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Saadat Ali Khan
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Details
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- Saadat Ali Khan I was declared as the first Subedar Nawab (Governor) of the Mughals in Awadh province from 1722 to 1739. Son of a wealthy merchant of Khurasan, at the age of 25, he accompanied his father Muhammad Nasir and took part in the campaign of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb against the Marathas.
- He was honored with the title of Khan Bahadur for his contribution to the Mughal Emperor. He was among the commanding Mughal generals in the Battle against Nadir Shah. Saadat Khan was captured during the battle and died in the massacre of Delhi by Nadir Shah on 19 March 1739.
- Faizabad, the capital city of Awadh, was founded in 1730 by Saadat Ali Khan. He is the founder of the lineage Nawab of Awadhs.
- He was succeeded by Nawab Safdarjang and Nawab Shuja-uddaula who further consolidated power in the awadh region.
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Political Sphere of Influence
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- After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the Nawabs of Awadhs exercised significant influence in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab region.
- Safdarjang, who succeeded Saadat Khan, was an able administrator. He was not only effective in keeping control of Awadh, but also rendered valuable assistance to the weakened Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah.
- Safdarjang was given governorship of Kashmir by the Mughal Emperor, gradually became a central figure at the Delhi court. He gained complete control of administration in the Mughal Empire in the later years of Muhammad Shah. When Ahmad Shah Bahadur ascended the throne at Delhi in 1748, Safdar Jung was given the title of Chief Minister of Hindustan.
- Shuja-ud-Daulah, the son of Safdarjang, was also an able administrator. He was chosen as Grand Wazir by Shah Alam II. Shuja-ud-daulah, the 3rd Nawab, allied with Mir Qasim of Bengal against the British, lost the crucial battle of Buxar in 1764. This resulted in beginning of the political influence of British in the Awadh region.
- Given the strategic significance of the region, British always maintained an upper hand in the region. After installing Saadat Khan II as Nawab in 1801, they pressurized him to cede half of the Awadh to him. Even at the time of first war of Independence in 1857, Awadh was a crucial political region.
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Religion
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- The Nawabs of Awadh belong to Persian Shia Muslim dynasty from Nishapur. They encouraged the existing Persian literature to shift from Delhi to Awadh. During that period Awadh also witnessed a steady stream of scholars, poets, jurists, architects, and painters from Iran. Nawab of Awadhs like the erstwhile great Mughal rulers was largely tolerant in their religious outlook.
- Saadat Khan, the founder of the Awadh Royal House, had many Hindus in his service who from time to time helped him to achieve his goal.
- Shuja-ud-daula, the 3rd Nawab, did not impose undue restrictions on the personal freedom of Hindus as well as on the public celebrations of their religious festivals. Many Hindu saints who came to Ayodhya were allowed to settle down and granted plots of land for the erection of temples and Dharmashalas for pilgrims. Hindus and Muslims used to celebrate each other’s festivals and there was not restriction on the Hindus.
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Economy
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- As discussed earlier, Awadh was the region of the fertile land in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab. Therefore, the economy during the reign of Nawabs was dominantly agrarian in nature. The traditional crops were sugarcane, wheat and rice. Due to presence of well managed supply chain, peasants were generally prosperous under the nawabs.
- It is also pertinent to mention that Awadh was one of the prosperous provinces of the Mughal Empire. This period also witnessed the decline of the traditional urban trade centers such as Delhi, Agra, Burhanpur etc. The new trade centers were established in Lucknow, Faizabad etc.
- To remove economic hardships, Nawabs also commissioned various public works in which the laborers were paid from the treasury. One such initiative had led to the construction of the majestic Bara Imambara in Lucknow. The East India Company after establishing influence over Awadh, plundered it of its wealth, and resulted in the decline of the Industrial towns such as Kanpur and Lucknow.
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Society
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- The society at the time of Nawabs of Awadhs was largely traditional in nature. Cities such as Lucknow, Faizabad, Jaunpur etc. witnessed the growth of the synthesis of the Hindu-Muslim culture also commonly known as Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb.
- The caste system was still highly prevalent as the top positions in the administrations were generally occupied by the Brahmins. With the rise of British influence, and development of mercantile trade, the trading class also assumed significant role in the society.
- Jagat Seth was one of the prominent people, who dealt in hundis – a type of negotiable instrument to send money from one place to another.
- Education was still limited to the privileged few, and due to adoption of purdah system from cultural synthesis, the condition of women further deteriorated in the society.
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Literature
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- The Nawabs of Awadh, patronized literature and several noted writers and poets were part of their court. The period saw the development of Indo-Persian genre of the literature. Urdu was also a popular language of literature at that time.
- Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was among the great patrons of literature. The renowned urdu poet ‘Ghalib’ was in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. Apart from him, other notable persons were ‘Barq’, ‘Ahmad Mirza Sabir’, ‘Mufti Munshi’, and ‘Aamir Ahmad Amir’, who wrote books at the orders of Wajid Ali Shah.
- Wajid Ali shah, himself, was an accomplished writer and wrote under the pseudonym ‘Akhtar’. He was considered as distinguished scholar and as eminent poet. Having good command over Persian and Urdu, Wajid Ali Shah also wrote in the popular dialect of Awadhi language. Huzn-i-Akhtar, is considered as his most important works, which is autobiographical in nature and contains nearly 1276 couplets.
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Art and Architecture
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Art
- Awadh under the rule of Nawabs reached the glorious heights in the development of Fine Arts and Performing Arts.
- The paintings and Music of that era was known to be the best in the world. The paintings of Awadh provided a different way of representing the prevalent political, social and cultural atmosphere that was distinctly different from the conventional Mughal style or the European style of perspective art. Paintings of Awadh were of traditional Indian art form in which high importance was given to rich detailing, symbolism, use of tempera colors and intricate drawing.
- During the colorful decades of Nawabs rule in awadh, Lucknow emerged as one of the most celebrated centre of music, drama, dance, painting and poetry.
- Music in India went through different stages of growth for four centuries from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century resulting in the creation Hindustani music of today. This period also saw the birth of many of the modern musical forms, like Khayal and Thumri. This was also the period of the establishment of Gharanas, where the elite artists tried to protect their traditions and began to transmit them within the family to their direct descendents.
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Architecture
- In the initial period, the architecture in Awadh was heavily influenced with the Mughal Architecture.
- Shuja-Ud-Daulah in 1765 constructed a chowk (Central Market Place) in Faizabad, which was reminiscent of grand chowks of Mughal Empire. The chowk was characterized by the grand mosque having 3 bulbous domes and minarets at each corner.
- The tombs in Faizabad were also modeled on the Mughal tombs; particularly the tomb for Shuja ud Daula, built approximately in 1775. The tomb of his wife, Bahu Begum, constructed approximately forty years later, also displayed significant Mughal features. The tombs possess bulbous domes and are set in Charbagh style which was the most striking and praiseworthy mughal architectural format.
- The architecture developed by Later Nawabs in Lucknow is placed generally into two broad categories.
- First is the structures built by the nawabs for their own residences or as public works and which often reflect considerable European influence,
- while the other category was the religious structures which were usually based upon the architecture of earlier Indo-lslamic traditions.
- In this period a series of palaces were constructed in Lucknow. Asaf ud-Daula’s Macchi Bhavan was built approximately in 1774, and the historic Qaiser Bagh, was built approximately about 1848 by Wajid Ali Shah. In 1784, Nawab Asaf ud-Daula had constructed an enormous Imambara, which was a hall used during the celebrations of Muharram and was originally designed for storing movable shrines (taziya) employed in these ceremonies.
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