Ali Mohammed Khan

Nawab of Katehir (c. 1707–1748)

Not to be confused with Ali Muhammad Khan.

Nawab Ali Mohammed Khan Bahadur Rohilla

Nawab of Katehir
Nawab of Badaun
Nawab of Rampur
Nawab of Bareilly
Nawab of Moradabad
Nawab of Aonla
Maharaja of Kumaon[1]
Suzerain of Garhwal[1]
Sardar of the Barech tribe
Chief of the Rohilla
Rohilkhand
Reign| 1721–1748
Predecessor| Sardar Daud Khan Rohilla
Successor| Nawab Abdullah Khan Bahadur Rohilla
Badaun
Reign| 1721–1748
Predecessor| Sardar Daud Khan Rohilla
Successor| Nawab Abdullah Khan Bahadur Rohilla
Rampur
Reign| 1741–1748
Predecessor| Raja Ram Singh of Katehr
Successor| Nawab Faizullah Khan Bahadur Rohilla
Bareilly
Reign| 1741–1748
Predecessor| Nawab Abd Un Nabi Khan
Successor| Nawab Muhammad Yar Khan Bahadur Rohilla
Moradabad
Reign| 1741–1748
Predecessor| Raja Harnand
Successor| Nawab Saadullah Khan Bahadur Rohilla
Aonla
Reign| 1721–1748
Successor| Nawab Abdullah Khan Bahadur Rohilla

Born| Muhammad Ali
1707
Jansath
Died| 15 September 1748
Aonla
Burial|

Aonla

| Regnal name

Ali Muhammad Khan
House| Rohilla (by adoption from Nain Jats)[citation needed]
Religion| Sunni Islam
Occupation| Subahdar of Sirhind and Rohilkhand

Ali Muhammad Khan (c. 1707 – 15 September 1748) was a Rohilla chief who founded the Kingdom of Rohilkhand in the northwestern region of the Uttar Pradesh state of India. He succeeded his foster father Sardar Daud Khan Rohilla at the age of fourteen and was generally regarded as a non-oppressive ruler to the masses.[2] He was well regarded for his political ability, and was granted the right to use India's highest insignia of the Mahseer by the Emperor Muhammad Shah. His young death along with the tender age of his children led to Hafiz Rehmat Khan's regency which was in large part governed against his wishes, despite Rehmat Khan's solemn oath on the Quran to fulfill dying Ali Mohammad's will.

## Early life

[edit]

Ali Muhammad Khan was born around 1707 in a Jat family.[3][note 1] He was captured by Sardar Daud Khan, chief of the Barech tribe, during some hostilities with other Zamindars. Daud liked Ali and adopted him as his son.[7]

In the 19th century, the descendants of Ali, specifically the Nawabs of Rampur, claimed he was a Barha Sayyid and began using the title of Sayyid. However, they could not present any pedigree or valid historical proof to support this claim.[5] The Nawabs even hired a prominent maulvi of Rampur, Najmul Ghani, for establishing ancestry from Ali ibn Abi Talib, which was generally rejected.[8]

According to the Inradus Sa'adat, Ali Muhammad Khan was a Hanafi Muslim belonging to the Qadiri Sufi Order, which was considered by them more with pure Islam than any other mystic order prevailing in India.[9]

## Reign

[edit]

He succeeded Daud Khan and develop Rohilkhand into a powerful nation, which became independent in 1721. Ali Muhammad Khan distinguished himself by helping in suppressing the rebellion of the Barah Sayyids under the chief Saifudddin Barha who had put the Mughal governor Marhamat Khan and all of his followers to death.[10] As a reward Ali Muhammad Khan was given the title of Nawab by Muhammad Shah in 1737. In 1746, due to an altercation over the collection of wood between the construction workers of Safdar Jang with the forest guards of Ali Muhammad Khan, Safdar Jang decided to eliminate him.[11] Safdar Jang of Oudh informed the Mughal emperor of India Muhammad Shah[12] (ruled 1719–1748), through Qamar-ud-Din Khan[11] about Ali Mohammed Khan's supposed intentions to create his own Sultanate. Mohammed Shah sent an expedition against him, as a result of which he was imprisoned. Later he was pardoned and made governor of Sirhind.[11] After Nadir Shah, the conqueror of Iran, took control of Kabul and sacked Delhi in 1739, Ali Mohammed Khan returned to his homeland and ruled the independent state of Rohilkhand until his death in 1748.[citation needed]

Faizullah Khan was the second son of Ali Muhammad Khan. He assumed rule of the Rohillas after Nawab Saidullah Khan.[citation needed]

## Descendants

[edit]

* Nawab Abdullah Khan first son from wife Marghalari Begum (hailing from Matni tribe)
* Nawab Faizullah Khan second son from wife Marghalari Begum (hailing from Matni tribe)
* Nawab Saadullah Khan from wife Sarah Begum (of Bunerwal)
* Nawab Muhammad Yar Khan son from wife Lado Begum
* Nawab Alah-Yar Khan son from wife Raj Begum - He died of consumption around the same time that his younger brother Murtaza died.
* Murtaza Khan - Disgusted of Hafiz Rehmat Khan's unfair treatment, he left for Secunderabad where he died.
* Shah Begum, daughter, from wife Marghalari Begum (wife of Inayat Khan son of Hafiz Rehmat Khan)
* Niyaz Begum, daughter [and wife of Shah Muhammad Khan brother of Hafiz Rehmat Khan],
* Masoom Begum, daughter, [and wife of Zabita Khan]
* Inayat Begum, daughter, [wife of Bahadur Khan Kamal Zai]
* a daughter, name unknown, who died in childhood and was engaged to a son of Qamar-ud-din Khan[13]

## See also

[edit]

* Rohillas
* Rohilla dynasty
* Muslim Jats

## Notes

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1. ^ Abdur Rashid notes that while the rest of the sources describe him as a Jat, one source states that he was an Ahir.[4] Jos J. L. Gommans also notes that he is mostly described as a Jat or an Ahir in contemporary sources.[5] Iqbal Husain states, "It is acknowledged on all hands that 'Ali Muḥammad Khan was not an Afghan. That he was a Saiyed is at best dubious; that he was a Jat, or of some other local peasant caste is more than probable."[6]

## References

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1. ^ a b Hāṇḍā, Omacanda. History of Uttaranchal. pp. 91–92.
2. ^ Strachley, Sir John. Hastings and the Rohilla. p. 14.
3. ^

* Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta; Srinivasachari, G. (1971). Advanced history of India. Allied Publishers. p. 572\. OCLC 976740387. "Ali Muhammad Khan, a converted Jat, built up a large principality with its seat at Aonla, 18 miles north-west of Bareilly city and gained recognition from the Delhi court."
* Prasad, Ishwari (1973). India in the Eighteenth Century. Chugh Publications. p. 152\. OCLC 732111. "Daud was an adventurer of considerable ability and warlike spirit and in a short time gathered around himself a large number of followers. Ali Muhammad who was born of Jat parents was brought up by him as a child and converted to Islam."
* Gupta, Hari Ram (1999) [1980]. History of the Sikhs. Vol. III: Sikh Domination of the Mughal Empire (1764–1803) (2nd rev. ed.). Munshiram Manoharlal. p. 11\. ISBN 978-81-215-0213-9. OCLC 165428303. "The real founder of the Rohilla power was Ali Muhammad, from whom sprang the present line of the Nawabs of Rampur. Originally a Hindu Jat, who was taken prisoner when a young boy by Daud in one of his plundering expeditions, at village Bankauli in the parganah of Chaumahla, and was converted to Islam and adopted by him."
* Prasad, Bisheshwar (1978). "Ruhelkhand and Farrukhabad". In Banerjee, A. C.; Ghosh, D.K. (eds.). A Comprehensive History of India. Vol. 9 (1712–1772). People's Publishing House. p. 140\. OCLC 1405593320. "There he is reported to have captured a Jat boy of about eight years whom he brought up as his son and named Ali Muhammad Khan, who lived to be his successor and the founder of the state of Ruhelkhand."
* Rashid, Abdur (1957). "The Rohillas". In Husain, Mahmud; et al. (eds.). A History of the Freedom Movement. Vol. I: 1707–1831. Pakistan Historical Society. p. 304\. OCLC 1129482853. "Amongst other prisoners he obtained a young Jat boy of eight years.1 Daud took a fancy to him and adopted him as his son and named him 'Ali Muhammad Khan."
* Srivastava, Ashirbadi Lal (1954). The First Two Nawabs of Oudh (2nd rev. ed.). Shiva Lal Agarwala & Co. Ltd. p. 103\. OCLC 678892685. "While in the service of Mudar Shah of Madhkar, 13 miles east of Chandausi, Daud took part in an expedition against the ruler of Bankauli, 26 miles north of Bareilly, where fell into his hands among other things a handsome Jat boy of seven or eight years of age. He converted the boy into Islam, named him Ali Muhammad Khan and adopted him as his son."
* Khan, Iqbal Ghani (2002). "Technology and the Question of Elite Intervention in Eighteenth-Century North India". In Barnett, Richard B. (ed.). Rethinking Early Modern India. Manohar Publishers & Distributors. p. 271\. ISBN 978-81-7304-308-6. "Thus we witness the Ruhelas accepting an exceptionally talented non-Afghan, an adopted Jat boy, as their nawab, purely on the basis of his military leadership; ..."

4. ^ Rashid, Abdur (1978). History of the Muslims of Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent, 1707-1806. Vol. 1\. Pakistan Research Society. p. 297\. "According to the Siyar-ul-Mutakhkhirin⁸ Ali Muhammad Khan was an Ahir by birth. According to others he was of Jat parentage."
5. ^ a b Gommans, Jos J. L. (1995). The Rise of the Indo-Afghan Empire: C. 1710-1780. BRILL. p. 120\. ISBN 978-90-04-10109-8. "Most of the contemporary sources, however, call him a Jat or an Ahir."
6. ^ Husain, Iqbal (1994). The Ruhela Chieftaincies: The Rise and Fall of Ruhela Power in India in the Eighteenth Century. Oxford University Press. p. 41\. ISBN 978-0-19-563068-8.
7. ^ Irvine, W. (1971). Later Mughal. Atlantic Publishers & Distri. p. 118. Retrieved 30 July 2022. "Once Daud was sent against the village of Bankauli, in pargana Chaumahla, with which his employer was at feud. Along with the plunder taken on this occasion Daud obtained possession of a Jat boy seven or eight years of age, whom he caused to be circumcised and then adopted under the name of Ali Muhammad Khan."
8. ^ Srivastava, Ashirbadi Lal (1954). The First Two Nawabs of Oudh (2nd rev. ed.). Shiva Lal Agarwala & Co. Ltd. p. 103\. OCLC 678892685. "Contemporary Persian authorities say that Ali Muhammad Khan was of Jat parents. See Gulistan. 7; Abdulkarim, 88b, Ashob, 424; Siyar. II 480, A partisan attempt has, however, been made in modern times to prove that he was a Sayyid. Najmul Ghanl of Rampur has invented a false pedigree of the Khan, tracing it to Muhammad. The Maulvi's discussion is altogether unconvincing and ridiculous. His object seems to be to prove that the present ruler of Rampur is a Sayyid."
9. ^ Altaf Ali Brelvi (1966). Life of Hafiz Rahmat Khan (Hayat-I-Hafiz Rahmat Khan). Academy of Educational Research, All Pakistan Education Conference.
10. ^ Edwin Thomas Atkinson (1876). Statistical, Descriptive and Historical Account of the North-Western Provinces of India: 3.:Meerut division part 2 · Volume 3. National Central Library of Florence. p. 605.
11. ^ a b c Khan, Muhammad Najm-ul-Ghani (1918). Akhbar-us-Sanadeed, vol. 1. Lucknow: Munshi Nawal Kishore. pp. 146–152.
12. ^ Muhammad Shah (1702–1748) was a Mughal emperor of India between 1719 and 1748
13. ^ Khan, Mohammad Najm-ul-Ghani Khan (1918). Akhbar-us-Sanadeed, vol. 1. Lucknow: Munshi Nawal Kishore. pp. 195–196.

*[c.]: circa