Dost Mohammad Khan, Nawab of Bhopal

Who was Dost Mohammad Khan, Nawab of Bhopal?

Dost Mohammad Khan was the founder of the Bhopal State in central India. He laid out the modern city of Bhopal, the capital of the Madhya Pradesh state.

A Pashtun from Tirah, Dost Mohammad Khan joined the Mughal imperial army at Delhi in 1703. He rapidly rose through the ranks, and was assigned to the Malwa province in central India. After the death of the emperor Aurangzeb, Khan started providing mercenary services to several local chieftains in the politically unstable Malwa region. In 1709, he took on the lease of Berasia estate, while serving the small Rajput principality of Mangalgarh as a mercenary. He invited his Pashtun kinsmen to Malwa to create a group of loyal associates. Khan successfully protected Mangalgarh from its other Rajput neighbors, married into its royal family, and took over the state after the death of its heirless dowager Rani.

Khan sided with the local Rajput chiefs of Malwa in a rebellion against the Mughal empire. Defeated and wounded in the ensuing battle, he ended up helping an injured Sayyid Hussain Ali Khan Barha, one of the Sayyid Brothers.