Friday, October 7, 2016

Abul Mansur Khan Safdar Jang Qaraqoyunlu, 1708-1754 (Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava, [1933] 1954)

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)


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