Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/50

36 finding the rising port of Hooghly a more convenient centre, he finally settled there with his son Haji Faizullah, who was already associated with him in his business undertakings. It was in Hooghly that the fortunes of his family were to reach their height, and with it that the name of his famous grandson was to be indissolubly associated for all time.

Already settled in Hooghly was one Agha Motaher, who, coming originally from Persia like Agha Fazullah, had won his way at the court of Aurungzeb. That monarch had conferred upon him extensive jagirs in Jessore and other places in Bengal, and Agha Motaher, eager to take possession, finally himself set out from Delhi for the eastern province on the outskirts of the empire, where so many of his countrymen had won fame and fortune before him. So well did he manage his newly acquired lands that he soon became one of the wealthiest men in the province. He had made his headquarters at Hooghly and there, like a good Muhammadan, his desire in prosperity, was to build a mosque that should be worthy of his fortunes. Already there was a fine Immabara there, built by Murshid Kuli Khan, Viceroy of Bengal, but it had fallen into disrepair. It occupied a splendid site on the river bank, close by the Fort and the Portuguese Factory, and commanding wide reaches of the river to the north and south. Agha Motaher