Nawab of Awadh
Records of Jewish tradesmen traveling from Baghdad can be found from the early 17th century. These trading outposts and emerging migrant communities also saw Jews become courtiers to Mughal rulers. These merchants wandered widely across the subcontinent. Shalom Cohen, who would found the Calcutta community, was the court jeweller to the Nawab of Awadh and travelled to Punjab where he held the same title as the court of Ranjit Singh the leader of the Sikh Empire. Cohen, the Calcutta community would later recall, was even given the honour of riding with the Nawab of Awadh in his personal elephant.