YAR MUHAMMAD KHAN (d. 1829), the Barakzai ruler of Peshawar. In November 1818, Ranjit Singh seized the city from him and placed it in the charge of Jahandad Khan another of the Barakzai brothers, but no sooner did Ranjit Singh return to Lahore than Yar Muhammad Khan emerged from

BARELAVI, SAYYID AHMAD (1786-1831), leader of the militant Wahabi movement in India for the purification and rehabilitation of Islam, was born at Rae Bareli, in present day Uttar Pradesh, on 29 November 1786, in a Sayyid family. At school, he took more interest in sports than in studies. He attained

MACNAGHTEN, SIR WILLIAM HAY (1793-1841), born in August 1793, was the son of Sir Francis Macnaghten. He was educated at Charter house and joined the service of the East India Company in 1809. He studied Hindustani, Persian and other Asiatic languages. His diplomatic career began towards the close of 1830,

BHAG SINGH, also referred to in government records as Baj Singh, was an associate of Bhai Maharaj Singh, leader of the anti British revolt in the Punjab in 1848-49. Originally a disciple of Bhai Bir Singh of Naurangabad, he survived the attack on his dera on 7 May 1844

MAHAN SINGH (d. 1844), son of Data Ram, came to Lahore from Jammu at a very early age to seek his fortune in the Sikh capital. Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who was struck by his skill and courage on a hunting expedition when Mahan Singh unassisted had killed a leopard

COURT, CLAUDE AUGUSTE (1793-1880), general in the Sikh army, honorary general of France, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, recipient of the Auspicious Order of the Punjab, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of England, and Member of several continental scientific and learned societies, was born at Saint Cezaire, France,

MANGAL SINGH RAMGARHIA (1800-1879), manager of the Golden Temple at Amritsar for 17 years from 1862 till his death in 1879, was the son of Divan Singh Ramgarhia, a nephew of the famous Sardar Jassa Singh Ramgarhia. During his younger days, Mangal Singh remained in attendance on Maharaja Ranjit

DOST MUHAMMAD KHAN. AMIR (1791-1863), ruler of Kabul and Qandahar, was the son of Painda Khan (executed 1799), the Barakzai chief. Dost Muhammad`s first engagement with the Sikhs was at Attock, the Afghan citadel, which had fallen into the hands of the Sikhs in June 1813. In the conflict which

NAU NIHAL SINGH, KANVAR( 1821-1840), son of Maharaja Kharak Singh, was born on 23 February 1821. According to the official Lahore diarist, Sohan Lal Suri, great rejoicing took place at his birth and a Persian chronogramA bouquet of wisdom`s garden was coined recording the year of his birth. Nau

FATEHNAMAH GURU KHALSA JI KA, by Ganesh Das, an employee of the Sikh Darbar, and published as edited by Sita Ram Kohli, contains accounts, in Punjabi verse, of three of the major battles of Sikh times. The first of these was fought at Multan in 1818 between Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s

PHULA SINGH AKALI (1761-1823), Sikh hero and an eminent religious figure of the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was born in 1761 at the village of Shihari, now in ruins, about 5 km west of Miinak, in present day Sarigrur district of the Punjab. His father, Ishar Singh, an

GULAB SINGH PAHUVINDIA (d. 1854), a general in the Sikh army, was the son of Karam Singh, who along with his three brothers had taken possession of the country between the rivers Satluj and Beas in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Karam Sirigli`s brothers dying heirless, the