Khanum Sultan Begum

Khanum Sultan Begum
Born 21 November 1569
Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, India
Died c. 1603 (aged 33–34)
Burial Sikandra, Agra
Spouse Mirza Muzaffar Husain
House Timurid
Father Akbar
Mother Bibi Salima
Religion Islam

Khanum Sultan Begum (Persian: خانم سلطان بیگم‎; 21 November 1569 – 1603), was a Mughal princess and the eldest daughter of Emperor Akbar. She was also the younger half-sister of Emperor Jahangir. In the Akbarnama, she is variously mentioned as Khanam, Khanim Sultan and Shahzada Khanam. However, she is most popularly known as Shahzada Khanum.[1]

Birth

Khanum Sultan Begum was born three months after the birth of her older brother, Prince Salim (the future emperor Jahangir), in November 1569.[1][2] According to the Jahangirnama, her mother was a royal concubine called Bibi Salima (not to be confused with Akbar's wife Salima Sultan Begum).[3]

Akbar handed over the charge of the baby girl to his mother Hamida Banu Begum,[4] who brought her up. Jahangir's remarks about Khanum Sultan is worth noting: "Among all my sisters, in integrity, truth and zeal for my welfare, she is without her equal; but her time is principally devoted to the worship of her Creator."[2]

Marriage

Khanum Sultan was married at the age of 25 to a distant Timurid cousin, Mirza Muzaffar Husain sometime in September 1594.[2] Muzaffar was the son of Mirza Ibrahim Husain, who was a female-line descendant of Sultan Husain Bayqara, the last Timurid ruler of Herat.[5] Muzaffar was at one time the governor of Gujarat.[6] His sister, Nur-un-Nissa Begum, later married Khanum's older half-brother, Jahangir. In 1609, Khanum Sultan's step-daughter, Kandahari Begum, married her nephew, Prince Khurram (the future emperor Shah Jahan), and became his first wife.[6]

Death

Khanum Sultan Begum died in 1603 and was buried in her father's mausoleum at Sikandra, Agra.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 Rap;son, Edward James; Burn, Sir Richard. The Cambridge History of India. CUP Archive. p. 102.
  2. 1 2 3 Sarker, Kobita (2007). Shah Jahan and his paradise on earth : the story of Shah Jahan's creations in Agra and Shahjahanabad in the golden days of the Mughals (1. publ. ed.). Kolkata: K.P. Bagchi & Co. p. 43. ISBN 9788170743002.
  3. ↑ Lal, K.S. (1988). The Mughal harem. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. p. 30. ISBN 9788185179032.
  4. ↑ Hindustan), Jahangir (Emperor of (1968). Beveridge, Henry, ed. The Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī: or, Memoirs of Jāhāngīr. Munshiram Manoharlal. p. 34.
  5. ↑ Sir H.M. Elliot, Professor John Dowson, The History of India as told by own Historians: The Muhammadan Period Vol. VI (1875), p. 122-123
  6. 1 2 Findly, Ellison Banks (1993). Nur Jahan, empress of Mughal India. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 91, 308. ISBN 9780195360608.
  7. ↑ Bhopal), Shāh Jahān̲ Begam (Nawab of (1876). The Táj-ul Ikbál Tárikh Bhopal, Or, The History of Bhopal. Thacker, Spink. p. 90.
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