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Khoja Wajid
Khoja Wajid (also spelled Wazid, Wazeed; d. 1759) was a wealthy Armenian merchant who played a prominent role in the economic and political life of Bengal in the 1740s and 50s. He was the son of Khoja Mahmet Fazel, another notable Armenian merchant. Based in the port town of Hughli, he used his business prowess and influence at the court of the Nawab of Bengal to consolidate his commercial empire, gaining control over the economy of Bihar and establishing highly profitable monopolies over the trade of saltpeter and salt. He also controlled most of the opium trade. After consolidating his control over Bengal's inland trade, he expanded his operations to maritime commerce and acquired a trading fleet which, according to Sushil Chaudhury, "dominated the Asian maritime trade of Hughli." He had extensive business connections with the French, Dutch and English trading companies in India. In the early 1740s, Wajid became the official representative of the Armenian merchants of Bengal at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khawaja
Khawaja (Persian language, Persian: خواجه ''khvâjəh'') is an honorific title used across the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, particularly towards Sufi teachers. It is also used by Kashmiri Muslims and the Mizrahi Jews—particularly Persian Jews and Baghdadi Jews. The word comes from the Iranian word ''khwāja'' (Classical Persian: ''khwāja''; Dari language, Dari ''khājah''; Tajik language, Tajik ''khoja''). In Persian language, Persian, the title roughly translates to 'Lord' or 'Master'. The Ottoman Turkish pronunciation of the Persian خواجه gave rise to ''hodja'' and its equivalents such as ''hoca'' in Turkish language, modern Turkish, ''hoxha'' in Albanian language, Albanian, ''xoca'' (''khoja'') in Azerbaijani language, Azerbaijani, ''hodža'' in Bosnian language, Bosnian, ''χότζας'' (''chótzas'') in Greek language, Greek, ''hogea'' in Romanian language, Romanian, and ''хоџа'' in Serbian language, Serbian. Other spellings ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faujdar
Faujdar is a term of pre-Mughal origins. Under the Mughals it was an office that combined the functions of a military commander along with judicial and land revenue functions. In pre-Mughal times, the term referred to a military officer but did not refer to a specific rank. With the administrative reforms performed by Mughal emperor Akbar, this rank was systemised. It constituted an independent administrative unit and its territorial limits varied from place to place and from time to time. A faujadari comprised a number of thanas or military outposts. At each of these the number of swears were stationed under a thanadar. Faujdari carried with it a fixed number of sawars and it was up to the faujdar to station soldiers in various thanas under him. In addition in some faujdaris there were a number of thanas described as huzuri or huzuri mashruti. In these thanas the Thanadars were appointed directly by the central government via royal orders or at the recommendations of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1759 Deaths
In Great Britain, this year was known as the ''Annus Mirabilis'', because of British victories in the Seven Years' War. Events January–March * January 6 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis. * January 11 – In Philadelphia, the first American life insurance company is incorporated. * January 13 – Távora affair: The Távora family is executed, following accusations of the attempted regicide of Joseph I of Portugal. * January 15 – **Voltaire's satire ''Candide'' is published simultaneously in five countries. ** The British Museum opens at Montagu House in London (after six years of development). * January 27 – Battle of Río Bueno: Spanish forces, led by Juan Antonio Garretón, defeat indigenous Huilliches of southern Chile. * February 12 – Ali II ibn Hussein becomes the new Ruler of Tunisia upon the death of his brother, Muhammad I ar-Rashid. Ali reigns for 23 years until his death in 1782. * February 16 – ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Clive
Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British East India Company rule in Bengal. He began as a writer (the term used then in India for an office clerk) for the East India Company (EIC) in 1744 and established Company rule in Bengal by winning the Battle of Plassey in 1757. In return for supporting the Nawab Mir Jafar as ruler of Bengal, Clive was granted a jagir of £30,000 () per year which was the rent the EIC would otherwise pay to the Nawab for their tax-farming concession. When Clive left India he had a fortune of £180,000 () which he remitted through the Dutch East India Company. Blocking impending French mastery of India, Clive improvised a 1751 military expedition that ultimately enabled the EIC to adopt the French strategy of indirect rule via puppet government. Hired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Plassey
The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757, under the leadership of Robert Clive. The victory was made possible by the defection of Mir Jafar, who was Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah's commander in chief. The battle helped the British East India Company take control of Bengal. Over the next hundred years, they seized control of most of the rest of the Indian subcontinent, including Burma. The battle took place at Palashi (Anglicised version: ''Plassey'') on the banks of the Hooghly River, about north of Calcutta (now Kolkata) and south of Murshidabad in West Bengal, then capital of Bengal Subah (now in Nadia district in West Bengal). The belligerents were the Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal , and the British East India Company. He succeeded Alivardi Khan (his maternal grandfather). Siraj-ud-Daulah had become the Nawab of Bengal the year before, and he had order ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Calcutta
The siege of Calcutta was a battle between the Nawab of Bengal and the Kingdom of Great Britain, British East India Company on 20 June 1756. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, aimed to seize Calcutta to punish the company for the unauthorised construction of fortifications at Fort William (India), Fort William. Siraj ud-Daulah caught the Company prepared but siraj was enough Brave to defeat them. Origins A trading post had been established in the area of Calcutta at the end of the seventeenth century by the East India Company, who purchased the three small villages that would later form the base of the city, and began construction of Fort William (India), Fort William to house a garrison. In 1717 they had been granted immunity from taxation throughout Bengal by the Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar. The city flourished, with a large volume of trade travelling down the Ganges River.Bedford (1997) The attitude of the Nawab of Bengal, Nawabs of Bengal, the regional go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siraj Ud-Daulah
Mirza Muhammad Siraj-ud-Daulah ( fa, ; 1733 – 2 July 1757), commonly known as Siraj-ud-Daulah or Siraj ud-Daula, was the last independent Nawab of Bengal. The end of his reign marked the start of the rule of the East India Company over Bengal and later almost all of the Indian subcontinent. Siraj succeeded his maternal grandfather, Alivardi Khan as the Nawab of Bengal in April 1756 at the age of 23. Betrayed by Mir Jafar, the commander of Nawab's army, Siraj lost the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757. The forces of the East India Company under Robert Clive invaded and the administration of Bengal fell into the hands of the company. Early life and background Siraj was born to the family of Mirza Muhammad Hashim and Amina Begum in 1733. Soon after his birth, Alivardi Khan, Siraj's maternal grandfather, was appointed the Deputy Governor of Bihar. Amina Begum was the youngest daughter of Alivardi Khan and Princess Sharfunnisa, the paternal aunt of Mir Jafar. His father, Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alivardi Khan
Alivardi Khan (1671 – 9 April 1756) was the Nawab of Bengal from 1740 to 1756. He toppled the Nasiri dynasty of Nawabs by defeating Sarfaraz Khan in 1740 and assumed power himself. During much of his reign Alivardi encountered frequent Maratha raids under Raghuji Bhonsle, culminating in the surrender of the province of Orissa in a peace settlement in 1751. He also faced separatist rebellions in Bihar as well as a revolt from his grandson Siraj ud-Daulah, though these were suppressed. Alivardi spent the latter part of his reign rebuilding Bengal. He was a patron of the arts and resumed the policies of Murshid Quli Khan. He maintained a politically neutral stance with the European powers in the subcontinent and prevented any infighting amongst them in his dominions. He was succeeded by Siraj ud-Daulah in 1756. Early life Born in one of the cities of the Deccan in 1676, he was originally given the name Mirza Muhammad Ali. His father Mirza Muhammad Madani, who was of either Ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murshidabad
Murshidabad fa, مرشد آباد (, or ) is a historical city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located on the eastern bank of the Bhagirathi River, a distributary of the Ganges. It forms part of the Murshidabad district. During the 18th century, Murshidabad was a prosperous city. It was the capital of the Bengal Subah in the Mughal Empire for seventy years, with a jurisdiction covering modern-day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. It was the seat of the hereditary Nawab of Bengal and the state's treasury, revenue office and judiciary. Bengal was the richest Mughal province. Murshidabad was a cosmopolitan city. Its population peaked at 10,000 in the 1750s. It was home to wealthy banking and merchant families from different parts of the Indian subcontinent and wider Eurasia, including the Jagat Seth and Armenians. European companies, including the British East India Company, the French East India Company, the Dutch East India Compa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), and later with East Asia. The company seized control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. At its peak, the company was the largest corporation in the world. The EIC had its own armed forces in the form of the company's three Presidency armies, totalling about 260,000 soldiers, twice the size of the British army at the time. The operations of the company had a profound effect on the global balance of trade, almost single-handedly reversing the trend of eastward drain of Western bullion, seen since Roman times. Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies", the company rose to account for half of the world's trade duri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armenians
Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora of around five million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry living outside modern Armenia. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia, the United States, France, Georgia, Iran, Germany, Ukraine, Lebanon, Brazil, and Syria. With the exceptions of Iran and the former Soviet states, the present-day Armenian diaspora was formed mainly as a result of the Armenian genocide. Richard G. Hovannisian, ''The Armenian people from ancient to modern times: the fifteenth century to the twentieth century'', Volume 2, p. 421, Palgrave Macmillan, 1997. Armenian is an Indo-European language. It has two mutually intelligible spoken and written forms: Eastern Armenian, today spoken mainly in Armenia, Artsakh, Iran, and the former Soviet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock company in the world, granting it a 21-year monopoly to carry out trade activities in Asia. Shares in the company could be bought by any resident of the United Provinces and then subsequently bought and sold in open-air secondary markets (one of which became the Amsterdam Stock Exchange). It is sometimes considered to have been the first multinational corporation. It was a powerful company, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, strike its own coins, and establish colonies. They are also known for their international slave trade. Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in the Asia trade. Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent almost a million Eur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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