Begum Samru

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Begum Joanna Nobilis Sombre (* around 1750 in Kutana near Meerut , India as Farzana Khanqui ; † January 27, 1836 ) or simply Begum Samru ( Urdu : begum = "female") was ruler of the city of Sardhana in northern India. For 55 years she ruled a partially dependent royal state with the help of an army led by European mercenaries. Begum Samru was originally a courtesan of her husband, the European adventurer Walter Reinhardt Sombre , and inherited power over Sardhana. She proved to be a skilled manager and led her own troops onto the battlefield. When she died, she left a sizable fortune.

Life

Begum Samru was born under the name Farzana Khanqui on the estate of her Mughal nobleman, Latif Ali Khan, about 80 miles from Delhi. She came from an Islamic, originally Arab family who belonged to the lower nobility of Kashmir. Her father Asad Khanqui died when she was ten years old. She was then expelled with her mother, whereupon they fled to the Mughal capital Delhi . After her mother's death, Farzana performed as a dancer with the famous courtesan Khanum Bai. In 1765, at the age of 14, she met the European adventurer Walter Reinhardt Sombre , who was 45 at the time and left his Islamic wife, with whom he had a child, to go with the girl. There is no confirmation of the marriage between Reinhardt and Farzana Khanqui. Reinhardt led a private army and took on various assignments in Agra, Deeg and Bharatpur, on which he was accompanied by her. In return for the support of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II , he received the rich principality of Sardhana as a fief.

Domination

The Begum with the court

When Reinhardt died in 1778, Begum Samru was appointed as his successor by the Mughal emperor on his advice. The Begum not only mastered Sardhana, but was also the leader of Reinhardt's five battalions with sepoys (Indian mercenaries) and 300 European mercenaries. In 1781 she converted to Roman Catholic and took the name Joanna . Begum Samru was the only Christian leader of a royal state in Indian history.

The Begum showed herself to be a loyal vassal. In 1787 was their army part of a coalition that the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. Freed when he spoke of the Rohilla boss Ghulam Qadir was captured in Delhi and blinded. She received the title of Zeb-un-Nisa, or jewel among women, from the emperor. When Najaf Quli Khan rebelled against the Mughal emperor in 1788, Begum Samru himself commanded her troops in the Battle of Gokulgarh, where they played an important role in the victory of the imperial troops. Their commander in chief was the Irish adventurer George Thomas . He was succeeded by the Frenchman Pierre Antoine Le Vassoult, whom she secretly married in 1793.

The son of Reinhardt's first wife, who regarded himself as the legal administrator of Sardhana, led an uprising against Begum Samru in 1795 and took advantage of the unpopularity of Le Vassoult among the soldiers. The Begum and her husband fled Sardhana. Le Vassoult died of suicide by shooting himself through the head, the Begum survived her suicide attempt and was brought before her captivity in a cart in Sardhana. George Thomas came to her aid with his mercenaries, whereupon the Begum could take control again. Her stepson was put under house arrest in Delhi, where he died in 1803.

Statue of Begum in the basilica

Begum Samru ran its own court in Sardhana and donated large sums of money to Catholic institutions across India. She built the Basilica of Our Lady of Grace in Sardhana. This was completed in 1820 by Anthony Reghelini, an officer in the Begum Army from Vicenza , Italy, as an architect. She sent a request to the Pope to send a bishop. In a letter to him in 1834, she wrote: "I am proud to say that the Church is invariably the best in India."

Statue Inscription Sardhana.jpg

In 1803 the Marathas were defeated by the British in the Second Marath War, who thus took control of northern India. In negotiations with the British General Gerard Lake , it was agreed that the Begum Sardhana could continue to rule until her death, after which her reign would fall to the British East India Company . In 1834, the childless Begum David Ochterlony adopted Dyce Sombre, the great-grandson of Walter Reinhardt Sombre. She died in 1836 and was buried in the church she built. Her name is given on her tombstone as "Joanna Zibalnessa [Zeb-un nissa]". The disputes over the inheritance continue to this day.

literature

  • Henry George Keene: The Great Anarchy or Darkness before Dawn. Sketches of Military Adventure in Hindustan during the Period immediately preceding British Occupation . W. Thaker & Co., London, 1901, pp. 164-168 .
  • Farha Khan: Begum Samru of Sardhana: Socio-Politial Interventions and Continuing Legacy. In: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Volume 73 (2012), pp. 707-718. JSTOR 44156266

Web links

Commons : Begum Samru  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Begum Sumru (English)
  2. ↑ a b c Begum Samru and her church in Sardhana. In: The Hindu. March 5, 2017, accessed January 17, 2019 .
  3. ↑ The Incredible Story of Begum Samru (English)
  4. ^ Edward Arthur Henry Blunt: List of Inscriptions on Christian Tombs and Tablets of Historical Interest in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh . Allahabad 1911, p. 17 ( archive.org ).
  5. ^ Edward Arthur Henry Blunt: List of Inscriptions on Christian Tombs and Tablets of Historical Interest in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh . Allahabad 1911, p. 16-17 ( archive.org ).
  6. ↑ The heirs quarrel with the English crown. In: Heilbronn voice . January 26, 2009, accessed January 17, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Samru, Begum
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sombre, Begum Joanna Nobilis; Khanqui, Farzana (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian ruler
DATE OF BIRTH around 1750
PLACE OF BIRTH Kutana at Meerut
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1836