[1] Ghulam Murtaza was mentioned in some detail by Sir Lepel Griffin in The Panjab Chiefs (1865), a survey of the Punjab’s aristocracy, as a man of "considerable local influence".
His predecessors had originally exercised authority over a large semi-independent territory of some sixty square miles[4] comprising over seventy villages neighbouring Qadian[5] and had quasi-familial ties with the Mughal emperors.
[6] His grandfather, Mirza Faiz Muhammad was conferred the title of Azādud Daulah (Strong Arm of the Government) by the emperor Farrukhsiyar and the rank of Haft Hazārī enabling him to keep a regular force of 7,000 soldiers.
The family was expelled and lived in a nearby village for sixteen years until, in 1818, Ghulam Murtaza was allowed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh to return to Qadian in exchange for military support.
[13][14] Ghulam Murtaza spent much of his time and fortune trying to regain his properties through litigation in the Colonial courts but to no avail.
Mirza Ghulam Murtaza's ancestors shared tribal affiliation with the Mughal rulers of the Indian subcontinent.
[20] In his last days he built the Aqsa mosque which was oversized at the time and directed in his will that he be buried in a corner of its courtyard where his grave can still be found today.