Nawazish Muhammad Khan ( fa, ; died 1755), also known as Mirza Muhammad Raza, was a
Mughal
Mughal or Moghul may refer to:
Related to the Mughal Empire
* Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries
* Mughal dynasty
* Mughal emperors
* Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia
* Mughal architecture
* Mug ...
aristocrat and the
deputy governor of
Dhaka in the 18th century.
Biography
Mirza Muhammad Raza was the son of Haji Ahmad, the elder brother of
Alivardi Khan. Raza's paternal grandfather Mirza Muhammad Madani, who was of either
Arab or
Turkic
Turkic may refer to:
* anything related to the country of Turkey
* Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages
** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation)
** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language
* ...
descent, was the son of a foster-brother of the
Mughal
Mughal or Moghul may refer to:
Related to the Mughal Empire
* Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries
* Mughal dynasty
* Mughal emperors
* Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia
* Mughal architecture
* Mug ...
emperor
Aurangzeb
Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...
.
Raza had two brothers,
Sayed Ahmed Khan
''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Prophets in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali ...
and
Mirza Muhammad Hashim.
Career
Nawazish Muhammad Khan had arrived at the
Bengal Subah accompanied by his father Haji Ahmad and uncle
Alivardi Khan. He worked under his cousin
Shuja-ud-Din Muhammad Khan, the Naib Nazim of
Orissa, as a petty officer. After Shuja-ud-Din Muhammad Khan became
Nawab of Bengal
The Nawab of Bengal ( bn, বাংলার নবাব) was the hereditary ruler of Bengal Subah in Mughal India. In the early 18th-century, the Nawab of Bengal was the ''de facto'' independent ruler of the three regions of Bengal, Bihar, ...
, Nawazish was made the paymaster of the
Nawab's army. He was also made the superintendent of customs based in
Murshidabad. After Alivardi Khan became the Nawab of Bengal, Nawazish was appointed
Dewan of crown lands. He was also named the governor of
Dhaka with Husain Quli Khan as his deputy governor. He was also given the title Shahmat Jang.
In 1751, he founded the Furqaniyyah Dar al-Ulum Madrasa in
Motijhil
Motijhil (also Motijheel, literal translation: Pearl Lake), also known as Company due to its association with the East India Company, is a horse-shoe shaped lake in Murshidabad, West Bengal, India. It was created by Nawazish Muhammad Khan, the ...
,
Murshidabad, which he would personally supervise. The
madrasa taught
Islamic studies,
Arabic,
Persian and
Bengali. He also built a
jami mosque
A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.*
*
*
*
*
*
*
...
between the madrasa and his palace.
Family
Nawazish married
Ghaseti Begum, the eldest daughter of his uncle
Alivardi Khan.
This marriage was childless and he adopted as his son Ikramuddaula, who was nephew to both Nawazish and Ghaseti through
his brother and
her sister respectively.
Historian
Syed Murtaza Ali identified Nawazish as having also been the husband of the
Jaintia princess Bhairav Kawari, sister of
Bar Gosain II
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
, and the father of her son Fateh Khan.
Nawazish, on the instructions of Alivardi, also adopted as his mother Zinat-un-nisa (Nafisa Begum), whose son had been the late Nawab
Sarfaraz Khan. She enjoyed absolute authority over his household, superseding even Ghaseti Begum, though she never appeared in front of him without a
veil or curtain between them.
Death
Due to his illness, the state affairs were managed by his wife
Ghaseti Begum and his deputy. Nawazish, grief-stricken, died soon after in 1755.
He was buried in front of his mosque in
Motijhil
Motijhil (also Motijheel, literal translation: Pearl Lake), also known as Company due to its association with the East India Company, is a horse-shoe shaped lake in Murshidabad, West Bengal, India. It was created by Nawazish Muhammad Khan, the ...
, next to his adopted son Ikramuddaula and commander-in-chief
Shamsher Ali Khan.
[
]
In popular culture
He was portrayed by Amrish Puri in Bharat Ek Khoj.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Nawazish Muhammad
1755 deaths
Indian Shia Muslims
18th-century Indian people
People from Murshidabad district
Rulers of Dhaka