. The confederates, who had taken shelter in the Amethi fort, were
dislodged from it and the stronghold was captured by the deputy governor’s men.
In December, 1737, he was sent by Saadat Khan to the relief of Nizam-ul-mulk
who had been besieged by Bajirao at Bhopal. But he was intercepted by Malhar
Rao Holkar and was forced to retreat. Early in 1738, Abulmansur Khan undertook
and expedition to Janpur to deprive Rustam Ali Khan of the four districts of
Janpur, Mirzapur, Ghazipur and Banaras. Though no fighting was done, he was
able to achieve his object by diplomacy, backed by force, and Rustam Ali Khan
had to seek refuge by flight.
Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava — The First Two Nawabs Of
Awadh [1933] (1954)
0207 49
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