Wazir Khan (Sirhind)
| Mirza Askari Wazir Khan میرزا عسکری وزیرخان | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wazir Khan Faujdar (Commander) Diwan (Revenue Collector/Commissioner) Sarkar (Deputy-Subahdar/Governor) (5,000 Mansabi) (4,000 Sawari) | |||||
 Depiction of Wazir Khan of Sirhind beheaded during the Battle of Sirhind (1710) from an illustrated folio of ‘Tawarikh-i Jahandar Shah’, Awadh or Lucknow, ca.1770 | |||||
| Sarkar (Deputy-Subahdar/Governor) of Sirhind in Delhi Subah | |||||
| Holding Office | Late 17th-Century – 12 May 1710 | ||||
| Successor | Baj Singh of Khalsa Fauj | ||||
| Padishah | Alamgir I | ||||
| Subahdar | Munim Khan II Ghazi ud-Din Khan Feroze Jung I | ||||
| Born | Mirza Askari c. 1635 Kunjpura, Delhi Subah, Mughal Empire[1] | ||||
| Died | 12 May 1710 (aged 74–75) Chappar Chiri, Punjab | ||||
| Issue | Mirza Tulghan Khan | ||||
| |||||
| Farsi | میرزا عسکری وزیرخان بن ظاهر حرم خان | ||||
| Father | Mirza Zahir Haram Khan | ||||
| Mother | Amina Begum | ||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||
| Occupation | Deputy-Governor and Military Commander of the Mughal Empire | ||||
Mirza Askari (Persian: میرزا عسکری, c. 1635 — 12 May 1710), better known by his title Wazir Khan, was a Indo-Persian minor noblemen of Mughal Empire, serving his positions Amin of Chakla Sirhind, also as military commander (Faujdar) and regional Revenue Collector/Commissioner (Dewan), as well as (Deputy-Governor/Subehdar) of the Sirhind region as the local administrative Sarkar (government) under Delhi Subah of Mughal Province, as he was the Mansabdar of 5,000 zat (foot infantries) and 4,000 swars (cavalrymans), in the present-day Indian state of Punjab, and his administering territory that lay between the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers, he was regional deputy-governor under many representative Delhi Subehdars like Munim Khan II and Ghazi ud-Din Khan Feroze Jung I. He was best known for his conflicts with the Sikhs.[2][3][4][5]
Biography
[edit]Background
[edit]Mirza Askari (Wazir Khan) was born around 1635 CE. his father was Mirza Zahir Khan, Mirza Askari was the descendant of Wazir Khan Akbar Shahi of Persian descent who originally from Iran, who was the served as Courtrian to the third Mughal Emperor Akbar.[5]
Other sources claiming about his origin
[edit]According to Sikh sources, Mirza Askari (Wazir Khan) was the native of then Kunjpura and Karnal district of modern-day Haryana.[6] other Sikh accounts suggest that Wazir Khan was a distant relative of the Nawabs of Malerkotla, which, if true, would suggest an Afghan origin for him.[7]
Administrations
[edit]He serving as deputy-governor/subahdar in the Sirhind region as Sarkar of all localized administrations, he hold as (Faujder) a military commander and Amin (Dewan) which was referred to as a revenue collector to the under Mughal Province of Delhi Subah.
Wazir Khan is noted for his conflicts with the Sikhs and became infamous for ordering the execution of Guru Gobind Singh's young sons (Sahibzada Fateh Singh and Sahibzada Zorawar Singh) in 1704.[8] He was the governor of Sirhind when he arrested the two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh. Wazir Khan tried to force the young sons of the Guru to embrace Islam. When they refused to accept Islam he ordered them to be bricked alive and later beheaded them after knowing that they were still alive inside even though that was not in the order.[9]
Wazir Khan was defeated and beheaded by a Sikh warrior Fateh Singh, a warrior in the Sikh Khalsa, during the Battle of Chappar Chiri on 12 May 1710.[10] His body was desecrated, dragged by an ox, and then hung onto a tree.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ Gandhi, Surjit (1999). Sikhs in the Eighteenth Century: Their Struggle for Survival and Supremacy. Singh Bros. p. 716. ISBN 81-7205-217-0. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
- ^ Dr Harjinder Singh, 'Sikh History in 10 Volumes', Sikh University Press, Belgium, vol. 2, p. 31.
- ^ Dr Harjinder Singh, 'Sikh History in 10 Volumes', Sikh University Press, Belgium, vol 1, pp 64, 259-60.
- ^ Tony Jaques (2007). Dictionary of battles and sieges. Vol. 3. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 948. ISBN 9780313335396.
- ^ a b History of Islam, p. 506, at Google Books
- ^ William Irvine (1971). Later Mughal. p. 94.
- ^ Gandhi, Rajmohan (2013). "Punjab Until Aurangzeb's Death". Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten. New Delhi: Aleph Book Company. ISBN 978-93-82277-58-3. p. 83:
the Sirhind faujdar had an Afghan background.
- ^ Singh, PrithiPal (2006). The History of Sikh Gurus. Lotus Press. ISBN 9788183820752.
- ^ Dahiya, Amardeep (2014). Founder of the Khalsa: The Life and Times of Guru Gobind Singh. Hay House, Inc. p. 183. ISBN 9789381398616.
- ^ William Irvine (1904). Later Mughals. Atlantic Publishers & Distri.
- ^ Hari Ram Gupta. History Of The Sikhs Vol. II Evolution Of Sikh Confederacies (1707-69).
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- Mughal nobility
- 17th-century nobility
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- 1635 births
- 18th-century Mughal Empire people
- 1710 deaths
- People executed by decapitation
- Indian people of Iranian descent
- 17th-century Iranian people
- 17th-century Indian Muslims
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- 18th-century Indian Muslims
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