Wazir Ali Khan

Wazir Ali Khan
Mirza (Royal title)
Nawab Wazir of Oudh, Nawab Wazir
Marhoom va Muqfoor[nt 1]
Reign 21 September 1797– 21 January 1798
Coronation 21 September 1797, Lucknow
Predecessor Asaf-ud-Daula
Successor Sa`adat `Ali Khan II
Born 19 April 1780
Lucknow
Died 15 May 1817
Vellore Fort, Vellore
Burial Kasi Baghan
Casia Baguan
Full name
Asif Jah Mirza Wazir Ali Khan
House Nishapuri
Dynasty Oudh
Religion Sunni Islam

Wazir Ali Khan (Hindi: वज़ीर अली खान, Urdu: وزیر علی خان‎)(b. 19 April 1780 – d. 15 May 1817) was the fourth[1] nawab wazir of Oudh from 21 September 1797 to 21 January 1798,[2] and the adopted son of Asaf-Ud-Dowlah.[3]

Life

Attack on Samuel Davis' House (14 January 1799)

He was adopted the son of Asaf-Ud-Dowlah, who had no son. He adopted a boy who was son of daughter of a servant. At 13 years of age Ali, was married at the cost of £300000 in Lucknow.

After the death of his adopted father in September 1797 he ascended to the throne (musnud), with the support of the British. Within four months they accused him of being unfaithful. Sir John Shore (1751–1834) then moved in with 12 battalions and replaced him with his uncle Saadat Ali Khan II.

Ali was granted a pension of 3,00,000 Rupees and removed to Benares. The government in Calcutta decided that he should be removed further from his former realm. George Frederick Cherry, a British resident, relayed this order to him on 14 January 1799 during a breakfast invitation at which Ali had appeared with an armed guard. During the ensuing argument Ali struck Cherry a blow with his sabre, whereupon the guards killed the resident and two more Europeans. They then set out to attack the house of Samuel Davis, the Magistrate of Benares, who defended himself on the staircase of his house with a pike until rescued by British troops.[4] The affair became known as the Massacre of Benares.

Subsequently Ali assembled a rebellious army of several thousand men. A quickly assembled force commanded by General Erskine moved into Benares and "restored order" by 21 January. Ali fled to Butwal, Rajputana and was granted asylum by the Raja of Jaipur. On request of Arthur Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, the raja turned Ali over to the British on the condition that he neither be hanged nor be put in fetters. Ali surrendered to the British authorities in December 1799, and was placed in rigorous confinement at Fort William, Calcutta.

The colonial government complied with this: Ali spent the rest of life – 17 years – in an iron cage in Vellore Fort in the Madras Presidency. He was buried in the Muslim graveyard of Kasi Baghan.

Children

Timeline

Preceded by
Asaf ad-Dowla Amani		 Nawab Wazir al-Mamalik of Oudh
21 September 1797– 21 January 1798 		Succeeded by
Yamin ad-Dowla Nazem al-Molk Sa`adat `Ali Khan II Bahadur

Literature

Notes

  1. ↑ Posthumous title

References

  1. ↑ Nawab Wazir Ali Khan
  2. ↑ Princely States of India
  3. ↑ HISTORY OF AWADH (Oudh) a princely State of India by Hameed Akhtar Siddiqui
  4. ↑ Davis, Samuel; Aris, Michael (1982). Views of Medieval Bhutan: the diary and drawings of Samuel Davis, 1783. Serindia. p. 54.
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