Early Life
Khwaja Abid Siddiqi broke with family tradition and became a fighter rather than a scholar. Henry Brigs a historian wrote,
In youth he was trained to the use of the bow, the spear and the sword. Riding on horseback was familiar to him from the moment he could toddle alone from his mother's knee as it is to this day to everybody from the plains of Arabia to the hills of Afghanistan and he was specially taught to regard the cause of the Crescent and the Koran as the great purpose of his existence
It was in 1655 that Khwaja Abid Siddiqi undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca. But on his way there he stopped off in India to present himself before Shah Jahan. The Mughal Emperor bestowed on Khwaja Abid a Kilat (dress of honour) and promised him that after he returned from Mecca he could take up a post on his personal staff. Aurangzeb was trained by him. Under his command Aurangzeb conquered central India and south India.
Read more about this topic: Nawab Khwaja Abid Siddiqi
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