Life of Ahmad — Page 9
as AHMAD’S as FOREFATHERS 9 consisting of about 200 persons. He was treated by Babar with great respect; and he selected for settlement a place about 70 miles from Lahore, and founded a village on a flat piece of ground below which, at a distance of nine miles to the north-east, flows the river Beas. The village was named Islampur. As he belonged to the ruling family, a jagir consisting of several hundred villages was immediately granted to him by the Emperor, and he was also appointed Qazi of the surrounding district. The name of the village, therefore, became Islampur Qazi, signifying that it was the seat of the Qazi. Gradually Islampur was dropped and it was known only as Qazi. The letter ' ' is often popularly pronounced as 'd' and Qazi in the course of time was converted into the present form, Qadian. The village continued to be the seat of the family; and, though they lived far from the imperial capital (Delhi), members of the family filled important offices during the rule of the Mughals. In the days of the decline of Mughal rule Mirza Faiz Muhammad, the great-grandfather of the Promised Messiah as , took measures to suppress the anarchy that prevailed in the Punjab, whereupon, in the year 1716 A. D. , the Emperor Farrukhsiyar bestowed upon him the rank of Haft Haz a r i , thereby authorising him to keep a regular force of 7,000 soldiers. It may be mentioned here that this rank was, till the reign of Farrukhsiyar, reserved