Stories from Early Ahmadiyyat — Page 3
The Promised Messiah as— The Champion of Islam The year 1835 occupies a unique place in the present era of human history; for in that year, a child was born in a small village in the north of India, who was to be appointed by God to be the Messiah and Mahdi. The name of that child was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He was Persian by descent and belonged to a noble Mughal family of the Punjab. The family had emigrated from Samarkand in Central Asia to India during the reign of Babar, the founder of the Mughal Empire in India. The family settled in a place called Islampur which later came to be known as Islampur Qaazi; it was so called because it was the resident town of the first ancestor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who came to India and was appointed as Qaazi (magistrate) over 70 villages around Islampur. Later, it came to be known as Qadian. Ignorance prevailed all aorund. Not many people in that part of India were fond of learning. Only a few could read and write. There was no post office in Qadian, no link with other parts of the country by rail or road. The nearest town was Batala, which was about 12 miles