Najib ad-Dawlah

Najib ad-Dawlah (Pashto: ‫)نجيب الدوله‬,

also known as Najib Khan Yousafzai
(Pashto: ‫)نجيب خان‬, was a Rohilla
Yousafzai Afghan who earlier served as a
Mughal serviceman but later deserted
the cause of the Mughals and joined
Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1757 in his attack
on Delhi. He was also a House chief of
Rohilkhand, and in the 1740s founded the
city of Najibabad in Bijnor district, India.
He was instrumental in winning the Third
Battle of Panipat.
 Najib ad-Dawlah

Nawab
Mir Bakshi
Mukhtar Khas
"Excellence of the State"
"Noble one of the State"

Commander-in-Chief of The Mughal Empire

Office holding 1756 – 1759

Successor Mirza Najaf Khan

Padishah Alamgir II
Years active 1740 – 1770
(30 years)

Born Early-18th Century

Died 30 October 1770

Children Zabita Khan

Military career

Allegiance Mughal Empire

(Mir Bakshi of
Alamgir II)
Mughal Empire
(in service of
Shah Alam II)

Service/branch Mughal Army

Kingdom of
Rohilkhand
Rank Ispahsalar,
Plenipotentiary

Battles/wars Mughal-Maratha
Wars
Third Battle of
Panipat
Capture of Agra Fort

The Third battle of Panipat, 13 January

1761, Najib ad-Dawlah and Shuja-ud-Daula,
standing left to Ahmad Shah Durrani,
shown on a brown horse, inflicting the
largest number of fatalities in a single day
reported in a classic formation battle
between two armies.

He began his career in 1743 as an

immigrant from the village Manri,
Kohistan, as a soldier. He was an
employee of Imad-ul-Mulk but later
deserted the cause of the Mughals and
joined Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1757 in his
attack on Delhi. He was then appointed
as Mir Bakshi of the Mughal emperor by
Abdali. Later in his career he was known
as Najib ad-Dawlah, Amir al-Umra, Shuja
ad-Dawlah.[1] From 1757 to 1770, he was
governor of Saharanpur, ruling over
Dehradun. Many architectural relics of
the period of Rohilla, the remains in
Najibabad, were overseen by him, which
he founded at the height of his career as
a Mughal minister.[2]
Biography
Najib Khan belonged to the Umar Khel
section of the Mandanr Yousafzai. He
migrated from Manri village, now in the
lower Kohistan district of the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.[3][4]
He migrated in 1739 to join his uncle
Bisharat Khan, who had settled with his
families of Pakhtuns at Bisharatnagar,
near Rampur. In 1749, Ali Mohammed
Khan, who had captured most of
Rohilkhand by 1740, gave Najib Khan a
northern portion,[5] where he established
the present day town of Najibabad, a
state of Najibabad independent from
other Rohilla tribes, and received the title,
‘Najib ad-Dawlah’.

Patthargarh fort outside Najibabad, built by

Najib ad-Dawlah in 1755. 1814-15 painting.

Najibabad, c. 1784–94, the triple domed

Jami Mosque and the entrance gate to the
Rohilla palace

Imad-ul-Mulk appointed Najib ad- Dawlah

as the governor of Saharanpur.[6] In 1757,
Najib ad-Dawlah, who was then the
governor of Saharanpur under Mughal
Empire, invaded the city of Dehradun,
with his army of Rohillas, and ruled the
area for the next decade. His rule was
known for its administration, and
development of land resources, leading
to widespread development and
prosperity in the area, with emphasis on
agriculture and irrigation. Many mango
groves created during the area still exist
today. Though after his death in 1770, the
Maratha forces expelled the Rohillas
from the Dun.[7]

Conflict with Marathas

Battle of Delhi (1757)

Ahmad Shah Abdali's invasion of 1757

left Najib in effective control of Delhi who
was appointed to the post of 'Mir
Bakshi'.[6] He had become the de facto
ruler of Delhi, while the Mughal emperor
was left with no actual power. Najib's
religious precept, Mian Qutb Shah, who
was not a rohilla by caste and was the
ruler of Saharanpur, was in charge of the
defence of the Red Fort of Delhi from the
Marathas, while Najib commanded the
artillery to stop the entry of the Marathas
into the city.[8][9][10] His forces had to
clash with the advancing Marathas in
Delhi in the Battle of Delhi (1757). Delhi
was captured by Marathas and he was
allowed safe exit from Delhi.[11]
Third Battle of Panipat

In the Third battle of Panipat, during the

Maratha conquests, he allied himself
with the Durrani Empire led by Ahmad
Shah Durrani (also known as Ahmad
Shah Abdali,[12] against the Marathas.
Najib Khan was clever enough to
understand the changed realities after
the Third battle of Panipat. His brilliant
political acumen was used by Ahmed
Shah Abdali to isolate Marathas &
preventing them from getting even single
ally during their conflict with Durrani's
power. His refusal to sign treaty with
Marathas, was the main cause of battle
at Panipat. He provided, Ahmed Shah
Abdali, with 40,000 Rohilla troops and 70
guns to the combined forces. He also
convinced Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of
Oudh, to join Ahmad Shah Abdali's forces
against the Marathas. In this battle, the
Maratha's were defeated and as a
consequence Rohilla Pakhtuns increased
in power. However, the Marathas
recovered in a short duration of 10 years
and under Mahadji Schinde recaptured
Delhi in 1771, reinstalling the weakened
Mughal emperor Shah Alam II to the
throne, under Maratha suzerainty.

After the war, he was made Mir Bakshi of

Mughal emperor.[13] He had to become
ruler of Delhi state with empty treasury &
territory confining to boundaries of Delhi
city.

Najib Khan was a Pashtun soldier of

fortune; he attained the hand of the
daughter of Dunde Khan, one of the
chieftains of the Rohilkhand Pathans.
Rewarded by this ruler with the charge of
a district, now Bijnor, in the North-west
corner of Rohilkhand, he had joined the
cause of Safdarjung, when that minister
occupied the country; but on the latter's
disgrace had borne a part in the
campaigns of Ghazi-ud-din. When the
Vizier first conceived the project of
attacking the government, he sent Najib
in the command of a Mughal detachment
to occupy the country, about Saharanpur,
then known as the Bawani Mahal, which
had formed the jagir of the Ex-Vazir Khan
Khanan.

This territory thus became in its turn

separated from the Empire and
continued for two generations in the
family of Najib. He ruled the dwindled
Empire for nine years, and died a
peaceful death, leaving his charge in an
improved and strengthened condition,
ready for its lawful monarch.
Administrator of Delhi

Najib had much to do with the return of

Mughal power in India after Panipat; note:
the territories of those loyal to the Great
Mogul in (Green).

As the Administrator of Delhi and the

imperial heartlands including Agra, Najib
ad-Dawlah, was unsuccessful in halting
the Jat uprisings led by Raja Suraj Mal.
During one massive assault, the Jats and
their leaders overran the Mughal garrison
at Agra plundering the city and looting
the two silver gates to the entrance of
the famous Taj Mahal in 1764.[14]

Death
After protecting Rohilkhand, Delhi and
Agra for nearly ten years as regent of the
Mughal Empire he fell ill and died on 30
October 1770.[15]

Successor
After his death he was succeeded by his
son Zabita Khan. Zabita Khan's step-
brother, Kallu Khan was by the daughter
of Dundi khan and Najib Khan.[16] His
cemetery is still in present day,
Najibabad, where the Patthargarh Fort
still exists.

Destruction of his tomb by

the Marathas
His son Zabita Khan was defeated by the
Marathas,[17] led by Mahadji Sindhia
(Shinde) in 1772 and the fort of
Pathargarh was completely looted of
horses, elephants, guns and other
valuable things by the Marathas. This
was done to avenge the deaths of
Maratha warriors who fell in the battle of
Delhi and Panipat, Marathas also
destroyed the grave of Najib and
scattered his bones.[18]
A few years later, in the subsequent
Rohilla War, the Rohillas were attacked by
Awadh with help from British East India
Company forces. When Hafiz Rahmat
Khan was killed, in April 1774, they were
defeated, and Rohilkhand was plundered;
and later, the Rohilla power east of the
Ganges was ended, and the final treaty
by which the territory was incorporated in
Awadh was concluded at Lal Dhang. The
District was ceded to the British by the
Nawab of Awadh, Saadat Ali Khan II in
1801.[5]

In popular culture
In the 1994 Hindi TV series The Great
Maratha, Najib's character was
 portrayed by Irrfan Khan.
In the 2019 Bollywood film Panipat,
Najib, portrayed by Mantra, appears as
one of the primary antagonists.

See also
Mughal Empire
Shah Alam II
Ahmad Shah Durrani

Further reading
Najib-ud-Daula at Dehli (http://www.fre
eonlinebooks.org/displaybook1.php?c
hapter_id=4&id=792) The Fall of the
Moghul Empire of Hindustan, by H. G.
Keene. 1887, Part II, Chapter II, 1764.
 The Fall of the Mughal Empire by
Jadunath Sarkar

☆ Azad Patan Qabayel by Allabakhash

Yousafi. ☆ Yousafzai Sardar Awr
Hukamraan, Prof.Bakhtiar, Arshad
Publishers, Swabi, 2012.

References
1. History of Etawah (http://etawah.nic.in/hi
story2.htm) Etawah Official website.

2. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Najibabad"

(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Enc
yclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Najibabad) .
Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19
(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
p. 156..
3. Hamid Afaq Qureshi · (2003). The
Mughals, the English & the Rulers of
Awadh, from 1722 A.D. to 1856 A.D.: A
Kaleidoscopic Study (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=USVuAAAAMAAJ&q=ma
nri) . p. 51. "He belonged to the Umar
Khail Yusufzai tribe of the Afghans and
was a resident of Manri."

4. Nuruddin Husain (1952). An Account of

Najibuddaulah (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=k8YRDyRKZgYC&q=Najib+Kh
an+manri) . p. LIII. "in the year 1708 in the
village of Manri about 25 kos from
Peshawar."
5. History of Bijnor District (https://dsal.uchi
cago.edu/reference/gazetteer/pager.htm
l?objectid=DS405.1.I34_V08_201.gif) The
Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909, v. 8, p.
194-195.

6. Third Battle of Panipat by Abhas Verma

ISBN 9788180903397 Bharatiya Kala
Prakashan

7. [1] (https://books.google.com/books?id=
olP_A60L-CMC) p. 57

8. Jaswant Lal Mehta (2005). Advanced

Study in the History of Modern India 1707-
1813 (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=d1wUgKKzawoC&dq=qutb+khan+rohill
a+najib&pg=PA230) . p. 230.
 9. Hari Ram Gupta (1999). History of the
Sikhs (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=eGwwAQAAIAAJ&q=qutb+khan+rohilla
+najib) . p. 339.

10. Hari Ram Gupta (1961). Marathas and

Panipat (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=TmU9AAAAMAAJ&q=qutb+shah+reli
gious+precept) . Panjab University. "Qutb
Shah Rohilla, Najib's religious precept"

11. Advanced Study in the History of Modern

India 1707-1813 (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=d1wUgKKzawoC&dq=marath
as+in+control+of+delhi&pg=PA229)

12. Najibabad Tehsil & Town (https://dsal.uch

icago.edu/reference/gazetteer/pager.htm
l?objectid=DS405.1.I34_V18_340.gif) The
Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909, v. 18, p.
334.
13. History of Modern India, 1707 A. D. to
2000 A. D (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=MS_jrForJOoC&dq=najib-ud-daula+
mir+bakshi+panipat&pg=PA19)

14. "MANAS | UCLA Social Sciences

Computing" (https://web.archive.org/we
b/19991006091033/http://www.sscnet.u
cla.edu/southasia/Culture/Archit/TajM.ht
ml) . Archived from the original (http://ww
w.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/Culture/Arc
hit/TajM.html) on 6 October 1999.

15. Rule of Shah Alam, 1759-1806 (https://ds

al.uchicago.edu/reference/gazetteer/pag
er.html?objectid=DS405.1.I34_V02_446.gi
f) The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909,
v. 2, p. 411.
 16. Altaf Ali Brelvi (1966). Life of Hafiz
Rahmat Khan (https://books.google.com/
books?id=MGdXAAAAMAAJ&q=Dundey+
Khan+brother) . p. 174.

17. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bijnor" (http

s://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclo
p%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Bijnor) .
Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3
(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
p. 928.

18. Rathod, N. G. (1994). The Great Maratha

Mahadaji Scindia (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=uPq640stHJ0C&q=1771+s
cindia&pg=PA8) . ISBN 9788185431529.

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