176 W. Irvine— Later Mughals (1707-1803). [No. 2, 
The two Sayyad brothers, who now come into such prominence, 
were not the mere upstarts, men of yesterday, that it was too often the 
fashion to make them out to be.1 Besides the prestige of Sayyad 
lineage, of descent from the famous Barhah branch of that race, and the 
personal renown acquired by their own valour, they were the sons of a 
man who had held in ‘Alamgir’s reign first the sibahdari of Bijapir in 
the Dakhin and then that of Ajmir, appointments given in that reign 
either to princes of the blood or to the very foremost men in the State. 
Their father, Sayyad ‘Abdu-llah Khan, known as Sayyad Miyan, had 
risen in the service of Rihu-llah Khan, ‘Alamgir’s Mir Bakhshi, and 
finally, on receiving an imperial mansab, attached himself to the eldest 
prince Muhammad Mu‘azzam, Shah ‘Alam, (afterwards the emperor 
Bahadur Shah). 
Hasan ‘Ali Khan (afterwards ‘Abdullah Khan, Qutbu-Il-mulk) and 
Husain ‘Ali Khan, two of the numerous sons of ‘Abdullah Khan, Sayyad 
Miyan, were now men of about forty-six and forty-four years of age 
respectively. About 1109 H. (1697-8) the elder brother was faujdar 
of Sultanpur Nazarbar in Baglanah, s#bah Khandesh, after that, of 
Sitni Hoéshangabad also in Khandesh, then again of Nazarbar coupled 
with Thalez in sirkar Asir of the same sibah. Subsequently he obtain- 
ed charge of Aurangabad. The younger brother Husain ‘Ali Khan, 
who is admitted by every one to have been a man of much greater 
energy and resolution than his elder brother, had in ‘Alamgir’s reign 
held charge first of Rantambhér, in subah Ajmir, and then of Hindaun 
Bianah, in stbah Agrah. 
After prince Mu‘izzu-d-din, the eldest of Shah ‘Alam’s sons, had 
been appointed in 1106 H. (1694-5) to the charge of of the Multan 
province, Hasan ‘Ali Khan and his brother followed him there. In an 
expedition against a refractory Biltc zamindar, the Sayyads were of 
opinion that the honours of the day were theirs. Mu‘izzu-d-din thought 
otherwise, and assigned them to his then favourite ‘Isa Khan, Ma‘in. 
The Sayyads quitted the service in dudgeon and repaired to Lahr, 
where they lived in comparative poverty, waiting for employment from 
Mun‘im Khan, the Nazim of that place. $ 
1 For instance, see Khafi Khan’s remarks, IT, 730. 
2 If, as Rieu, 783, suggests, two of the portraits in B. M. Add. 18,800 are those 
of the Sayyad brothers, they were rather short men of a burly build, both with 
rather large heads and prominent noses, that of H. A. K. being especially beak-like. 
They have close-cropped beards, that of the elder brother quite white, the other’s. 
still a little black at the corners of the mouth. 
8 Ma‘asiru-l-wmra, III, 130; Khafi Khan, I, 456; Warid, 90,91. For Baglanath 
see Ain, JI, 208 and M-ul-u, I, 414. Akbar (Am 1. c.) placed Nazarbar in 
Sabah Malwa, It was transferred again to the Khandésh sitbah about 1609, Bom: 
