Page:The Lucknow album 1874 by Darogha Ubbas Alli.djvu/63

 whole amount, vested in Government four percent, securities, amounted to thirty-eight lacs, fifty thousand and five hundred rupees, or £38,50,500. It will be seen therefore that Hossainabad, is very richly endowed, and besides, there are other sources of income, rent of buildings, offerings by rich pilgrims, which amount to a large sum, for Hossain-abad is one of the most brilliant creations ever conceived by the Kings of Oudh, and the Imambara is held especially sacred by all true Mohumedans.

A few words, respecting the fate of the Imambara during the rebellion of 1857-58, will be found by no means uninteresting here. Prior to his death, King Mohumed Ali executed a deed appointing Nawabs Rafeek-ood-dowlah and Azeem-ool-lah Khan as trustees, and the notorious rebel Shurf-ood-dowlah as agent of the Hossainabad endowment ; those three persons seemed to have managed the trust very well, at least for a time, but on the re-occupation of Lucknow, after the rebellion bad been stamped out, a number of persons who were entitled to stipends from the endowment, complained to Government that they could not get their money ; this led to an enquiry, the result of which was, that it was found that the two trustees and the agent had disappeared ; the Imambara had been plundered of all its valuable contents, and the whole of the Government securities, to the amount of thirtyeight and three quarter lacs of rupees had been stolen from the iron safe in which they had been kept in a room attached to the Imambara. Further enquiries discovered Shurf-ood-dowlah, the agent, mortally wounded, his desposition was taken on his death-bed. Eventually one of the trustees, Nawab Rafeek-ood-dowlah, surrendered himself, he was an imbecile old man, stone-blind, the other trustee, Azim-ool-lah Khan was dead, but his son Ali Buksh Khan represented him. A special court was improvised and the trustees were tried, the trial lasting over a year. The facts elicited were, that on the breaking out of the rebellion, Shurf-ood-dowlah