November 1880, while Government finally settled the Nawab's position, granting him a settled income and landed estates in several districts, at the same time recognising him as the Premier noble of Bengal with the hereditary title of Nawab Bahadur and Amir-ul-Omra.
As the head of the Muhammadan community in Bengal the Nawab Bahadur held a position of great respect and his influence was widespread. Apart, however, from his social position he was universally respected for his own personal qualities, for his liberality, his ready sympathy and his unswerving loyalty. In the management of his estates he took a keen personal interest and in times of suffering and distress he was always anxious to go personally to enquire and to render help. When heavy floods ruined the crops and swept away the unfortunate cultivator's cattle and homesteads, it was to the Nawab Bahadur that they looked for loans and gifts to help them to tide over the evil times. During the severe earthquake of June the 12th, 1897, he himself only barely escaped with his life. He was sitting at the time in one of the ground-floor rooms of the palace facing the river, and being in feeble health he had to be carried outside by his attendants. They were only just in time, for, as they reached the open space on the river bank the whole of the second floor of the palace fell in, completely burying beneath the debris the room in which the Nawab Bahadur had been sitting. The damage done to the palace and other buildings amounted to three lacs
