Qadian

Qadian is the 4th largest town and a municipal council in Gurdaspur District, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India.Qadian is perhaps best known as the birthplace of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Islamic movement. It remained the centre of the Ahmadiyya movement until the Partition of India in 1947.HistoryQadian was established in 1530 by Mirza Hadi Baig, a religious scholar dedicated to Islam and the first Qazi within the area. Mirza Hadi Baig was from a royal household of Mirza of the Mughal Empire. He migrated from Samarkand and settled in Punjab. He was a descendant of King Timur and related to King Babur, who have him 80 villages by. Because of his religious beliefs, he named the center of the 80 villages 'Islam Pur Qazi' and governed from there. Over time, the name of the town changed to 'QaziMaji' ('Maji' means 'bull', referring to the animal still found in abundance in Qadian). Later, it was called just 'Qadi' and eventually became known as 'Qadian'.