Mir Jumla II

Mir Jumla II (1591 – 30 March 1663), born Mir Muhammad Sayyid Ardistani and also known as Muhammad Said, was a Persian-born diamond merchant who became vizier of Golconda, then grand vizier of the Mughal Empire and subahdar of Bengal ^{1 2}. "Mir Jumla" was a title more than one man bore; this is the Ardistani who died in 1663, not the earlier Golconda title-bearer who died in 1637 nor the Mir Jumla of Farrukhsiyar's court two generations later ³. The sources divide on his birthplace — Isfahan in the English article and Wikidata, Ardistan in Banglapedia and in Jadunath Sarkar — and the record preserves both ^{2 4}.

The son of a poor oil merchant, Mir Jumla learned letters and took a clerkship under a diamond merchant with Golconda connections, then built his own diamond business, farmed mines and ran maritime ventures until he owned many ships ^{2 1}. Entering the Golconda sultan's service, he rose to vizier and conquered the Karnatak, gathering revenues and wealth that made the sultan suspicious of him ². When the sultan moved against him he turned to Prince Aurangzeb and then to Shah Jahan, who made him diwan-i-kul of the Mughal Empire with the titles Muazzam Khan and Khan-i-Khanan ^{2 1}.

For Aurangzeb, Mir Jumla defeated Shah Shuja at Khajwa and pursued him through Tanda to Dhaka, arriving on 9 May 1660, and was made subahdar of Bengal ². He restored Dhaka as the capital, dismissed dishonest qazis, and left roads, bridges and forts across the city and its suburbs ^{2 1}. His northeastern campaign took Koch Behar and Kamrup and reached Garhgaon, the Ahom capital, in under six weeks; then the rains, flooded roads, night attacks and pestilence destroyed two-thirds of his army, and after a peace treaty he died on the way back, on 30 March 1663 ^{2 1}. Two independent texts name his faith: Banglapedia's survey of Islam in Bengal counts him among the Shia subahdars, and Jadunath Sarkar writes that he sought his fortune, like other Shiah adventurers, at the courts of sultans who belonged to his sect — the Twelver Shi'ism of his Persian homeland and of the Qutb Shahi court — and his faith is recorded on those two namings ^{5 3}.