The Ahmadiyya movement claims that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s lineage through his forefathers can be traced back to Mirza Hadi Beg, whom they call a reputed scholar and chieftain of Mughal/Persian descent. According to one hagiography, in 1530 Mirza Hadi Beg migrated from Khorasan along with an entourage of two hundred persons consisting of his family, servants and followers.[9] Travelling through Samarkand, they finally settled in the Punjab, India, where Mirza Hadi founded the town known today as Qadian during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Zaheer al-Din Babur.
The family were all known as Mughals within the British governmental records of India probably due to the high positions it occupied within the Mughal empire and their courts. Mirza Hadi beg was granted a Jagir of several hundred villages and was appointed the Qadhi (judge) of Qadian and the surrounding district. According to the followers of Ahmad, for generations the descendants of Mirza Hadi held important positions within the Mughal empire and had consecutively been the chieftains of Qadian.[10] Through his fore-mothers, Ghulam Ahmad claimed descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah Zahra.[11]
