Qadian was established in 1530 by Mirza Hadi Baig, a religious scholar dedicated to Islam and the first Qazi in the area. Mirza Hadi Baig was from a royal household of Mirza of the Mughal Empire. He migrated from Samarkand and settled in Punjab where he was granted a vast tract of land comprising 80 villages by the emperor Babur. Because of his religious beliefs, he named the center of the 80 villages Islam Pur Qazi and governed from there. Over time, the name of the town changed to Qazi Maji, then Qadi, and eventually it became known as 'Qadian'. Qadian and the surrounding areas later fell to the Ramgharia Sikhs who offered the ruling Qazis, two villages which they refused. In 1834, during the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the region consisting of Qadian and five adjoining villages was given to Mirza Ghulam Murtaza, father of Ghulam Ahmadin return for military support in Kashmir, Mahadi, the Kulu valley, Peshawar and Hazara. who spoke 47 different languages in Qadian.
A remote and unknown town, Qadian emerged as a centre of religious learning in 1889, when Mirza Ghulam Ahmad established the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, and in 1891 it became the venue for the Community's annual gatherings. Qadian remained the administrative headquarters and capital of the Ahmadiyya Caliphate until the partition of India in 1947, when much of the Community migrated to Pakistan. Following the partition, Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad, the second Khalifa of the Community, carefully oversaw the safe migration of Ahmadis from Qadian to the newly founded state, instructing 313 men, including two of his own sons, to stay in Qadian and guard the sites holy to Ahmadis, conferring upon them the title darveshān-i qādiyān and eventually moving the headquarters to Rabwah, Pakistan.
Geography
Qadian is located at. It has an average elevation of 250 metres.
Demographics
As of India's census in 2013, Qadian had a population of 40,827. Males constituted 54% of the population and females 46%. Qadian has an average literacy rate of 75%, slightly higher than the national average of 74.04%: male literacy is 78%, and female literacy is 70%. 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Notable people from Qadian
Although Qadian is relatively remote and has a very small population, it has many notable historical, religious and political figures;
Religious Leaders
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Khalifas to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who were from Qadian
