}; fl. 1530 CE) was an Indian

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteris ...

and

Qadi A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...

(Islamic judge) of

Central Asian Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former S ...

origin and a direct ancestor of

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Mahdi—which is the metaphori ...

the founder of the

Ahmadiyya Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...

movement. He migrated from

Samarqand fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top: Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zin ...

, in what is today

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

, to northern India and settled in

the Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

during the 16th century. Hadi Beg was a collateral kin of Babur, the founding emperor of the

Mughal dynasty The Mughal dynasty ( fa, ; ''Dudmân-e Mughal'') comprised the members of the imperial House of Babur ( fa, ; ''Khāndān-e-Āl-e-Bābur''), also known as the Gurkanis ( fa, ; ''Gūrkāniyān''), who ruled the Mughal Empire from to 1857. Th ...

in the Indian subcontinent, but was not a Timurid.

Biography

Background

Mirza Hadi Beg was a Barlas nobleman and scholar and a direct descendant of Hajji Beg Barlas, a paternal relative of

Timur Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...

, the 14th century ruler of

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. The Barlas were originally a prominent

Turco-Mongol The Turco-Mongol or Turko-Mongol tradition was an ethnocultural synthesis that arose in Asia during the 14th century, among the ruling elites of the Golden Horde and the Chagatai Khanate. The ruling Mongol elites of these Khanates eventuall ...

tribe who controlled territories in the Transoxianian region of Kish (modern

Shahrisabz Shakhrisabz ( uz, Шаҳрисабз ; tg, Шаҳрисабз; fa, شهر سبز, shahr-e sabz: "city of green" / "verdant city"; russian: Шахрисабз) is a district-level city in Qashqadaryo Region in southern Uzbekistan. The Economic ...

, some 80 km south of

). Following Timur's rise to power within the tribe and amidst his conflict with Hajji Beg as leader of the Barlas, the family fled, with other members of the tribe, to Khorasan where they remained until the 16th century. In the early part of this century, Hadi Beg returned to the homeland of his ancestors and settled in Samarqand but left the city in 1530, perhaps due to domestic dissensions or an affliction, and moved along with his family and a retinue of two hundred persons consisting of servants and followers to northern India where the emperor Babur had recently established the

In India

During the final year of Babur's reign, the family settled in the Punjab where Hadi Beg established a walled and fortified village near the River Beas and named it Islampur. He was granted a large tract of land comprising several hundred villages that together resembled a semi-independent territory by the imperial court of Babur and was also appointed the Qadhi (magistrate) of the surrounding district thereby giving him legal jurisdiction (

Qadiyat Qadiyat or Qaziyat (alternative spellings: ''Kadiyat'' or ''Kaziyat'') (russian: Кадиат) in Islam is a territorial division associated with a qadi; in some cases subordinate to the mufti and muftiate. In analogy to Christianity, a qadiyat woul ...

) over the area. As the village was associated with the seat of the Qadhi, it came to be known as ''Islampur-Qazi''. This name evolved into various forms based on cognates and the local dialect, until ''Islampur'' was dropped altogether, and it came to be known simply as

Qadian Qadian (; ; ) is a city and a municipal council in Gurdaspur district, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India. Qadian is the birthplace of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya m ...

, the name by which it is still known today.

Descendants

Hadi Beg’s descendants held Qadian for over 300 years maintaining close relations with the Mughal rulers and holding important offices within the imperial government. At its height, the family commanded a force of 7,000 soldiers under the Mughal emperor and, following the decline of Mughal power, were able to obtain ''de facto'' regional autonomy, becoming, in effect, the quasi-independent rulers of some sixty square miles. Most of this estate was lost however, first to the Sikhs in the 18th century and then to the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in the 19th. Perhaps the best known descendant of Hadi Beg was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who founded the Ahmadiyya movement.

Citations

References