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 CHAPTER IV. THE NAWABI [1720-1856]. The wheel of fortune was whirling at the very top of its speed in Upper India during the early part of the last century. Adventurer after adventurer rose like bubbles to the surface of the seething cauldron, floated there for a moment, and then vanished into an obscurity from which, in most cases, they had no aj^parent claim to have arisen. Some few, of tougher texture or more favourably environed than the rest, contrived to keep themselves with more or less per- manence at the top of affairs. One of the most distinguished of these was S'adat Khan, founder of the modern dynasty of Oudh. His original name was Muhammad Ami'n, and he came of a noble Syad family which derived its descent from the Prophet himself through the Imam Musa Kjizim, and had long been settled at Naisha])ur in Khorasiin. He was described by Alexander Dow as " the infamous son of a yet more infamous Persian pedlar," but this vigorous language may perhaps be to some extent explained by the fact that S'adat Khan's grandson Shuja'-ud-daulah had refused to grant certain salt contracts to the historian who used it. Mirza Nasi'r, father of Muhammad Ami'n, had been in the service of the Emperor Bahadur Shdh, second son of Aurang- zib, and on the news of his death, Muhammad Amfn, in his