Mir Habib Isfahani ( fa, ) was a warlord who used to be in the employment of the Mughal Subedars (officers) of Bengal, but after being discontent with promotions, went on to aid the

Maratha The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as ...

invaders of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

and aided in the various Maratha campaigns carried out in Bengal,

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

Orissa Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of S ...

and adjoining places.

Early life

His family came from Isfahan, Iran and were Persianised Turks. He started his career under Murshid Kuli Khan. Mir Habib Isfahani was a

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mo ...

Muslim, soldier-turned-commander, in the employment of

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 Mar ...

Aiding Maratha Ransacking

In 1742 when the

invaders under Roghuji Bhosla and his prime minister Bhaskar Pandit invaded the

Bengal Subah 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 Be ...

, Mir Habib Isfahani was lured to join their forces in search of loots as he was not content with his salary as a commander of Nawab

's army. This invasion was later suppressed by Nawab Alivardi Khan. In 1748, Mir Habib joined forces with Maratha general

Raghoji I Bhonsle Raghoji Bhonsle or Raghoji I Bhonsale or Raghuji the Great (1695 – February 1755) of the Bhonsale dynasty, was a Maratha general who took control of the Nagpur Kingdom in east-central India during the reign of Shahu I. His successors ruled ...

to invade Bengal, also with the support of Mustafa Khan, an Afghan defect from the Nawab's army. With the aid of the renegade commanders, the Marathas were able to ransack Hooghly and Mir Habib entered Murshidabad, the capital of Bengal.Dr M Abdur Rahim, Bangladesh er Itihas, Page 282-302 They were driven out again by Alivardi Khan. In 1751, the Marathas signed a peace treaty with Nawab Alivardi Khan, according to which Mir Habib was made provincial governor of

under nominal control of the Nawab.ড. মুহম্মদ আব্দুর রহিম. "মারাঠা আক্রমণ". বাংলাদেশের ইতিহাস. ২৯৩–২৯৯. Habib was later killed by the Marathas leading to Orissa coming under Maratha rule.

References

{{Reflist * * * * Indian Shia Muslims 18th-century Indian people People from Isfahan Province