PRESENT RULER: His Excellency Colonel
Sahibzada MUHAMMAD SHAHID SARWAR AZAM SHAH JAHAN Mullah
F.I.E.B, present head of the Singranatore Zamindari
family. (Mullahbare Mansion, Singra, Natore
District)
born 31st December 1952, initially educated privately,
then at Rajshahi Collegiate School 1962/1965, Jhenidah
Cadet College 1966/1968, Bangladesh University of
Engineering and Technology 1970/1976, Bangladesh Military
Academy 1976/1977, United States Army: School of
Transportation at Joint Base Langley–Eustis, West
Virginia, U.S.A., in 1980, The Indian Military Academy
1988/1989, S.E.M.E. in Secunderabad, Hyderabad, and The
Academy of the People’s Liberation Army: The Chinese Army
in Beijing in 1986; he trained as a Pilot in C.A.A. and
was Commissioned into the Bangladesh Army on 8th May 1976,
served as Staff Officer to The Honorable Brigadier General
Hannan Shah M.P., later advisor to the Prime Minister;
served as the Former Deputy Sector Commander of the
BANBATT United Nations (U.N.) Peacekeeping Forces in
Sierra Leone, West Africa 2002/2003; served after
indictments by the Special Court for Sierra Leone of
former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leaders were made
and Government ministers served on war crimes charges;
observed Community Arms Collection and Development Program
under the supervision of the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP) in collaboration with local paramount
chiefs in Africa following refugee conflicts in Ivory
Coast and Liberia; former Sector Commander of Bangladesh
Border Guards (then Bangladesh Rifles, BDR), he led 6000
troops in Khagrachari, Eastern Region 2003/2004; former
Sector Commander of the North Western Region of Rajshahi
Sector 2004/2005, commanding 7000 soldiers; diplomat and
head of the 2004 Indian-Bangladesh Border Treaty (1975)
Review between BDR and BSF in the Republic of India, then
commandant in the Headquarters of the Bangladesh Army in
Dhaka 2005/2006; Director of Engineering at Jamuna
Builders 2009/2012; he was awarded the Gurnijhar
Padak-Cyclone Medal in 1999, the Sangsad Padak Medal
during the National Elections in 1991 and 1996,
Pochishtomo Padak Medal of 1996, Prothom, Ditio and Tritio
Jeshthata (Distinguished Service Medals I, II and III)
Medals of 1987, 1997 and 2002, the BDR Service Medal in
1995 and United Nations Service Medal (U.N.A.M.S.I.L) in
2003; married 1981, Prof. Dr. Kamrun Nahar of the Comilla
Munshibari family, educated in Dhaka and then Vienna,
Austria, and has issue.
- Begum Shahzia Sarwar Shazi, born 12th March 1983,
educated in the United States (Arizona), married Dr.
Abu Naser Zainuddin, the once removed first cousin of
Zillur Rahman, the 15th President of Bangladesh of the
Kishorgonj Rahman family.
- Sahibzada Sanwar Azam Sunny, born 17th December
1989, educated in the United States (Kansas and
Missouri).
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PREDECESSORS AND SHORT HISTORY:
Founded in the late 1860s by Mirza Zahirshah of Allahabad,
grandson of Mirza Jahanshah a former pensioner of the
British Government through Mirza Jalalshah, who in turn
was the grandson of Mirza Akbarshah Saani. He settled in
the new Imperial capital of the Raj, around Calcutta in
Bengal, eastwards from North India and was granted inams
of 2 villages by a San’aad by the British. By the end of
the nineteenth century the family gained further lands in
the old Natore estates of the Rajshahi Zamindari. The
zamindari was abolished by East Bengal
State Acquisition Act in 1951-1952. Estates are inherited
according to the fiqh
(Islamic Inheritance) while headship is by male
primogeniture. Zamindars included.....
- Sahibzada Mirza
MUHAMMAD ZAHIRUDDIN SHAH Sahib, 1st Zamindar
of Natore, born of Kamrani Bai in Allahabad 1855, he
was granted a numbers of inams (especially territories
belonging to the Maharaja of Natore); he helped crush
peasant uprisings, most notably in Pabna in the 1870s,
for which he was bestowed upon with lands (2 villages)
and a 4 anna estate in Natore, Rajshahi by the Raja of
Natore; an Associate member of the Bengal Landholders
Society in Rajshahi; an equestrian enthusiast, and a
participant and patron of the Chalan bil Horse Race in
Pabna; he built the Mirza Mahal Palace or Mirdha Mohol
Jomidarbari in Hulhulya in 1886; he married (amongst
others), (a), a cousin, Khujista Sultana,
As’aaduz-zamani Begum, married (b), Begum Mariam
Khanem, and had issue, at least eight sons. He died of
cholera in September 1892 near Calcutta, Bengal.
- Sahibzada Mirza Muhammad Zaffaruddin Shah (qv)
- Sahibzada Mirza Muhammad Noor Ali Mirdha [Mirza
Noor Ali], a mridha (military governor) of the Raja
of Natore, later a Zamindar in Pabna; he married a
cousin, and had issue.
- Sahibzada Mirza Muhammad Selim Bakht Mridha, he
settled in Rampur-Boalia (present day Rajshahi
District) then the capital of the Colonial British
Government, married many times, and had issue.
- Sahibzada Mirza
MUHAMMAD ZAFFARUDDIN Sahib, 2nd Zamindar of
Natore in 1894/1921, born 1876 in Natore, educated
privately under an Islamic Scholar in Urdu, Persian,
Hindi, Bengali and English and then Rajshahi
Collegiate School. former Diwan to his father,
1888/1892, Reassessed and enlarged the estate
through 1885 estate laws, Rebuit Mirza Mahal after it
was devastated in the 1897 earthquake. A Mridha under
the Maharaja of Natore, he maintained a cavalary
(Saw’waar) of 25, a lathial (foot soldiers) of 30 with
horses and three elephants (1900). Made Donations to
the Varendra Museum of Regional Antiquities
(1908-1910). Married twice and had issue, 7 sons. He
died in 1921.
- Sahibzada Mirza Muhammad Jalaluddin [Ahmed Mridha]
(qv)
- Sahibzada Mirza Muhammad Alamgir Bakht [Makbul
Mridha], he was granted dewani from the Raja of
Dighapatia in Natore as well as the Maharaja of
Rajshahi, married and had issue, three sons and two
daughters.
- Sahibzada Muhammad Khusr-ud-Din Mirza; a Zamindar
in Rajshahi who was granted estates in Natore and
then in Bogra, married twice (once his cousin) and
had issue, two sons and a daughter.
- Sahibzada Mirza Shah Qutub Alam Jah [Qutubuddin
Mirza], the military governor for the Rajshahi Raj
and a Landowner of Pabna and Natore, married twice
and had issue.
- Sahibzada Mirza Alam Hussein Muhammad [Alam
Mridha], the military governor for the Raja of
Natore; married and had issue.
- Maqbul Hussein Mridha, he was elected in 2002
as Chairman of the Union Council of Sreepur,
Bagmara and Vice President of the Bangladesh Awami
League Party in Sreepur Union of Bagmara Upazila
in Rajshahi.
- Sahibzada Mirza
MUHAMMAD JALALUDDIN Sahib, 3rd and last
Zamindar of Natore 1921/1975, born in September 1902
in Natore, and educated privately and then at Rajshahi
Collegiate School, he was a student, patron and
educator at Rajshahi Collegiate School, the oldest
school in the Empire; he expanded the Zamindari with
estates formerly belonging to the Dighapatia and
Rajshahi Raj families; during the partion of 1947, he
was the custodian of the Raj estates of Natore and
Dighapatia in Rajshahi; in 1952 most of the estate,
buildings and property as private holdings were
acquired by the Government of East Pakistan with
compensation; married and had issue. He died in 1975.
- Sahibzadi Gulbadan Begum, born 1925, a social
worker and educationalist; laid the foundation stone
for the first College of Singra (1976) and named it
after her oldest daughter in the 1960's; married
Mullah Shahmez-ud-Din Ahmad, born 1918, died 1968,
Zamindar of Temock, son of Muhammad Jasim Uddin
Ahmed, and his wife, Begum Khadeza Khanem, and had
issue. She died May 8th 2005 at the Combined
Military Hospital, Dhaka.
- His Excellency Colonel Sahibzada Muhammad
Shahid Sarwar Azam Shah Jahan Mullah (qv)
- Sahibzadi Gulchehra Begum, born 1928, married
Sardar Ab’dul Majed of Natore and had issue seven
sons and one daughter.
- Sahibzada Mirza Muhammad Gul-e-Noor, born 1930,
employed with the Northern Railway of the Provincial
East Pakistan Government and later for Bangladesh;
married and had issue. He died in 1983.
- Sahibzadi Begum Azadi, she married a Professor
at Iswardi, and has issue.
- Sahibzada Mirza Azad, General Manager of
Talukdar Group of Industries, married Shahana
Begum, and has issue.
- Sahibzadi Begum Faria Sheme, educated at
I.U.B. Business School, married and has issue.
- Sahibzadi Begum Farzana Azad, educated at the
University of Leeds, U.K. married into the Mir
family, and has issue. (Canada)
- Sahibzada Mirza Muhammad Farshed Azad, born
1987, educated at Oxford International School
and the Business School at I.U.B., Dhaka.
- His Excellency
Colonel Sahibzada MUHAMMAD SHAHID SARWAR AZAM SHAH
JAHAN Mullah (see above)
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