White Mughals (82 page)

9
Ibid., pp.12ff. The musician Khush-hal Khan—Mah Laqa’s dancing instructor—built an arch on the site, while Mah Laqa’s daughter Hussun Laqa Bai built a dharamsala.

10
For the make-up of the Hyderabadi ruling class see Karen Leonard, ‘The Hyderabad Political System and its Participants’, in
Journal of Asian Studies
, XXX, No. 3, 1971, pp.569-82; also Leonard’s excellent
Social History of an Indian Caste: The Kayasths of Hyderabad
(Hyderabad, 1994).

11
C. Collin Davies, ‘Henry Russell’s report on Hyderabad, 30th March 1816’, in
Indian Archives
, Vol. IX, No. 2, July—December 1955, pp.123-4.

12
Bidri, op. cit., p.154.

13
Khan,
Gulzar i-Asafiya
, pp.549-59.

14
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/11, p.217, 21 August, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

15
Ibid., p.191, Hyderabad, 31 July 1799, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

16
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/12, p.9, 27 April, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

17
Ibid.

18
Quoted Butler, op. cit., p.182.

19
Ibid., p.70; Bence-Jones, op. cit., p.49; Moon, op. cit., p.312.

20
Butler, op. cit., p.225.

21
Ibid., p.257.

22
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/11, p.217, 21 August 1799.

23
Ibid., p.248, 8 September 1799, and p.291, 29 November 1799.

24
Ibid., p.313, 3 January 1800.

25
Ibid., p.319, 30 January 1800.

26
Ibid., p.329, 27 February 1800.

27
Ibid., p.350, 22 March 1800.

28
For Munshi Aziz Ullah’s Delhi background see Shushtari, op. cit., p.591.

29
New Delhi National Archives, Secret Despatches, 1800, p.2491, Fort William, 10 May 1800, No.3, ‘Intelligence from Azim ul Omrah’s Household’, contains a wonderful picture of Aristu Jah’s methods of conducting business: ‘On the 7th January Moonshee Azeez Oollah waited upon Azim ul Omrah [AUO] & after being engaged with him in cockfighting told him that he had something of a very urgent nature to communicate with him in private & that he would wait upon him at another time for that purpose to which AUO signified his assent. On the 9th Munshi Azeez Oolah attended at 12 o’clock in the day & was sent for by AUO to the bath. The Moonshee desired Mustaqim un Dowlah [MUD] not to be present at the conference as he wished to say what he had to state to AUO without any other witnesses. When the Munshi had paid his respects to AUO in the bath, MUD informed the latter that the Moonshee wished to make a secret communication and therefore suggested his returning to the Nawah Khana or Summer House which was done accordingly & AUO continued in conversation with the Moonshee for a whole hour. On the fourteenth Moonshee Azeez Oollah again attended at the diversion of cock fighting.’

30
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/12, p.105, 16 July, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

31
Ibid., p.226, 25 October, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

32
Ibid., p.185, 11 September, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

33
Ibid., p.200, 1 October, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

34
The picture forms the cover of Iris Butler’s
The Eldest Brother
, op. cit. It is also illustrated on p.315, plate 220 of Mildred Archer’s
India and British Portraiture
, op. cit.

35
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/12, p.214, 12 October 1800, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

36
Ibid., p.38, 9 May 1800, William Palmer to James Kirkpatrick.

37
Ibid., p.183, 9 September, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

38
Ibid., p.17, 2 May 1800, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

39
These details are all taken from B.F. Musallam’s remarkable research published as
Sex and Society in Islam
(Cambridge, 1983). For the Islamic legal view on abortion see p.40. For methods of contraception and abortion see the tables between pp.77-88. For Ibn Sina on abortion see p.69. For the skills of Indian women in methods of birth control see p.94.

40
For the death of Khair un-Nissa’s half-sister (Mehdi Yar Khan’s daughter by an unnamed wife other than Sharaf un-Nissa) see OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/11, p.338, 9 March 1800, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

41
‘Report of an Examination … ’, op. cit., pp.373-4.

42
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/12, p.138, 17 August 1800.

43
Ibid., pp.138-9.

44
Richard Wellesley (ed. Edward Ingram),
Two Views of British India: The Private Correspondence of Mr Dundas and Lord Wellesley: 1798-1801
(London, 1970), p.217.

45
Patrick Cadell,
The Letters of Philip Meadows Taylor to Henry Reeve
(London, 1947), p.62.

46
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/12, p.58, 31 May, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

47
See Dr Zeb un-Nissa Haidar, ‘The Glimpses of Hyderabad’, op. cit., Chapters 4 and 5 (no page numbers).

48
Khan,
Gulzar i-Asafiya
, p.305.

49
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/12, p.108, 10 July.

50
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/12, p.275, 9 December, James Kirkpatrick to Webbe.

51
‘Report of an Examination … ’,
op. cit.
, p.377.

52
Ibid., pp.382-3.

53
Ibid., pp.378-80.

54
From a document in the private archive of Kirkpatrick’s descendants, ‘Enclosures from Resident at Hyderabad in a Letter dated 8th January 1801’. Enclosure 2: ‘Report of another conversation which took place between Aukil oo Dowlah and Colonel Bowzer on the 29th December 1800’.

55
OIOC HM464, op. cit., pp.377-8.

56
Shushtari, op. cit., p.591.

57
From a document in the private archive of Kirkpatrick’s descendants, ‘Enclosures from Resident at Hyderabad in a Letter dated 8th January 1801’. Enclosure 3: ‘Translation of a Shookha addressed by Abdool Lateef Khaun to the Resident, dated the 3rd January 1801’.

58
Ibid.

59
Delhi National Archives, Foreign Department, Secret Consultations, 16 April. Enclosure ‘B’ attached to No. 132: ‘Translation of a letter from Meer Allum addressed to Major Kirkpatrick dated 10th Jan 1801’.

60
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/13, p.4, 16 January 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

61
‘Report of an Examination … ’, op. cit., pp.380-1.

62
Ibid., p.381.

63
Ibid., p.383.

64
This account comes from a translation of Sharaf un-Nissa’s letter to her granddaughter Kitty Kirkpatrick in the private archive of her descendants.

65
‘Report of an Examination … ’, op. cit., p.386.

66
Ibid., p.391.

67
Philip Meadows Taylor,
Story of my Life
(London, 1878), p.36.

68
Philip Meadows Taylor,
Confessions of a Thug
(London, 1889), pp.124-6.
Confessions of a Thug
is of course a novel, but this passage clearly draws on Taylor’s many years as a Hyderabadi Resident, where he married the Anglo-Indian granddaughter of Khair un-Nissa’s best friend, Fyze Baksh Palmer. He gives a fascinating description of his father-in-law, William Palmer, and his house, where he ‘met the most intelligent members of Hyderabad society, both native and European, and the pleasant gatherings at his most hospitable house were a great relief from the state and formality of the Residency’. Meadows Taylor,
Story of my Life
, op. cit., p.37.

69
This is made clear in a letter from Thomas Sydenham to Henry Russell when he talks of two different mansions (see Bodleian Library, Russell Papers, Ms Eng Letts C172, p.1, 14 January 1807); but we know from Dr Kennedy’s visit that Sharaf un-Nissa’s mansion was part of Bâqar Ali Khan’s
deorhi
complex. It was clearly a huge campus of buildings.

70
OIOC, Mountstuart Elphinstone Papers, Mss Eur F88 Box13/16[b], p.24. For eighteenth-century
deorhis
see the descriptions given in Sarkar, ‘Haidarabad and Golkonda in 1750 … ’, op. cit., p.240. Several
deorhis
of this period still survive in the old city—albeit in a rather run-down state—for example the once lovely Hamid Khan Deorhi behind the Chowk Masjid.

71
‘Report of an Examination … ’, op. cit., pp.387-9.

72
Ibid., pp.388-9.

73
Ibid., p.391.

74
From a document in the private archive of Kirkpatrick’s descendants, ‘Enclosures from Resident at Hyderabad in a Letter dated 8th January 1801’: ‘Report of a conference which took place on the 1st January between Moonshe Meer Azeez Oolla and Aukil oo Dowlah’ and ‘Report of Moonshee Aziz Oolah’s conference with Auzim ool Omrah on the 3rd Jan 1801’.

75
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/13, p.1, Hyderabad, 9 January 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick. For the details about Bâqar’s sight and hearing see Delhi National Archives, Foreign Department, Secret Consultations, 24 April 1800, No. 20, Item No. 66, James Kirkpatrick to Lord Wellesley, 21 January 1800.

76
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/96, ‘Account of the marriage of Sharpun Nisa Begam with Colonel Kirkpatrick called Hashmat Jang, Resident, Hyderabad’. This document was apparently compiled by a
munshi
working for Trevor Plowden, Resident in the early 1890s.

77
Ibid.

78
It is unclear whether this was the same Ahmed Ali Khan whose son was originally engaged to Khair un-Nissa.

79
Syed ood Dowlah seems to have been the
mujtahid
who converted James. He may or may not have been the same Syed ood Dowlah who was in the train of Mir Alam when he met Arthur Wellelsey on his release from prison.

80
From a translation of Sharaf un-Nissa’s letter to Kitty Kirkpatrick in the private archive of her descendants.

81
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/84, Will of James Achilles Kirkpatrick.

82
For all James’s secrecy, the fact that he both embraced Islam and formally married Khair un-Nissa according to Shi’a law seems to have been widely known in Hyderabad, judging by the frequency with which the fact is mentioned in Hyderabad chronicles, for example Bidri, op. cit., p.84.

83
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, Mss Eur F228/13, p.4, Hyderabad, 16 January 1801, James Kirkpatrick to William Kirkpatrick.

1
Wellesley, op. cit., Vol. 5, pp.405, 407.

2
Abdul Lateef Shushtari,
Tuhfat al-’Alam, ‘Dhail al-Tuhfa
[the Appendix to the Tuhfat al-’Alam],
Being additional notes to ’Abd al-Latif Shushtari’s autobiography, about his return to Haidarabad after he had finished writing his book in 1216/1802, these notes were written at the repeated request of Shiite divines, especially the late ’Allama Aqa Muhammad ’Ali son of ’Allama Aqa Muhammad Baqer Behbehani’
, pp.3-5.

3
G.S. Sardesai (ed.),
English Records of Mahratta History: Pune Residency Correspondence Volume 6-Poona Affairs 1797-1801 (Palmer’s Embassy)
(Bombay, 1939), p.ii.

4
OIOC, Kirkpatrick Papers, F228/25 p.12, 1 January 1801, Lord Wellesley’s offer of the Poona Residency to William Kirkpatrick, a letter to the Board.

5
Sardesai, op. cit., p.571, No. 350A, William Palmer to Lord Wellesley, ‘Poona, 27th June 1800’.

6
Hastings Papers, BL Add Mss 29,178, Vol. XLVII, 1801-02, 10 October 1802, pp.277-8, William Palmer to Hastings.

7
Ibid., 10 July 1801, pp.61-3, William Palmer to Hastings.

8
William Palmer was the largest subscriber towards the publication of George Thomas’s military memoirs; see William Francklin,
Military Memoirs of Mr George Thomas
(Calcutta, 1803), p.xiii. For Palmer’s coin collection, and its loss during the 1857 Mutiny, see the note in
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
, 27, 1858, p.169.

9
Stuart Cary Welch,
Room for Wonder: Indian Paintings During the British Period 1760-1880
(New York, 1979).

10
On a visit to St Kitts in 1972, Alex Palmer, William Palmer’s direct descendant, found the marriage entry in the Register of St George and St Peter’s church, Basseterre. See Alex Palmer, ‘The Palmer Family 1740-2000’ (unpublished manuscript). Sarah’s family name given in the register, ‘Hazell’, contradicts the evidence contained in a manuscript written by Edward Palmer, Alex’s grandfather, now in the India Office Library, entitled ‘The Palmers of Hyderabad’, OIOC Mss Eur D443 (1). Edward Palmer believed that Sarah was called Melhado or Melkado, but he gives no authority for this information.

11
In a charming letter from Sarah’s youngest son, now in the Bodleian Library, the young John Palmer describes his travels around India to his mother: ‘Wm [Sarah’s second son] and myself are now on a journey to see my father,’ he tells her. He mentions that his father is now a major, in a way that implies that he and Sarah were not in direct contact and were perhaps estranged. He goes on to describe his adventures in the navy, including one engagement with the French when ‘I was stationed in the quarter deck which place was one continual scene of slaughter, not having less than 10 men killed or wounded,’ but says that he finally left the fleet in August. He has seen his eldest brother Sam, and wants his mother to remember him kindly to all his old friends in St Kitts: ‘that God may grant you health and prosperity is my prayer’. See Palmer Papers, Bodleian Library, Ms Eng Lit C83, p.1, Benares, 16 December 1782.