Feroze Jung III or Nizam Shahabuddin Muhammad Feroz Khan Siddiqi Bayafandi also known by his sobriquet Imad-ul-Mulk, was the grand vizier of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

allied with the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Shi ...

, who were often described as a de facto ruler of the

. He was the son of Ghazi ud-Din Khan Feroze Jung II and a grandson of the founder of the Nizam Dynasty, Nizam ul Mulk Asaf Jah. An oriental biographical dictionary: founded on materials collected by the late Thomas William Beale;2nd Edition; Publisher:W.H. Allen, 1894; page 143 A controversial figure, Imad is well known for imprisoning and blinding emperor Ahmad Shah Bahadur, for assassinating emperor Alamgir II and torturing their family members including future emperor

Shah Alam II Shah Alam II (; 25 June 1728 – 19 November 1806), also known by his birth name Ali Gohar (or Ali Gauhar), was the seventeenth Mughal Emperor and the son of Alamgir II. Shah Alam II became the emperor of a crumbling Mughal empire. His powe ...

. He was declared to be an apostate by various

Islamic scholar In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of reli ...

s and by

Durrani The Durrānī ( ps, دراني, ), formerly known as Abdālī (), are one of the largest tribes of Pashtuns. Their traditional homeland is in southern Afghanistan ( Loy Kandahar region), straddling into Toba Achakzai in Balochistan, Pakistan, but ...

Emperor

Ahmad Shah Abdali Ahmad Shāh Durrānī ( ps, احمد شاه دراني; prs, احمد شاه درانی), also known as Ahmad Shāh Abdālī (), was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is regarded as the founder of the modern Afghanistan. In July 1747, Ahm ...

. After the death of his father in 1752, he was recommended by Nawab Safdar Jung to be appointed as Mir Bakhshi (Pay Master General) and received the titles of Amir ul-Umara (Noble of Nobles) and Imad ul-Mulk.

Military career

He blinded and imprisoned Emperor Ahmad Shah Bahadur in 1754. In 1757, Imad invited

Marathas 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 a M ...

to invade

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

in order to drive out the Afghans and Rohillas from Delhi. In the same year,

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

's Emperor

Ahmad Shah Durrani Ahmad Shāh Durrānī ( ps, احمد شاه دراني; prs, احمد شاه درانی), also known as Ahmad Shāh Abdālī (), was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is regarded as the founder of the modern Afghanistan. In July 1747, Ahm ...

declared Imad-ul-Mulk an "apostate". Two years later, Emperor Alamgir II was assassinated in 1759. He was later named the ''Wazir ul-Mamalik-i-Hindustan''. Imad-ul-Mulk also planned the death of young Ali Gauhar and even ordered Mir Jafar the

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, ...

to advance as far as

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

with the motive to kill or capture the Mughal Crown Prince. Imad-ul-Mulk soon fled

after the rise of

Najib-ud-Daula Najib ad-Dawlah ( ps, نجيب الدوله), also known as Najib Khan Yousafzai ( ps, نجيب خان), was a Rohilla Yousafzai Afghan who earlier served as a Mughal serviceman but later deserted the cause of the Mughals and joined Ahmed S ...

and the

Mughal Army The Army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 15th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. Although its origins, like the Mughals themselves, ...

, which eventually places

as the new

Mughal Emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...

Writings and later life

According to the biography of the poet called Gulzar Ibrahim, he was living in 1780 in straitened circumstances. In 1784 he made a deal with 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 a M ...

Peshwa The Peshwa (Pronunciation: e(ː)ʃʋaː was the appointed (later becoming hereditary) prime minister of the Maratha Empire of the Indian subcontinent. Originally, the Peshwas served as subordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king); later, ...

and received

Baoni Kadaura is a town and a Nagar Panchayat in Jalaun District in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. During the British Raj, Kadaura was the capital of an 11-gun salute princely state. History During the British Raj era, Kadaura was the capital o ...

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 ...

'' of 52 villages near

Kalpi Kalpi is a historical city and municipal board in Jalaun district in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is on the right bank of the Yamuna. Once Kalpi was more important Than Orai It is situated 78 kilometres south-west of Kanpur from which it is conn ...

. Subsequently, he proceeded to

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

where he passed a few years with the English and then went on the

Hajj The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...

. He composed

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Rekhta ''Rekhta'' ( ur, ; hi, रेख़्ता ) was the Hindustani language as its dialectal basis shifted to the Delhi dialect. This style evolved in both the Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts and is considered an early form of Urdu and H ...

poetry and left

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and Turkish

Ghazal The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...

s and a thick Persian Diwan and a Masnawi ''Fakhria-tun_Nizam'' and ''Nalaa-e-Ny'' in which the miracles of Maulana Fakhar-ud-Din are related. His pen name was ''Nizam''.

Personal life

Under the influence of

Sufism Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

he abandoned his power hungry political career and went to Maharshrif, Chishtian (now

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

) to live with

Noor Muhammad Maharvi Noor Muhammad Maharvi ( pa, ; born 2 April 1746, died 3 August 1793) was a Sufi saint of Chishti Order in Chishtian, Punjab, Pakistan. Early life Maharvi was born in 1746 at Chhotala near Bahawalnagar of the Sikh Empire. He was a Muslim Pan ...

, his fellow disciple of Moulana Fakhar-ud-Din was Muhib-un-Nabi Dehlavi. He wrote the death date of Noor Muhammad Maharvi in a poetic way حیف واویلا جہاں بے نور گشت, which refers to date 1205 Hijri, meaning that as late as 1791 he had been residing in Maharsharif. After Noor Muhammad Maharvi's death Nizam moved to

Khairpur Khairpur( Sindhi and ur, ) is a city and the capital of the Khairpur District, in Pakistan's Sindh province. History The Talpur dynasty was established in 1783 by Mir Fateh Ali Khan, who declared himself the first ''Rais'', or ruler of Sindh ...

(near

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi fa ...

) and died there in 1800, where his grave is located. His wife was the celebrated Ganna or Gunna Begam who died in the year 1775. His son Naser-ad-Daula succeeded as the Nawab of Baoni jagir.

Popular culture

In the 2019

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

war epic

Panipat Panipat () is a historic city in Haryana, India. It is 95 km north of Delhi and 169 km south of Chandigarh on List of National Highways in India, NH-1. The three major battles fought in First Battle of Panipat, 1526, Second Battle of ...

, the character of Imad-ul-Mulk and his role in the events leading up to the Third Battle of Panipat is portrayed by

Mir Sarwar Mohammad Sarwar Mir is an Indian actor, who has appeared in Hindi films including '' Kesari'', ''Bajrangi Bhaijaan'', and '' Jolly LLB 2''. Career Mir Sarwar started his career with renowned directors M K Raina and Bapi Bose in Delhi. He was ...

. In the TV series

The Great Maratha ''The Great Maratha'' is an Indian historical drama television series directed by Sanjay Khan and produced by Numero Uno International Limited. The drama aired on DD National. The series is based on the life of Mahadaji Shinde. The show compr ...

1994 the role was played by

Jitendra Trehan Jithendra or Jeetendra is a common first name in India. Jitendra is derived from two words ''jeet'' + ''indra'' which means the one who has won Indra. The word 'Jitendra' may have originated from 'Jitendriya' which means "one who has conquered th ...

References

External links