Nawab Nisar Ali Khan Qizilbash (Lepel H. Griffin, G. L. Chopra, Ch. F. Massy, W. L. Conran, 1940)

Nawab Nisar Ali Khan Qizilbash

Sardar Ali Khan was the first to leave the province of Sherwan, on the west coast of the Caspian (now part of the Russian territories), where for many generations his family, Turks of the Qizilbash tribe, had resided and exercised authority. When Nadir Shah, having driven out the Ghiljis and taken possession of Khurasan, prepared to march to India in 1738, he took with him Ali Khan and other Qizilbash nobles, who, he feared in his absence, might excite disturbances.

Ali Khan served throughout the campaign, and on his return from India he was appointed by Nadir Shah Governor of Kandhar, and other Qizilbash nobles received commands in Kabul and Peshawar, much to the advantage of the kingdom of Persia, which, freed from these turbulent chiefs, enjoyed peace for eight years, till the assassination of Nadir Shah and the rise to power of Ahmad Shah Durrani. The new Prince was crowned at Kandhar in 1747, and, although he thoroughly distrusted the Qizilbash faction, yet he was not strong enough to oppose it, and was compelled to give to its principal chiefs jagirs and military commands.

Ali Khan obtained the district of Hazara, north of Kandhar, and with a strong force reduced the country around, to the neighbourhood of Herat itself. He accompanied Ahmad Shah on his last invasion of India, in 1760, and shared in the great victory of Panipat, which broke the Mahratta power. The bravery and influence of Ali Khan during this campaign excited the jealousy of Ahmad Shah, who on his return to Afghanistan tried to deprive him of his estates and command; but Ali Khan held his own successfully against open force, and Ahmad Shah was at length compelled to bride some of his attendants, who assassinated him in 1770. The eldest of the sons, Gul Muhammad Khan, was but six years of age at his father’s death, and the district fell into great confusion. The widow of Ali Khan contrived to maintain her authority for some years; but at last the district was divided into several independent and hostile chiefships, only united in their hatred of Timur Shah, who had succeeded Ahmad Shah on the throne of Kabul. When the sons of Ali Khan grew up, they recovered by force of arms a large portion of their family estate, and Timur Shah, thinking it well to conciliate them, summoned Gul Muhammad Khan to Kandhar, where he received him with honour and conferred on him the title of Sardar.

Hidayat Khan, son of Sardar Ali Khan, accompanied Shah Zaman to Lahore in 1797, where he remained for some months. On his return to Kabul he exchanged estates with Asad Khan, brother of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan. In 1813 Ali Muhammad Khan, the youngest brother, with four thousand troops accompanied Wazir Fateh Khan and his brother, Muhammad Azim Khan, in their successful expedition against Kashmir, and received there a high military command, which he held for about eight years. When returning to Kabul he obtained joint possession, with Hidayat Khan, of the family estate, and died in 1835 leaving two sons, Ali Akbar Khan and Ali Jan Khan. The elder son soon after died, and Ali Jan Khan succeeded to his father’s share of the estate in Kabul.

Hidayat Khan died in 1836 leaving six sons, of whom the eldest, Muhammad Hasan Khan, served under the order of Wazir Fateh Muhammad Khan at Herat; and when his master’s eyes had been put out by Prince Kamran he escorted Kohindil Khan and Sherdil Khan to Kandhar, where he remained for some years, and later went with his uncle to Kashmir. On his return to Kabul he resided with his brother Ali Raza Khan, and did good service to the British Government during the first Afghanistan campaign. Muhammad Hussain Khan, the second brother, was in great favour with Muhammad Azim Khan, and held a high appointment under him in Kashmir. After Azim Khan’s death, Hussain Khan returned to Kabul, and took service with Dost Muhammad Khan. In 1844 he went on pilgrimage to the holy places in Arabia, where he lived for some years. The third brother was Haji Muhammad Khan, who was Minister of Habib-Ullah Khan, the ruler of Kabul between the death of Azim Khan and the succession of Dost Muhammad. On the accession of that prince he retired to Mecca, and on his return took up his abode with Ali Raza Khan.

Ali Raza Khan had always lived on his hereditary estate, which was of the description called in Afghanistan ‘Zarkharid’, hereditary but subject to military service. When the British army, with Shah Shuja, first entered Kabul in 1839, Ali Raza Khan, being possessed of great influence in the city, was appointed chief agent of the commissariat department. His conduct in this office was unexceptionable, and he never failed in any engagement to supply grain or carriage. When the British interests, and kept the troops supplied with food and clothing. When the British officers and ladies were taken prisoners, Ali Raza Khan made the greatest exertions to alleviate their sufferings and obtain their liberation. He paid to their keeper, Muhammad Shah Khan Ghilzai, Rs. 500 a month, besides bribing the subordinate officers to induce them to treat the prisoners well, and to allow his servants to convey to them clothes, money and provisions. Nor did his humanity end here. He ransomed and saved from slavery nearly one hundred Hindustani sepoys, and kept them secretly in his own house till the second British army entered Kabul.

When Muhammad Akbar Khan had sent of the prisoners to Khulm by way of Hazara and Damian, Ali Raza Khan, who possessed great hereditary influence in that country, persuaded and bribed the Hazara chiefs not to allow the captives to be conveyed to the hills, and he also sent his agent, Murtaza Shah, with a large sum of money, to attempt to win over Saleh Muhammad Khan, who was in command of the escort. It was by his influence and by a lavish expenditure of his money that the captives were enabled to make their escape and join the relieving army of General Pollock. When Akbar Khan advanced to attack that General, Ali Raza Khan won over the Qizilbash chiefs to the side of the British, and they accordingly deserted Akbar Khan before the battle; and after his defeat their hostility made him fear to return to Kabul, and accordingly he fled through the hill country to Turkistan.

On the retreat of the British forces to India, Ali Raza Khan accompanied them. His conduct had excited the bitter hatred of Muhammad Akbar Khan and the Barakzais, and his life was no longer safe in Kabul. His estates (worth three lakhs of rupees) were confiscated, his houses razed to the ground, and with their materials Akbar Khan built two-houses for himself.

Such is the dry detail of services, the most disinterested, noble and chivalrous, performed by Ali Raza Khan. At the greatest personal risk, with the loss of his wealth, position and hereditary estates, Ali Raza Khan stood bravely and alone in defence of the side to which he had promised allegiance. But he and his family have done good service to the English Government in India as well as in Afghanistan. During the Sutlej campaign he joined the British camp with his brothers and sixty horsemen of his tribe, many members of which had shared his exile and fought in the battles of Mudki, Ferozeshah and Sobraon, where four of his sowars were killed. He accompanied Major H. Lawrence to Kangra and Kashmir in 1846 and during the rebellion of 1848-49 furnished one hundred horsemen under the command of his sister’s son, Sher Muhammad, for active service. In June 1857, when the English need was greatest, Ali Raza Khan volunteered to raise a troop being desired at Lahore, he sent them under the command of his brothers, Muhammad Raza Khan and Muhammad Taqi Khan. In raising this force he did not, at a time when the Government was in want of every procurable rupee, apply for any pecuniary assistance. At his own expense, and by the mortgage of his house and property in Lahore, he equipped the troop and sent with it, besides his brother, his nephews Abdullah Khan, Muhammad Hasan Khan, Muhammad Zaman Khan, Ghulam Hasan Khan and Sher Muhammad Khan. Forming part of the celebrated Hodson’s Horse, the troop raised by Ali Raza Khan served throughout the campaign wherever that gallant corps were sent, and its gallantry was ever conspicuous.

At Kasganj, Muhammad Taqi Khan was slain, fighting bravely, after several mutineers had fallen by his hand. Muhammad Raza Khan, the younger brother of Ali Raza Khan, was among the bravest in his fearless regiment. He was twice wounded at Malu and Shamasabad, and had two horses shot under him; and in every place where blows were thickest, there was the gallant Muhammad Raza Khan to be found. After the campaign he received the first class Order of Merit, the title of Sardar Bahadur, and grant of his pension of Rs. 200 in perpetuity. He died at Lucknow, whither he had gone on leave, shortly afterwards.

Ali Raza Khan was an Honorary Magistrate of Lahore, justly possessing great influence in the city; influence which he always used for good. After his retirement from Kabul he received a pension of Rs. 800 per mensem, and his brother Muhammad Raza Khan Rs. 200 per mensem. After the mutinies he received a grant of taaluqdari of one hundred and forty-seven villages in Bahraich, Oudh, worth Rs. 15,000 per annum. He also received the title of Khan Bahadur, and his nephews, above mentioned, who served so well during the mutinies, the titles of Sardar Bahadur. He was created an hereditary Nawab in 1864, two years before his death.

Ali Raza Khan had three sons, the eldest of whom, Nawazish Ali Khan, was with Major G. Lawrence at Peshawar when the Sikh troops mutinied in 1848. He remained with that officer to the last, and his fidelity cost him his house and property at Peshawar. The third son, Nisar Ali Khan, was in charge of the Oudh estate. He was there made an Honorary Assistant Commissioner, and his conduct gave complete satisfaction to the authorities.

O the death of Ali Raza Khan in 1866, the title of Nawab passed to his son, Nawazish Ali Khan. This gentleman proved himself a worthy successor to his father. He devoted his whole life to public interests and earned for himself, in the days of peace and tranquillity that followed, a name that stood high on the list of Punjab nobles for honour and integrity. He was appointed an Honorary Assistant Commissioner in 1877. He held the appointment of President of the Lahore Municipal Committee for three years. In 1885 the Companionship of the Indian Empire was conferred upon him, and three years later he was created a Knight of the same Order. He was nominated member of the Legislative Council in 1887, and one year earlier he received as a grant from Government the proprietary rights in Rakh Juliana, Lahore. After the death of Sir Nawazish Ali Khan in 1890, the hereditary title of Nawab devolved upon his younger brother, Nasir Ali Khan, who became the head of the family and succeeded his brother as Provincial Darbari. Nasir Ali Khan served for twenty-five years in the Provincial Civil Service, and died in 1896, being succeeded in his turn by his nephew, Fateh Ali Khan, who inherited the title of Nawab and his uncle’s estates and became the representative of the family, with a seat in Provincial Darbars. In 1897 Nawab Fateh Ali Khan was nominated a member of the Punjab Legislative Council. In 1902 he proceeded to England as one of the representatives of the Punjab for the Coronation of His Majesty the King-Emperor, and in 1903 was invited as an official guest to the Delhi Darbar, at which he was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire.  In 1904 he was made an additional Member of the Governor-General’s Legislative Council. In 1911 he was invited as an official guest to the Delhi Darbar. During the Great War he served the Empire with exemplary loyalty and devotion. Some of his War services may here be mentioned. He donated Rs. 16,000 towards the War at the beginning of it, another Rs. 6,000 to the Aeroplane Fund in 1916, contributed Rs. 10,000 to the first War Loan and gave various other sums, large and small, aggregating to about a lakh of rupees towards the prosecution of the war. Besides, he supplied a large number of recruits both from the Punjab and from his estate in the United Provinces. Moreover, he offered himself and his eldest son, Nisar Ali Khan, for any service in connection with that campaign. During the Punjab disturbances of 1919, the Nawab once again rendered valuable assistance to the administration. At the time of the last Afghan War he was attached as Liaison officer, to the Kohat-Khurram Force. The Nawab was keenly interested in Muslim education at Aligarh and the Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore. He raised funds which he augmented by personal contribution and started a Shia School and a Shia Intermediate College at Lucknow, himself being for several years the honorary general secretary of these institutions. In 1921 he was made a Knight Commander of the Indian Empire. He was President of the Punjab Chief’s Association, the Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore, the Punjab Muslim League, and the Anjuman-i-Islamia, Punjab. The Nawab’s devotion and loyalty to the British Government was thus repeatedly proved, and won the commendation of successive Viceroys and Lieutenant-Governors. He was a liberal subscriber to all charitable causes and a leading Muslim noblemen of the Punjab. Nawab Fateh Ali Khan died on 28^th October, 1923, leaving behind a greatly developed estate.

Khan Bahadur Sardar Muhammad Ali Khan Qizilbash was a prominent member of the Qizilbash family. He was the son of Nawab Nasir Ali Khan, and a grandson of Nawab Ali Raza Khan. He was a man of great tact and personal merit. He started his career as an Honorary Magistrate and a Municipal Commissioner at Lahore and later became the Vice-President of the Lahore Municipal Committee, which post he occupied till 1921. In 1910 he was made a Khan Bahadur. He did useful work as a member of the Jail Committee, and as a non-official visitor of Jails and of the Mental Hospital, Lahore. During the Great War he provided a large number of recruits. In 1923 he was declared a Provincial Darbari and was exempted from certain provisions of the Arms Act. He was helpful to the administration during the Civil Disobedience movement. Khan Bahadur Sardar Muhammad Ali Khan died in 1934 leaving five sons, the eldest being Sardar Ali Raza Khan Qizilbash.

Sardar Raza Ali Khan, son of Sardar Bahadur Muhammad Raza Khan, drew a pension of Rs. 200 per mensem in recognition of his father’s services, and was a Divisional Darbari. He was for some years an Extra Assistant Commissioner, and accompanied Sir Lepel Griffin as a member of his political staff to Kabul in 1880. He did much useful work on the Lahore Municipality after his retirement from the Provincial Service, and in 1908 received the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal of the second class. He died in 1919. Ali Hussain Khan, Barrister-at-Law, son of Muhammad Azim Khan, has been an Extra Assistant Commissioner and retired on pension in 1927. Nawazish Ali Khan, son of Hidayat Ali Khan, is a graduate of the Punjab University.

Baqir Ali Khan, B.A., son of Sultan Ali Khan, is a gazetted officer in the North-Western Railway. He did splendid work for the department during the Railway strikes, and has earned the esteem of his officers by his integrity and hard work.

Nawab Nisar Ali Khan, son of Nawab Sir Fateh Ali Khan, the present head of the family, has maintained an attitude of consistent loyalty and devotion to Government since the death of his father. He received education in India and in Europe. The title of Nawab was conferred on him on the occasion of the Coronation of His Imperial Majesty King George VI. The family Provincial and Divisional Darbar seats have been allotted to him. His brother, Sardar Muzaffar Ali Khan, M.A. (Cantab.), and a Barrister-at-Law, is working as an Advocate at Lahore, and has recently entered the new Punjab Legislative Assembly. He was granted the Coronation Medal on the occasion of the coronation of His Imperial Majesty King George VI. He is a member of the Resources and Retrenchment Committee of the Punjab Government. His younger brother, Lieutenant Zulfiqar Ali Khan, is serving in the 5^th Battalion, 6^th Rajputana Rifles (Napiers). He married the younger sister of His Highness the Nawab of Cambay in 1937. The youngest, Talib Ali Khan, has recently taken his B.A. degree from the Punjab University.

Thus, for more than a century Ali Raza Khan, and his descendants have served the British Government with devotion which has been as perfect as it has been disinterested. He was not by birth a British subject; but it will be difficult throughout Hindustan to find a family, however bound to the English Government by gratitude or duty, which has, for its sake, risked so nobly and disinterestedly life and everything that can make life desirable. As long as the first Kabul campaign, with the greatest disaster that has ever befallen the British arms, is remembered; as long as the sorrows and the glories of 1857 are household words amongst the English ― so long should the name of Ali Raza Khan and his gallant family be remembered by all true Englishmen with gratitude and esteem.

Note.―The Qizilbash still possess great influence in Kabul, where they number some 8,000 to 10,000. They inhabit a separate quarter to the south-west of the city, strongly fortified, known by the name of Chandol. The present Minister in Kabul (Mustaufi) is a Qizilbash; the chief offices are filled by members of the tribe; and the mother of Dost Muhammad himself was a lady of this tribe. The Shah of Persia is said to be now intriguing with the Qizilbash faction to weaken the Kabul Government. (Griffin―1864).

Qizilbash r ‘red head’ is of Turki derivation, and by some said to have arisen from the red caps worn by the captives given to Shaikh Haidar by Tamarlane. D’Herbelot, however, in his Bibliotheque Orientale, published in 1887, states that the name originated with Ismail, founder of the line of kings who reigned in Persia from 907 A.H. who commanded his soldiers to wear a red-cap, around which a turban of twelve folds was bound in honour and in remembrance of the twelve Imams, the successors of Ali, from whom he professed to have descended.

Lepel H. Griffin, G. L. Chopra, Ch. F. Massy, W. L. Conran, Chiefs and Families of Note in the Punjab. Volume 1. — Lahore: Government Printing, 1940, pp. 247—254.