ʿAẒĪM NAVĀZ KHAN BAHĀDOR, MOʿTAMED JANG ʿOMDAT-AL-ʿOLAMĀʾ MAWLAWĪ MOḤAMMAD SEBḠATALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD ḠAWṮ (fl. 1859), the author of a Sunni account in Persian of the martyrdom of Imam Ḥosayn called Dāstān-e ḡam (completed in 1250/1834-35; Madras, 1843) and the superintendent of the compilation of the ʿAẓīm al-tawārīḵ, a political and natural history of the Carnatic and of India in general. He was an official in the service of the nawabs of the Carnatic ʿAẓīm-al-dawla (1801-19) and Aʿẓam Jāh (1820-25). The latter entrusted him with the project of the ʿAẓīm al-tawārīḵ. ʿAẓīm Navāz Khan selected proper collaborators for various parts of the project and applied himself particularly to the history of the rulers of the Carnatic, from Moḥammad Saʿādatallāh Khan I (1700-32) to Nawab Moḥammad-ʿAlī Khan Bahādor Vālājāh (1749-95). The nawab’s death, however, on 12 November 1825, left the work unfinished.
There is only one—incomplete—manuscript of ʿAẓīm al-tawārīḵ extant, now in the India Office Library, London (MS 3216). It was originally planned to consist of seven maqālas and five moqaddemas, but the seventh maqāla (the Carnatic and Maysore history) is missing from the manuscript. It comprises (1) general introduction on the value of historiography, the sources of the Hindu period, and an outline of pre-Mohammedan Indian history; (2) history of the creation, the patriarchs, the Hindu rajas, and the rise of Islam in India; (3) the Ghaznavids; (4) the Delhi sultans to ʿAlāʾ-al-dīn Ḵaljī; (5) the Delhi sultans from Bahlūl Lōdī; and (6) the Mughal emperors to Moḥammad Shah. These maqālas are followed by a portion called Jāmeʿ al-ašyāʾ or Hašt čaman on natural history.
Bibliography:
C. H. Philips, Handbook of Oriental History, London, 1951, p. 93.
Storey, I, pp. 222-23, 482, 897, 1039, 1188, 1263.
Ethé, Cat. Ind. Off. I, p. 162.
C. E. Buckland, Dictionary of Indian Biography, London. 1906, pp. 73-74.
Search terms:
| عظیم نواز خان بهادر | azim nawaz khan bahador | azim nawaaz khan bahaador | azim navaz khan bahador |
(M. Baqir)
Originally Published: December 15, 1988
Last Updated: August 18, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 3, p. 259
