Mubarak Ali Khan, better known as Humayun Jah, ascended the Masnad of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa after the death of his father, Wala Jah, in 1824 AD. He received the imperial title of "Shuja-ul-Mulk, Ihtisham-ud-Daulla, Humayun Jah, Feroze Jang (Hero of the Country, Dignifier of the Country, of auspicious rank, Victor in War)".

Lord Amherst wrote to him in Persian, which read as "Truly on the receipt of the joyful intelligence of the happy installation of your Highness on the throne of ancestral authority, the budding of joy of this friend so bloomed with delight that to describe one of its thousand blossoms or to draw a single rose from the bough in just array is beyond the flowers of rhetoric". The same allowances continued to be paid by the company.

In 1826, the second year of his rule, Humayun Jah married a daughter of the late Nawab Ali Jah, his uncle. In the same year he undertook a journey to Patna for a change. When he attained his majority and took the management of his affairs into his own hands, his first act was to dismiss Raja Ganga Dhar from the Nizamat Dewanship.

At Findall Bagh, or, as it is now called, Mubarak Manzil, had been erected the Courts of Justice of the Company, unused, after the administration of law and justice was removed to Calcutta. The Sadar Dewani Adalat or Courts were held here from 1765 to 1781 when they were removed to Calcutta. Subsequently the Civil and Criminal Courts were located here, before Cornwallis, in 1793, transferred the Supreme Court to Calcutta. There were three buildings on this spacious property. In May, 1830, the Nawab bought the garden then called "Findall Bagh" and the house "Findall Kothi", from Raja Kissen Chand Bahadur and Kumar Ram Chand of Nashipur for Rs. 35,000. He made it into a pleasure garden and erected the "Red Bungalow", known also as "Moti Mahal". He named the garden "Mubarak Manzil". In August, 1831, the Nawab also acquired from the English, through Mr. Pringle, Agent to the Governor General and acting Magistrate of the city of Murshidabad, the other buildings and the rest of the land forming the Mubarak Manzil Estate, for Rs. 10,500. A beautiful building, known as Lal Bunglow with marble floors, on the north, by the side of the tank, was Built by Humayun Jah. On the terrace in front of this building stood the throne, used by the Nawabs Nazim of Bengal from the time of Sultan Shuja (second son of Shah Jahan), brought here by Humayun Jah. This round throne made of black stone, 6 feet (72 inches) in diameter and 1.5 feet (18 inches) high, was made at Mongyer in Behar by Khwaja Nazar of Bokhara, on the 27^th Sha'ban, 1052 H (1643 AD). After the Battle of Plassey পলাশী in 1757 AD, Robert Clive placed Mir Jafar on this throne at Mansurganj; and Clive sat on it side by side with Najam-ud-Daulla at Moti Jheel when celebrating, in 1766 AD, the first Poonneah after the acquisition of the Dewani by The East India Company. The stone throne is now kept at the Victoria Museum, Calcutta.

From the time of the removal of the Sadar Dewani Adalat to Calcutta to the time of its coming into the Nawab's hands, the Foujdari Katcheri was held in one of the buildings. In the fifth year of his rule, during the administration of Lord William Bentinck, on August the 9^th, 1829, the Nawab Nazim laid the foundation of the main palace, near the river bank. It was completed during the administration of Lord Auckland, in 1837. It is known as the palace or "Bara Kothi" to distinguish it from the old fort, the Kila, and the new palace built much later.

In 1833 Nawab Humayun Jah sent Mr. W. Chinnery, with numerous presents and, gifts together with portraits of His Highness and his son to King William IV, who honored the Nawab with the present full size portrait of His Majesty and an autograph letter and conferred upon him the badge and insignia of the Royal Guelphic and Hanoverian order, still preserved in the Palace. The King sent, also, a life-size portrait of himself Mr, Chinnery brought with him from England various pictures, and handsome furniture, purchased for the Nawab's new palace. A miniature of the "Bara Kothi" Palace or "Hazarduari", in ivory, prepared by Sagore Mistri (সাগর মিস্ত্রী) was also sent to the King.

Humayun Jah died on the 3^rd October, 1838 AD, leaving behind him his son, Mansur Ali Khan alias Feradun Jah and his Daughter Sultana Ghetiara Begum.
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Family Tree :: Najafi Dynasty

Humayun Jah married (first) at Murshidabad Palace 22nd February 1826, H.H. Nawab Khurshid Mahal Umdat-un-nisa Begum Sahiba (She was born at Murshidabad in 1810; died at Hazarduari Palace Murshidabad in 1853; burried at Jafarganj Cemetery), eldest daughter of Ali Jah and his Mut'ah wife Azim-un-nisa Khanum. Married (second) at Murshidabad on 1826 H.H. Nawab Rais-un-nisa Begum Sahiba (Gaddinashin Begum), She died at Murshidabad on 4^th May 1893; burried at Jafarganj Cemetery). Married (third) Ashraf-un-nisa Begum Sahiba (She died on 18^th November 1899). Mut'ah wife (i) Mubarak Mahal Sahiba (She died on 13^th March 1867), previously Mubarak-un-nisa. He had three sons and two daughters [1].

1. Syud Mansur Ali Khan Bahadur. Born at Murshidabad Palace on 26^th November 1826 (s/o Rais-un-nisa Begum). He died at Murshidabad on 12^th July 1827.
2. Syud Wahid Hussain Khan Bahadur. He was born at Murshidabad Palace on 29^th September 1829 (s/o Umdat-un-nisa Begum)
3. Syud Mansur Ali Khan Bahadur, who succeeded as H.H. Feradun Jah Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa (s/o Rais-un-nisa Begum)
4. Sultana Ghetiara Begum Sahiba. Born at Murshidabad Palace on 31^st May 1827
5. A daughter who died before 1837

References :

• [1] Christopher Buyers, Murshidabad, The Najafi Dynasty Genealogy, Royal Ark  Back