Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung

Itiqad Khan Nusrat Jung Zulfiqar Khan
Portrait of Zulfiqar Khan, c. 1690
Faujdar of the Carnatic
In office 1692–?
Monarch	Aurangzeb
Deputy	Daud Khan Panni
Preceding	Ali Mardan Khan
Mir Bakhshi of the Mughal Empire
In office 1702–1712
Monarchs	Aurangzeb Bahadur Shah I
Preceded by	Bahramand Khan
Succeeded by	Kokaltash Khan
Viceroy of the Deccan
In office 1709–1713
Monarchs	Bahadur Shah I Jahandar Shah
Deputy	Daud Khan Panni
Wazir of the Mughal Empire
In office 1712–1713
Monarch	Jahandar Shah
Preceded by	Munim Khan
Personal details
Born	Muhammad Ismail c. 1649/1657
Died	(1713-02-11)11 February 1713
Parent(s)	Asad Khan (father) Mehrunissa Begum (mother)
Military service
Battles/wars	Battle of Raigarh (1689) Siege of Gingee (1690-1698) Siege of Wagingera (1705) Battle of Jajau (1707)

Muhammad Ismail (1649/1657 – 11 February 1713), known by his title Zulfiqar Khan, was a leading noble and military general of the Mughal Empire. His father was Asad Khan, wazir (prime minister) to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. During Aurangzeb's reign, Zulfiqar Khan led several military campaigns in pursuit of the emperor's ambitions in the Deccan and South India, notable of which is the Siege of Jinji. He held the post of mir bakhshi (paymaster general), appointed towards the later part of Aurangzeb's reign, and was made governor of the Deccan by emperor Bahadur Shah I. These positions helped make Zulfiqar Khan the most powerful noble in the empire by the early 1700s.

For his role in engineering the accession of emperor Jahandar Shah, Zulfiqar Khan has been termed the first kingmaker in Mughal history. During this emperor's brief reign, Zulfiqar Khan served as wazir (prime minister) and acted as effective ruler of the empire, before being executed in 1713 by claimant to the throne Farrukhsiyar.