PRESENT RULER: His Excellency Colonel Sahibzada MUHAMMAD SHAHID SARWAR AZAM SHAH JAHAN Mullah F.I.E.B, present head of the Singranatore Zamindari family, since 2005. (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).

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 -/1892, 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, with the ownership made hereditary as a Madhyasvatva; 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 at Rajshahi Collegiate School; he served as 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; he served as the Mridha or Military Governor to the Maharaja of Rajshahi; 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); he married 1stly, Humaira Begum, married 2ndly, Abeeda Sultan, and had issue, seven sons. He died of cholera in 1921 at Natore.

  • 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.

INTERREGNUM, Estate Managers 1921/1932

• Sahibzada Mirza MUHAMMAD JALALUDDIN Sahib, 3rd and last Zamindar of Natore 1932/1975, born 4th August 1898 in Mridha Mahal Palace, Natore, Bengal, and educated privately and then at Rajshahi Collegiate School, an educationalist and philanthropist, he was a student, patron and educator of the Rajshahi Collegiate School, and donated lands towards the building of many schools and colleges, including the first College of Singra, viz. Gole Afroz College, which was named after his oldest granddaughter; 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; he was styled Mirza Muhammad Jalaluddin Mridha Sahib of Singra and Natore after the abolition of the Zamindari in 1951; married Jamila Begum Sahiba, and had issue. He died in May 1975 in East Pakistan.

  • Sahibzadi Gulbadan Begum, born 1925 in Hulhulia, Natore, educated privately, a social worker and educationalist; she 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 and former Qadi of Natore, son of Muhammad Jasim Uddin Ahmed (a descendant of Mullah Shah Badakhshi), and his wife, Begum Khadeza Khanem, and had issue. She died May 8th 2005 at the Combined Military Hospital, Dhaka.

    • Al-haj Sahibzada Abul Bashar Muhammad Akhtar Hussain the former General Manager of Bangladesh National Oils.

    • Begum Gole Afroz, Bengali socialite, born 1947, in (now) Bangladesh, patron of the Gole Afroz College, then of the Rahmat Iqbal College; married Shri M. M. Rahmatullah, politician (Bangladesh), and has issue.

    • Sahibzada Professor Abu Naser Muhammad Asad-uz-zaman, political scientist in Bogra, he died 1997.

    • His Excellency Colonel Sahibzada Muhammad Shahid Sarwar Azam Shah Jahan Mullah (qv)

    • Lieutenant Colonel Sahibzada Dr. Muhammad Shahid Sarwar Alam, military officer who took part in the United Nations Mission in Sudan in Africa, 2005.

    • Gulroze Nahar Chowdhury, a lawyer.

  • 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)