ALIF KHAN, who is mentioned in Guru Gobind Singh\'s Bachitra Natak, was an officer in the Mughal army of Aurangzib. In 1691, he was despatched by Mian Khan, the viceroy of Jammu, to Kangra for collecting arrears of tribute from the hill chiefs. Raja Kirpal Chand Katoch of Kangra and Raja Dyal of Bijharval submitted to Alif Khan, but not Raja Bhim Chand of Kahlur. Bhim Chand enlisted the support of several of the chieftains against Alif Khan. He also requested Guru Gobind Singh for help.
BHIKHAN KHAN (d. 1688) was a Pathan who had served in the Mughal army before joining Guru Gobind Singh at Paonta Sahib on the recommendation of Pir Buddhu Shah of Sadhaura. He had one hundred soldiers under his command, but he crossed over to the hill rajas on the eve of the battle of Bharigani (AD 1688). According to Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, Bhikhan Khan told the Pathans in the employ of Guru Gobind Singh that the Guru was mainly dependant on them and that the rest of his army was only a miscellaneous rabble who would run away when they heard the first shot fired. He suggested that they could save their lives by taking the side of the hillmen.
GHULAM MOHIY UDDIN, SHAIKH (d. 1845), who rose to be governor of Kashmir in Sikh times, was the son of Shaikh Ujala, a munshi or accountant in the service of Sardar Bhup Singh of Hoshiarpur. At a young age, Ghulam Mohiy udDin took up service under Diwan Moti Ram, the governor of Kashmir, later shifting to Lahore. He exhibited great diplomatic skill when in 1823, under Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s instructions, he persuaded Sardar Muhammad `Azim Khan of Kabul, who had marched upon Peshawar, to retire without firing a shot. In 1827, Kirpa Ram, Diwan Moti Ram`s son, took him to Kashmir upon his appointment as governor of the province.
Explore the dramatic history of Jan Muhammad Chattha's resistance against Ranjit Singh in 1798 and his short-lived reclamation of lands near River Chenab.
NIHANG KHAN, Muslim chief of Kotia Nihang Khan, near Ropar, in the Punjab, was a devotee of Guru Gobind Singh. According to Sarup Singh Kaushish, Guru kidn Sakhtan, he with his wife and sons attended Baisakhi festivity at Anandpur in 1694 and rendered homage to the Guru. At his request. Guru Gobind Singh visited him in his village a month later on the occasion of the betrothal of his son and blessed the family.
Discover how Shaikh Sajjan, a notorious thug from Multan, found redemption after a life-changing encounter with Guru Nanak, transforming his home into a dharamsala.
Discover the tumultuous reign of Yar Muhammad Khan in Peshawar, his struggles with Ranjit Singh, and alliances amidst regional power shifts.
ALIM, a Muslim poet, enjoyed the patronage of Guru Gobind Singh. Formerly in the employ of Prince Mu\'azzam (later Emperor Bahadur Shah), he probably came to Guru Gobind Singh sometime during the period 1687-94 when the prince, having fallen from the favour of his father, Aurangzib, was under internment. Only a single stanza of Alam in Hindi, in Gurmukhi script, survives in which he celebrates the bounty of his master, Guru Gobind Singh.
BHIKHAN SHAH OR SHAH BHIKH, PIR, a seventeenth century Sufi saint, was born the son of Sayyid Muhammad Yusaf of Siana Sayyidari, a village 5 km from Pehova, now in Kurukshetra district of Haryana. For a time, he lived at Ghuram in present day Patiala district of the Punjab and finally settled at Thaska, again in Kurukshetra district. He was tlie disciple of Abul Mu`ali Shah, a Sufi divine residing at Ambhita, near Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and soon became a pfr or saint of much repute and piety in his own right. According to tradition preserved in Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, Pir Bhikhan Shah, as he learnt through intuition of the birth of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) at Patna, made obeisance that day to the east instead of to the west.
GHULAM MURTAZA, MIRZA, served the Lahore Darbar under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors for several years. One of his ancestors, Hadi Beg, a Mughal migrant from Samarkand, had emigrated to the Punjab in 1530 during the reign of Babar and got appointment as qdzi or magistrate over seventy villages in the neighbourhood of Qadian. Hadi Beg`s descendants were engaged in constant struggle with the Ramgarhia and Kanhaiya sardars who had occupied territory in the neighbourhood of Qadian. Maharaja Ranjit Singh who had confiscated the possessions of the Ramgarhia chiefship restored to Ghulam Murtaza a large portion of his ancestral estates.
