ABUL FAZL (1551-1602), principal secretary-cum-minister to Akbar, the Mughal emperor. He was an accomplished man of learning and was the author of two celebrated works, A`ini Akbari and Akbar-nama, the former being a description of Akbar`s administrative system and the latter a chronicle of the events of his reign.

BABAK (d. 1642), a Muslim rababi or musician, kept Guru Hargobind company and recited the sacred hymns at divans morning and evening. The word babak, from Persian, means faithful. As says the Gurbilas Chhevin Patshahi, Babak was, at the death of Satta and Balvand, who used to recite sacred

FARID, SHAIKH (569-664 AH/AD 1173-1265), Sufi mystic and teacher, who is also known to be the first recorded poet in the Punjabi language. His father Shaikh Jamaluddin Sulaiman whose family related, according to current tradition, to the rulers of Kabul by ties of blood, left his home in Central Asia

IMAM UDDIN, SHAIKH (1819-1859), who succeeded his father, Shaikh Ghulam Mohly udDin, as governor of the Sikh province of Kashmir in 1845, had earlier served under Kanvar Nau Nihal Singh in the Derajat and had in 1840 assisted his father in the campaign against Mandi. In April 1841, when a

MIAN KHIMA, Maharaja Duleep Singh`s favorite Muhammadan attendant who had served him since his childhood. He came with the Maharaja to Fatehgarh after the latter was dethroned and exiled from Lahore by the British in 1849. At Fatehgarh he was replaced by Bhajan Lal, an English educated young Brahman

RAI BULAR, a Muhammadan noble of the Bhatti clan, was during the latter half of the fifteenth century the chief of Talvandi Rai Bhoi, the village where Guru Nanak was born in 1469. Rai Bular had great affection for young Guru Nanak and held him in high esteem. According to

SULTAN MAHMUD KHAN (d. 1859) , son of General Ghaus Khan, was a commander of a section of heavy artillery during the regime of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. His derah of artillery was designated as Topkhanai Sultan Mahmud. After the death of General Ghaus Khan in 1814, although the chief command

ADINA BEG KHAN (d. 1758), governor of the Punjab for a few months in AD 1758, was, according to Ahwal-i-Dina Beg Khan, an unpublished Persian manuscript, the son of Channu, of the Arain agriculturalist caste, mostly settled in Doaba region of the Punjab. He was born at the village of

BABAR, ZAHIR UD-DIN MUHAMMAD (1483-1530), soldier of fortune, founder of the Mughal dynasty in India, diarist and poet, descending in the fifth generation from Timur, was born on 14 February 1483. In June 1494, he succeeded his father, \'Umar Shaikh\', as ruler of Farghana, whose revenues supported no more than

FARRUKH-SIYAR (1683-1719), Mughal emperor of India from 1713-19, was the second son of`Azim al-Shan, the third son of Bahadur Shah. Born at Aurangabad in the Deccan on 11 September 1683, he in his tenth year accompanied his father to Agra, and in 1697 to Bengal, when that province was added

JAHANDAD KHAN, one of the many sons of Painda Khan and a half brother of Fatch Khan Wazir, was appointed governor of Attock by Shah Shuja`, the king of Afghanistan. In 1809, Fatch Khan dethroned Shah Shuja`, placed Shah Mahmud on the throne and himself became prime minister. Shah

MIAN MITTHA, a Muslim holyman living in a village which came to be called Kotia Miari Mittha in the present Sialkot district of Pakistan Punjab, met Guru Nanak as the latter was passing through his village. The two held a discourse. According to Purdtan Janam Sdkhi, Miari Mittha observed