Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Murtazara Father Of The Promised Messiahas The Family The Promised Messiahas belonged to a very distinguished family. He was a descendant of Haji Barlas, who was the uncle of Amir Timur. It is an established fact that Timur belonged to the famous tribe of Barlas, which had lived and ruled in Kish for 200 years. This part of the world was known in ancient times as Sogdiana, of which Samarkand was the capital. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says that the Sogdians...were a tribe of Iranians. The word ‘Samarkand’ itself is of Iranian origin. The word ‘Barlas’ is also Iranian and means ‘a brave man of noble stock’. Hence the Promised Messiahas was originally Iranian by race, though he and his family were all known as Mughals in India. Mirza Hadi Baig A member of the family, Mirza Hadi Baig, came to India from Samarkand with Babar, the first Mughal Emperor of India, or perhaps slightly later, on account of domestic dissensions or an affliction. He brought with him his followers and servants, the party consisting of about 200 persons. He was treated by Babar with great respect. He settled in a place about 70 miles from Lahore, and founded a village on a flat piece of ground below which, at a distance of nine miles to the north-east, flows the river Beas. The village was named Islampur. As he belonged to the ruling family, a jagir consisting of several hundred villages was immediately granted to him by the Emperor, and he was also appointed Qazi of the surrounding district. The name of the village, therefore, became Islampur Qazi, signifying that it was the seat of the Qazi. Gradually Islampur was dropped and it was known only as Qazi. The letter ‘ ’ضis often popularly pronounced as ‘d’ and Qazi in the course of time was converted into the present form, Qadian. The village continued to be the seat of the family; and, though they lived far from the imperial capital (Delhi), members of the family filled important offices during the rule of the Mughals. Mirza Faiz Muhammad During the time leading to the decline of the Mughal rule, Mirza Faiz Muhammad, the great-grandfather of the Promised Messiahas, took measures to suppress the anarchy that prevailed in the Punjab,
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