Nawab Khwaja Abid Siddiqi

Nawab Khwaja Abid Siddiqi/Kwaja Abid (Qalich Khan title given by Shahjahan) (became Nawab under Aurangzeb and was a Siddiqi by lineage) a loyal general for the Mughal Empire. He is most famous through his grandson Qamar-ud-din Siddiqi, Asaf Jah I, son of Ghazi ud-Din Khan Siddiqi Feroze Jung I.

Khwaja Abid Siddiqi born in Adilabad near the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand. He came from a family of ulemmas (learned men).

Khwaja Abid Siddiqi broke with family tradition and became a fighter rather than a scholar. Henry Brigs a historian wrote,

In youth he was trained to the use of the bow, the spear and the sword. Riding on horseback was familiar to him from the moment he could toddle alone from his mother's knee as it is to this day to everybody from the plains of Arabia to the hills of Afghanistan and he was specially taught to regard the cause of the Crescent and the Koran as the great purpose of his existence

It was in 1655 that Khwaja Abid Siddiqi undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca. But on his way there he stopped off in India to present himself before Shah Jahan. The Mughal Emperor bestowed on Khwaja Abid a kilat (dress of honour) and promised him that after he returned from Mecca he could take up a post on his personal staff. Aurangzeb was trained by him. Under his command Aurangzeb conquered central India and south India.

He returned from his pilgrimage to India in 1658 to take up his post serving the Emperor Shah Jahan, only to find that the Emperor had been taken ill and so Khwaja Abid decided to throw his lot in with Prince Aurangzeb. Taking command of one of the Mughal armies, Khwaja Abid played a crucial role in the battlefield of Samugarh. For this he was rewarded by being made one of the Emperors most trusted generals.

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