Hazrat Ahmad — Page 9
HADHRAT AHMAD 9. Ahmad-The Promised Messiah. The full name of Ahmad, the Founder of the Ahmadiyya. Movement, was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He belonged to Qadian, a village situated 11 miles to the east of Batala railway station, and 35 miles from Amritsar and about 70 miles from Lahore. He was born in 1835 in the same village. His father was Mirza Ghulam. Murtaza. He was born a twin on a Friday. His twin, a girl, died shortly after. Before proceeding to describe his life, it would be helpful to give a brief description of the family into which he was born. . The Family. The family was one of the most respectable in the land and traced its pedigree to Barlas, uncle of Emperor Timur. When that conqueror captured Kush, which was then ruled by his uncle, the latter moved with his family to Khorasan. There the family lived for a long time. In the tenth century of the Hijra, corresponding to the early part of the sixteenth century of the Christian era, a member of the family, Mirza Hadi Beg, emigrated to India with about 200 followers and founded a settlement at a place in the neighborhood of the river Bias. He founded a village nine miles from the river and named it Islampur (the city of Islam). As he was a very noble person, he was appointed by the Central Government at Delhi to the office of Qazi of that part of the country. The appointment occasioned a change in the name of the village, from. Islampur to Islampur Qazi, signifying that it was the seat of the local Qazi. . Gradually in common parlance Islampur was dropped and only. Qazi remained, which the local pronunciation changed to Qadi and ultimately converted to Qadian. The village continued to be the seat of the family and though living far from the imperial capital at. Delhi, the members of the Moguls declined and the Punjab was torn into petty fiefs, the family remained in Quasi-independent possession of Qadian and its surrounding country measuring about 60 square miles. Then the Sikhs came into power and those of. Ramgarh entered into a league with some of the neighboring families and started a campaign against Qadian. Ahmad's great grandfather managed somehow during his lifetime to ward off their