Kintoor

Kintoor or Kintur is a village distant 10 miles north-east of Badosarai in Barabanki district famous for battle of Kintoor of 1858 during Indian Mutiny.

History
Kintoor is named after Kunti, the mother of Pandav, as per the ancient sayings. Initially its name was Kuntapur.

Mahabahrat era
Parijaat tree a sacred baobab tree in the village of Kintoor on the banks of Ghaghra. Near a temple (known as Kunteshwar Mahadev temple) established by Kunti, is a special tree called Parijaat which is said to grow from Kunti's ashes. Historically, though these saying may have some bearing or not, but it is true that this tree is from a very ancient background.

Battle of Kintoor
Battle of Kintoor was a conflict between rebel sepoys and troops East India Company and Kapurthala State on October 6, 1858 during Indian Mutiny.

British Raj
During 1869 census of Oudh, Kintoor was designated as one of the total thirteen large towns or kasbahs and Inspector of Police of Ram Nagar was appointed here on the night of census.

Nishapuri Sada'at of Kintoor
Many of the early Sufi saints that came to North India belonged to Sayyid families. Most of these Sayyid families came from Central Asia and Iran, but some also originate from Yemen, Oman, Iraq and Bahrain. Perhaps the most famous Sufi was Syed Salar Masud, from whom many of the Sayyid families of Awadh claim their descent. Sayyids of Jarwal (Bahraich), Kintoor (Barabanki) and Zaidpur (Barabanki) were wellknown Taluqadars (feudal lords) of Awadh province.

The Nishapuri Sada'at (Sayeds) of Barabanki (adjoining areas of Kintoor, Fatehpur, Jarwal and Lucknow) are Kazmi or Musavi Sayeds; that is they claim descent from the Prophet through his daughter's line and the line of the seventh Imam of the Shi'a Muslims, Musa al-Kazem. They came in India originally from Nishapur a town near Mashhad in northeastern Iran. Two brothers Sayed Sharafu'd-Din Abu Talib (who was the ancestor of Waris 'Ali) and Sayed Muhammed in thirteenth century forsaked Nishapur, Iran (via Khorasan and Mashhad) for Awadh, India in the time of Hulagu Khan (1256-1265) the Il-Khanid Mongol ruler. After their arrival in Kintoor the Saiyids were givena large jagir by Sultan Muhammad Tughluq, where they continued to hold the land in different tenures until twentieth century at the turn of which they held two-thirds of the village land of Kintoor. Sayed Alauddin Kazmi have said to be accompanied these two brothers in their movement from Iran, he later moved to Tehsil Fatehpur. The grave of Sayed Alauddin Kazmi is situated in Kintoor. The Kazmis of Fatehpur are his descendants. These Nishapuri Sayeds of Kintoor spread to adjoining localities of Barabanki e.g. Fatehpur, and even to neighbouring districts e.g. Jarwal in Bahraich district and in Lucknow. These Nishapuri Sayeds produced several outstanding Shia Muslim religious scholars in 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Zayn al-'Abidin al-Musavi who was progenitor of sayeds of Kintoor was great-great-grandfather of Sayed Ahmed. Sayeds of Kintoor can be categorized in two prominent families i.e. Abaqati (that of Sayed Hamid Hussain) and Khomeini (that of Sayed Ahmed).

Abaqati family
One branch of the Nishapuri Kintoori Sayeds took root in Lucknow. The most famous of Kintoori Sayeds is Ayatollah Syed Mir Hamid Hussain Musavi, author of work entitled Abaqat al Anwar; the first word in the title of this work provided his descendantswith the nisba (title) they still bear, Abaqati. Syed Ali Nasir Saeed Abaqati Agha Roohi, a Lucknow based cleric is from the family of Nishapuri Kintoori Sayeds and uses title Abaqati.

Khomeini family
Towards the end of the 18th century the ancestors of the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini had migrated from their original home in Nishapur, Iran to the kingdom of Oudh in northern India whose rulers were Twelver Shia Muslims of Persian origin; they settled in the town of Kintoor. Ayatollah Khomeini's paternal grandfather, Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi, was born in Kintoor, he was a contemporary and relative of the famous scholar Ayatollah Syed Mir Hamid Hussain Musavi. He left Lucknow in the middle of 19th century on pilgrimage to the tomb of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq and never returned. According to Moin this movement was to escape colonial rule of British Raj in India. He visited Iran in 1834 and settled down in Khomein in 1839. Although he stayed and settled in Iran, he continued to be known as Hindi, even Ruhollah Khomeini used Hindi as pen name in some of his ghazals. Also Ruhollah's brother was known by name Nureddin Hindi.

Royalty

 * Raja Mir Imdad Ali Khan,
 * ruler of Kintoor, was active in the First War of Indian Independence against the British Raj.

Urdu/Persian (19th century)

 * Syed Sharafu'd-Din of Nishapur,
 * in fourteenth century forsaken Iran for Awadh in the time of Hulagu the II-Khanid Mongol ruler. The Nishapuri Sayyids of Kintoor produced several outstanding Shi‘i religious scholars in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.


 * Syed Muhammad of Nishapur,
 * in fourteenth century forsaken Iran for Awadh in the time of Hulagu the II-Khanid Mongol ruler. The Nishapuri Sayyids of Kintoor produced several outstanding Shi‘i religious scholars in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.


 * Abd ul-Qadir Hanif-ud-Din Kintoori (d. 1789),
 * a Sufi of Qadri order. His ancestors emigrated from Nishapur, Iran, and served as jurists i.e. qazi in the area. He was author of book Kuhl ul-jawahir fi manaqib-i-'Abd ul-Qadir Jilani, completed in 1753.


 * Ayatollah Mufti Syed Muhammad Quli Khan Kintoori (1775-1844),
 * principal Sadr Amin at the British court in Meerut. He was also author of Tathir al-mu'minin 'an najasat al-mushrikin.


 * Syed Ejaz Husain Kintoori
 * author of books Kashf al-hujub wa'l-astar `an al-kutub wa'l-asfar; A'inah-'i haqq-nama; Shudhur al-`iqyan fi tarajim al-a`yan, 2 vols. A'inah," a primary source is Kintoori's biographical dictionary of Shi‘i ulama, an extremely useful source, remains in manuscript and has not been used by writers on Imami Shi‘ism in the West.


 * Syed Sirāj Ḥusayn Musavi Kintoori (1823-1865),
 * son of Mufti Syed Muhammad Quli Kintoori, he was author of Kashf al-ḥujub wa-l-astār ʿan asmāʾ al-kutub wa-l-asfār, Shudhūr al-ʿiqyān fī tarājim al-aʿyān and Āʾīna-yi ḥaqq-numā.


 * Syed Iʿjāz Ḥusayn Musavi Kintoori (1825-1870),
 * son of Mufti Syed Muhammad Quli Kintoori, he worked in the British judiciary and administration and was one of the first Shiʿi ʿulamāʾ to engage with the new learning in English and translated works of science in Persian and Urdu. He was also associated with Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.


 * Ayatollah Syed Mir Hamid Hussain Musavi Kintoori Lakhnavi (1830-1880)
 * son of Mufti Syed Muhammad Quli Kintoori author of book Abaqat ul Anwar fi Imamat al Ai'imma al-Athar.


 * Qazi Mahmud Kintoori author of Mirat i Madari.

Urdu/Persian (20th century)

 * Justice Maulvi Syed Karāmat Ḥusayn Musavi Kintoori (1854-1917),
 * son of Syed Iʿjāz Ḥusayn, he became a pioneer encouraging the education of girls in the next generation as one of the key responses to the shock of the loss of power and prestige with the advent of formal empire after 1857. He also served as a professor of law at Aligarh. He was founder of Karmat College, Lucknow.


 * Syed Ghulam Hasnain,  Allamah Kintoori  (1831-1918)
 * was a religious scholar (a Mujtahid), a physician, a pharmacologist and an alchemist. He was autor of book Miatain fi Maqtalil Husain and Qanun-e-Shaikh bu 'Ali Sina. He was married to Hamid Hussain's sister.

Others

 * Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi
 * was paternal grandfather of Ayatollah Khomeini. He was born in Kintoor. He left India in about 1830 to make a pilgrimage to the shrine city of Najaf in present-day Iraq, and to study at one of its famous seminaries and never returned.


 * Syed Ghulam Husayn Kintoori
 * cousin of Syed Hamid Hussain Kintoori, was the daroghah of Awadh.

Attractions

 * Parijaat tree a sacred baobab tree on the banks of Ghaghra.
 * The famous Kunteshwar Temple – dedicated to Lord Shiva.