Nizam ud-Din Khan of Kasur

Nizam ud-Din Khan was the Afghan (Pathan) chief of Kasur, a town south of Lahore, in the years when Ranjit Singh was taking Lahore and building his kingdom. He died in 1802. He is in this record as one of the neighbouring chiefs Ranjit Singh had to bring under his rule.

Against Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh drove the Bhangi rulers out of Lahore on 7 July 1799. The Dawn columnist Majid Sheikh writes that Nizam ud-Din opposed the takeover and allied with Sahib Singh Bhangi. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records that in 1800 the Bhangi chiefs allied with Nizam ud-Din against Ranjit Singh, whose rising power they resented, and that their forces gathered at Bhasin, near Lahore. Majid Sheikh adds that in 1801 Ranjit Singh sent a force under Fateh Singh Ahluwalia, that the Kasur family submitted and kept its rule, and that it soon attacked Lahore again.

His death. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism gives 1802 as the year of his death, when his younger brother Qutb ud-Din succeeded him. Majid Sheikh writes that he was killed by his brother-in-law in strife inside the Kasur family, and gives no date.

After him. Qutb ud-Din fortified Kasur and was Ranjit Singh's tributary. In February 1807 Ranjit Singh marched on Kasur because Qutb ud-Din had not paid tribute. The battle was fought on 10 February, the Afghans fell back into the fort, and after about a month the fort fell, with the Akali Phula Singh and his Nihangs breaching its walls. Kasur was annexed to the Sikh kingdom. Qutb ud-Din was captured and then freed, and Ranjit Singh gave him the jagir of Mamdot across the Sutlej. It was Hari Singh Nalwa's first significant part in a Sikh conquest. The family later allied with the British and regained power in 1849, Majid Sheikh writes.

Key moments

• 7 July 1799: Ranjit Singh takes Lahore.
• 1800: the Bhangi chiefs and Nizam ud-Din gather at Bhasin against him.
• 1802: Nizam ud-Din dies; Qutb ud-Din succeeds.
• February to March 1807: Kasur falls to Ranjit Singh.

What he is remembered for. Nizam ud-Din is remembered as the Kasur chief who stood against Ranjit Singh's takeover of Lahore, an early step in his absorbing the neighbouring chiefdoms into the Sikh kingdom.