Ghazi-ud-Din Haider

Ghazi-ud-Din Haider (1769 - October 19, 1827) was a Nawab of Awadh. He was the third son of Nawab Saadat Ali Khan and Khurshidzadi was his mother. He became "Nawab Wazir" of Awadh on July 11, 1814 after the death of his father. In 1819, under the influence of Lord Hastings, the British Governor General, he declared himself as the independent "Padshah-i-Avadh" (king of Awadh). He died in the "Farhat Bakhsh" palace in Lucknow in 1827. He was succeeded by his son Nasir-ud-Din Haider after his death.

Patron of art and culture

Several monuments in Lucknow were constructed by Ghazi-ud-Din Haider. He built the Chattar Manzil palace and added the "Mubarak Manzil" and the "Shah Manzil" in the Moti Mahal complex for better viewing of the animal fights. He also constructed the tombs of his parents, Sadat Ali Khan and Khurshidzadi Begam. For his European wife, he constructed a European style building known as the "Vilayati Bagh". Another creation, the "Shah Najaf Imambara" (1816), his mausoleum, on the bank of the Gomti is a copy of the fourth Caliph Ali’s burial place in Najaf, Iraq. His three wives, Sarfaraz Mahal, Mubarak Mahal and Mumtaz Mahal were also buried here.

Ghazi-ud-Din first appointed a British artist, Robert Home (1752 – 1834) as his court artist and after his retirement in 1828, he appointed another British, George Duncan Beechey (1798 – 1852) as his court artist. In 1815, Raja Ratan Singh (1782-1851), a noted astronomer, poet and scholar of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Sanskrit and English joined his court. Because of his initiative, a royal litho printing press in Lucknow was set up in 1821 and the ‘’Haft Qulzum’’, a dictionary and grammar of the Persian language in two volumes was published from this press in the same year.

Coins of Ghazi-ud-Din

After declaring himself as King, Ghazi-ud-Din Haider issued coins on his name instead of the Mughal emperor, Shah Alam II from AH 1234 (1819). His coins were completely different from his predecessors. The most important feature of his coinage was the introduction of his coat of arms on the reverse of coin, consisting of two fish facing each other, two tigers each holding a pennon for support and a "Katar" (a small dagger) surmounted by a crown symbolizing the king [Gupta P.L. (1969, reprint 2000). Coins, New Delhi: National Book Trust, ISBN 81 237 1887 X, pp.178-9] .

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