The Essence of Islam – Volume IV — Page 2
2 Essence of Islam-IV mad. As stated elsewhere, our family is Mughal Bar- lās and it appears from my ancestral documents, which are preserved to this day, that they arrived in this country from Samarqand and that they were ac- companied by about two hundred followers and servants and members of the family. Our ancestor arrived here in the capacity of a re- spected chieftain and settled down in this place, which was at that time an uninhabited wasteland, situated approximately 50 kose North-East of La- hore. He established at this place a town, which he called Islāmpūr and which subsequently became known as Islāmpūr Qādī Mājhī. In the course of time people forgot the word Islāmpūr, and Mājhī was also dropped and the name remained simply as Qādī, which later became Qādī and was finally converted to Qādiān. The reason why this place was called Qādī Mājhī was that this tract of land, which was about 60 kose³ in length, was known as Mājha probably because buffa- loes abounded here, and buffalo is majh in Hindi. As our ancestors were not only the landlords of the whole of this tract but were also invested with ruling powers over this area, they became known as Qādī. I am not aware why our ancestors migrated to this country from Samarqand, but ancient documents in- dicate that in their county of origin they were also 2 Approximately 75 miles. [Publisher] 3 Approximately 90 miles. [Publisher]