Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c23: Appendix
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c23
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Appendix
v2.c23.1
Ali Quli Khan, Zafar Jang, popularly called the Six-fingered, from that excrescence on one of his hands, was sprung from an Abbaside princely family of Daghestan (a Persian province south of the Caspian.) His father's paternal uncle Fath Ali Khan rose to the chancellorship under Sultan Husain Safavi, and his father, Md. Ali Khan, held the high office of Beglar-begi of Irwan. Ali Quli (born at Isfahan in 1712) displayed a fine vein of poetry from early youth, and having fallen in love with Khadija Sultan (the daughter of his paternal uncle Hasan Ali) when at school with her, he addressed passionate odes to her,* which were collected in a volume of some popularity named Masnavi-i-Wala Sultan, his pseudonym being Wala. During the Afghan usurpation of Persia his fair cousin was snatched away before he could gain her hand, and she was afterwards taken into Nadir Shah's harem. So, in despair, Ali Quli migrated to India in 1734, and was appointed second Mir Tuzuk by the Emperor, with the title of Zafar Jang. In the next reign he became Khan-i-Zaman, and in that of
v2.c23.2
Najib held Mathura, and Abdali lay at Gokul [text reads ‘at Vrindavan’.] SPD. xxi. 111.
v2.c23.3
* When the bashful maiden entreated him to spare her blushes by not naming her in his odes, the enraptured poet wrote back :—
v2.c23.4
“Thou sayest, ‘Link not my name with thy verses.’
But the verse that enshrines not thy name, of what use is it ?”
v2.c23.5
Khazinah-i-Amira, 446-450 (from personal knowledge`, Muz. 129-131 (incorrect), Ind. Antiquary, 1907, p. 44.
v2.c23.6
Ali Quli edited an anthology of Persian poetry named Riyaz-ush-Shu'ra, besides his own Masnavi.
v2.c23.7
Alamgir II a seven-hazari noble. In 1753 he migrated from Delhi to Oudh with Safdar Jang, and died at Delhi on 31 March 1756, when on a mission from the Court of Oudh.
v2.c23.8
In India Ali Quli married a highly accomplished poetess who had, alas, begun life as a professional dancing-girl. Their daughter Ganna Begam inherited the poetical talent and artistic culture as well as the beauty of her Hetera mother, and her hand was sought by the highest nobles in the land, such as Shuja-ud-daulah the Nawab of Oudh and Imad-ul-mulk the imperial wazir. After her father's death, when at Agra on her way to Lucknow to be married to Shuja, she was surrounded by the men of Jawahir Singh Jat, who wanted to kidnap this famous beauty; but she contrived to escape to Farrukhabad. Here her family friend, the Nawab Ahmad Khan Bangash, induced her mother to prefer the suit of Imad, to whom she was married later in the year. But this brought down on her head the vindictive fury of Mughlani Begam, whose daughter Umda Begam had been betrothed to Imad in their childhood. The Abdali king during his occupation of Delhi forced Imad to marry Umda Begam (21 Feb. 1757) and hand over poor friendless Ganna as a bond-maid to her rival! She lies buried at Nurabad, 13 miles north of Gwalior, her epitaph being, *Ah, gham-i-Ganna Begam!* ‘alas! weep for Ganna Begam’,—which gives the year of her death, 1775 A. D.