310 
W. Irvine —The Banff ash Nawabs of FarruJchdbdd. 
[No. 4, 
The Chelas. 
Slavery is a part of the Muhammadan legal system, but there must be, 
I think, few instances, in which it has been carried to the length practised 
by Muhammad Khan. Slaves were preferred to equals or relations as 
deputy governors of provinces, slaves led his armies, he even kept a body¬ 
guard of slaves. 
One of the reasons assigned for this preference is the trouble given by 
his brother Pathans of Mau. Many of them at one time had farming 
leases of parganahs. If the Nawab complained of embezzled revenue, their 
answer was, that they would fight, but not pay. If one of them was im¬ 
prisoned as a defaulter, all the other Pathans rose in arms till he was releas¬ 
ed. For this reason, it is said, some years after his rise to power, the Nawab 
remitted large sums to Afghanistan, and induced a colony of the Bangash 
tribe to emigrate and settle in the city of Farrukhabad. From among 
them he selected eighteen leaders as Jam’adars. They were petted in every 
way, the Nawab looking on them as his own right arm, and to them his 
daughters were given in marriage. He gave them land for their houses 
on the side of the city nearest to the Ganges, and the quarter to this day 
bears the name of Bangashpura. 
Another expedient resorted to was to seize the sons of Rajputs and 
Brahmans, who were then made into Muhammadans. Some were obtained 
by consent, some by payment; others were the sons of revenue defaulters, 
whose sons were seized and made Muhammadans. Thousands of boys were 
thus obtained and taught the precepts of Islam. From them were selected 
the leaders of the army, and the collectors of land revenue in the parganahs. 
Muhammad Khan had quite a passion for increasing the number of 
his chelas. All his managers (Amils) and deputies (Subahdars) had orders 
to send him all the Hindu boys, whom they could procure between the ages 
of seven and thirteen. When they grew up, they were placed in his police 
or army, or were appointed to manage the Nawab’s private affairs. When¬ 
ever an ’amil had a fight with a troublesome village or invested it, he seized 
all the boys he could get, and forwarded them to the Nawab. Others be¬ 
came Muhammadans of their own accord. In this way, every year one or 
two hundred boys were made Muhammadans, and by the end of his life the 
Nawab had made some four thousand chelas. Many of these were killed 
in battle in the Nawab’s lifetime, many died without issue, and many were 
never married. The descendants of the rest still exist, and are distinguish¬ 
ed as Ghazanfar-bachha (progeny of Ghazanfar), the title of Muhammad 
Khan having been Ghazanfar Jang. During the Nawab’s lifetime these 
men were never styled chelas, they were always known as T/f-i-Sirlcdr 
(sons of the State). All places of trust were given to them, the Nawab’s 
