Posted on 06/24/2005 2:18:39 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the waqf board, an Agra resident... and now one more claimant pledging to be the true Mughal descendant has emerged from Hyderabad for "custodianship" of India's prized Taj Mahal.
'Prince' Yaqub Habeebuddin Tucy, who says he is the great great grandson of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, arrived here on Thursday to stake his claim for the famed 17th century monument in Agra as a "true descendent of the Mughal lineage".
He has filed a formal petition before the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, a state funded autonomous body, which is already in the process of finalising its decision on a similar application moved by Agra resident Irfan Bedar and is expected to give its verdict on Saturday.
Bedar had gone to court seeking 'muttawaliship' (trusteeship) of the Taj Mahal on the basis of the Sunni board's claim that the monument was a Muslim 'waqf' (trust). In doing so, he had contested the exclusive right of the central government-run ASI over the Taj Mahal.
The board had entertained Bedar's petition on the basis of a directive issued by the Allahabad High Court on a public interest litigation moved by him.
Under Islamic law, every 'waqf' must have a trustee.
The primary question to be determined by the Sunni board on Saturday is on the status of the Taj, where Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal are buried. Does it merit to be registered as a 'waqf' or should it be allowed to remain as a property of the federal government?
But Tucy has thrown a spanner in the board's workings and says only he can be the legitimate "custodian" of the monument.
"I never thought of coming forward so far because the Taj was being looked after by the ASI. But I got concerned when I learnt that a state government run body and another individual were staking claim to the monument. After all, I am a true descendent of the Mughal lineage," Tucy said.
"What I am interested in is this -- if at all the custodianship of the Taj Mahal has to be transferred, it must go only to the rightful descendent of Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor who created the white marble wonder," he added.
Pointing out that nobody could become the custodian of the Taj while descendants of the Mughals were alive, he said Bedar had no connection with the dynasty.
To establish his claim, Tucy has attached a detailed account of the Mughal family tree from the time of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor who was dethroned by the British in the 19th century.
According to that account, Bahadur Zhah Zafar had 49 children from different wives. Except three, all others died. One of these, Mirza Quaish, shifted to Aurangabad. His only son Mirza Abdullah settled down in Hyderabad where he had a son Mirza Gafar and two daughters, Husna Jahan and Laila Ummani.
Tucy is the son of Laila Ummani's second son Yaqub Arifuddin Tucy, and thereby the great-great grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar.
Bahadur Shah Zafar
It's interesting that much of what is now Afghanistan was subject to the Mughals. Evidently, Britain was not able to seize that part of their empire.
Britain suffered in the Afghan Wars, IIRC. The map shows the maximum extent of the Moghal Empire, and I think it represents Akbar's time.
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