reported to have contacted Turkish and Russian spies. Subversion and revolt Although his mission had failed, he probably came back with a more dangerous idea, planting in the Nana Sahib's mind the seed of the Indian rebellion of 1857. (Azimullah also brought back a French printing press, which was used – by others – to print and distribute subversive literature against the British in India.) Azimullah's own role in the great uprising that followed, the "Indian Mutiny", was political rather than military. Although he was chief advisor to the Nana Sahib, one of the principal leaders of the rebellion, he was a Muslim at a Hindu court, a talker, at a time when military men were needed, and without personal wealth, nobility, or a following of supporters, and so he soon became a marginal figure. He did however play a key role in the negotiations that terminated the Siege of Cawnpore. Representing Nana Sahib, Azimullah met with the British commander of the garrison Major-General Sir Hugh Wheeler and agreement was reached that the garrison and their families would be evacuated and taken by boat to safety in Allahabad. The following day he was seen among a group of Nana Sahib's advisers and officers who were present at the ambush and killing of most of the refugees as they boarded the waiting boats. Death Azimullah Khan probably died of a fever in late 1859, after the crushing of the rebellion, on the run from the British in the inhospitable border country of the Nepalese Terai. Other accounts have him dying of smallpox while attempting to reach Calcutta in disguise, or of escaping India and eventually being murdered in Constantinople. Azimullah Avenue, a road in Kanpur is named in his honour. In popular culture Azimullah Khan was portrayed by actor Shahbaz Khan in the 2005 movie Mangal Pandey: The Rising. References Further reading Lutfullah, Syed. Azimullah Khan Yusufzai: The man behind the war of independence 1857. Karachi: Mohamedali Educational Society, second edition, 1970. Ward, Andrew. Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and The Indian Mutiny of 1857. New York: Henry Holt, 1996. Fisher, Michael H. Indian Political Representations in Britain during the Transition to Colonialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Fisher, Michael H. Counterflows to Colonialism: Visitors and Settlers from India in Britain, c. 1600–1857. Delhi: Permanent Black, 2004. Jarman, Francis. "Azimullah Khan - A Reappraisal of One of the Major