Hakim Muhammad Hashim Muslim ibn Hakim Muhammad Hadi Qalandar ibn Muzaffar al-Din âÂÂAlavi Shirazi (1670 - 1747), with the royal title Alavi Khan Nawwab MuâÂÂtamad al-Muluk, was a royal Persian physician of the 18th century Mughal India.
Hakim âÂÂAlavi Khan was born in Shiraz, in Persia, in 1670. In 1699 he went to India and presented himself at the Mughal, where he was appointed physician to Prince Muhammad Azam (who was later to rule for only three months in 1707). The Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah (reg. 1707-12) gave him the title âÂÂAlavi Khan.
Muhammad Shah (reg.1719-1748), the Mughal ruler in Delhi, raised him to the rank of Shash-hazari and gave him the title of MuâÂÂtamad al-Muluk. When the Persian ruler Nadir Shah defeated Muhammad Shah and sacked Delhi, âÂÂAlavi Khan accompanied Nadir Shah when he left India and âÂÂAlavi Khan accepted the position of Hakim-bashi ("chief physician") to Nadir Shah.
After making a pilgrimage to Mecca, âÂÂAlavi Khan returned to Delhi in 1743 and died there about four years later.
He wrote four medical treatises in Arabic and four in Persian. His nephew Muhammad Husayn ibn Muhammad Hadi al-âÂÂAqili al-âÂÂAlavi al-Khurasani al-Shirazi (fl. 1771-81), known as Hakim Muhammad Hadikhan, used âÂÂAlavi Khan's pharmacopoeia titled Jamiâ al-javamiâÂÂ-i Muhammad-Shahi, which was dedicated to the Mughal ruler Muhammad Shah, as the main source a large portion of his comprehensive work on simple and compound remedies written in 1771.
For his life and writings, see: