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.

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

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

KALE KHAN, one of the Pathan officers who had joined service under Guru Gobind Singh at Paonta Sahib after their dismissal from the Mughal army. He is said to have remained steadfast in his devotion to the Guru and his troops fought on his side in the battle of

NIJATULLAH SHAH, SAYYID, British news writer at the Sikh capital of Lahore. Press lists of old records refer to his news diaries which give an account of the political state of affairs in the kingdom. He reports the events at Peshawar, the withdrawal of the British garrison at Jalalabad,

SAKHI SARWAR, lit. the Bountiful Master, also known by various other appellations such as Sultan (king), Lakhdata (bestower of millions), Lalanvala (master of rubies), Nigahia Pir (the saint of Nigaha) and Rohianvala (lord of the forests), was the founder of an obscurantist cult whose followers are known as Sultanias or

ZAIN KHAN (d. 1764), an Afghan, was appointed governor of Sirhind in March 1761 by Ahmad Shah Durrani. Earlier he had acted as Faujdar of Char Mahal the four districts of Sialkot, Gujrat, Pasrur and Aurarigabad. This was from 1759 when Karim Dad Khan was appointed governor of the Punjab

ALLAHDAD KHAN (d. 184.9) was the last ruler of Khattekhel family of Tonk, situated in Bannu district, on the northwest frontier. When Maharaja Ranjit Singh conquered this region in 1821, Allahdad Khan became a tributary of the Sikh government. As the tribute had fallen in arrears, an expedition was

BUDDHU SHAH, PIR (1647-1704), a Muslim divine whose real name was Badr udDIn and who was an admirer of Guru Gobind Singh, was born on 13 June 1647 in a prosperous Sayyid family of Sadhaura, in present day Ambala district of Haryana. Because of his simplicity and silent nature during

HAYAT KHAN (d. 1688), one of the disbanded officials of the Mughal army who, along with five hundred Pathan soldiers, was recruited by Guru Gobind Singh at Paonta Sahib, on the recommendation of Pir Buddhu Shah of Sadhaura. On the eve of the battle of Bharigani, he however deserted

KAMAL, BHAT, a Kashmir! Muslim, was, according to Bhai Santokh Singh, Sn Gur Praldp Suraj Granth, a devotee of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644). He remained in attendance on the Guru at Kiratpur, in the Sivalik hills.

NIZAM UDDIN (d. 1802), the Pathan chief of Kasur and a tributary of the Bharigi sarddrs, overthrew his allegiance to the Sikhs and submitted to Shah Zaman, the king of Afghanistan, when the latter invaded India in January 1797. Nizam udDin took possession of the forts evacuated by the Sikhs.