The Nawab of

Sardhana Sardhana is a city and a municipal board in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is northeast of New Delhi and 13 mi from Meerut. It is 5 km from Meerut Karnal National Highway and 12 km from National Highway 5 ...

is an honorary

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

title bestowed upon the descendants of the Afghan warlord and statesman

Jan-Fishan Khan Saiyed Muhammed Shah, better known by his title as Jan-Fishan Khan, was a 19th-century Afghan warlord.Obituary of Idries Shah, The Independent (London) of 26 November 1996., pp. 19–26 He participated in the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–42) ...

, for services to the British Raj – both in the failed British Afghan campaigns, as well as during the 1857 Rebellion in India. The hereditary title was once accompanied by a large

jagir A jagir ( fa, , translit=Jāgir), also spelled as jageer, was a type of feudal land grant in the Indian subcontinent at the foundation of its Jagirdar (Zamindar) system. It developed during the Islamic rule era of the Indian subcontinent, start ...

at Sardhana, made up largely of ancestral lands which once belonging to the

Begum Samru Joanna Nobilis Sombre (– 27 January 1836), popularly known as Begum Samru (née Farzana Zeb un-Nissa),. a convert Catholic Christian started her career as a nautch (dancing) girl in 18th century India, and eventually became the ruler of Sard ...

. While these lands have mostly now been dispensed of, the descendants of Jan Fishan Khan retain the right to use the title, Nawab of Sardhana. An account of the awarding of the title, Nawab of Sardhana, was provided by the British colonial scholar Sir

Roper Lethbridge Sir Roper Lethbridge (23 December 1840 – 15 February 1919) was a British academic and civil servant in India and a Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1892. Early life and education Lethbridge was the s ...

, in his The Golden Book of India:

"THE NAWAB OF SARDHANA On account of services rendered to Alexander Barnes in his Kabul mission, and subsequently to the English in their retreat from Kabul, they were expelled from Kabul and settled at Sardhana. At the time of the Mutiny, the head of the family, Sayyid Muhammed Jan Fishan Khan Seheb, took the side of the government at once. When the Mutiny occurred at Meerut, he raised a body of horse, consisting of his followers and dependents, and officered by himself and his relatives; accompanied General Wilson’s force to the Hindan; was present in both actions, and thence to Delhi, where he remained with the headquarters camp till the city was taken, when his men were employed to keep order in Delhi. For these eminent services the title of Nawab, with a suitable khilat was conferred on him. And each of his successors have received the title of Nawab for life on succeeding to the estates."Page 13: The Golden Book of India, by Sir Roper Lethbridge. McMillan & Co., 1893, London.
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Holders of the title Nawab of Sardhana

• Saiyed Muhammad Shah

. Saiyed Muhammed Ali Shah • Saiyed Ali Shah . Saiyed Ahmed Shah . Saiyed Amjad Ali Shah • Saiyed Sirdar

Ikbal Ali Shah Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah ( hi, सरदार इक़बाल अली शाह, ur, ; 1894 in Sardhana, India – 4 November 1969 in Tangier, Morocco) was an Indian-Afghan author and diplomat descended from the Sadaat of Paghman. Born and e ...

References

{{reflist Jan-Fishan Khan, Ikbal Ali Shah, Idries Shah, Tahir Shah Afghan warlords Indian Muslims Indian people of Afghan descent Year of birth unknown Pashtun dynasties