Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was born in 1835, Qadian, India and died on May 26, 1908, Lahore, Pakistan. He was an Indian muslim leader who founded an Islamic religious movement known as the Ahmadiyyah.

The son of a prosperous family, Ghulam Ahmad received an education in Persian and Arabic. He initially refused his father's urgings that he go into British government service or practice law.

However, because of his father's persistence, he served as a government clerk in Sialkot from 1864 until 1868. Ghulam Ahmad led a life of contemplation and religious study.

He claimed to hear revelations and declared in 1889 that he had received one in which God had entitled him to receive bay'at (an oath of allegiance). Soon he gathered a small group of devoted disciples. From then on his influence and following steadily increased, as did opposition from the mainstream Islamic community.

Ghulam Ahmad claimed not only that he was the mahdi (a promised Muslim "saviour") and a reappearance (buraz) of the Prophet Muhammad but also that he was Jesus Christ and the Hindu god Krishna returned to earth.