Mirza Ghulam Ahmad belonged to a royal family who originally came from Central Asia and had settled in India. The family was a pioneer of promoting Islam in the country until the claiming of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and formation of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The family originally hailed from what is nowadays Uzbekistan, with the great ancestor of the line being a member and descendant of the Mughal Barlas tribe. They were amongst the ancestral families that gave birth to the later Mughal Emperors. The family had remained in royal post during the Mughal Empire.