1. ABDULLA BHAI

'ABDULLA BHAI', Abdul according to some Sikh chroniclers, was a Muslim minstrel who recited heroic balladry at Sikh congregations in the time of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644). Abdul was born in the village of Sursingh, now in Amritsar district of the Punjab. He first came to Amritsar in 1606 at the time of the installation ceremony for Guru Hargobind at the Akal Takht. According to Gurbilas Chhevin Patshahi, he and his companion, Bhai Nattha, sang the stanza on the occasion: The Throne everlasting Has by the Holy Guru's presence become haloed, Indescribable is its splendour, How may I sing its glory! Seeing the Guru, Both the sun and the moon were shamed.

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2. ABDULLA, KHWAJA,

ABDULLA, KHWAJA, a native of Mani Majra, near present day Chandigarh, was the keeper of the jail at Chandni Chowk kotwali in Delhi, where Guru Tegh Bahadur, Nanak IX, was detained under imperial warrant. He was a pious man and truly reverenced the holy detenu. He tried to mitigate the rigour of his incarceration as far as his official position permitted. After Guru Tegh Bahadur`s execution (1675), he resigned his post and went to live at Anandpur, where he served Guru Gobind Singh, Nanak X, as a physician. His son, Ghulam Abbas, served under Nawab Kapur Singh as a physician during misl times.

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3. ABDUL RASUL KASHMIRI

ABDUL RASUL KASHMIRI, a native of Srinagar who was in trade at Amritsar as a shawl merchant, was for a time a close confidant of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last Sikh King of the Punjab deposed by the British in 1849. Kashmir! acted as the deposed Maharaja`s liaison man with governments of Turkey and Egypt. In 1860, `Abdul Rasul moved from India to Egypt, and thence to London where he joined the Nile expeditionary force as an interpreter. Owing to his secret connection with the Mahdi, he was discharged from the service. He was again in England to seek redress when he met the deposed Maharaja Duleep Singh who employed

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4. ABD US-SAMAD KHAN

ABD USSAMAD KHAN (d. 1737), governor of Lahore from 1713 to 1726, a descendant of the Naqashbandi saint `Abdulla Ahrar, a great grandson of Khwaja Baki of Baghdad, was born at Agra when his father, Khwaja `Abd ul-Karim Ansari, had come out with his family from Samarkand on a tour of India during the reign of Emperor Aurangzib. When Samad Khan was two years old, his parents returned to Samarkand where he passed the early years of his life and where he attained the office of Shaikh ul Islam. Soon thereafter he came to India obtaining appointment at the court of Aurangzeb. He served for many years in the Deccan without attracting much notice. 

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5. ABUL FAZL

ABUL FAZL (1551-1602), principal secretary-cum-minister to Akbar, the Mughal emperor. He was an accomplished man of learning and was the author of two celebrated works, A`ini Akbari and Akbar-nama, the former being a description of Akbar`s administrative system and the latter a chronicle of the events of his reign. Like his father, Shaikh Mubarak, and brother, Faizi, Abul Fazl had Sufi leanings, and all three of them were a major influence in moulding the religious policy of the emperor. Born at Akbarabad on 14 January 1551, Abul Fazl took up service at the royal court in 1574, and through his uncommon wisdom and learning soon rose to become Akbar`s most trusted adviser.

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6. ADINA BEG KHAN

ADINA BEG KHAN (d. 1758), governor of the Punjab for a few months in AD 1758, was, according to Ahwal-i-Dina Beg Khan, an unpublished Persian manuscript, the son of Channu, of the Arain agriculturalist caste, mostly settled in Doaba region of the Punjab. He was born at the village of Sharakpur, near Lahore, now in Sheikhupura district of Pakistan. Adina Beg was brought up in Mughal homes, for the most part in Jalalabad, Khanpur and Bajvara in the Jalandhar Doab. Starting his career as a soldier, he rose to be collector of revenue of the village of Kang in the Lohian area, near Sultanpur Lodhi.

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7. AHMAD SHAH DURRANI

AHMAD SHAH DURRANI (1722-1772), the first of the Saddozai rulers of Afghanistan and founder of the Durrani empire, belonged to the Saddozai section of the Popalzai clan of the Abdali tribe of Afghans. In the 18th century the Abdalis were to be found chiefly around Herat. Under their leader Zaman Khan, father of Ahmad Khan. they resisted Persian attempts to take Herat until, in 1728, they were forced to submit to Nadir Shah. Recognizing the fighting qualities of the Abdalis, Nadir Shah enlisted them in his army.

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8. AHMAD, SHAIKH

AHMAD, SHAIKH (1564-1624), celebrated Muslim thinker and theologian of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, was born on 26 May 1564 at Sirhind in present day Patiala district of the Punjab. He received his early education at the hands of his father. Shaikh `Abd al-Ahad, and later studied at Siaiko, now in Pakistan. About the year AD 1599, he met Khwaja Muhammad al-Baki bi-Allah, who initiated him into the Naqshbandi order. Shaikh Ahmad soon became a leading figure in that school and wrote numerous letters and treatises on many fine points of the Sufi doctrine such as the concepts of prophecy {nubuwwah) and sainthood (walayah) and the relationship between shari`ah, i.e. religious law, and tariqah, the mystic path.

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9. AHMAD YAR KHAN TIWANA

AHMAD YAR KHAN TIWANA (d. 1829), second son of Khan Muhammad Khan, the Tiwana chief of Mittha Tiwana, in Shahpur district, measured swords with Sikhs more than once during Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s time. Ahmad Yar Khan revolted against his father and, having succeeded in attracting most of the tribe to his side, compelled him to surrender the chief ship to him. In 1817, Maharaja Ranjit Singh dispatched troops under the command of Misr Divan Chand against the Tiwana chief at Nurpur Tiwana. The fort was conquered and Ahmad Yar Khan ran away to Jhandavala, situated in the Mankera territory. 

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10. AKBAR, JALAL UD-DIN MUHAMMAD

AKBAR, JALAL UD-DIN MUHAMMAD (1542-1605), third in the line of Mughal emperors of India, was born on 23 November 1542 at Amarkot, in Sindh, while his father, Humayun, was escaping to Persia after he had been ousted by Sher Khan Sur. Akbar was crowned king at Kalanaur, in the Punjab, on 14 February 1556. At that time, the only territory he claimed was a small part of the Punjab, Delhi and Agra having been taken by Hemu. He was then fourteen years old, but he proved himself a great general and conqueror. Upon his death in 1605, he left to his son and successor, Jahangir, a stable kingdom comprising the whole of Upper India, Kabul, Kashmir, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and a great part of the Deccan.

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