Masum Khan ( bn, মাসুম খাঁ; b. 1604) was a

zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

of Bengal. He was the eldest son and successor of

Baro-Bhuiyan The Baro-Bhuyans (or ''Baro-Bhuyan Raj''; also ''Baro-Bhuians'' and Baro-Bhuiyans) refers to the confederacies of soldier-landowners in Assam and Bengal in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. The confederacies consisted of loose ...

leader Musa Khan and the grandson of

Isa Khan Isa Khan (c. 1529 – September 1599) was a Muslim Rajput zamindar who was one of the Baro Bhuiyans (twelve landlords) and a Zamindar of Khizirpur in 16th-century Bengal. Throughout his reign he resisted the Mughal empire invasion. It was o ...

Early life and family

Masum Khan was born into a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...

family from

Sarail Sarail ( bn, সরাইল, Shorail) is an upazila of Brahmanbaria District located in the Chittagong Division and near the Dhaka Division, Bangladesh. History The leader of the Baro-Bhuiyan zamindars, Isa Khan, had his first and temporary ...

. His father, Musa Khan, and grandfather,

, were both prominent leaders of the

confederacy and were descended from the Bais

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

clan. His great great grandfather, Bhagirath, migrated from

Ayodhya Ayodhya (; ) is a city situated on the banks of holy river Saryu in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Ayodhya, also known as Saketa, is an ancient city of India, the birthplace of Rama and setting of the great epic Ramayana. Ayodhya wa ...

to serve as the

Dewan ''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the e ...

of the

Sultan of Bengal The Sultanate of Bengal ( Middle Bengali: শাহী বাঙ্গালা ''Shahī Baṅgala'', Classical Persian: ''Saltanat-e-Bangālah'') was an empire based in Bengal for much of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It was the domina ...

Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah ( bn, গিয়াসউদ্দীন মাহমুদ শাহ, fa, غیاث الدین محمود شاه) was the last Sultan of the Hussain Shahi dynasty of the Bengal Sultanate, reigning from 1533 to 1538 CE. ...

. Khan's great grandfather, Kalidas Gazdani, also served as Dewan and accepted Islam under the guidance of

Ibrahim Danishmand Syed Ibrāhīm Dānishmand ( bn, সৈয়দ ইব্রাহীম দানিশমন্দ, fa, ) was a 16th-century zamindar and Islamic scholar who belonged to the Qadiriyya Sufi order. Well respected during his lifetime, Danishman ...

, taking on the name Sulaiman Khan. Sulaiman married the Sultan's daughter

Syeda Momena Khatun Syeda Momena Khatun ( bn, সৈয়দা মোমেনা খাঁতুন, fa, , Sayyidah Muʾminah Khātūn) was a princess of the Sultanate of Bengal's Hussain Shahi dynasty. She was the mother of Isa Khan, the leader of the Baro-Bh ...

, Masum Khan's great grandmother, and received the

Zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

i of

Rule

Following the death of his father in April 1623, the Subahdar of

Mughal Bengal The Bengal Subah ( bn, সুবাহ বাংলা; fa, ), also referred to as Mughal Bengal ( bn, মোগল বাংলা), was the largest subdivision of the Mughal Empire (and later an independent state under the Nawabs of Beng ...

Ibrahim Khan Fath-i-Jang Mirza Ibrahim Beg ( fa, ), later known as Ibrahim Khan Fath-i-Jang ( fa, ; d. 1624) was the Subahdar of Bengal during the reign of emperor Jahangir. He was the brother to Empress Nur Jahan. Biography Born to a Shi'ite family, Khan was the son ...

recognised Masum Khan as the successor of Musa's estate. Masum Khan served in the Siege of Hooghly in 1632 by the Mughal army against the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

. Again he took part in the Mughal invasion of

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

in 1636.

References

1604 births 17th-century Bengalis 17th-century Indian Muslims Sunni Muslims Bengali Muslims People from Sarail Upazila {{Asia-royal-stub