Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Founder of the Ahmadiyya movement at Qadian in Gurdaspur district in 1889. Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims; Pakistan declared them non-Muslims in 1974.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born in 1835 at Qadian in Gurdaspur district into a family of Mughal origin who had served the Sikh kingdom.
In 1889 he founded the Ahmadiyya movement, claiming to be the promised Messiah and Mahdi. He wrote many books and debated Christian missionaries, Arya Samajists and orthodox Muslims. He also wrote that Guru Nanak was a Muslim saint, citing the chola, a cloak with Quranic verses kept at Dera Baba Nanak.
He died in 1908. After 1947 the movement's headquarters moved to Rabwah in Pakistan, where Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims in 1974 and have since been persecuted.