Life of Ahmad — Page 15
as AHMAD’S as FOREFATHERS 15 country, as better days were in store for all. The Sikhs lost power in a few years. Ranjit Singh died in 1839. During the next ten years British rule was extended to the whole of the country, ushering in the most peaceful and prosperous era in the history of India. The Sikhs made, in their last days, an abortive effort to kill Mirza Ghulam Murtaza and his brother, Mirza Ghulam Mu h yudd i n , who were confined by them in Basrawa Ĕ , near Qadian; but they were soon rescued by their younger brother, Mirza Ghulam Haidar. The Punjab Chiefs by Sir Lepel Griffin and Colonel Massy, revised by Mr. (now Sir) Henry Craik (1910) contains the following account of the family: 'In 1530, the last year of the Emperor Babar’s reign. Hadi Baig, a Mughal of Samarkand, emigrated to the Punjab and settled in the Gurdaspur district. He was a man of some learning and was appointed Qazi or Magistrate over 70 villages in the neighbourhood of Qadian, which town he is said to have founded, naming it Islampur Qazi, from which Qadian has by a natural change arisen. For several generations the family held offices of respectability under the Imperial Government, and it was only when the Sikhs became powerful that it fell into poverty. Gul Muhammad and his son, Ata Muhammad, were engaged in perpetual quarrels with Ramgarhia and Kanahaya Misals, who held the country in the neighbourhood of