Nur Jahan

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 Nur Jahan
Empress of Mughal India

Ellison Banks Findly

New York Oxford

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1993
 Oxford University Press
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Copyright © 1993 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Findly, Ellison Banks.
Nur Jahan, empress of Mughal India / Ellison Banks Findly.
p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-507488-2
1. Nur Jahan, Empress, consori of Jahangir,
Emperor of Hindustan. d. 1645.
2. Mogul Empire—Empresses—Biography.
I. Title. DS461.9.N8F56 1993
954.02'5'092—dc20 [B] 92-8697

246897531
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
 for
Caroline and Ross
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 Preface

After much consideration, I have decided to remove diacriticals from the text.
Two issues weighed heavily on this decision: first, there is a substantial amount
of quoted material with varying transliteration conventions that proved to be
distracting to read (the variant English forms already add a certain fragmenta-
tion); and second, since most current histories do not use all diacriticals, espe-
cially in the case of Persian, Urdu, and Sanskritic words, the decision which to
include and which not was somewhat arbitrary. Since this is not meant as a
specialized textual study but rather a documentation of the early emergence of
the Nur Jahan legend, omitting diacriticals seemed the best and most consistent
course.
In stabilizing transliteration conventions, I have for the most part followed
the Cambridge History of India (minus the diacriticals), leaving bibliographic
references as they are published when they are not a part of the regular narrative.
In passages quoted directly from a text, the spelling and grammar of the original
have been preserved, and geographic and place names, where possible, follow
currently preferred spellings. For the ease of the reader, finally, some names
have been run together (without hyphens) and others left to stand as separate
words (for example, Itimaduddaula and Nur Jahan).
Verb tenses, generally, are as follows: information from primary sources is in
the past tense, that from secondary sources is in the present tense. Such differen-
tiation highlights the many layers of an unfolding tradition.

Hartford, Conn. E. B. F.
April 1992
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 Acknowledgments

To all those who have had some small hand in this work, I extend my thanks,
and especially
to Trinity College for an exploratory grant from its 1980's Fund from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in the spring of 1985, and to the National
Endowment for the Humanities for an NEH Fellowship for College Teachers in
1987-88;
to Robert Skelton, Betty Tyres, David James, Milo Beach, and Jim Wescoat
for their helpful expertise in the Indian arts;
to M. C. Joshi, Ali Sardar Jafri, K. A. Abbas, Pran Chopra, Balwant Gargi,
Kumkum Singh, and A. N. Khanna for their time, their efforts, and their great
wisdom in things Mughal; and to Bilkiz Alladin, Galib and Noshina Bachooali,
Ashok and Renu Bhandari, and Gian and Lalita Sachdev for their kind hospital-
ity and continuing generosity in the details of finding things;
to Wheeler Thackston and Syed N. Haq for translating selected passages;
to Pat Bunker, Linda McKinney, and Peter Knapp of the Trinity College
Library's reference department for tireless efforts on my behalf;
to Gay Weidlich, mid-wife to this project, whose expert eye, deft hand, and
gracious industry have lightened the task immeasurably;
to Craig, whose patience, commitment, and sense of humor have never
flagged;
and, finally, to Caroline and Ross, in whose laughter, energy, and affection
this work has flourished.
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 Contents

Prologue: Standing in the Legend, 3

1. The Immigrant Persians, 8
2. Death of Sher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir, 19
3. Rise of the Junta (1611-1620), 43
4. "The World Conqueror," 62
5. Life in the Women's Palaces, 88
6. The English Embassy, 128
7. Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627), 161
8. Nur Jahan and Religious Policy, 184
9. Arts and Architecture of Nur Jahan, 218
10. In the Gardens of Eternal Spring, 244
11. The Rebellion of Mahabat Khan, 260
12. Death of Jahangir and Retirement to Lahore, 275
Appendix I: Selected Members of Jahangir's Family, 288
Appendix II: Selected Members of Nur Jahan's Family, 289
Appendix III: Brief Chronology of the Jahangir Era, 290
Notes, 292
Abbreviations and Selected Annotated Bibliography, 371
Index, 391
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Nur Jahan
"Portrait of Nur Jahan." Indian painting; Mughal, Delhi School, ca. 1675.
By courtesy of the Board of Trustees of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
(l.M.37-1912; Neg. no. HE. 1201).
 Prologue

Standing in the Legend

This is the story of an immigrant girl from Kandahar, born on a caravan travel-
ing from Tehran to India. Noble in lineage, her parents had fled misfortune in
Persia but soon flourished again at the Mughal court of Akbar. Married early to a
Turkish soldier, Mihrunnisa was widowed in 1607 and was taken in as a hand-
maiden by the imperial harem in Agra.
After four years of obscurity, the woman who came to be Nur Jahan met
Jahangir at a palace bazaar in the spring of 1611 and the two were married a few
months later. She was in her midthirties, had already had one child, and was to
be Jahangir's last and most influential wife. Almost at once, Nur Jahan and her
cohorts took control of the government as Jahangir bowed to the effects of
alcohol and opium. She minted coins, traded with foreign merchants, managed
promotions and finances at the court, orchestrated new developments in art and
religion, and laid out many of the Mughal gardens we now know. Her power
over the emperor and in government affairs was almost complete, but came at
the cost of internal tensions. Midway through the reign, her stepson Shah Jahan
went into open rebellion and her ruling coalition fell apart as the couple increas-
ingly spent their months in Kashmir. By the time Jahangir died in 1627, splinter-
ing at the familial center was so substantial that she had no real chance for power
in the next reign. Nur Jahan was exiled to Lahore where she lived in seclusion
with her daughter until her death in 1645.

The story of Nur Jahan is, in part, a story of ambition, power, military skill, and
courtly endurance. Like other prominent women of the medieval period—
Raziyya Sultan, Rani Durgavati, and Chand Bibi, for example—Nur Jahan
came to power through the auspices of a male relative who recognized in her
great personal strength and the skills necessary for a sovereign. And like most
other women who had political influence, she knew how to work the system to
its greatest advantage and then how to stop when the limits of acceptable behav-
ior had been reached. Nur Jahan was distinguished from other comparable
3
4 NUR JAHAN

women, however, by the exceptional good fortune of her circumstances, by the

very peculiar relationship she had with her second husband, and by the great
number of her skills. By luck, perhaps, she happened to be married to the most
powerful man in India, and she happened to live at a time of great cosmopolitan
and international diversity: Europeans, for example, made their first considered
appearance on the subcontinent during her time, and trade in luxury items was
at a record high. Moreover, her relationship with Jahangir appears to have been
exceptionally intimate, its complex structures giving rise to many of the policies
and achievements now known singularly to be Nur Jahan's. Finally, her personal
abilities extended well beyond politics and economics into areas of art and
architecture, literature and religion, travel and gardening and were such that the
range of contributions she made to Indian culture remains almost unparalleled
by any other person today. As so many contemporary writers have said of her,
there was nothing she could and did not touch.
Exactly what all these contributions of hers were, however, is sometimes
hard to verify. Almost everyone seems to have a Nur Jahan story—about her
jewelry now in someone's private collection, about textile designs passed down
in tact from her own original patterns, about verses she wrote with superb wit
and imagery, about the boundlessness and munificence of her charity—but most
of them belong to an undocumented oral legacy. This legacy has become so
potent and authoritative, in fact, that although much of it remains unsubstanti-
ated in text and artifact, it endures as a dynamic and indisputable undercurrent
in the Mughal heritage of India. Situated at the vortex of two powerful and
distinguished families (her father's and her husband's) and possessing an extraor-
dinary personality, Nur Jahan continues to hold sway over India's mythmaking
culture with decided though elusive persistance. In every generation, and from
Indian and non-Indian pens alike, reworkings of the Nur Jahan story have
appeared. And as the forms of cultural expression have changed, so have the
means of presenting Nur Jahan with the result, for example, that Indian cinema
now carries her material in many of its modern languages.
Why has there been such a fascination with Nur Jahan? Certainly being a key
figure in the relatively short-lived Mughal dynasty (1526-1707) is central, for, if
the "only glory accepted in India is the Mughal glory" and if things Mughal
represent a superior aesthetic,1 then the progenitress of so many Mughal forms
would naturally acquire a stature of her own. More than this, however, Nur
Jahan was exemplary not because she perfectly fit established ideals for women,
but precisely because she stood outside of the traditional Indian prototypes of
circumstance, role, and sentiment. Her image did not inherently conform to
enduring cultural models but rather came to be seen in the form of a distinct
personality, singular in its talents, consuming in its ambitions, and passionate in
its tastes. As an individual, Nur Jahan had led a life known to us in many of its
details, and it was these, perhaps aberrantly, fascinating details that allowed
such endless speculation. Finally, it may be that as Nur Jahan worked her way
through the social and cultural conventions of her day, she came to be seen as
pushing these conventions to their greatest limits. She found ways in being a
good wife and queen to exploit the various structures of power available to her
 Prologue: Standing in the Legend 5

without violating their integrity and in that has won considerable admiration.
We will argue later, as well, that Jahangir worked at some level out of the
prevailing images of Khadija, the Madonna, and Parvati in his relationship with
his last wife, and there can be no doubt that she not only allowed this but
fostered it as well.
Who, then, was Nur Jahan? Or better, what was she for that rich stew we call
the Indian tradition? Conventional mythology in India ordinarily focused on
young girls and their physical and emotional coming of age that led to marriage
for in this move from public to private, young girls (and allegorically, souls)
acquired a much-valued spiritual maturity. In contrast, there were no readily
available models in Indian culture for the middle-aged woman, who happened in
this case also to be Muslim, a widow, and at the same time a decidedly public
figure. By the time she entered the historical arena, Nur Jahan's persona was
fully formed and she was too old to be treated gently and reverently by tradition.
At her age no matter who she was she could not be innocent, and so it was the
manipulative quest for power that was the only thing left through which the
tradition could envision her. And although that quest for power would most
naturally fall to the known pattern of mother-in-law, it could not fit without a
son. Age-model structures for Nur Jahan, then, had to be worked anew.
One pattern Nur Jahan did fit was that of consort, but even here the exact
dimensions were slightly askew. While in traditional Christian models the primal
tie of women was to their children, in Hinduism it was to their husbands. The
preeminence of the consort in an Indian woman's vision of her self became
complicated, however, in Nur Jahan's case. On the one hand, although she came
to the marriage already with a child, this child remained without siblings and
remained only a minor figure in the narrative. This left Nur Jahan to develop
publicly the relationship most valued in the culture, that which she had with her
husband. Part of the image of her, then, was the peculiarly seductive nature of
that relationship: she was by reputation an exceptionally beautiful woman who
made the emperor fall at her feet by sway of her charisma and intelligence. The
relationship was complicated, however, by its not conforming exactly to the
consort type, that is, by its concomitant acceptance of exactly what had been
purged, the mothering ideal. With Jahangir, Nur Jahan was not only the mar-
riage partner supreme, but also one who had to praise and scold, nurse and
protect as well. The tradition would see in her, then, the consort ideal broken
wide open, testing strengths and emotions hitherto devalued.
Through marriage, finally, Nur Jahan wielded personal and societal power
associated in general only with unmarried women and goddesses. The power
issue, so ubiquitous here, had an emasculating quality, which allied her with
Hindu figures like Kali. Traditionally, unmarried women were dangerous be-
cause inherent powers of eroticism and violence could be unleashed at will. The
institution of marriage tamed these powers and rendered their bearers socially
useful and decent. With Nur Jahan, however, marriage was seen as not taming
anything but rather as working to the opposite effect: as amplifying and aug-
menting her asocial tendencies beyond what might be seen as acceptable propor-
tions. As in the cases of the age-model problem and the consort ideal, then, the
6 NUR JAHAN

function of marriage was also out of kilter for it did not leave Nur Jahan safe as it
should have, but made her dangerous instead and a threat to those nearby.

II

This book began as an attempt to recover Nur Jahan's lost reputation. It had
been my hope to discover a more authentic and, I had assumed, a more unblem-
ished persona behind the traditional delineations and, in portraying it, to rectify
the scars of history. I am sorry not to have done so. Early in the sifting of
materials it became clear that each layer had its own bias, whether it be
celebratory, critical, or intimately possessive, and that an original, unprejudiced,
and entirely sympathetic account was a phantasm of no recourse. Nur Jahan left
no memoir of her own, no paintings attributed to her hand, and poetry said to be
hers only by later sources. Even if there had been some more personal docu-
ment, however, it too would have carried the complementary veil of a performer
in history and would have brought me no closer to whatever truth I imagined to
uncover. To be sure, then, what she really thought and felt and why she did what
she did are lost, and we are left with substantially less than an intimate portrait.
In the end, we cannot see the world fully as she saw it or, more heinous, as it
really was. But that in fact may not be the point. Since it is the images that
consume us anyway, how others saw her may be the most important thing to
know.
Images may be everything, but whom to trust, nevertheless, remains an
issue. The most important text we have is the memoirs of her husband, the
Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, an uneven chronicle of most of his reign, which moves alter-
nately between descriptions of things and events and personal musings on items
of interest. Jahangir emerges from this text as such an interesting and complex
man that he himself often becomes the central character of the book. Cumula-
tively, he does not tell us very much about Nur Jahan, but when she does appear
she is clearly pivotal in his life and a dominant force at court. We would also
expect to find a good deal about life in the harem from that woman's rarity, the
Humayunnama, compiled by Gulbadan, sister to Humayun and aunt to Akbar,
who at Akbar's insistence wrote down what she knew. Although there are some
intimate anecdotes and substantial amounts of information, the account is disap-
pointing in its lack of the right details and in the overall fullness it avoids. As we
know in doing women's history, however, everything must be interpreted includ-
ing, and especially, the silences.
The best sources, aside from the wonderfully rich Tuzuk, are the contempo-
rary Persian and European sources. Ordinarily, the semiofficial Persian chroni-
cles sought to portray the emperor in power (who was, of course, the author's
main patron) in as complementary a light as possible. Many of these sources
have been used but many have not, and I defer here to two other secondary
works that in different ways have more fully mined the Persian/Urdu archives:
the Shujauddins' The Life and Times of Noor Jahan, which, though fairly objec-
tive, is biased hagiographically in favor of Nur Jahan, and Chandra Pant's Nur
 Prologue: Standing in the Legend 7

Jahan and Her Family, which is wonderfully documented, though poorly proof-
read, and openly argues against the political effectiveness of Nur Jahan as a
single person and instead for the prior and ubiquitous preeminence of her family
as a whole.
Much greater use has been made here instead of European sources. Modern
Indian opinion runs high against the reliability of Portuguese, English, and
Dutch travelers in recording accurately what they saw before them. Note, for
example, Saksena's remark in the introduction to his 1931 doctoral dissertation
on Shah Jahan:

Unfortunately their [European travelers'] narratives are vitiated by an attempt

on their part to cater to the imagination of their readers. Moreover a majority of
them were obsessed with the idea of race superiority, and were thus unable to
appreciate properly the institutions which they describe. Their common epithet
of "barbarian" to Indians is a clear proof of their narrow outlook. 2

While a measure of these charges may be true, on the whole they are excessive,
and it is a more honest evaluation to say that the issue of bias and perspective is
present in every text. To balance them, however, note what van den Broecke has
said as he closed his 1627 account:

Although I wished to give the correct year and date of events (I have not been
able to do so) on account of the carelessness of the Indian historian from whom I
had to translate what occurred before my time. I hope that this will not cause
any disinclination to read, but may be liked as a change of food. Farewell.3

To be sure, contemporary European writers were sometimes shocked and

amazed at things that they saw for the first time, but their accounts were full and
detailed, and often as richly anecdotal as the imperial authors were spare. They
complemented their Persian counterparts by reflecting stories heard on the
street and in the bazaars, and in that were often the earliest documentation for
scandalous portions of today's oral traditions. One wonders if they faithfully
reflected current information and opinion that had been rejected by official
chroniclers as too unreliable or too risky, or more serendipitously, if their mate-
rial (whatever the veracity) was somehow fed back in at a later date enhancing
and enriching an already densely woven local culture.
Whatever the case, I have used European sources more fully than they have
been in the past, but certainly not so much as they could be. I have made
extensive use of quotations from original texts in order to ground opinions,
events, and people and to make as clear as possible what was known and
thought, and when and by whom. I have drawn on as many characters as was
necessary for the story, but have not included everyone; the narrative is already
heavy laden. And I have used a few miniature paintings of the period to enhance
the textual descriptions that we have and to fill in gaps where crucial texts, like
the Tuzuk, were negligent or consciously exclusive.
In all, I hope I have been faithful.
 1

The Immigrant Persians

. . . he took her out of the dust, from a very mean family.
Edward Terry,
A Voyage to East-India

Nur Jahan was born in 1577 in Kandahar, a trading town on the border of Persia
by the upper reaches of the Mughal empire.1 Her father, Mirza Ghiyas Beg, had
fled the poverty and destitution of his native Persia and, with her mother, known
to later tradition as Asmat Begam, and her two brothers and one sister, was on
his way to the Mughal court at Fatehpur Sikri in India. It was well known that
Akbar, the third Mughal emperor (r. 1556-1605), had created a court of great
tolerance and learning, where people of all faiths, races, and nationalities could
meet. Already other members of Ghiyas Beg's family had traveled to India in
hopes of prospering in ways impossible in their homeland, and Ghiyas Beg had
similar hopes for himself and for his children.
Mirza Ghiyasuddin Muhammad was originally from Tehran. His father,
Khwaja Muhammad Sharif,2 had been a poet writing under the name Hijri or
Yazdi and had earned a reputation for being a man of great character and good
background, "famous for his simplicity, cool thinking, gift of conversation and
straight forwardness."3 Muhammad Sharif had come to Khurasan after the
death of his own father and had been appointed wazir to Tatar Sultan, son of
Muhammad Khan Sharifuddin Ughlu Taklu, who then held the office of
beglarbegi, "lord of lords," or governor of Khurasan. Ghiyas Beg's father had
profoundly impressed the governor with his manner and skills and in time had
been given complete power to carry out the affairs of the state. When Tatar
Sultan died, Muhammad Sharif had been kept on by the governor's son, Qazaq
Khan, and then, upon the son's death, was appointed by Shah Tahmasp Safawi
to be wazir of Yazd. After seven years, and in recognition of his excellent service,
Muhammad Sharif had then been made a courtier of the shah and was appointed
wazir of Isfahan, one of the best posts in the territory. In carrying out his duties
at Isfahan, Muhammad Sharif became known for his judicious treatment of
8
 The Immigrant Persians 9

citizens and for his excellent ability to mediate disputes. He had died there in
1576.4
Muhammad Sharif had had two sons. The elder son, Muhammad Tahir, was
a scholarly man who wrote poetry under the name Wasli. The younger son,
Ghiyas Beg, was also well-educated in the literary arts, but had decided to leave
Persia immediately after his father died in 1576. For unknown reasons, his
family had suffered a reversal in fortune that year and soon found circumstances
in their homeland intolerable.5 Drawn to the favorable climate of Akbar's court
in India where Persian elite were highly regarded as bearers of an enviable
culture and literary tradition, Ghiyas Beg took his wife, the daughter of Mirza
Alauddaula, son of Aqa Mulla, and children and began the move southward.
Descended as both of them were from illustrious families—Ghiyas Beg from
Muhammad Sharif and Asmat Begam from the Aqa Mulla clan6—the future
parents of Nur Jahan headed for an empire as large and as powerful as it was
newly ambitious and hungry for substance. Although Persians were known "for
favouring their own nation [when] in the Mogul Empire" and for exaggerating
greatly about themselves and their origins,7 they were welcome as immigrants
nevertheless. The empire they came to was already more than just a loose
collection of faiths and clans, but not quite yet the tolerant and pluralistic
culture of which Akbar dreamed.
For their journey Ghiyas Beg and Asmat Begam joined a caravan traveling
southward under the leadership of a merchant noble named Malik Masud.
While still in Persian territory, less than half the way to their destination, Ghiyas
Beg's party was attacked by robbers and the family lost almost everything it
owned. Left with only two mules, Ghiyas Beg, his expectant wife, their sons,
Muhammad Sharif and Abul Hasan, and one daughter took turns among them-
selves riding on the backs of the animals.8 When the group got to Kandahar,
Asmat Begam gave birth to her fourth child and second daughter, Mihrunnisa,
"the Sun of Women."9
Chroniclers of the period emphasized the great impoverishment of Mihrun-
nisa's parents. According to their accounts, the unexpected plundering of the
bandits was so thorough that soon after their daughter's birth, Ghiyas Beg and
Asmat Begam had to give up Mihrunnisa by the side of the road. Khan Khan,
writing almost one hundred and fifty years after the event, gave the earliest
narrative of what has come to be known as "the abandonment of Nur Jahan."
According to his account, mother and father were utterly penniless and in a
moment of desperation relinquished their child to the elements. The caravan
leader Malik Masud, however, happened upon Mihrunnisa's small bundled
form on the road and was so struck by her charm and beauty that he picked her
up and brought her back to the caravan. Searching out a suitable nurse he, by
chance, found the baby's own mother and, giving her the child to raise, prom-
ised the family that it would never be destitute again.10
According to the version of Alexander Dow, drawn from a variety of later
Persian texts, Mihrunnisa's parents became afraid one night as darkness ap-
proached for they knew that wild beasts would be roaming about. Ghiyas Beg,
moreover, had become too tired to move.
10 NUR JAHAN

A long contest began between Humanity and Necessity: the latter prevailed,
and they agreed to expose the child on the high-way. The infant, covered with
leaves, was placed under a tree; and the disconsolate parents proceeded in tears.

When they had advanced about a mile from the place, and the eyes of the
mother could no longer distinguish the solitary tree under which she had left
her daughter, she gave way to grief; and throwing herself from the horse on the
ground, exclaimed, "My child! my child!" She endeavoured to raise herself; but
she had no strength to return. Aiass (Ghiyas Beg) was pierced to the heart. He
prevailed upon his wife to sit down. He promised to bring her the infant. He
arrived at the place. No sooner had his eyes reached the child, than he was
almost struck dead with horror. A black snake, say our authors, was coiled
around it; and Aiass believed he beheld him extending his fatal jaws to devour
the infant. The father rushed forward. The serpent, alarmed at his vociferation,
retired into the hollow tree. He took up his daughter unhurt, and returned to
the mother.''

This story belongs to the rarefying tradition that arose as Nur Jahan became the
dominant queen of Jahangir. As her personal influence and charisma were more
widely felt, Nur Jahan's shadowy childhood and youth were used as sources for
her later strength and stamina as well as to foretell the events of her time on the
throne. In Dow's account, Mihrunnisa's personal resilience and power of endur-
ance were so substantial that any danger, even parental abandonment and the
approach of a black snake, could be overcome by simple sway of personality.
And in the very confrontation with the snake's life-threatening behavior, the
young girl was prepared for the often sinister and crisis-ridden future we know
she had from contemporary chronicles.
Whatever the circumstances of their journey, however, Ghiyas Beg and his
family continued on to the court of Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri. It was a custom at
the time for a newcomer to be presented to the emperor by someone of influen-
tial standing. Because of the friendship that had arisen between Malik Masud
and the immigrant Persian family, and because of Masud's notable background,
the caravan leader was the natural person to make the introductions to Akbar.
Contemporary sources do not mention any of these facts about Ghiyas Beg's
introduction at the court of Akbar, but based on slightly later sources like Khafi
Khan, Blochmann, for example, notes that Masud "is said to have been known
to Akbar . . . [and we] are left to infer that it was he who directed Ghiyas Beg to
India" and to the court at Fatehpur Sikri.12 From the Iqbalnama we know simply
that in "the city of Fathpur, he [Ghiyas Beg] had the good fortune to be pre-
sented to the Emperor Akbar," and that it was at this time that his considerable
rise to power began.13
Akbar's India was at the moment centered in Agra, known to European
travelers as "the Mogul's . . . chief city."14 Agra had for a long time been a small
and undistinguished village, but when "Akbar chose it for his residence in the
year 1566,"15 it suddenly grew into a teaming sprawl of municipal buildings,
residences, and gardens. Monserrate noted that Agra had an advantage over
many of the other cities of the region because of its fertile soil and its centralized
 The Immigrant Persians 11

location on the great river Yamuna, both of which were optimal for the laying of
gardens and the control of trade.16 Although quite irregular in its plan,17 Agra
became an exceedingly large city with street after street of noble palaces, a
magnificent fort build right on the river, and a "luxuriance of ... groves all
round [which] makes it resemble a royal park rather than a city." The market-
places in Agra could not, unfortunately, be compared to those in Lahore,
Burhanpur, or Ahmedabad, but there was always a great deal of commercial
activity, the population being very dense "by reason of the great Mogolls keep-
ing of his Court heere"18 and "Hindus mingled with Moslems, the rich with the
poor."19 In fact, "in the Bazare ordinarilye there is such a throng that men can
hardly passe without much trouble."20 Foreign travelers were not always compli-
mentary of the disorder that was Agra—note Withington's remark in 1614 that
"this cittye hath gone much to decaye and is nowe verye ruynous" 21 —but in its
prime the city was a vibrant, bustling, and attractive place to be, and for Akbar's
son, Jahangir, it would remain "one of the grand old cities of Hindustan."22 Agra
would continue to be so important to him, in fact, that during his reign he would
plant a double row of trees on the sides of the road connecting it to Delhi.23
The emperor Akbar himself was the grandson of Zahiruddin Muhammad
Babur, who founded the Mughal empire with the battle of Panipat and the
overthrow of Ibrahim Lodi Afghan, emperor of Hindustan, in April of 1526.24
Babur was descended through his father from Timur the Turk, by way of
Timur's son, Miran Shah, and through his mother from Chingiz Khan the
Mongol, by way of Chingiz's son, Chaghatai. Both families represented influen-
tial lines in Central Asian aristocracy,25 each made noble by their conquests,
imperial visions, and (in time) single-minded profession of Islam. Of the two,
however, it was the Timurid ancestry that made Babur most proud because, in
contrast to the barbarism of the Mongols, Turkish culture was considered more
sophisticated and refined. Babur himself, in fact, wrote and spoke in Turki and
so encouraged its use that it remained a domestic language of the Mughal family
until the mideighteenth century.
Such a separation between lines, however, was not so easily made, for Timur
himself was at least part Mongol, as he came from a tribe known as the Barlas
Turks, who were a subgroup of the Chaghatai Turks—"a contradiction in terms
since Chaghatai was a son of the Mongol Jenghiz Khan."26 To make matters
more complicated, Timur was especially attached to the Mongol connections he
had made firm by a marriage into one of the noble Chingiz Khan lines: "This
Tamerlan, so celebrated for his conquests, married a kinswoman, the only daugh-
ter of the prince who then reigned over the people of Great Tartary called Mogols;
a name which they have communicated to the foreigners who now govern
Indoustan, the country of the Indous, or Indians."21
Akbar, the current and most distinguished Mughal to date, was in appear-
ance an agreeable man: "This Prince is of a stature and of a type of countenance
well-fitted to his royal dignity, so that one could easily recognise, even at the first
glance, that he is the King."28 Marked by a well-built and robust body, a tilt of
the head to the right, a limp in the left leg, and a mole on the upper left lip,
Akbar impressed all foreigners with his serene dignity, his ease of anger, his
12 NUR JAHAN

openness to all subjects, and his tolerance of religion.29 Du Jarric recounted that
he and the other Portuguese Jesuits present at the court were privy to "a man of
sound judgment, prudent in affairs, and, above all, kind, affable, and gener-
ous." Not only was Akbar interested in undertaking the large enterprises needed
to expand and sustain his empire, but he was at the same time, "well disposed
towards foreigners . . . and curious to learn about many things."30
It was to this court at Fatehpur Sikri, then, that Ghiyas Beg first came and
received the greetings of the emperor. Family members from Persia had already
been present in the chambers of Akbar and had already rendered substantial
service prior to Ghiyas Beg's arrival. Mirza Ghiyasuddin Ali Asaf Khan (II), the
uncle of his wife Asmat Begam, and Asaf Khan (III) Jafar Beg, Ghiyas Beg's
own cousin and the grandson of Aqa Mulla Dawatdar Qazwini, for example, had
each been employed in the provincial ranks of Akbar. Although not always
model servants of the government, both relatives eventually distinguished them-
selves on behalf of the emperor and were amply rewarded.31 Of all the Persian
immigrants, however, it was Ghiyas Beg who would eventually leave the greatest
mark for not only would he be a wise and trusted minister to two emperors, but
he would also hold together a brilliant but cantankerous collection of relatives as
they pursued power and place in their new country.
Ghiyas Beg began his own career in India in 1577 with an appointment by
Akbar to a modest mansab, or government rank, of 300 and shortly thereafter to
the post of diwan or treasurer of Kabul. 32 For someone so recently arrived in the
country, the appointment to Kabul was an honor. Although no doubt a provin-
cial post, Kabul was nevertheless a chief city of the empire, lying on the north-
ern Mughal border in the foothills of the mountains. 33 Not only was Kabul
important for trade and defense but, owing to its river, which ran southward into
subcontinental India, farming and gardening there brought forth consistently
abundant produce as well. We don't know how long Ghiyas Beg and his family
were in Kabul nor the details of their accomplishments there, but it was cer-
tainly a successful stay for in 1596 the minister was promoted to a mansab of 700
and appointed diwan-i buyutat, in charge of buildings, at the imperial court. 34
Although these offices were clear marks of recognition and although the
Iqbalnama mentioned at length the intelligence and courtly skill with which
Ghiyas Beg performed his service to Akbar—he "was considered exceedingly
clever and skilful, both in writing and in transacting business"35—he was not yet
so important or so indispensable a minister as he later came to be. Despite
Guerreiro's attribution that Ghiyas Beg was "the King's chief minister and a
very powerful lord,"36 it was not until after Akbar's son, Jahangir, acceded to the
throne in 1605 that Ghiyas Beg acquired all the power and influence for which
he was to become famous.
Some think it was the accident of his daughter's birth that eventually
brought Ghiyas Beg to Akbar's court. It might be, they would argue, that the
friendship and then patronage of Malik Masud on behalf of the Persian immi-
grants might never have occurred had the unfortunate parents not forsaken their
child on the road from Kandahar. 37 Although the abandonment narrative may
 The Immigrant Persians 13

have intended to make Mihrunnisa the catalyst of her father's subsequent rise to
power, the story is almost certainly legendary, being absent as it is from the
earlier sources. We would argue instead that the initial successes of Ghiyas Beg
cannot be laid upon the shoulders of his young daughter, at least insofar as the
contemporary texts are concerned. Rather, whatever initial fortune Ghiyas Beg
might have had in India, he would undoubtedly have caught the emperor's
attention at some time anyway, for he was a man of impeccable character, astute
and gracious diplomacy, and exquisite taste: "His leisure moments were devoted
to the study of poetry and style, and his generosity and beneficence to the poor
was such that no one ever turned from his door disappointed."38 In a court so
receptive to new talent and so accessible to people of all backgrounds, we can be
almost certain that Ghiyas Beg would have found a place there no matter what
his manner of entry.
In these early years, Mihrunnisa must have flourished among a nobility as
accomplished as it was in the arts and letters. We know almost nothing of her life
before her first marriage, but we can assume that while her father was in Kabul
as diwan for Akbar, she enjoyed all the pastimes available to children of well-
appointed families. Growing up in the women's quarters of her house, Mihrun-
nisa would have played mostly with children of her own family, though children
of servants and retainers would have lived there as well. She would have learned
the arts and literatures of her Persian past from the resident tutors and would
have been part of the seasonal festivities and gatherings that marked her Shia
heritage. Undoubtedly as well her family would have been curious about its new
surroundings, so she might often have traveled the countryside and seen some of
the garden sites so important to her later on and have come in contact with other
Muslim and Hindu practices of her adopted land.
Later tradition says that it was during these early years that Mihrunnisa first
met Salim, the future emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-27), and that their love for each
other emerged out of the romantic intrigues of adolescence. This would have
happened not in Kabul, most likely, but in Agra or Lahore where Akbar had
established fairly permanent courts and where he would certainly have brought
the family after Ghiyas Beg had served out his post at the northern station. The
earliest source to project a youthful affair onto this period was the Dutch trader
Pieter van den Broecke, whose Hindustan Chronicle was finished in 1627, just
about the time of Jahangir's death.39 Van den Broecke relied heavily on material
collected by one of his subordinates, Francisco Pelsaert, but since Pelsaert's own
document made no mention of the early love between Mihrunnisa and Prince
Salim, we may assume that these late rumors were of van den Broecke's own
finding, perhaps from gossip in the bazaar.40
Tradition tells us that there had been an "old affection" between Mihrunnisa
and Salim.41 Khafi Khan related that whenever Mihrunnisa visited the palace
with her mother, she would be pursued by Salim, who at least once found her
alone and pulled her aside into an embrace. The young girl was so surprised that
she went to her mother, who then complained to the emperor. Not wanting such
an affair to develop, Akbar immediately made plans for Mihrunnisa's marriage
14 NUR JAHAN

to another man.42 Dow's sources, of course, being late and highly interpretive,
inflate the narrative and redirect the legend by casting Mihrunnisa, not Salim, as
the tender seducer.

The ambition of Mher-ul-Nissa aspired to a conquest of the prince. She sung—

he was in raptures: she danced—he could hardly be restrained, by the rules of
decency, to his place . . . . When his eyes seemed to devour her, she as by
accident, dropt her veil; and shone upon him, at once, with all her charms.43

Even restrained by princely decorum, implies Dow, the boy Salim could hardly
resist such advances.
Young Mihrunnisa's hypnotic personality was idealized nowhere better per-
haps than in the relatively modern story of the two pigeons. One day the adoles-
cent prince Salim was walking through a garden after he had visited the Mina
Bazaar. He wanted to pick some flowers but was carrying two pigeons and so
handed them both to a young girl who was passing by. After picking the flowers,
he returned to the girl to reclaim the birds but found that she now had only one.
Seeing that the first pigeon had flown away, he asked her how it happened and
she said, "Like this!" and released the other pigeon into the air. Salim's anger
was immediately overcome by the young girl's wit and charm, and he inquired
about her amongst his courtiers. Very soon thereafter, the story goes, Mihrun-
nisa began regularly visiting the palace.44
Narratives like these filled the vacuum of information that surrounded
Mihrunnisa's childhood and youth. Although none of them were documented in
the very early sources, they reflected a tradition's vision of Nur Jahan as a
compelling and charismatic woman who was loved to a fault, even at a young
age, by the man who would become her second husband. This unrestrained and
obsessive love must have begun at some point, later sources assume, and the
seeds of romance were soon woven into the silence of history about her early
years.45
We do know that in 1594, at the age of seventeen, Mihrunnisa was given in
marriage to Ali Quli Khan Istajlu, a Persian adventurer. Ali Quli had been a
safarchi, or table attendant, to Shah Ismail II of Persia (1576-78), but on the
Persian king's assassination had fled through Kandahar to India.46 In Multan he
joined the army of Abdur Rahim Khankhanan, who at that time was marching
on Tatta in his conquest of the Sind.47 Ali Quli distinguished himself so much
during the Tatta campaign that on the Khankhanan's return to the imperial
court in Lahore, he brought Ali Quli with him and secured a mansab for him
under Akbar as a reward.48 Jahangir noted in his memoirs that Ali Quli "having
performed services in that campaign was promoted to a rank in accordance with
his condition and was a long time in the service of my revered father."49 The
marriage of Ali Quli to Mihrunnisa was, at least in part then, a tribute to the
young soldier's exceptional service, first under the Khankhanan and then under
Akbar.
There is every reason to believe that the match between Mihrunnisa and Ali
Quli was an ordinary and unremarkable one made between two members of the
 The Immigrant Persians 15

extended imperial family and approved, as all such marriages had to be, by the
emperor Akbar himself. Mihrunnisa was after all of the right age and from a
good family, and Ali Quli had just triumphed in the service of his military
commanders. A tradition grew up, however, beginning as early as Jahangir's
later years, that the marriage had been arranged in order to cut short the grow-
ing affection between Mihrunnisa and Salim. Writing in 1627, for instance, van
den Broecke said: "While Akbar still lived, and this Jahangir was Prince he had
been attracted by Mehr-un-Nasa, before she had been betrothed to the Turk
Sher Afghan.50" According to Khan Khan, when Akbar heard of the love be-
tween the young Mihrunnisa and Prince Salim, he urged Ghiyas Beg to move
quickly to betroth his daughter, thereby avoiding a scandal, and himself pro-
vided Ali Quli as a suitable husband. Immediately thereupon, said Khan Khan,
Ali Quli was given a post in Bengal to which, we are to assume, he took his
wife.51 The problem with this story, however, is that Akbar would have had no
reason to refuse a marriage between Mihrunnisa and Salim. She was from an
excellent Persian family and would have borne him heirs of good lineage, char-
acter, and stamina. Moreover, more reliable sources have told us that immedi-
ately after the marriage, Ali Quli was sent not to Bengal but on an expedition
against the Rana of Udaipur and was under the command of none other than
Salim himself.52 Had there been any early rivalry between Ali Quli and Salim for
the same woman, Akbar would never have sent the two men into battle as fellow
soldiers.
Other sources placed the beginning of Salim's love in the period after
Mihrunnisa's betrothal to Ali Quli but before Ali Quli's death. Van den Broecke,
for example, said that when Jahangir asked for Mihrunnisa's hand, "Akbar was
not at all willing to permit this marriage. He said, 'She is already betrothed to
Sher Afghan [Ali Quli]. Are there not women enough that you should marry a
retainer, who is [already] promised to one of my Turkish soldiers?' "53 Dow's
sources, once again, add a slight twist. Salim, "distracted with passion" for
Mihrunnisa, was in a quandary because she had already been pledged to Ali
Quli. "He applied to his father Akbar, who sternly refused to commit a piece of
injustice, [even] though [it would be] in favour of the heir of his throne."54 We
have in this version, then, not only Salim's early affection but also, more impor-
tantly, a motive for Akbar's refusal to the marriage: he was a just emperor and
could not breach a contract he himself had made with one of his subjects.
Manucci, the romantic Venetian writer of 1656 onward, reported yet another
story, that of Jahangir first seeing Mihrunnisa on a boat. While in Lahore once
and watching from his palace on the Ravi River, Jahangir saw a boat pass with its
curtains down.

When it arrived near the royal seat, he saw that in the boat was a beautiful
woman. He fell so violently in love with her that he had no sleep nor rest; but
the woman replied firmly to all the solicitations made to her on behalf of the
king, that she was the wife of a soldier of position named Xir Afgam (Sher
Afgan) . . . nor would she hear a word from any other man so long as her
husband remained alive.55
16 NUR JAHAN

Unlike Dow's story, which places the beginning of the romance after the Ali Quli
betrothal around 1594 and before Akbar's death in 1605, Manucci's story placed
it after Jahangir's accession to the throne in 160556 and before Ali Quli's death in
1607 [see Figure 1-1]. Such inconsistency certainly undermines the veracity,
but in no way compromises the sentimental power, of any of these tales.
It seems quite certain, however, that even at this point there was no love, and
probably not even any acquaintance, between Mihrunnisa and Salim.57 After his
marriage to the daughter of Ghiyas Beg, Ali Quli was, according to early
sources, placed on the staff of Salim, who had just been appointed to undertake
a campaign in Mewar.58 In routing the Rana of Udaipur, Ali Quli displayed
immense courage and ability and quickly won the admiration of his commander,
Prince Salim. For this Ali Quli received an appropriate mansab and in time was
given the title of Sher Afgan, or "Tiger Slayer."59
Although Jahangir noted in his memoirs that it was he himself who bestowed
the title of Sher Afgan on Ali Quli, the title by which the soldier was to become
famous in Indian tradition, he made no mention of the circumstances that
brought it about. Modern novels like that of Jyoti Jafa, for example, provide
background about the bestowal of the title that, though surely inflated by a
zealous tradition, is totally in keeping with Salim's character. The prince, she
tells us, had long loved to tame and rear wild animals and, coming upon some
unprotected tiger cubs one day, bent down to take them back to the palace with
him. When the mother tigress ripped out of the tall jungle grasses at Salim,
aiming to open his neck with her teeth, Ali Quli raced in on horseback and
beheaded her with his scimitar.60 However he actually received the title, Sher
Afgan was clearly a favorite member of Salim's retinue for some time, and it was
only when the forces of rebellion against Salim under the prince's eldest son,
Khusrau, became too powerful for Sher Afgan to resist, that Mihrunnisa's first
husband broke alliances with the future emperor.
The legend of Sher Afgan as a tiger slayer was to follow Nur Jahan for the
rest of her life. She herself became famous as a markswoman in her later years
(perhaps the best in Jahangir's entire retinue) and, during one particularly good
shoot, brought down four tigers with a total of six bullets. According to Sayyid
Ahmad, there was a poet in attendance at this particular hunt who composed an
impromptu verse in her honor:

Though Nur Jahan be in form a woman, /

In the ranks of men she's a tiger-slayer.61

Her own habits and expert skills, then, were in part responsible for the lifelong
ties that bound her to her first husband. He was a bold and daring young soldier
of fortune whose own story was one of intrigue and romance. Nur Jahan's later
reputation would become so powerful a force in Indian imagination, however,
that any independent assessment of Sher Afgan as a military or political figure in
his own right was certain to be eclipsed in its sway.
We can assume that the well-decorated Sher Afgan and his wife had very
little home life together. As a member of Salim's retinue, and later as a defector
FIGURE 1-1. Gateway to the tomb of Sher Afgan, Barddhaman, Bengal. Courtesy of
the Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi. Note the erroneous date.

17
18 NUR JAHAN

to the imperial side (ca. 1600-1605), that is, to Akbar, there were without doubt
few moments he could spare from his involvement in various campaigns to be
with Mihrunnisa. Although she was probably with him at the time of his death
in Bengal and may certainly have followed him on his campaigns, his personal
style seems, from what little we know, to have been more as adventurer and
man-at-arms than as husband and courtier.
The couple did have one child, however, a daughter, named Ladli Begam,62
born about the time of Jahangir's accession to the throne in 1605.63This was to
be not only their only child but the only child we know of ever born to Nur
Jahan. For whatever reasons, Nur Jahan and Jahangir never had any children
together,64 and although as empress she was to play a decisive nurturing role with
regard to both Jahangir and his own children born of his other wives, Nur
Jahan's contributions to history stem not from any role as biological mother, but
from that as wife.
We know very little about the child Ladli Begam. We do not know if she was
talented or charismatic in any particular way. We do know that she became a
pawn in her mother's later intrigues at court, rejected by Prince Khusrau as a
prospective wife, but in time successfully married to the prince's younger
brother, Prince Shahryar. Sadly, Shahryar was to die in 1627 after Nur Jahan
failed to set him up as a puppet on the throne at the time of Jahangir's death.
With Shahryar and Jahangir passing on at the same time, mother and daughter
were, ironically, to live out their long years of widowhood together in Lahore.
They were buried side by side in a tomb of Nur Jahan's own design in a garden
across the river from the main city.
 2

Death of Sher Afgan and

Marriage tojahangir
Fate had decreed that she should be the Queen of the World and the Prin-
cess of the Time . . .
Ikbal-nama-ijahangiri of Mutamad Khan,
translated and edited by H. M. Elliott and John Dowson

Jahangir came to the throne in 1605. The struggle that put him there, however,
had brought the empire deep divisions, repressed hostilities, and large numbers
of Hindu and Muslim partisans dead. As Akbar had grown more enfeebled and
weak, and as all of his sons had shown signs of severe dissipation from wine and
opium, concern had arisen as to who would inherit the Mughal throne. Two of
Akbar's sons, Murad (d. 1599)1 and Daniyal (d. 1604),2 were dead or dying of
alcohol abuse and his eldest son, Salim, was showing signs of a similar affliction.
Afraid that a power vacuum would result, efforts had begun sometime in 1603
among certain factions of the nobility to consolidate support for the accession of
Salim's own eldest son, Khusrau, in the event of the emperor's death. Although
Salim himself would have been the likely heir, in his impatience to rule (he was
thirty-six when he eventually became emperor) he had alienated most of the
nobles at court and, through unpredictable displays of violent temper, religious
intolerance, and general inebriated frenzy, had undermined any popular appeal
he might have had.
Although Salim's estrangement from Akbar dates at least from 1591 when
Badauni recorded the emperor's fear of being poisoned by his son,3 open discord
did not begin in earnest until the last five years of Akbar's reign. Feeling the
advancement of age and wanting the empire for himself, the prince staged a
revolt against his father, setting himself up in court at Allahabad.4
It was in the wake of the campaigns in Mewar that Salim had first been
moved to revolt. His brother Murad had died in 1599, eliminating one con-
tender for the throne, and Salim, far from the influence of his father and the
imperial army, who were now occupied to the south in the Deccan, had come

19
20 NUR JAHAN

under the sway of ambitious and misguiding associates.5 Salim had been per-
suaded that the north was vulnerable to insurrection and could easily be taken
from Akbar. So with loyal friends like Khubu (Qutbuddin Khan Koka),6 grand-
son of Shaikh Salim Chishti; Sayyid Abdullah; and Zamana Beg (later Mahabat
Khan), he had pulled together an army and, after a failed attempt to take the
imperial treasure in Agra, 7 had by 1601 marched on Allahabad, where he estab-
lished an independent court so autonomous it even produced its own miniature
paintings. 8 To reinforce the seriousness of this move, Salim gave himself a title—
Sultan Salim Shah, or simply Shah Salim or Salim Shah—and passed outjagirs
(revenue-producing land-holdings) to his followers.9 All attempts to reconcile
Salim with his father in Agra, however, were futile, and except for a brief easing
of tension in 1603, the prince would remain in Allahabad until November of
1604 when he returned to his father's court to wait out the impending death.
Not knowing what to do in 1602 as the tension heightened between father
and son, Akbar recalled Abul Fazl, his own faithful counselor, religious col-
league, and biographer, back from the Deccan for advice.10 Abul Fazl was a man
of "superior wisdom and vast learning" who was considered by some to be "the
most distinguished of all the Shaikhs of Hindustan." He had become, however,
said Kamgar Khan, "intoxicated by the wine of fortune, and vain of the influ-
ence he had obtained over the Emperor's mind" and had begun to act, at least
from Salim's point of view, "with rancour and animosity against his master's
son."11 Fearing now that Abul Fazl would counsel against him and perhaps even
urge his own disinheritance, Salim decided to move against his father's close
friend. 12
To this end, then, he solicited the aid of a fearless Bundela chief named Bir
Singh Deo who at that time, in August 1602, was already in revolt against the
imperial government13 and "whose territory lay on the road which the Shaikh
must take."14 Bir Singh Deo agreed to organize and carry out the assassination of
Abul Fazl, who though forewarned of the attack and despite urging from his
friends to change the route by which he was to travel, went ahead as planned
anyway. Although the initial attack of the Bundelas was repulsed, subsequent
ones succeeded, and in the end, on August 12, Abul Fazl's murder was complete
and his head was sent to Salim in Allahabad. 15
Akbar was overcome with grief when Shaikh Farid Bukhari, his mir bakhshi
(paymaster general), conveyed the news of his friend's death to him. 16 "His face
bore marks of sorrow . . . and he remained indoors for three days,"17 and for the
remaining years of his life, he pursued to the death (though unsuccessfully) the
murderers of his friend. 18 In spite of Salim's delight at the fate of Abul Fazl,19
however, Akbar wanted only peace and reconciliation with his son. Salim was
the natural heir to the throne and Akbar wanted the succession to take place
with as little bloodshed as possible. To ease the tension between father and son,
Salim's stepmother, Salima Sultan Begam, Akbar's favorite wife and an ex-
tremely accomplished woman, went to Allahabad to recover the prodigal child. 20
Salim received her warmly and agreed to go back with her to Agra. Upon his
return, he met first with his grandmother, Maryam Makani, and then finally,
peacefully, with his own father in April of 1603.21
 Death ofSher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 21

The mother of the King, who was ninety years of age, was sorely distressed at
this discord. She was devoted to the young Prince; and fearing that he would be
vanquished in an encounter with a veteran warrior like the King, she tried her
utmost to turn the latter from his purpose. But her efforts were of no avail.22

The reconciliation was short-lived and by late 1603, Salim was back in Al-
lahabad again under the tutelage of his errant advisors presiding over an indepen-
dent court. 23 The immediate effect on Maryam Makani was substantial and
shortly thereafter she became irreversably ill and died.
It was amidst the strain of these last years that the plot to succeed Akbar with
Khusrau had begun. In increasingly precarious health, Akbar dearly wanted a
reliable heir, but his eldest son was proving weak, treacherous, and dissolute.
Moreover, many nobles realized that if Salim did accede to the throne their own
fate was tenuous. A good number, including Mihrunnisa's husband, Sher
Afgan, had already openly sided with the imperial forces of Akbar after Salim
went to Allahabad and would, under any rule of Salim, be doomed as traitors.24
To provide an alternative, the mantel fell to Khusrau who, though only seven-
teen, had already distinguished himself on the battlefield and, with his moderate
manners and pleasant demeanor, was extremely popular at court. 25 He had excel-
lent family ties, being the nephew of Raja Man Singh and the son-in-law of
Mirza Aziz Koka, and was more than willing to throw himself wholeheartedly
into the quest for the throne. Khusrau's own mother, Man Bai, the sister of Man
Singh, however, was beside herself with grief at her son's decision to move
against his father and was eventually so overcome with the disgrace of it that she
took a large dose of opium and, on May 6, 1605, she died.26
As the polarization between Salim and Khusrau developed, many at the
court and in official positions in the countryside began to take sides. At one time
apparently, Akbar did actually suggest that Khusrau was his heir, for the En-
glish travelers Hawkins and Finch, as well as the Reverend Edward Terry, each
resoundly proclaimed the passing over of Salim for his son in the line of succes-
sion.27 As the nobles filed in behind their candidate, a division between the "old"
guard (pro-Khusrau) and a "new" group of nobles (pro-Salim) took place.28 The
group on behalf of Khusrau was led by his uncle, Raja Man Singh, appointed
governor of Bengal by Akbar in 1599,29 and his father-in-law, Aziz Khan Koka,
and was supported by the efforts of, among others, Mihrunnisa's husband, Sher
Afgan, who had early on served the noted Khusrau supporter Abdur Rahim
Khankhanan in his conquest of the Sind. Much of the pro-Khusrau activity took
place in Bengal where Man Singh was stationed and where dissident activity
seemed to flourish naturally in a place far from the imperial center. The other
group, formed on behalf of Salim, included the family of Shaikh Salim Chishti, a
Sufi who had successfully prophesied the birth of Salim to his father. One of his
descendants was an especially beloved foster brother, Qutbuddin Khan Koka,
[see Figure 2-1] whose loyal service now and later would serve Salim well.30
To complicate matters, however, a second Sufi silsila, the Naqshbandis, had
begun trying to garner power recently in the hopes of supplanting the liberal and
religiously erratic Akbar with a more stable and orthodoxly Muslim emperor.
FIGURE 2-1. "Jahangir Receiving Qutbuddin Khan Koka at Lahore in 1605." Indian
painting; Mughal, ca. 1605; fr. the Wantage Album; inscr. to Manohar. By courtesy of
the Board of Trustees of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (I.M.I 11-1921).
Note the fur-lined coat of Jahangir and the shawl on the retainer.

22
 Death ofSher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 23

Although one of their leading members, Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, had written
letters regularly to a number of Akbarian courtiers (including the pro-Khusrau
Mirza Aziz Koka) to request support, it seems that they finally decided to throw
their lot behind Salim in exchange for what the Jesuits at court clearly described
as a promise to promote traditional Islam. As Du Jarric reported:

Accordingly, the leading noble, having been sent by the others as their represen-
tative, came to the Prince and promised, in all their names, to place the king-
dom in his hands, provided that he would swear to defend the law of Mahomet,
and to do no ill or offence either to his son, to whom the King wished to leave
the kingdom, or to those who had sought to secure his son's succession.31

And as Guerreiro confirmed:

For he had sworn an oath to the Moors to uphold the law of Mafamede [Muham-
mad], and being anxious at the commencement of his reign to secure their good
will, he gave orders for the cleansing of the mosques, restored the fasts [ramesas]
and prayers of the Moors, and took the name Nurdim mohamad lahanuir,
which signifies, "The Splendour of the Law of Mafamede, Conqueror of the
World."32

The "leading noble" in Du Jarric's passage was Shaikh Farid Bukhari, a trusted
minister in Akbar's court and an increasingly supportive partisan of Salim's.
Shaikh Farid had been receiving letters from Sirhindi and was by now a promi-
nent Naqshbandi agent, and it seems from these passages at least that Salim had
been chosen as the most likely hopeful by the Sufis. It is not clear whether Salim
in fact did promise the Naqshbandis favor for a future time or not, but Nizami
argues that "one is constrained to conclude that Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi and
others of his school of thought did play some part in the accession of Jahangir."33
A final group of lobbyists were the Christians. Portuguese Jesuits had for
some time been at the Mughal court, for a while hoping to convert Akbar to
Christianity and to maneuver a place in what promised to be some lucrative
trading agreements with the Mughals. The Jesuits did not want to cross Akbar,
whom they saw as the key to their negotiations, and so they tried to stay as
neutral as possible. Although they knew that Khusrau would be favorable to
their Christian cause,34 they also knew they could win Salim to their side with
European pictures of Christ and the Madonna. Although Jahangir was often
charged later with favoring the Jesuits only in the hopes of getting Portuguese
help in acceding to the throne, Salim appears not to have placed much stock
ultimately in their support. As Guerreiro put it rather bitterly: "Of the Fathers
he took no more notice than if he had never seen them before."35
Khusrau's early move to outbid his father for the throne was eventually
unsuccessful, due as much to the bungling of his own people as to the factional
alliances drawn up against him.36 As Akbar's life neared its end, the emperor's
youngest son, Daniyal, died in April 1604 of alcohol consumption and general
debauchery. Although his death was no surprise, it was nevertheless a sad event,
24 NUR JAIIAN

followed as it was shortly thereafter by the death of Akbar's revered mother,

Maryam Makani. 37 Realizing that an important intercessor was now gone and
with the Man Singh/Aziz Koka conspiracy still brewing in Bengal, Salim de-
cided once more to reconcile with his father.38 When Salim arrived in Agra in
November 1604, Akbar received him in public honorably and graciously. In
private, however, Akbar raged with anger.39 Seeing that his son was heavy with
wine and opium, Akbar had him confined to a room for ten days so that he could
dry out under the watchful eyes of a physician. Upon his release Salim was then
fully and finally received by Akbar and showered with honors and accolade at
his father's court. 40
Although Salim and Akbar were in cordial relation with one another from
this point on,41 Salim and Khusrau were increasingly hostile. At an elephant-
fight between Salim's elephant Giranbar and Khusrau's elephant Apurva on
September 20, 1605, for example, fighting broke out between this next genera-
tion of father and son.42 Giranbar was by far the superior elephant, and when an
assisting elephant was sent in by Khusrau, Salim's followers stoned it and
wounded the driver, resulting in an angry dispute between the two sides. Akbar
was so enraged at the behavior of the two that it "increased his illness" beyond
repair,43 and he sent messages to Salim to restrain his men. Akbar's efforts were
ultimately to no avail, however, and the elephants continued to struggle until
Giranbar, prophetically, was victorious.
In the end it was too much for Akbar. Surrounded by intrigue, plots, and
counterplots, he grew decidedly worse. In spite of conspiracies to the contrary
and dangers to Salim, Akbar maintained now to the end that his eldest son was
indeed his heir to the throne. On his last visit to his father, Salim bowed at
Akbar's feet and was invested with the sword of Humayun and with the turban
and robes that had been prepared for him by his father's assistants. 44 This done,
Akbar died in October of 1605,45 and soon after that Salim was proclaimed
emperor of Mughal India, taking the name Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir
Padshah Ghazi.46
Upon his accession in 1605, Jahangir vowed to start anew and began by
pardoning criminals, raising the allowances of the women in his harem, and
bestowing numerous honors upon his faithful followers and supporters. 47 One of
those honored was Mirza Ghiyas Beg, father of Mihrunnisa, who received the
title Itimaduddaula, "Pillar of the Government," and a mansab of 1,500.
Itimaduddaula's service to Akbar as diwan-i buyutat, master of works, had been
long and distinguished, and it was for this that Jahangir was now so generous. 48
Shaikh Farid Bukhari, the mir bakhshi under Akbar and a key player in the
presumed Naqshbandi accession maneuverings on Jahangir's behalf, was con-
firmed again in his post and given some honorary titles.49 Zamana Beg, a friend
and colleague from Jahangir's childhood, was also honored, given at this time
the title of Mahabat Khan, raised to a mansab of 1,500, and made bakhshi of
Jahangir's private establishment. 50 Bir Singh Deo, the murderer of Abul Fazl,
was called out of hiding and given a mansab of 3,000 for his past services.51 And
finally, and perhaps most surprisingly, Sher Afgan was honored with a jagir in
Barddhaman in Bengal. Of this appointment, Jahangir said in his memoirs:
 Death ofSher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 25

When I came from Allahabad to wait on my revered father, on account of the

unfriendliness that was shown me, most of my attendants and people were
scattered abroad, and he [Sher Afgan] also at that time chose to leave my
service. After my accession, out of generosity I overlooked his offenses, and
gave an order for a jagir for him in the Subah of Bengal.52

Bengal, at that time, was not a premier post. The province was plagued with an
erratic and unhealthy climate and was as vulnerable to drought and famine as it
was to floods and typhoons. It was also on the eastern fringes of the Mughal
empire and, being far from the luxurious and elegant lap of the court, ministers
posted there could not easily enjoy the fruits of their position. Moreover, the
great distance from the center of the empire had turned Bengal into a breeding
ground of dissident activity, where men who were sent when out of favor at the
court could easily commingle with those who wanted to be out from under the
watchful eyes of the emperor as they schemed and plotted against him. Although
it was an honor, then, for Sher Afgan to be sent to Bengal—perhaps only a man
of his caliber could control some of the seditious activity there 53 —it was a muted
honor, as the post could well have been in retribution for his defection to
Akbar's side during Salim's revolt.54
Not everyone was so fortunate on the occasion of Jahangir's accession. Mirza
Aziz Koka, father-in-law to Khusrau and co-mover of the preaccession Khusrau
conspiracy, was allowed to retain his titles but was stripped of his power and
dignity.55 Raja Man Singh, Aziz Koka's colleague on behalf of Khusrau who had
been relieved of his eastern post in the wake of his anti-Salim activities, was at
first forgiven and reinstated as the governor of Bengal with a new mansab of
2,000.56 But in August of 1606, as a result of his role in Khusrau's 1606 revolt,
Man Singh was relieved of his Bengal post again, and Qutbuddin Khan Koka, a
favorite foster brother of Jahangir's, was appointed in his stead.57
Despite the partisan shuffling on behalf of Khusrau at the time of his father's
accession,58 the first few months of Jahangir's rule were relatively tranquil. This
peace was not to last long, however, for Khusrau soon grew agitated and, on
"account of certain grievances and suspicions"59 and unable to bear his consign-
ment to oblivion,60 the elder son went into full revolt on April 6, 1606. Khusrau
had been under house arrest in the fort at Agra since Jahangir's accession and, in
spite of his father's desire to treat him leniently, he had remained there unmolli-
fied.61 So, on the night of the sixth on the pretext of going to visit the tomb of his
grandfather Akbar in nearby Sikandra, Khusrau left the fort and, taking with
him 350 horsemen, made his way toward the Punjab. 62 He was met by Husain
Beg, Mirza Hasan, the son of Mirza Shah Rukh, and Abdur Rahim, son of
Bairam Khan and the diwan of Lahore. The ranks of the rebel followers quickly
swelled to over 12,000, and the makeshift army took to living off the land,
mostly by looting, as they wound their way to Lahore. Reaching the city,
Khusrau and his rebels found that the residents had already been forewarned
and had brought it up to a state of defense. The rebels attacked anyway, but after
eight days were unsuccessful and soon withdrew.63
By now Jahangir had discovered that his son was gone and, making sure that
26 NUR JAHAN

Khusrau was not with his maternal uncle Man Singh in Bengal, left Agra in the
charge of Itimaduddaula64 and Wazirulmulk and took a large army with him in
pursuit of Khusrau. 65 Outside of Lahore, negotiations between the rebels and
the imperial forces broke down, and the two sides joined in battle. Although the
rebels outnumbered the imperialists, Khusrau's men were without order or
discipline and soon fell in great numbers, due in large part to the valorous
fighting of the Barha Sayyids, who had come on behalf of Jahangir,66 and of
Shaikh Farid, who was said to have "wonne the battle of Lahor by a strata-
gem."67 Jahangir himself had given orders that Khusrau was not to be treated
leniently just because he was the emperor's own son, saying that "kingship
regards neither son nor son-in-law,"68 and the resulting professionalism of his
army was noteworthy. Says Payne:

I do not think Jahangir has been given sufficient credit for the energy he
displayed in this crisis . . . . From a military point of view his pursuit of
Khusrau was a notable performance; and it speaks well for the organisation of
his troops that they were ready, at a moment's notice.59

Nevertheless, Khusrau eventually escaped with Husain Beg and Abdur Rahim,
and after some confusion as to what to do next, the rebels decided to retreat to
Kabul. Unfortunately for Khusrau, however, the move to escape included cross-
ing the Chenab River at night by boat with the help of a boatman who, distrust-
ing Khusrau, abandoned ship midway.70 When dawn came, the rebel party saw
that it had been surrounded by Jahangir's forces and had no choice but to submit
to being taken to the emperor's temporary court in Mirza Kamran's garden near
Lahore.71
Khusrau was brought before Jahangir "weeping and trembling between" his
two friends Husain Beg and Abdur Rahim, bound in chains "after the manner
and custom of Chingiz Khan." Then sending Khusrau off into confinement,
Jahangir "ordered these two villains to be put in skins of an ox and an ass, and
that they should be mounted on asses with their faces to the tail and thus taken
round the city."72 Because the ox-hide dried more quickly than the ass-hide,
Husain Beg died shortly afterward; his head was cut off and sent to be fixed to
the gate in Agra. Abdur Rahim, however, who had been given refreshment
during the ordeal, remained alive and after some time was freed and restored to
his former dignity.73 Jahangir then ordered wooden posts set up along the road
from Mirza Kamran's garden into the city and on them had his men impale the
bodies of Khusrau's rebels.74 To make his humiliation complete, Khusrau was
led on elephant-back down the road to receive the "homage" of his former
supporters.75 As van den Broecke reported:

When all the nobles had been hanged or impaled, the King personally went to
see the sight as a pastime, taking his son Sultan Khusrau, mounted on an
elephant, with him. They rode through the dead nobles, who filled both sides of
the road . . . . Mahabat Khan, was seated behind the Prince, in order to intro-
duce . . . [each] head to Khusrau. 76
 Death of Sher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 27

Jahangir's next order of business was to take care of all those otherwise
involved in the 1606 revolt. Among those punished was the Sikh Guru Arjun,
well known to Akbar during his reign for extreme piety, who in his kindhearted-
ness had blessed Khusrau and his rebels in Gobindwal on their way to Lahore.

On account of his reputation for holiness, the Prince went to see him, hoping
apparently that this would bring him good fortune. The Goru congratulated
him on his new royalty, and placed his tiara on his head. Although the Prince
was a Moor, the Goru deemed it lawful to bestow on him this mark of dig-
nity . . . and the Prince accepted it, believing the Goru to be a saint.77

For this, however, Guru Arjun was summarily executed and all of his property
was confiscated78 in a martydom that eventually raised him to mythical stature
within the Sikh tradition. Others such as Mahabat Khan were rewarded with
large mansabs, and local supporters of the imperial position were given land or
other suitable recompense.79
Jahangir's attention now turned, in mid-1606, to the conquest of Kandahar,
a province of crucial importance as a commercial center and as a strategic
outpost for military activity.80 Although Jahangir's affair at Kandahar ended in a
muted stalemate in March 1607, his return stop in Kabul proved most interest-
ing. It happened that while he was resting in Kabul, Jahangir heard of the
murder of Qutbuddin Khan Koka by Sher Afgan and of the subsequent retalia-
tory killing of his former friend and soldier.
Both men had, in earlier times, been recipients of Jahangir's largesse.
Qutbuddin Khan Koka had succeeded Raja Man Singh as governor of Bengal in
August of 1606,81 and Sher Afgan had been granted thejagir of Barddhaman in
Bengal as part of Jahangir's accession honors in 1605.82 For reasons that are not
altogether clear,83 Jahangir suddenly became suspicious of Sher Afgan's activities
in Bengal and in March 1607 ordered Qutbuddin to check up on the former
recruit, who had been posted in his province. Said Jahangir:

Thence came news that it was not right to leave such mischievous persons there,
and an order went to Qutbu-d-din Khan to send him to Court, and if he showed
any futile, seditious ideas, to punish him.84 The aforesaid Khan had reason to
know him (his character), and with the men he had present, immediately
[when] the order arrived, went hastily to Bardwan, which was his jagir.85

The imperial instructions were, then, that if Qutbuddin were convinced of Sher
Afgan's harmlessness, the soldier was to be allowed to remain in his post; if,
however, the charges of sedition were proved true, the governor was to send him
back to court immediately. And, if Sher Afgan resisted, Qutbuddin was to bring
him "to punishment."86
According to Jahangir's account, Qutbuddin went to Sher Afgan at his jagir
in Barddhaman and upon his arrival Sher Afgan and two of his attendants came
out to meet him. Seeing that the governor had brought a large army with him
and becoming convinced "that there was a design against him," Sher Afgan
28 NUR JAHAN

demanded to know the purpose of the visit. When Qutbuddin, "a corpulent
man," moved forward alone to explain, Sher Afgan drew his sword as if in
defense, but then—perhaps in fear or perhaps in anger—he struck the governor
in the "belly, so that his bowels gushed out." One of the governor's men, Amba
Khan of Kashmir, rushed toward Sher Afgan and hit him on the head, but Sher
Afgan quickly turned and fatally wounded his assailant.87 At this point other
retainers of Qutbuddin came forward and attacked Sher Afgan, now finally
killing him and cutting him to pieces with their swords.88 The wounds to
Qutbuddin that he had received were fatal, and the governor died within twelve
hours of the encounter.89
A slightly different version was given by Haidar Malik, author of the Tarikh-i
Kashmir, who himself was among Qutbuddin's men that day and who gave what
we are to presume was an eyewitness account. According to Malik, it was he who
barred the way of Sher Afgan as he was rushing toward Qutbuddin, and he who
received substantial injuries to his face and upper body as he tried to prevent a
confrontation. After Sher Afgan successfully struck down others and fatally
wounded Qutbuddin, Malik continued, Mihrunnisa's husband tried to escape
but wounded an elephant and lost his own horse in the attempt. At this point
Amba Khan of Kashmir began to abuse Sher Afgan verbally, and angered, Sher
Afgan delivered a fatal blow. In revenge, Yusuf Khan came forward and deci-
sively struck down Sher Afgan, 90 whose head, some say, was removed and sent to
Jahangir.91
The news of Qutbuddin's murder disturbed Jahangir immensely. Not only
had he been Jahangir's foster brother, but over the years had become a loyal and
supportive friend as well: "What can I write of this unpleasantness? How
grieved and troubled I became! Qutbu-d-din Khan Koka was to me in the place
of a dear son, a kind brother, and a congenial friend."92 As Akbar had Abul Fazl,
Jahangir so loved his friend that he felt nothing but bitterness and derision for
Qutbuddin's murderer. Characterizing Sher Afgan as a man of "natural wicked-
ness and [in the] habit of making mischief," Jahangir cursed "this black-faced
scoundrel" to a permanent place in hell.93 Following on the heels as it did of the
natural death of Qutbuddin's mother, a dear foster mother to Jahangir, the
emperor was doubly aggrieved: "After the departure of the late King and the
death of that honoured one, no two misfortunes had happened to me like the
death of the mother of Qutbu-d-din Khan Koka and his own martyrdom."94 He
was moved to reassert this theme later for Qutbuddin, saying in 1612 that he had
"attained to martyrdom at the hand of one of those mischievous ones,"95 some-
one who remained unnamed in the text, out of deference perhaps for his present
queen, Nur Jahan.
In time the story of Sher Afgan's death was romanticized by tradition almost
beyond recognition. Later sources saw in Jahangir's hostile words for Sher
Afgan not the bitterness of his loss of Qutbuddin, but Jahangir's own malicious
feelings toward the husband of the woman with whom he was secretly in love.
According to the story, the visit by Qutbuddin's men to Barddhaman had been
for the sole purpose of murdering Sher Afgan and freeing Mihrunnisa for mar-
riage to Jahangir. The earliest Persian source to suspect Jahangir of planning
 Death ofSher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 29

Sher Afgan's murder was Sujan Rai, author of the Khulasat ut-Tawarikh (ca.
1695-96), who reported: "Under these circumstances [that is, the narrative as
we know it], it is not strange that Sher Afgan might have been killed at the
Imperial insistence."96 His only evidence seems to have been the remarkable
sequence of historical events beginning with Sher Afgan's murder, Jahangir's
marriage to his widow, and the extraordinary relationship that grew up between
the emperor and his new wife. Khafi Khan also suggested a suspicious connec-
tion between Sher Afgan's death and Jahangir's later love for the soldier's wife
but did not directly charge the emperor with a premeditated murder. 97 The first
to actually make such a charge was the European writer, Niccolao Manucci (ca.
1656), who said:

The king, who was deeply in love with her, sent an order to the governor of the
city of Patana (Patnah) that as soon as Sher Afgan should arrive there with a
letter he must be slain. This was done, but the valorous soldier, although taken
unawares, killed five persons in defending himself. Sher Afgan being dead,
Jahangir took the woman into his palace.98

This recasting of a simple coincidence of events into a causally dependent

sequence is further amplified by the later sources found in Dow. According to
Dow's rendition, not only had the prince known and loved Sher Afgan's wife
from a very early age, but even after the Persian soldier's marriage to
Mihrunnisa, he continued to feel the ill effects of Salim's old affections. Refus-
ing to give her up, Sher Afgan endured the disgrace cast his way by imperial
retainers, but in the end was overcome with the need to escape to Bengal.
When Jahangir came to the throne in 1605, he recalled Sher Afgan to court.
Sher Afgan still refused to give up his wife, however, and in his resistance to
imperial pressure garnered popular support for his cause. Meanwhile, Jahangir
had been devising ways to get rid of Sher Afgan. He organized a tiger hunt
and, because Sher Afgan had already proven his bravery before such animals,
invited him to come along. When the tiger approached, Sher Afgan was
goaded into fighting it with his bare arms, but to Jahangir's chagrin, the
soldier emerged victorious and only slightly wounded from the struggle. Thus
rebuffed, Jahangir tried again to kill Sher Afgan, this time with a stampeding
elephant, but once again was outwitted.
Finally, Dow continues, after sending Sher Afgan back to Bengal, he allowed
Qutbuddin, "one of these convenient sycophants,"99 to hire forty assassins to
attack Sher Afgan at his home at night. As the story goes, Sher Afgan and his
family had already gone to bed when the assassins arrived and, just as they were
about to strike, one of their number, an old man overcome with remorse at what
they were about to do, called out that it was unfair to attack as they were forty
against one. Sher Afgan awoke and beat off the assassins and gratefully sent the
old man out to spread the story abroad. Jahangir now expressly demanded that
Qutbuddin get rid of Sher Afgan, and on a "state visit" to Barddhaman, the
governor had one of his men pick a fight with him. A melee ensued during
which both Sher Afgan and Qutbuddin were killed. Sher Afgan himself took six
30 NUR JAHAN

balls from a musket but died only after having turned, dramatically, toward
Mecca in prayer. 10°
Other, earlier, sources were less suspicious of the events surrounding Sher
Afgan's demise. Two Dutch traders whose information dated roughly from the
time of Jahangir's death (1627), van den Broecke101 and De Laet,102 both men-
tioned the old love that had arisen between Jahangir and Mihrunnisa in the time
of Akbar, but neither made the connection between that love and Sher Afgan's
death. In other even earlier and more reliable sources not only was there no
suggestion of Jahangir's brutal attitude toward Sher Afgan, but there was also no
mention of young romance between Jahangir and Mihrunnisa. Relatively trust-
worthy European sources like William Hawkins,103 Thomas Roe,104 Edward
Terry,105 Pietro Delia Valle,106 and Peter Mundy,107 for example, and equally
reliable Persian sources like the Iqbalnama and the Maasir-i Jahangiri were all
silent on any romantic intrigue involving the trio prior to Jahangir's meeting of
Mihrunnisa in March of 1611. Silent as well was Jahangir's Tuzuk, which is not
as obvious as it might seem, for any memoir that so blatantly exposed its author's
base motivations in the 1602 murder of Abul Fazl might have exposed equally
low behavior in the murder of a beloved's first husband—creating, in the pro-
cess, at least the semblance of an official rationale.
These sources were all contemporary, and as others have pointed out, they
would certainly have picked up and recorded scandalous gossip circulating in
the streets.108 The European sources would have everything to gain from discred-
iting the Mughal court, which was dragging its feet in concluding trading agree-
ments, and the Persian sources would have been quick to offer official discus-
sions of any weaknesses in the imperial memoirs, which could be used by future
disparagers of the emperor. There was no sign of either concern anywhere in
these texts.
From this, then, we can conclude three things. First, Jahangir did not order
the murder of Sher Afgan so that he could marry his widow. While he may have
been pleased that Sher Afgan's death now freed him of one more discontent in
Bengal, it was not a death linked in any way to romantic intrigue. The murder
narrative most probably evolved as a way to tie historical events together into a
sequence that would plant Nur Jahan's future charismatic hold over her hus-
band securely in circumstances of the past. Furthermore, as a story line, the
murder narrative was especially appealing, as it supported all that India was
coming to know of imperial Mughal behavior.
Second, the murder narrative most probably developed during the reign of
Shah Jahan (r. 1627-58), sometime between the van den Broecke/De Laet re-
port of a young love with no murder (ca. 1627) and the earliest report by
Manucci of young love coupled with a premeditated attack (ca. 1656). Certainly
by the time Manucci arrived in India the connection had already been made and
was in the creative hands of mythmakers. That the elaboration happened under
the reign of Shah Jahan is no surprise. His animosity toward Nur Jahan and
what he saw as her power-mongering ways was legendary, and scholars have
ascribed apocryphal narratives such as these to an established anti-Nur Jahan
campaign109 that was designed to prevent her return to power during her exile
 Death of Sher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 31

years before her death in 1645 and to tarnish her potentially well-worshipped
image thereafter. No love was lost between Nur Jahan and her stepson in the last
years of Jahangir's reign, and Shah Jahan's encouragement of stories such as
these was a legacy of his continued effort to thwart her dominant personality.
Ironically, they served only to enhance it.
Third, the first sources to report romanticized narratives about Jahangir and
Mihrunnisa were European, indicating perhaps that Europeans were not only
the most eager to announce any scandal emanating from the court, but were
especially close to popular channels of gossip as well. As traders they were in a
particularly good position to gather information brought by their agents from
commercial centers and trading outposts, and they selected, we presume, only
stories with a clear human interest and only those of benefit to their European
sponsors. Although they would have had no reason to make up the stories
themselves, they must certainly have been instrumental in the amplification and
proliferation of them (in both Europe and India) once the seeds had been sown.
And they most certainly would have published whatever information they had as
soon as it came to them.
Returning to the narrative, the death of Sher Afgan brought immediate
consequences for Mihrunnisa and her family. Early sources told us only that,
after Sher Afgan died, Jahangir ordered his former comrade's widow back to
court in Agra and "entrusted her to the keeping of his own royal mother,"
Ruqayya Sultan Begam. "There she remained [for] some time without notice,"110
continuing on "for a long time without any employment."111 This bare skeleton
of narrative is probably all that can be gleaned of the historical sequence of
events before Mihrunnisa's 1611 marriage to Jahangir. Because of its meager-
ness, however, it has been a convenient structure for later storytellers who have
found in it ample room for spurious tales of their own.
Khafi Khan's story elaborated the moments before Sher Afgan's death with
intrigue involving Mihrunnisa herself. Severely wounded and knowing that he
was going to die, apparently, Sher Afgan rushed back to his house intending to
kill Mihrunnisa, thus depriving Jahangir of his coveted prize. Realizing Sher
Afgan's intent, Mihrunnisa's mother Asmat Begam began to cry out as if in
mourning, telling her wounded son-in-law that Mihrunnisa had thrown herself
in a well the moment she learned what had happened to her husband. Collapsing
in despair on the ground, the Persian Romeo died on the spot.112
Peter Mundy's version, mindful of Nur Jahan's later prowess in battle,
reported that Mihrunnisa had actually been on the field with Sher Afgan at his
death, riding in on an elephant and encouraging him in his attack on Qut-
buddin. When he was killed, she was imprisoned by the imperial army and
brought before Jahangir, presumably for complicity in treason. Showing herself
arrogant and haughty, Mihrunnisa was sentenced "to the common stews, there
to be abused by the baser sort." This never came to pass, however, and in time
Jahangir fell in love with her and made her his wife.113
Haidar Malik portrayed a more docile Mihrunnisa, whose plight stirred up
surprising reserves of chivalry. After fatally striking Sher Afgan, Malik said,
Yusuf Khan returned to the fort at Barddhaman and plundered the houses of
32 NUR JAHAN

Sher Afgan's mother and widow. When Haidar Malik heard the news, he rushed
to Barddhaman and took Mihrunnisa and her daughter back to his own house
where he had them looked after by his Kashmiri kinsmen. After forty days,
imperial orders came for Mihrunnisa to be sent to the court in Agra. For his kind
protection and care during these moments of great stress, Haidar Malik was
rewarded with a letter of recommendation on his behalf from Mihrunnisa to her
father Itimaduddaula at court. 114
The trip to Agra was not uneventful either. According to van den Broecke
and De Laet, Mihrunnisa and her family were to go there to join her father,
Itimaduddaula, who was then at court. Receiving the summons from Jahangir,
the local official, Islam Khan, set out with Mihrunnisa, her daughter, and Sher
Afgan's brother Qumar Sultan. At a point near Hajipur and Patna, Mihrunnisa
stopped to consult the saint Shah Hamadan, whose prophesies "always came to
pass." He told her of great happiness in the future, "saying that she would be
given to the King Jahangir and (would receive) many other marks of unexpected
good fortune which she herself could never believe." In time the party made its
way safely to Agra, and Mihrunnisa was taken, as prophesied, before the king.115
Despite such apocryphal tales, it seems quite certain that Mihrunnisa was
brought back to the court in Agra after her husband's death and placed in the
care of one of Jahangir's stepmothers, Ruqayya Sultan Begam,116 as a lady-in-
waiting. It was the custom in Mughal times for the widow and immediate
dependents of an imperial retainer to be provided for in some way at the time of
their loss.117 Given the precarious political connections of Sher Afgan before his
death, his family would be in certain danger with him gone from those seeking
to avenge Qutbuddin's murder. For her own protection, then, Mihrunnisa
needed to be at the court in Agra. Moreover, her natural family was employed
there, and it was normal for a daughter in her circumstances to be reunited with
her paternal lineage. That she was brought back in honor (presumably because
of her father's position at court) was clear from her new post with Ruqayya
Begam. Ruqayya was the most senior woman in the harem and, by stature and
ability, the most capable of providing the protection Mihrunnisa needed.118 She
had been Akbar's first and principal wife, a daughter of Mirza Hindal, but had
had no children by him, though among her charges had been Prince Khurram,
third child of Jahangir and his successor as Shah Jahan. 119 The relationship that
grew up between Mihrunnisa and Ruqayya Begam appears to have been an
exceedingly tender one. Said van den Broecke: "This Begam conceived a great
affection for Mehr-un-Nasa; she loved her more than others and always kept her
in her company."120 It was under the senior Begam's care, then, that Mihrunnisa
was able to spend time with her parents and occasionally to visit the apartments
where the emperor's women lived.
Mihrunnisa's life in the women's palaces in service to Ruqayya Begam did
not begin auspiciously, however. About the time of Sher Afgan's murder of
Qutbuddin and his own death, Mihrunnisa's father Itimaduddaula, who was
then the diwan to an amir ul-umara, was charged by one of his underlings ("a
heathen in his service named Uttam Chand") of embezzling Rs. 50,000. When
told of this, Jahangir placed Itimaduddaula in the custody of the informant,
 Death ofSher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 33

Diyanat Khan. 121 This was followed, according to van den Broecke, by the
murder of Qutbuddin by Sher Afgan, Itimaduddaula's son-in-law, and then in
late August of 1607, by the uncovering of a plot to assassinate the emperor,
masterminded by nearly five hundred pro-Khusrau activists,122 who included
among them Itimaduddaula's son and one of Mihrunnisa's elder brothers, Mu-
hammad Sharif. According to the Tuzuk, the plan had been to attack Jahangir
while he was hunting in Kabul, kill him, and raise Khusrau, whom the would-
be assassins had been entrusted to guard, to the throne. The plan, however, had
been unsuccessful. 123
Needless to say, Jahangir was outraged by all of these offenses, especially as
they involved members of the same family. He returned to Lahore from Kabul,
where he had first heard the news of Qutbuddin, and demanded that Itimadud-
daula, his son Muhammad Sharif, and three others—including Mirza Nuruddin
(son of Ghiyasuddin Ali, Asaf Khan [II]) and Mirza Fathullah (son of Hakim
Abul Path)—appear before him. When Jahangir ordered the execution of the
traitorous group, Diyanat Khan interceded on behalf of Itimaduddaula and
argued for a reprieve, claiming that it would be more advantageous for the
emperor to keep the diwan alive and to extract from him two lakh rupees in
payment for his crime. Jahangir conceded and returned Itimaduddaula to
Diyanat Khan's custody in exchange for the sizable purse.124 Four of the ringlead-
ers of the assassination plot, however, were executed.125 They included among
their number a distantly related kinsman to Mihrunnisa, Nuruddin, as well as
her brother, Muhammad Sharif.
The final punishment, however, was to be handed out to Khusrau himself.
Khusrau had up until this time been living a life of comparative ease in Lahore;
he had been allowed to walk freely in his garden without chains and had appar-
ently been given all the comforts due a man of his noble birth. 126 With this new
assassination attempt, however—clearly perpetrated "at Khusrau's instiga-
tion"—something more serious had to be done with Jahangir's errant son. Since
neither the emperor nor the women of his harem would consent to Khusrau's
execution,127 it was decided, at Mahabat Khan's urging, that Khusrau be
blinded. Blinding was a common form of punishment in cases of sedition128 and,
although Jahangir himself did not mention the blinding of Khusrau in his mem-
oirs,129 other early sources did, and it is the consensus of modern scholars that
the blinding in some form and by some agent did take place.130
Father Fernao Guerreiro, in an account published in 1609,m for example,
stated that Jahangir took his son from Lahore to Agra "in a cage on the back of
an elephant," and on the way stopped at the place where the battle between
them had been fought and had him blinded with "the juice of certain herbs,
which had the appearance of milk."132 Finch, in 1611, recorded two stories: one,
that Jahangir took Khusrau to Kabul "where the battell was fought" and had his
eyes burned out with a glass, and the other, that Jahangir only blindfolded his
son with a napkin.133 In 1613, Hawkins likewise reported that Khusrau was in
prison in the king's palace, having been blinded in some form at the command of
his father.134 Terry, sometime before 1622, placed the blinding immediately after
the 1606 rebellion and said that Khusrau was cast "into prison, where his eyes
34 NUR JAHAN

were sealed up (by something put before them which might not be taken off) for
the space of three years; after which time that seal was taken away, that he might
with freedom enjoy the light, though not his liberty."135 Delia Valle's account of
1623 to 1624 described the sewing up of Khusrau's eyes, a condition that re-
mained for two years until the eyes were commanded to be ripped open again,136
and van den Broecke, in 1627, returned to the earlier version of a blinding by the
juice of poisonous leaves.137 Finally, Tavernier, sometime between 1640 and
1643, recorded the use of a hot iron, which was passed before the eyes "in the
manner which . . . is followed in Persia,"138 and the Intikhab-iJahangir-Shahi,
written by a contemporary companion of Jahangir who himself accompanied the
emperor on several trips, described Khusrau as blinded by a wire inserted into
his eyes, which caused a pain that was "beyond all expression."139
The blinding stories are clearly at variance on several points: first, whether
the blinding took place in the wake of the 1606 rebellion or of the 1607 assassina-
tion attempt; second, whether the blinding was carried out with poisonous juice,
glass, wire, needle and thread, or a simple blindfold; and third, whether, how,
and after how long partial sight was restored. That there ever was a blinding is
probably not at issue, for Jahangir's silence was to be expected if he, as all
accounts indicate, ordered the blinding himself; and Roe's inattention to
Khusrau's injured sight when he saw him in 1617140 may be due to any number
of things, mere courtesy at least. As to the issue of the restoration of Khusrau's
sight, both Prasad and the Shujauddins prefer the Intikhab-i Jahangir-Shahi
account,141 which stated that Jahangir eventually called in outside physicians and
that one of them, Hakim Sadra of Persia, was able to restore full vision in one
eye.142 It is probable, however, that aside from strong evidence that the blinding
itself did take place, little can be conclusively known about the details of the
event.
As for Mihrunnisa, the ultimate consequences of the disgraceful actions of
her family from possible embezzling and during the assassination attempt were
minimal. She had come as lady-in-waiting to Ruqayya Begam in 1607 and
continued to live there with her daughter in relative obscurity for the next four
years. Later tradition, of course, filled these years with budding attention from
the emperor, but it seems quite clear that even at this point neither one had more
than a passing awareness, if that, of the other. The stories preserved of this
period, however, portrayed a Mihrunnisa full of schemes and hardened dealings.
Delia Valle recorded a story of her first meeting with Jahangir shortly after she
arrived in Agra in the wake of Sher Afgan's death. 143 Luck was with Mihrunnisa,
he told us, for "as it falls out many times to some handsome young Widows I
know not how," Jahangir noticed her and fell in love with her. The emperor
wanted to keep her in his harem with his other concubines but being a "very
cunning and ambitious Woman," Mihrunnisa refused saying that to do so "was
unsuitable to her noble condition." She continued by suggesting that the em-
peror might even make her his wife, thus ennobling his own position through an
alliance with her family. Jahangir was at first infuriated by this suggestion and in
his anger decided to marry her to a local scavenger. Mihrunnisa persisted,
however, vowing to die if Jahangir did not give in to her demands, and in the
 Death of Sher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 35

end the emperor was won over by her determination—aided, said Delia Valle,
by the sorcery she practiced on him. Although she did not have any other
charms as a woman, apparently, she was able to persuade Jahangir to take her as
his lawful wife and was eventually made "Queen above all the rest."144
The Dutch chronicles also preserved stories about this period, one of which
became stock in trade for Mughal raconteurs: an incident involving Nur Jahan's
child and the subsequent nocturnal meetings of the lovers by boat. The story
recorded an encounter between Mihrunnisa and Jahangir at what must have
been the 1611 Nauroz, or New Year's festival. The emperor, who had already
seen Mihrunnisa a few days before and was by now in love with her, saw her here
again with her young daughter and jokingly said to her, "I am the father of that
child." Mihrunnisa replied with unlegendary humility: " . . . Who am I that
should please the King and be included among the King's women? Permit me, a
poor, innocent widow, to live in the same condition under your shadow. But be
kind to my poor daughter and remember her."145 With this Jahangir fell even
more in love with her and began to go every evening by boat to the house of her
father, Itimaduddaula, where he would stay the whole night returning only by
morning to do his business in the palace.146
In spite of such tales, reliable sources placed the first meeting of Mihrunnisa
and Jahangir at the Nauroz of 1611. The Nauroz was one of the two annual
holidays celebrated with special pomp at the Mughal court, the other being the
emperor's birthday. It had been introduced by Akbar in 1582 in imitation of the
Persian custom, was later abolished by Aurangzeb (presumably because it was
pagan), but was eventually revived by the latter's Mughal successors. The
Nauroz originally lasted for nine days, but in Mughal times it had become a
festival of eighteen days.147 Marking the commencement of the new year, it
began on the day the sun moved into Aries and ended eighteen days later, on the
nineteenth of the month, with two days being special days of gift giving and
favors, the first day of the month of Farwardin and the nineteenth, the time of
Sharaf.148
Nauroz was ordinarily a time of merrymaking and abandon.149 It had as its
centerpiece, however, a formal celebration of the majesty and generosity of the
emperor. As Jahangir celebrated Nauroz, a throne was erected in the middle of
the darbar courtyard four feet above the ground. A rectangular space, measuring
56 by 43 feet, was closed around by fine curtains and canopied over by awnings
of gold cloth, silk, or velvet—"the like [of which] cannot bee found in the
world."150 At the upper end, on the inside, the enclosure was decorated with
pictures Jahangir had received from Europe,151 and on the ground underfoot
were placed fine Persian carpets. The throne itself was made of wood inlaid with
mother-of-pearl, and it was hung over with a costly canopy, supported by four
columns covered with silver and sporting a fringe strung with pearls and hollow
pomegranates, apples, and pears made of pure gold.
Around the throne, where the emperor sat on a cushion embroidered with
pearls and gemstones, were tents for the chief ministers of the court where they
could display with appropriate extravagance whatever treasures they might pos-
sess. In earlier times, the emperor would go into each of the ministers' tents,
36 NUR JAHAN

take what he pleased, and return to his throne, but now he waited for gifts to be
brought to him.152 According to Jahangir, who was perhaps our best source here,
Akbar had had each of his great nobles prepare an entertainment on each of the
seventeen or eighteen days of Nauroz, and on their day present him with gifts
from which he would choose what he wanted. Jahangir seems to have forsaken
this custom and to have opted for a more informal exchange of presents and
good wishes.153 In special places prepared for them, the women of the court could
sit and watch the men's proceedings without themselves being seen. Near the
end of the feast, the emperor distributed small gifts and favors to the courtiers
who had pleased him, and frequently used the occasion to announce promotions
at court and on the battlefield.154
The Nauroz was an especially festive time for women. As a part of the
celebrations a fancy bazaar (the Mina Bazaar), like the monthly Khushruz or
"pleasure day,"155 was set up in the women's apartments, where wives of the
nobles and other "better sort of ... women"156 could shop at stalls as in an
ordinary market. "In manner of a faire,"157 wives of tradesmen would bring in
items of merchandise from all over the country and sell them. With no other
men present, the emperor would go among the open stalls, acting as "broker for
his women," haggling and flirting with all the ladies "and with his gaines that
night make his supper."158 He could also learn from the gossip of the trades-
women who had come from every part of the region "what is said of the state of
the empire and the character of the officers of government,"159 and learn as well
the specific grievances of the tradespeople. It was clearly a time, then, of great
pleasure, as well as of economic and political gain for all those who participated
including, and perhaps especially, the emperor.160
The Nauroz festival of 1611 was held, as many others were, in the emperor's
palace at Agra. It was during his playful rounds through the women's bazaar on
or shortly after March 21,161 that Jahangir first came upon Mihrunnisa, who was
there to shop with her patron, Ruqayya Begam. Gazing upon her unveiled face
as she stood in the bazaar, Jahangir fell in love with her and decided then and
there to make her his wife. According to the most reliable Persian source, the
Iqbalnama, "it happened that on the celebration of New Year's Day in the sixth
year of the Emperor's reign, her appearance caught the King's far-seeing eye,
and so captivated him that he included her amongst the inmates of his select
harem."162
Mihrunnisa was, by tradition, a remarkable beauty. Few contemporary
sources actually comment on her physical appearance and most early minia-
turists depict her, as they do all noblewomen secluded by the custom of parda
whom they could not paint from life, according to the current standards of
female beauty. Nevertheless, authors like the Shujauddins confidently describe
her as "a tall, attractive woman of proportionate limbs . . . [who even] at the age
of thirty-five . . . had such charm and grace that the Emperor Jahangir . . .
[became] enamoured of her."163 Dow's later sources suggest that "in beauty she
excelled all the ladies of the East" and, with an extraordinary education in the
arts, "had no equal among her sex."164 Although to describe Mihrunnisa as tall
and even statuesque may, to some, explain her dominance, two contemporary
 Death ofSher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 37

paintings [see Figures 3-1 and 5-2] suggest that she may instead have been
rather small and diminutive in comparison to the other women at the court.
We know, in any case, that Jahangir was captivated by the radiance and
charm of Mihrunnisa as he saw them then in the Mina Bazaar, so much so, in
fact, that two months after their initial meeting, on May 25, 1611,165 the two
were married. Very few details are known of their first meeting, of their short
courtship, or of the marriage ceremony itself. Van den Broecke, whose informa-
tion on such issues is highly suspect, nevertheless said that Mihrunnisa and
Jahangir were married by a qazi, judge,166 and that great celebrations were held
during which the couple received many presents and gold and silver from the
nobles.167 Most other sources were silent on these matters, however, but since
Mihrunnisa was Jahangir's last legal wife, taken at a time when he was in full
powers and had all the luxuries of the empire at his command, it is likely that the
ceremony was extremely lavish. Both Terry and Pelsaert noted that ordinary
Muslim marriages were carried out with great festivity and entertainment,168 and
it is quite probable that noble marriages like this were equally grand.
There was little that stood in the way of Jahangir's marriage to Mihrunnisa.
She was from a good family whose members had established themselves, though
not altogether consistently, as eminently useful to his empire.169 In addition, her
early marriage to the murderer of one of his best friends did not prove to be a
major barrier, as he had already married other women closely related to men he
had despised.170 Neither her family background nor her previous marriage seem
to have been half as important as her beauty, which as Terry has noted, was the
preeminent requirement of any potential partner of Jahangir's.
The further issue of Mihrunnisa's widowhood was not an obstacle either.
Unlike Hinduism, which enforced a strict ban on widow remarriage, Islam
allowed and even encouraged widows to take up a new husband. 171 Remarriage
was useful to Islam in making the new personal alliances so needed in a religion
of conversion and especially useful to the Mughals, who frequently saw marriage
as a way to serve political ends. Moreover, the remarriage of a widow eliminated
one more person who would some day draw upon the financial resources of
charity for the poor made available by the Islamic umma through the zakat.
For Mihrunnisa's own immediate family, marriage to Jahangir became a
great boon since several members received sizable promotions and endowments
in 1611 as a result of her new alliance. Her father, Itimaduddaula was promoted
from the rank of 1,500, which he had received some time between 1608 and
1611,172 to 1,800 zat and then to 2,500 zat and 500 suwar in 1611, the second
promotion coming with an additional gift of Rs. 5,000.173 Jahangir apparently no
longer felt any bitterness over the previous indiscretions of Itimaduddaula in
making these lavish presentations to his new wife's father. Shortly thereafter,
Mihrunnisa's surviving elder brother, Abul Hasan, received the title Itiqad
Khan and one of Jahangir's special swords called Sarandaz ("Thrower of
Heads").174He was later, in 1614, given the title Asaf Khan (IV),175 under which
he became famous as a member of Nur Jahan's ruling junta and then as a leading
minister in Shah Jahan's court.
What is most surprising about this year is that Jahangir made no mention at
38 NUR JAIIAN

all of his marriage to Mihrunnisa in his memoirs. In fact, the very first mention
of her in the Tuzuk was over three years later, in the summer of 1614, when
having come down with a fever and headache, Jahangir said he told no one but
Nur Jahan "than whom I did not think anyone was fonder of me."176 The
absence of any notice of his nuptials with Mihrunnisa, coupled with her abrupt
entrance into the Tuzuk in 1614—where she appeared under the name Nur
Jahan, a title Jahangir himself said he did not give her until two years later in
1616,177 and with an intimacy with the emperor unparalleled for any other
queen—is odd indeed. Why would Jahangir have omitted mention of this mar-
riage, when many of his other marriages where recognized so appropriately in
his memoirs?178
Unfortunately, there is no good explanation for the omission. One might
argue, perhaps, that Mihrunnisa's presence and importance were immediately
accepted as fact, and that Jahangir was silent in his memoirs about what he
assumed was universally known—"an omission," A. S. Beveridge might say
here, "of the contemporarily obvious."179 Or, one might argue that the omission
was an oversight; it simply slipped his mind to note in his memoirs that he had
married yet again another wife. Or, perhaps he was trying to conceal this mar-
riage; she was after all, at least by one story, the daughter of an embezzler or
worse yet the former wife of his good friend's murderer. Although in these cases
there was nothing so illegal or shameful about the circumstances that would
make him want to hide his new alliance, there might be if, as another alternative,
he really did order Sher Afgan's death in order to marry an old love. In such a
case, his omission of both his retrieval of Mihrunnisa from Bengal after the
murder of her husband and his marriage to her four years later, "after the dust
had settled," could be understandable. Each of these attempts at interpreting his
silence, however, has little evidence to support it. At the very least, the omission
simply confirms that the peculiar process by which Jahangir selected what he
would discuss in his memoirs and what he would leave out is not altogether
consistent or clear.
That he did in fact marry Mihrunnisa in May of 1611 is not only reported in
contemporary Persian texts,180 but is confirmed by a Persian inscription inside a
cistern (or bath) in the court opposite the diwan-i am, or public audience hall, in
the fort at Agra. This hauz-ijahangiri, or cistern of Jahangir, is cut out of a single
block of sandstone and records in it the name of Jahangir and the date of 1611,
leading "one to suppose that the bowl has some association with the Emperor's
marriage to Nur Jahan in 1019 A.H. (1611 A.D.) and might have served as a
curious present from or to the Imperial bridegroom."181 As confirmation we also
have Hawkins' remark in mid-1611 that he had "sent my broker to seeke out for
jewels fitting for the kings . . . new paramour,"182 a note made apparently just
about the time of the marriage.
Although there was no overt mention of Jahangir's marriage to Mihrunnisa
in the Tuzuk, there are clues in the text nevertheless that something interesting
was happening during the year 1611. Conflating Jahangir's own chronology in
the Tuzuk with dates mentioned in other manuscripts,183 we can conclude at least
two things. First, we know that Itimaduddaula was promoted, with others, to
 Death of Sher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 39

the rank of 1,800 zatm after Jahangir met the Persian's daughter but before he
married her. Second, we know that Itimaduddaula became wazir, and that his
son Abul Hasan was given the title of Itiqad Khan, after the actual marriage
ceremony took place. What we do not know is whether Itimaduddaula was
raised to the rank of 2,000 zat and 500 suwar and given Rs. 5,000 before, after, or
on the occasion of the wedding, perhaps as part of Jahangir's "bride price" to
Mihrunnisa's father. It is clear no matter what that, even if Jahangir did not
mention the marriage itself, his excessive generosity to Itimaduddaula and his
family in 1611 for vague and unspecified reasons (especially given their recent
"questionable" behavior in the service of the emperor) indicates some fresh new
sentiment being extended in their direction.
The chronology of the Tuzuk also raises new questions about the greatest
mystery of all in Jahangir's relationship with Mihrunnisa: the possibility that
they knew each other beforehand. On April 30, 1612, Jahangir's son Prince
Khurram married Arjumand Banu Begam, later called Mumtaz Mahal, the
beloved woman for whom he began the Taj Mahal in 1631. Their betrothal had
taken place five years and three months earlier when Khurram was fifteen and
the future bride almost fourteen, that is, around January 30, 1607.185 Arjumand
Banu was the daughter of Abul Hasan, one of Mihrunnisa's elder brothers, and
therefore, her own niece. The 1607 betrothal took place four months before
Mihrunnisa's husband, Sher Afgan, was killed, around May 30, 1607.
Is it possible, first of all, that with his son pledging marriage to Arjumand
Banu, Jahangir came to know his future daughter-in-law's aunt at the same
time? He certainly would have presided over the negotiations, meeting with the
father, Abul Hasan, and the grandfather, Itimaduddaula, and perhaps attending
festivities where the veiled, or even unveiled, women in the family would be
present. Would it not also be possible, then, that Jahangir fell so in love with the
aunt that he plotted to murder her husband, who was at that time far off in
treacherous Bengal? The timing is certainly supportive of the argument, for if
Jahangir first met Mihrunnisa in late 1606 or early 1607, four or five months
would have been time enough to plan and execute her husband's demise. The
only immediate argument against this possible sequence of events is that
Mihrunnisa would probably have been in Bengal with her husband at the time,
far from the intrigues of the imperial court and definitely far from the wandering
eyes of Jahangir. If the argument for an early acquaintance could be substanti-
ated, however, it would help explain Jahangir's failure to mention his marriage
to Mihrunnisa in 1611; that is, the omission could have been an attempt to
conceal the marriage and cover, perhaps, his own guilt for the circumstances it
involved.
There seems to be little clear evidence, however, to support a previous ac-
quaintance between the two. Although we could argue that Jahangir knew of
Mihrunnisa long before their marriage—a case based, first, on Khurram's be-
trothal to her niece in 1607 and, second, on Sher Afgan's early service on behalf of
Jahangir beginning around 1599—there is no evidence at all that Jahangir ever
actually saw Mihrunnisa. If at any time physically in his presence, she would have
been covered with a veil, as was the custom for noble women then, unless the
40 NUR JAHAN

circumstances were extremely intimate family ones, which, except perhaps in the
case of the Khurram betrothal, were not likely. Granted, the emperor had rights to
women unknown to any other man in the empire, but there would have been no
reason for him to want to know the appearance of the wife of one of his minor
retainers. One would further have to explain why Jahangir waited four years to
marry Mihrunnisa, a eventuality hardly accounted for by Delia Valle's spurious
story of her long refusal to make alliance with the emperor unless it be to her full
advantage.186 Far more likely was the story of the early sources, that Jahangir saw
Mihrunnisa only in 1611 at the Nauroz festival, when she happened to have her
face unveiled as part of the informal amusements.
On the occasion of their marriage in 1611, Jahangir bestowed upon
Mihrunnisa the title Nur Mahal, "Light of the Palace."187 She was known by this
name (as testified by the Europeans at court) until 1616, when the emperor gave
her a new title Nur Jahan, or "Light of the World."188
These new names were in keeping with an old fetish of Jahangir's, and an old
fetish of Akbar's in fact, of reverence for the sun. At the center of Akbar's
eclectic religious faith had been the symbol of light, the perfect form of divine
manifestation, which eventually would shine through the vagaries of human
experience and unite the divisions separating men.189 As his new religion devel-
oped, called the din-i ilahi, Akbar increasingly took to worshipping the sun.
Badauni, an orthodox Muslim opponent of the new religion, reported that for a
short time in his career Akbar would turn to the sun in prayer four times a day
and that, at the noon worship, he would recite Sanskrit names for the sun
accompanied by gestures borrowed from Hinduism.190 Worshipping the sun for
Akbar was apparently "a way of exhibiting gratitude" to the heavenly body for
regulating his affairs as a ruler,191 for as a symbol it reflected the wisdom and
constant presence of the divine.
Although worship of the sun was not a consistent part of Akbar's religious
formalism, it was adopted, along with other symbolic trappings, by Jahangir
upon his own accession to the throne in 1605. At that time Jahangir gave himself
the title Nuruddin Jahangir Padshah, "Light of the Faith, World Conqueror,
Lord on High," because, he said immodestly, "my sitting on the throne coin-
cided with the rising and shining on the earth of the great light (the Sun)."192
This sun imagery became even more apparent when Jahangir minted gold coins
that year calling them, in decreasing values, nurshahi (100 tola), nursultani (50
tola), nurdaulat (20 tola), nurkamm (10 tola), nurmihr (5 tola}, and nurjahani (1
tola}. At the same time, Jahangir had couplets imprinted on the coins, which had
been written by contemporary poet-nobles and which linked the emperor's reign
to the brilliance of the sun.193 He also minted silver coins in equivalent denomina-
tions, with the 1 tola silver coin being called, of all things, a jahangiri.m It is
clear, then, that the name "Nur Jahan" was in use by Jahangir long before he
knew of or was married to Mihrunnisa and that, by coincidence perhaps, the
nurjahani (gold) and jahangiri (silver) coins were paired from the very beginning
as coins of equal weight if not of value. Note, however, that in time, presumably
after 1611, the nurjahani gold piece was upgraded from a 1 tola piece to a 100 tola
piece.195
 Death of Sher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir 41

Light or sun imagery appeared sporadically in the memoirs later on as well.

Jahangir named at least two elephants "nur," Nur Gaj in early 1606196 and Nur-i
Nauroz in 1619,197 and several edifices connected with Nur Jahan carried similar
"light" names: the Nur Manzil garden and buildings in Agra,198 the Nur Mahal
Sarai travelers' house and garden in Jalandhar,199 and the Nur Afshan garden in
Agra.200 Moreover, Jahangir reported with obvious pleasure a Hindi poem writ-
ten in his praise that likened him to the son of the sun,201 and he had many later
visionary paintings made of him in which he shone forth against a brilliant gold
nimbus suggesting his identification with, or at least external repose within, the
glory of the celestial light.
In bestowing the title Nur Jahan on his last legal wife, then, Jahangir was not
only paying a great compliment to Mihrunnisa's exceeding beauty and obvious
personal charisma, but allying her, the wife of his middle years, with the sym-
bolic center of his sovereign world [see Figure 2-2]. She was not only the "light
of his world," illuminating his private life with physical radiance and personal
charm, but the "light of the imperial world" as well, united with him as one and
together with him the source of all benevolent power and authority. That he first
recorded her name as Nur Jahan in 1614, two years before he said he officially
bestowed it on her, is either a case of textual interpolation, or an indication that
it was a private name for some time before it was made public (perhaps as a
contemporaneous alternate to Nur Mahal). In either case, the new title beto-
kened what in fact Mihrunnisa was almost from the beginning, the legal and
emotional wellspring from which the strength of this generation of rule was to
emanate.
FIGURE 2-2. "Lovers Embracing." Indian painting; Mughal, attr. to Govardhan, ca.
1615; ink, color, gold on paper: 13 1/8 x 8 1/4." Courtesy of the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, from the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum Acquisi-
tion Fund (M.83.1.6). Said to be of Nur Jahan and Jahangir.

42
 3

Rise of the Junta

(1611-1620)
I saw now the faction, but was irresolute what to doe . . . [for I feared that]
the Power of a wife, a sonne, and a fauorite, would produce reuenge.
The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to
the Court of the Great Mogul,
edited by William Foster

Day by day her influence and dignity increased. . . . No grant of lands was
conferred upon any woman except under her seal. . . . Sometimes she would
sit in the balcony of her palace, while the nobles would present themselves,
and listen to her dictates. Coin was struck in her name . . . [and] on all
farmans also receiving the Imperial signature, the name of "Nur Jahan, the
Queen Begam," was jointly attached. [Until] at last her authority reached
such a pass that the King was such only in name.
Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri,
translated and edited by H. M. Elliott and John Dowson

It has been said that there are no more poisonous ties than those of a family,1 and
Nur Jahan's immediate acquisition of power made the best and worst of such
alliances. It is a usual remark among the "writers of the affairs of Hindostan . . .
that no family ever rose so suddenly, or so deservedly, to rank and eminence, than
the family of" Itimaduddaula.2 Moreover, concerning the rise of that family, there
is no question more controversial than the exact role played by Nur Jahan.
The proposition that the good fortune of Itimaduddaula's family was due
solely to the influence of Nur Jahan has been put forth by such early chroniclers
as Mutamid Khan, Shahnawaz Khan, and Muhammad Hadi and fixed in history
by later writers.3 Recent scholars, however, like Nurul Hasan4 and Chandra
Pant5 have challenged this theory by arguing that the rise of the family was a
"natural phenomenon," which had begun long before, during the reign of
Akbar, and had been cemented in place by numerous matrimonial alliances and
the good hard work of loyal government service. What has come to be called "the
junta debate," however, is in fact no debate at all. While some could argue that

43
44 NUR JAHAN

Nur Jahan single-handedly engineered the promotion of her family into high
positions, others could argue that Nur Jahan's ascendancy was just a part of the
normal emergence of an already distinguished family into positions of merit.
Since the evidence can be weighted to serve either side, it is wiser to maintain
simply that this talented and charismatic woman made the very most of an
already good situation.
Long before her entrance into the life of Jahangir's court, Nur Jahan's
relatives occupied high posts in various of the Mughal capitals. Imperial recogni-
tion of merit within the family had begun with Mirza Ghiyasuddin Ali, an uncle
of Nur Jahan's through her mother, who received the title Asaf Khan (II) from
Akbar in 1573 for distinguished fighting and who was, until his death in 1581,
recognized for services within the provincial administrations.6 Jafar Beg, a
cousin of Nur Jahan's, was introduced to Akbar in 1577 by his uncle, Ghiya-
suddin Ali, and, making his way up the ranks, received the title of Asaf Khan
(III) in 1583 and a mansab of 3,000 zai in 1599.7 Upon Jahangir's accession in
1605, Asaf Khan Jafar Beg (d. 1612) was named wazir of the whole dominion
and given a mansab of 5,000 each8 and in 1607 was appointed vakil khilat-i khas.9
This was in part for his role in detaining the rebellious Khusrau and in gathering
intelligence about the unsuccessful assassination attempt made on the emperor's
life in 1607. Other family members were rewarded as well for their brave loyalty
and meritorious service in the 1606 Khusrau affair. Given sizable promotions in
the wake of that event, for example, were Aqa Mulla, Ahmad Beg Khan Kabuli,
and Abdul Qasim Namakin.10
Nur Jahan's own father, too, had done exceptionally well as a new immigrant
in the years under Akbar and in the early period just after Jahangir's succession.
In a letter dated February 2, 1604, for example, Brother Benedict Goes reported
that "he was sent for by Merisachias . . . the King's [Akbar's] chief minister and
a very powerful lord,"11 and the Iqbalnama noted that "owing to his devotion to
the King's [Akbar's] service, and his intelligence," Mirza Ghiyas Beg was early
on made diwan, or "superintendent of the household."12 This honor was later
reconfirmed upon Jahangir's accession to the throne when Ghiyas Beg was made
wazir (diwan-i kul) of half the dominion and granted the title of Itimaduddaula. 13
One could argue, however, that it could only have been the marriage of Nur
Jahan to Jahangir in 1611 that accounted for the rather dramatic rise in fortunes
of the Persian-born family of Itimaduddaula. Nur Jahan's father was given a
substantial increase in mansab and made wazir of the whole dominion in 1611
and by the time he died in 1622 had been raised to a mansab of 7,000 each. 14 Her
brother, Abul Hasan, of whom no meritorious accomplishment was recorded
definitively prior to this year, received the title Itiqad Khan in 1611,15 a good
mansab the next year, and the title Asaf Khan (IV) in 1614. By the time Jahangir
died in 1627, this Asaf Khan had been promoted to 7,000 each and had held
high posts in Gujarat, Bengal, Orissa, and the Punjab. 16 Another brother,
Shapur, who had also been given the title Itiqad Khan (by which he was best
known), received his first mansab in 1615 and by the time Jahangir died had
been promoted to at least 4,000 zat and 3,000 suwar.17 Finally, an uncle, Ibrahim
 Rise of the Junta (1611-1620) 45

Khan, brother of Nur Jahan's mother Asmat Begam, was promoted to 1,500 zat
and 600 suwar in 1614 and, by the time he died in 1624, had been raised to 4,000
each and given the title Fathjang. 18
Nur Jahan's sisters also fared well after her marriage to the emperor. A
brother-in-law, Mir Qasim, for example, known as Qasim Khan Juvaini, hus-
band of Nur Jahan's sister Manija, was given a mansab of 500 sat in 1611 and by
Jahangir's death in 1627 had been raised to 4,000 zat and 2,000 suwar.19 During
that time, in 1623, he was made governor of Agra, a position that would be
contested later during the rebellion of Mahabat Khan. The husband of another
sister Khadija Begam, a man named Hakim Beg, was in time honored with the
title Hakim Khan and with the usual presents due "one of the household of the
Court."20 A third brother-in-law, Sadiq Khan, was given a mansab of 1,000 zat
and 500 suwar in 1614 and by 1618 was ranked at 2,000 each.21
Judging by the figures, then, Nur Jahan's role in the rise of her family's
fortunes was significant, but it may not have been, as some have argued, abso-
lutely essential. It is true that although before 1611 no family member held a
provincial governorship under Jahangir, between 1611 and 1627 about twelve
such members did. It is also true that although the Itimaduddaula family held
almost 8 percent of the mansab?, in 1621, they already had about 2 percent of
them by 1605.22 Based upon inconclusive evidence like this, one might hesitate
to attribute the increase in position and status of the family solely to either
natural accretion within the system or the 1611 marriage. But one matter alters
the balance dramatically because it highlights, as nothing else can, the signifi-
cance of the role of Nur Jahan: that is, the particular set of circumstances of the
family just prior to the marriage.
In the years preceding the marriage, Nur Jahan's family had fallen into
disgrace. Her first husband, though formerly in service to Salim, had during the
preaccession skirmishes sided with Akbar (and probably with Khusrau) and had
subsequently murdered a childhood friend and foster brother of the emperor's.
That same year (1607), her father, who had been a trusted minister under both
Akbar and Jahangir, had succumbed to his only weakness, money, and had been
charged with embezzling by an energetic underling. 23 Finally, the pro-Khusrau
assassination attempt on Jahangir in 1607, though ill-fated, had led to the execu-
tion of one of Nur Jahan's brothers and a cousin of her mother's. The resulting
eclipse of her family over the next four years was to be expected, then, and their
reemergence into the light a surprise if attributed only to their own accomplish-
ments. Had the marriage not taken place, we can only guess at the undistin-
guished pattern the careers of her family might have followed. But had her
family not been somewhat well-positioned already, despite the disgrace, the
meeting at the Nauroz festival might not ever have happened. We argue, then,
that her family's fortunes under Jahangir were due to not one but many things:
to strategic positioning, to meritorious service, and also to the beauty and cha-
risma of one of its members.
History has bequeathed us an impressive list of the accomplishments of the
woman known as Nur Mahal and later Nur Jahan. The first phase of her
46 NUR JAHAN

ascendancy was marked not only by a prodigious acquisition of power and a

disposal of uncountable political and social favors, but also by the awe and
almost total disbelief of onlookers at the speed, efficiency, and advantage that
characterized Jahangir's retreat and Nur Jahan's appearance. Hawkins reported
specifically that he had "to seeke out for jewels fitting for the kings . . . new
paramour" in order to gain favor with Jahangir.24 This was in 1611, and this early
date means that within the first six months of her marriage, Nur Jahan had
already begun to hold petitioners and courtiers in account to her.
Despite the negative sentiment that often marked the contemporary analysis
of this shift in rule,25 Nur Jahan's growing powers were applied uniformly to
benefit an empire that was to experience peace and exceptional prosperity dur-
ing her reign. Dow, late though he is, has captured the remarkable nature of
what she did:

Her abilities were uncommon; for she rendered herself absolute, in a govern-
ment in which women are thought incapable of bearing any part. Their power,
it is true, is sometimes exerted in the haram; but, like the virtues of the magnet,
it is silent and unperceived. Noor-Jehan stood forth in public; she broke
through all restraint and custom, and acquired power by her own address, more
than by the weakness of Jehangire.26

The channels of authority she had to hand were almost endless.27 Nur Jahan
approved all orders (farmans) and grants of appointment that went out under the
king's name, ordering her own name, "Nur Jahan, the Queen Begam," to be
jointly attached to the imperial signature.28 She controlled all promotions and
demotions that issued from the royal government.

Her former and present supporters have been well rewarded, so that now most
of the men who are near the King owe their promotion to her, and are conse-
quently under . . . obligations to her. . . . Many misunderstandings result, for
the King's orders or grants of appointments, etc., are not certainties, being of
no value until they have been approved by the Queen.29

She put her seal on all grants of land "conferred upon any woman," and took
special interest in orphan girls, promoting many of them through generous
dowries in marriage.30 She habitually sat at the balcony of her palace (jharoka)
receiving petitions from nobles31 and was a lenient and sympathetic judge to
those who sought protection under her. She had coins struck in her name, which
bore the twelve signs of the zodiac.32 She collected duties on goods from mer-
chants who passed through her lands near Sikandra from the eastern provinces33
and traded with Europeans who brought luxury goods from the continent.34 She
assessed and approved the credentials of all visitors who came to court. 35 She
engaged in international diplomacy with high-placed women of other coun-
tries.36 And she routinely erected expensive buildings—rest houses for travelers
(sarais}, gardens, palaces, and tombs—"intending thereby [said Pelsaert] to
establish an enduring reputation for herself."37
 Rise of the Junta (1611-1620) 47

Nur Jahan was careful to encourage the paraphernalia of power around her as
well. Dow notes that she was distinguished from the other wives by the title of
Shahi or "empress,"38 deriving undoubtedly from the title Shah Begam, given to
her either, according to Prasad, in 1613 after the death of the reigning Shah
Begam, Salima Sultan Begam, or, according to C. Pant, in 1622.39 She enjoyed
the display of public fanfare and affection for her and did nothing to discourage
the easily manipulated popular mythologies; "Nur Jahan Begam used to ride
out, with people playing and singing before her, [and] she was received by every
one with marks of excessive honour and reverence, even like a goddess."40
Finally, she gathered wealth to her as a natural perquisite of her position,
spending it lavishly on herself and her family, but using it as well to lubricate the
gears of the empire.41
In the end, her powers grew so vast that she acquired all the rights of
sovereignty and government normally due the emperor. She managed "the
whole affairs of the realm, and honours of every description were at her dis-
posal,"42 such that she was absolute monarch in all but one thing—that of having
the khutba read in her name. 43 The khutba was an announcement of sovereignty
made before the Friday noon prayers in the mosque and after those of the id, and
its reading would have made her absolute ruler in name as well; it would also
have required absolute obedience to her from all subjects. 44 Here, however, its
absence was only a religious and political formality as she already wielded all the
power there was. Jahangir, still the hereditary holder of the throne, prided
himself on having successfully passed over to her not only all the responsibilities
of maintaining the empire, but most of its privileges as well, for he was known to
brag that having bestowed sovereignty on Nur Jahan, he required nothing else
but a sir of wine and half a sir of meat. 45 Sir Thomas Roe, in fact, was to write to a
fellow Englishman in January of 1617 as follows:

But I fear he [Jahangir] will not long stay anywhere, whose course is directed by
a woman, and is now as it were shut up by her so, that all justice or care of
anything or public affairs either sleeps, or depends on her, who is more
unaccessible than any goddess, or mystery of heathen impiety.46

In Shah Jahan's reign, according to Bernier, Nur Jahan was known as the queen
"who . . . wielded the sceptre, while her husband abandoned himself to drunk-
enness and dissipation," as her "transcendent abilities rendered her competent
to govern the Empire without the interference of her husband."47 She was in
short, said Manucci, eminently "worthy to be a queen."48
Her rise to power, however, did not have the unanimous support of all the
nobles and at least one of them, Mahabat Khan, reportedly went to Jahangir
later and made known his opposition to the rule of the queen. The Intikhab-i
Jahangir-Shahi, for example, said that when Mahabat Khan finally realized that
"the entire management of the Empire . . . [had been] entrusted to her hands,"
he spoke to the emperor as would a loyal friend. "The whole world is surprised,"
he said, "that such a wise and sensible Emperor as Jahangir should permit a
woman to have so great an influence over him." What would future kings say?
48 NUR JAHAN

After considering Mahabat Khan's concerns in private, "the Emperor for some
days became more reserved in his demeanor towards the Begam."49 Nur Jahan,
however, did not take Mahabat Khan's opposition to her power lightly, and even
though he was opposed, it seems, only on principle—"it was indecorous to let a
woman govern the empire"50—she held this noble personally in contempt for
much of her time on the throne.
Nur Jahan could not have exercised the authority she did without a structure
that funneled power naturally and immediately to her. The "junta," or the "fac-
tion" as Roe called it, was a skillful outgrowth of the needs and circumstances of
the time, comprising at its height Nur Jahan; her father, Itimaduddaula; her
brother, Asaf Khan; and her stepson and the eventual heir to the throne as Shah
Jahan, Khurram. The power of the junta was substantial and could be carried, as
it often was, to extreme excess. "They still strive for an impossible advancement,"
said Pelsaert, "for the world cannot sustain their eminence."51 Nevertheless, the
group managed, by an intricate network of communication and vested interest, to
promote their own concerns while at the same time protecting the king from
unnecessary responsibility. The junta worked as follows:

If anyone with a request to make at Court obtains an audience or is allowed to

speak, the King hears him indeed, but will give no definite answer of Yes or No,
referring him promptly to Asaf Khan, who in the same way will dispose of no
important matter without communicating with his sister, the Queen, and who
regulates his attitude in such a way that the authority of neither of them may be
diminished. Anyone then who obtains a favour must thank them for it, and not
the King. 52

The specific configuration of the junta was, then, extremely important. The
group could not have worked without a strategically placed son around whom
courtiers could vie for attention, and in whom the hopes for a brilliant succes-
sion could be invested. Thus, while the function of the junta was to provide
benefits to its members in the present, its rationale was to give caretaker gover-
nance to the current emperor in preparation for a glorious succession in years
hence. The choice of sons, therefore, was especially significant. Although no
real power struggle ever actually took place among them, as Khurram, who had
been much loved by Akbar and was his choice to succeed Jahangir,53 had been
the heir apparent in all but name for years, the appearance of a struggle and the
constant jealousies were intense.
The eldest son, Khusrau (1587-1621), was "a Prince of much expectation,
[and] well-belov'd."54 He was apparently a very handsome man and the beauty of
his face was matched only by "a very lovely presence."55 He had been hailed by
some nobles at the court as the successor to his grandfather Akbar before his
father's accession,56 but the bitter struggle of those years had brought out a
bleaker side of his personality.

[Khusrau] was a prince of haughty disposition. He was governed by furious

passions. His mind was in a perpetual agitation. . . . He was now volatile and
 Rise of the Junta (1611-1620) 49

cheerful; now dark and sullen. He often laughed at misfortune; he was often
enraged at trifles; and his whole conduct betrayed every mark of an insanity of
mind.57

Jahangir often expressed the strong affection that he had for this firstborn son
who, he knew, had obvious charisma and personal magnetism,58 but he recog-
nized that Khusrau was easy prey to both ill-minded courtiers59 and the heredi-
tary melancholy of his ancestors.60 To him Khusrau became "that graceless
one,"61 "that unfortunate one,"62 yet a son whose life he couldn't end no matter
how despicable the behavior.63 The struggle for power between father and elder
son continued to be so strong and so eratic that Jahangir could find no way to
bequeath him the throne, 64 and ultimately Khusrau was left with the support of
only a few nobles and of the women of the harem.
Jahangir's second son, Parviz (1589-1626), was reportedly dull and incompe-
tent, "a man of poor spirit, aspiring to no state or display,"65 who though full of
pride and ambition found his greatest pleasure in drink. Roe visited him at his
court in Burhanpur once in 1615, and in spite of Parviz's willingness to contract
business, the ambassador found him running the Deccan campaign in name
only, the real work being carried out by his guardian the current Khankhanan
(Abdur Rahim). Roe had given the prince a number of presents at the time but
found that Parviz had interest only in the case of liquor, and by the time Roe
stood to leave, Parviz had become completely incapacitated by drink. 66
Jahangir's fourth and youngest surviving son, Shahryar (1605-28), was born
of a concubine at the time of Jahangir's accession. Although famous for his
youthful patience and restraint in the face of his father's cruel and violent
treatment of him,67 Shahryar was known to be easily manipulated. Reportedly
"the most beautiful of all the princes,"68 he would eventually become the puppet
of Nur Jahan, married to her daughter Ladli Begam in an attempt to secure
imperial longevity for another branch of the Itimaduddaula family. Shahryar's
"tender age, docile nature, feeble mind, and imbecile character,"69 however,
precluded any real chance he might have had in the final struggle for succession.
It was Jahangir's third son, Khurram (1592-1666), who proved to have the
character, stamina, and cunning necessary for the political intrigues that would
carry him to a successful place on the throne. Born of a favorite early wife, Jagat
Gosaini (a harem rival of Nur Jahan's), Khurram was educated in the broad,
liberal tradition of the court. He had a restrained streak that manifested itself
most notably in a youthful abstinence from drink, which would be seriously
compromised on his twenty-fourth birthday when his father introduced him to
wine.70 Although it was with much hesitation that he drank his first cup that
day,71 he eventually took to the wine, beginning in this way a lifelong, though not
always tempered habit. 72
As is evident from the exquisite beauty of such buildings as the Taj Mahal,
built for his favorite wife upon her death in 1631, Khurram loved fine things.
An extraordinarily handsome man himself, Khurram had a strong proclivity for
jewels, and Manrique reported that even when, after a banquet, twelve dancing
girls appeared with "lascivious and suggestive dress, [and] immodest behavior
50 NUR JAHAN

and posturing," he continued to inspect the jewels Asaf Khan had brought for
him.73 It was primarily through a taste for fine gemstones, then, that he relished
without regret the fabulous lifestyle of the court.74 He was a well-trained and
experienced general as well, whose reputed skill and tactical expertise earned
him rewards for his campaigns in Mewar, the Deccan, and Gujarat. 75 But though
he spent much time in military campaigns, fighting did not become him quite as
much as it did his son and eventual successor, Aurangzeb, and Khurram seems
to have accepted the stints in the field only as a way to return to the luxuries of
the court.
For his promise as a well-rounded and competent sovereign, then, Khurram
had been much loved by Akbar, who "always recommended him to me
[Jahangir] and frequently told me there was no comparison between him and my
other children. He recognised him as his real child." Khurram himself had
returned the favor, for by Jahangir's own admission, Khurram was "more atten-
tive to my father than all (my) other children."76 Though third in birth,
Khurram was considered by Jahangir to be in all respects "the first of my
sons,"77 and his father watched as "gradually, as his years increased, so did his
excellencies."78 In his early years, this son was called Baba Khurram, "Darling
Khurram," "inasmuch as the signs of rectitude and knowledge of affairs were
evident in him."79 In 1616, Jahangir bestowed on him the title of Shah Sultan
Khurram just before he departed for the Deccan,80 in recognition not only of his
military prowess but also of his eventual fitness for the throne.
Khurram, then, was the natural son around whom the junta could build its
structures of power. The dynamics of the junta's pivotal relationships, rooted as
they were in the kinship ties of father, daughter, and son, rested more precari-
ously, however, upon the nature of the bond between Nur Jahan and her step-
son. We do not know when the collaboration between them actually began
(perhaps in the early years under Ruqayya Sultan Begam), but it must surely
have been as much at the instigation of Khurram as it was of his stepmother.
Nur Jahan had early on secured the lasting favor of Jahangir and, if Khurram
were to have any chance of prevailing over his brothers for the throne, he must
find favor with his father in the most profitable way possible. It was to his
advantage, then, to acquiesce to or even to promote the maternal bondings so
desired by his father and so central to the harem's involvement in governing;
and if Nur Jahan was his father's chosen among the women of the palace, then,
clearly her favor was crucial. As Roe said: "Sultan Carroone is as absolute by
Normahall's power, as she, who is all."81
It comes as no surprise, then, that one of the first times we see Khurram and
Nur Jahan together was when, in the wake of Khurram's victories in Mewar in
early 1615, Jahangir ordered his son "to go and wait on his mothers."82 As a part
of the festivities, Nur Jahan presented Prince Karan, son of Amar Singh and heir
apparent to Mewar, now a negotiated part of the Mughal empire, "a rich dress of
honour, a jewelled sword, a horse and saddle, and an elephant"83 [see Figure 4-
2]. The presentation was not only a personal compliment to Khurram from Nur
Jahan for his tactical finesse in the negotiations with the leadership of Mewar,
but an act of imperial recognition on the part of the junta for one of its own.
 Rise of the Junta (1611-1620) 51

The tightness (and tension) within the junta rested in part upon a series of
marriage negotiations undertaken between the families of Itimaduddaula and
Jahangir. The most important marriage, without doubt, was that between
Khurram and Arjumand Banu Begam, Nur Jahan's niece and daughter of her
brother Asaf Khan. The ceremony took place on April 30, 1612, and was
accompanied by the usual bestowal of lavish presents, made particularly grand
by those to the women of the palaces. Das claims that the arrangement of this
marriage was one of the first acts of Nur Jahan as empress,84 but according to the
PadshahnamaK the betrothal took place five years and three months before, that
is, sometime in 1607.86 Nur Jahan's role in contracting this marriage, then, was
minimal, and for the ceremony she had to settle for the lesser role of aunt of the
bride.
As it happens, the marriage may have been the cause of some ill-feeling
between Khurram and Nur Jahan. Some have hinted at Nur Jahan's early
attempts to get Khurram to marry her own daughter by Sher Afgan, Ladli
Begam. Such a marriage was never a possibility, however, as Khurram was
unquestionably devoted to Arjumand Banu Begam.87 He loved Asaf Khan's
daughter so much, in fact, that on her death in 1631 he went into seclusion for
two years, reappearing, according to legend, with eyeglasses and hair now com-
pletely gray.88
Nur Jahan had also been unsuccessful in marrying Ladli Begam off to the
eldest son, Khusrau. According to Delia Valle:

Nurmahal, who had apprehended that Sultan Chosrou would succeed his Father
in the kingdom, and desir'd to establish herself well, had frequently offer'd her
Daughter to Sultan Chosrou, before she married her to Sultan Scehriar, but he,
either for that he had another Wife he lov'd sufficiently and would not wrong
her, or because he scorn'd Nurmahal's Daughter, would never consent.89

While in prison, it seems, Khusrau was told that if he would consent to marry
Nur Jahan's daughter he would be set free but, despite the pleadings of his own
much-beloved wife, who had negotiated to live with him as his servant in confine-
ment, Khusrau continued to refuse the offer.90 This was apparently the reason
why "Sultan Chosrou remained always much in the hatred of Nurmahal" and why
she was later so malicious in her dealings with him.91
Despite the tensions over marriage arrangements, however, the alliance be-
tween Nur Jahan and Khurram remained exceedingly strong for a number of
years. Its official high point came with the feast Nur Jahan prepared for him in
1617 in Mandu marking his victorious return from campaigns in the Deccan [see
Figure 3-1]. It was during this campaign that Khurram earned the title Shah
Jahan, "King of the World," and the right to sit on a chair near his father's
throne during Jahangir's assemblies.92 At her feast, Nur Jahan presented Shah
Jahan with robes, a turban, a turban ornament, a waistbelt, a sword, a dagger,
and a saddle—all richly decorated with rare and costly gems—along with two
horses and three elephants. She also presented his women and children with
substantial presents, thereby bringing the total cost of the entertainment to
FIGURE 3-1. "Jahangir and Prince Khurram Feasted by Nur Jahan." Indian painting;
Mughal, 1617; school of Jahangir; from an album of Shah Jahan; color and gold on
paper: 25.2 x 14.2 cm. (9 15/16 x 5 5/8"). Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, B.C. (07.258). Note the Chinese porcelain im-
ports, the Madonna picture, and the nimbus around Jahangir's head. Copies of this
painting can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (I.M. 115-1921),
and in the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, City Palace, Jaipur (A G 823).

52
 Rise of the Junta (1611-1620) 53
93
about Rs. 300,000. In return, Shah Jahan gave Nur Jahan presents worth Rs.
200,000 and Rs. 60,000 to "his other mothers and the Begams."94
The early relationship between Nur Jahan and Shah Jahan seems to have
been one marked by respect, collaboration, and enduring counsel. The only
contemporary chronicler to even hint at anything more was Thomas Roe (fol-
lowed by Peter Mundy) who, observing that Shah Jahan seemed distracted
during one meeting, noted the following:

If I can ludg any thing, hec hath left his hart among his fathers women, with
whom hee hath liberty of conuersation. Normahall in the English Coach the day
before visited him and tooke leaue. She gaue him a Cloake all embrodered with
Pearle, diamondes and rubyes; and carried away, if I err not, his attention to all
other busines.95

There is no evidence whatsoever to suspect Nur Jahan and Shah Jahan of any-
thing other than the most filial of bonds, and the distraction Roe observed here
was easily the result of the presents or, more likely, a political matter currently
occupying their joint attention. From all the evidence, stepmother and son were
at best platonically friendly and at worst warily on guard.96
The elder statesman of the junta was Nur Jahan's father, Itimaduddaula (d.
1622). Itimaduddaula was known as the "open ear" of the court, who by reputa-
tion was fair, just, and compassionate. He was exceptionally well educated and
"considered exceedingly clever and skilful, both in writing and in transacting
business." Having studied the classical Persian poets, he "had a nice apprecia-
tion of the meaning of words; and he wrote shikasta in a bold and elegant style."97
He had the complete trust of Jahangir, and the emperor, being "very closely
connected with his family," held Itimaduddaula's goodwill toward him "very
dear,"98 bestowing upon him the title Madarulmulk, "Pivot of the Country"99
[see Figure 3-2]. At the counsellor's death, Jahangir eulogized him with an
unusual perceptiveness and acuity:

He was a wise and perfect Vizier, and a learned and affectionate compan-
ion . . . . Though the weight of such a kingdom was on his shoulders, . . . no
one ever went to Itimadu-d-daula with a petition or on business who turned
from him in an injured frame of mind. He showed loyalty to the sovereign, and
yet left pleased and hopeful him who was in need. In fact, this was a speciality of
his.100

Nur Jahan's father was not only a loyal courtier fond of the normal round of gift
giving and promotions,101 but a minister whose services, as Jahangir noted
above, were singularly wise and reliable. His advice to Jahangir was priceless,
especially on matters of promotions for loyal subordinates, pardons for criminal
offenders, and general issues of patronage in which Itimaduddaula was known to
be a particularly compassionate touch. 102 He regularly urged conciliation during
moments of family tension,103 acted as messenger and courier at Jahangir's be-
hest104 (as he had for Akbar), 105 and maintained a house forever open to the
FIGURE 3-2. "Emperor Jahangir and his Vizier, Itimaduddaula." Indian painting;
Mughal, ca. 1615; fr. the Kevorkian Album; inscr. to Manohar. Courtesy of The Metro-
politan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Rogers Fund and The Kevorkian Foun-
dation Gift, 1955 (MMA 55.121.10.23).

54
 Rise of the Junta (1611-1620) 55

frequent and often unannounced visits of the emperor.106 Itimaduddaula's com-

pound had a reputation as "a delightful place and enchanting residence"107 and
was often lavishly decorated as a part of his contribution to the empire's
entertainment.108
Itimaduddaula was rewarded substantially for his part in Jahangir's rule,
with honors bestowed upon him the likes of which no other minister on record
had ever seen. In 1615, he was given a standard and drums to be beaten after the
emperor's entrance to the court.109 In 1616 he was called upon to help write the
memoirs when Jahangir himself was so overcome with the death of one of Shah
Jahan's daughters that he couldn't lift his pen. At the beginning of 1617,
Jahangir ordered the women of the harem to go unveiled before Itimaduddaula
as he was now "an intimate friend" of the imperial family.110 Later that year,
Jahangir removed the imperial turban from his own head and placed it on
Itimaduddaula's as a sign of special favor 111 and gave him one of his own private
elephants, named Jagjot, in honor of his work in governing the Punjab. 112 Finally
in 1618, Itimaduddaula was one of only three people to receive a personal copy
of thejahangirnama, a record of the first twelve years of Jahangir's reign. The
other two recipients were Shah Jahan and Asaf Khan. 113
Famous as he was for his sense of fairness and accessibility, Itimaduddaula
was also famous for the weakness that made this accessibility possible: greed.
According to the Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri, the charitability toward which
the minister was so well disposed and which allowed "no one [to] ever . . .
[leave] his door dissatisfied" was also the liberality which drew him toward
offbeat financial arrangements, for "in the taking of bribes he certainly was most
uncompromising and fearless."114 Itimaduddaula's propensity for monetary per-
suasion was not so well known as to be found in all the early sources, but there
must have been some truth to the rumors about it for the Dutch seemed quite
confident of the minister's weaknesses here. Van den Broecke routinely re-
counted the early story of Itimaduddaula's "misappropriation" of Rs. 50,000
and the trouble it caused for the family when coupled with the seditious activi-
ties of the elder son Muhammad Sharif.115 De Laet's derivative account con-
firmed the embezzling charge, as well as the reprieve granted Itimaduddaula in
exchange for a substantial purse116 and a temporary loss of rank. Certainly later
tradition knew of the weakness, but tempered it to suit an overall laudatory
assessment. Says Dow, for example, "an economist in every thing, but in charity,
he was only covetous of wealth to relieve the needy and the poor."117
The final player among the principals in the junta was Nur Jahan's brother,
Asaf Khan (d. 1641). He was the last of the junta members to come into power
under Jahangir and the only one to move relatively unscathed through the bitter
years of succession, emerging in the years after 1627 as the most powerful man in
Shah Jahan's government. Asaf Khan became prominent in the junta as the
point man for Europeans in the efforts to establish trading contracts and exhib-
ited over the years a habitual duplicity in matters of loyalty that was motivated
entirely by opportunism. Born Abul Hasan, he received the titles of Itiqad Khan
in 1611118 and Asaf Khan (IV) in 1614.119 Because of his family ties and because of
his expertise as a courtier, Asaf Khan was taken in by Jahangir as his "adopted
56 NUR JAHAN

son" (farzandi}120 and, like his own father, was known as "that pillar of the
kingdom"121 who "fulfilled the duties of homage, and of offerings, and thereby
acquired eternal bliss."122 Says Dow:

In his private character, he was mild, affable, humane, generous; in his public,
severe, reserved, inflexible, exact. He never excused negligence; he punished
disobedience. His orders, therefore, were no sooner issued than they were
executed; his very nod was respected, understood and obeyed. . . . He was
uniform in his conduct, impartial and dignified in his actions, consistent with
himself. He courted not popularity by his measures: justice, propriety, and the
ultimate good of the state, and not the applause of the vulgar, were his objects in
all his decisions.123

Perhaps even more than in the case of his father, Asaf Khan's house and gardens
were Jahangir's second home. Known as "a very fine and pleasant place," Asaf
Khan's house had a reputation for beauty and luxury and was often the site of
Jahangir's own rest and entertainment. 124
Of all the members of the junta, Asaf Khan was perhaps the only one inti-
mately known to European traders.125 Farthest of the four from the throne and
therefore closest to the world outside the palace, Asaf Khan developed good rela-
tions with several of the Englishmen who courted trade, a tie that became a de-
cided advantage for him at court. He and Hawkins, for example, "were great
friends, he [Asaf Khan] having beene often at my house,"126 and the Mughal minis-
ter frequently entertained Roe at his own home during the ambassador's official
stay in India.127 The English saw Asaf Khan as a man whose high station was the
result primarily of family alliances, and one who sought to aggrandize his material
worth by using these alliances to his own best advantage,128 as seen in his purchase
of a fine, large pearl.129 There could be no better person, then, through whom to
negotiate what promised to be exceptionally lucrative trading agreements.
The general state of affairs under the rule of the junta, it seems, was one of
peace and prosperity for the empire and mental relief for the emperor. The junta
formed a strong party that was loyal to Jahangir, but that freed him from the
major responsibilities of governing. Although Jahangir was fearful of losing too
much power to the provinces—hence his policy of frequently moving governors
and their ministers around so that these "his substitutes may not in any place
grow popular"130—he himself did not relish administration. The junta, then, was
the ideal structure, for it allowed Jahangir all the trappings of state but extri-
cated him from the powers and obligations attendant upon his office. The
popularity of the junta fluctuated, however, and, in spite of a real dislike for Nur
Jahan by the other women of the harem,131 the business of the group was such
that no matter what the personal style of the players, the faction in power was
sure to be seen as cunning and avaricious and as having duped an innocent, if
lame, emperor into its hands. Sympathy, then, ran high for Jahangir and notori-
ously low for the group actually in power.
The interworkings of the junta members were perhaps nowhere more clear
than in their collaboration on the domestic issue known as the "Khusrau prob-
 Rise of the Junta (1611-1620) 57

lem."132 The Khusrau issue was not of the junta's own making for Jahangir's
eldest son had made himself troublesome to his father from an early age in the
succession struggles of 1603 to 1605, in his rebellion of 1606,133 and in the
assassination attempt of 1607. Since that time Khusrau had been imprisoned in
the palace near Jahangir, under vigilant guard, blind or partially blind, and
attended by a loving and faithful wife. In the years following the junta's ascen-
dancy, however, Khusrau became a passive pawn in the jostling for power that
took place. Although Jahangir had made efforts not to have Khusrau treated
exactly like a prisoner, providing "everything necessary for his comfort and
convenience in the way of eating and clothing,"134 he was nevertheless watchfully
concerned that old Khusrau loyalties did not foment once more into rebellion.
For this reason, and because of Nur Jahan's growing frustration with Khusrau's
imperviousness to her pleas for marriage to her daughter, Khusrau was forbid-
den in 1614 to come to court to pay his respects to the emperor.
Khusrau's life in prison was, with the exception of his wife, a miserable lot.
Coryat observed that once during this period, when Jahangir was to go away for
four months on a hunting expedition, he had Khusrau walled up in a tower to
keep him safe during his absence. The tower was "without gate, doore, or
window, except some small holes to let in ayre, higher than he could come into,"
and while there he was allowed only a small number of servants.135 His wife had
pleaded with the king to be shut up with her husband and, refusing the liberty
offered by Jahangir, she would have nothing but to be a companion to her
husband in his misery.
It was in 1616 that Khusrau was handed over to Asaf Khan for safekeep-
ing.136 Roe described in detail the story of the junta's efforts in bringing about
this change. With "impudent bouldnes . . . that dare attempt anything," the
faction now worked to use its extraordinary liberty with the emperor to remove
Khusrau from any possibility of imperial favor. Resolved that "it was not possi-
ble for them to stand if the Prince Sultan Corsoronne liued, whom the nobilitye
loued, . . . [they] Practised how to bring him into their Power, that poyson
might end him."137 Nur Jahan, said Roe, went to work on Jahangir, using "the
false teares of womans bewitching flattery" to convince her husband that
Khusrau still entertained seditious thoughts.138 When this failed, Shah Jahan,
Itimaduddaula, and Asaf Khan went to the King when he was drunk and
persuaded him that for Khusrau's safety and honor "it were fitter he were in the
keeping of his brother," whose company would be pleasing one to the other.139
Jahangir agreed and then fell asleep. Roe's story did not conclude with the
successful handing over of Khusrau to Asaf Khan, however, and later, on Octo-
ber 21, 1616, we find Roe reporting that six of Shah Jahan's servants came
secretly to murder Khusrau, "but were refused the key by the Porter."140 Eventu-
ally the forces of the junta must have won out, for it was on October 25, 1616,
that Jahangir announced the transfer of Khusrau to Asaf Khan on account of
"certain considerations."141 A month later, in November, Roe noted that when
Jahangir and Nur Jahan called upon the now reassigned Khusrau, he appeared
before them with a beard "grown to his middle, a signe of disfauour."142
In 1617, with Khusrau still in "protective custody," efforts were made to
58 NUR JAHAN

heal the breach between him and the junta. Roe reported that on August 21,
1617, Itimaduddaula advised Nur Jahan and Asaf Khan "to make a peace with
Corsoroone," as a part of his enjoying his first day of hoped-for liberty in Roe's
company.143 Later on August 25, Asaf Khan had a feast prepared for Nur Jahan
and Khusrau in order to make a "firme alliance" in the expectation, said Roe, of
Khusrau's future full freedom.144
Freedom came at last in 1619 when Jahangir, having decided that Khusrau's
imprisonment had been long enough, took him out of confinement and allowed
him to pay his full respects at court. 145 Until his death in 1621, Khusrau himself
never made any other move that might have been interpreted as seditious.
Nevertheless, with the power structures as fragile and precariously balanced as
they were, members of the junta could not take a chance. Despite earlier rumors
of an alliance between Khusrau and Asaf Khan,146 Nur Jahan, Shah Jahan,
Itimaduddaula, and Asaf Khan worked keenly and, as they saw it, in their own
best interests, against any permanent restoration of Khusrau. Whatever Jahan-
gir himself may have wished—and we cannot discount the possibility that the
1619 grant of freedom was a publicity play on the part of the junta—Khusrau's
chances for renewed stature at court, or even for rights to succession, were
extremely small.
Information gathering and policymaking were the two mainstays of the
junta's operation and Nur Jahan's central role in them could be found in all parts
of the government. It was she, for example, by Jahangir's own account, who first
informed the emperor of Shah Jahan's 1617 victories in the Deccan, for which he
rewarded her the pargana of Toda with revenues calculated to be about Rs.
200,000.147 It was she who dissuaded Parviz in 1616 from paying his respects to
the emperor, presumably because the prospect had caused Shah Jahan extreme
anxiety, despite the fact that "the king had fallen downe and taken his Mistris by
the feete to obteyne her leave to see his sonne."148 And it was she who held
meetings, like the one in 1617, where differences and breaches that had grown
up among government workers could be worked out in an amiable atmo-
sphere.149 The junta operated so effectively and so single-mindedly during these
years precisely, as these examples show, because of her smooth regulation of its
internal affairs.
The operation of the junta was seen to particular advantage by Roe, who was
present at the court during the height of its power (1616-18) and who learned
quickly the best, though not always the most successful, way to manipulate its
parts. Roe originally became aware of the junta within the first month of his stay
in the Mughal king's presence and knew immediately that, whatever his fortune,
it depended solely upon the good auspices of these four people. At the end of
January 1616, after having been first received at court on only January 10, Roe
reported:

I saw now the faction, but was irresolute what to doe. Asaph Chan was a broken
reede; the Prince gouerned by him;150 the King was my only refuge, from whom
I was sure of lustice if I Complayned, but I feard I should drawe vpon me the
hate of Normall the beloued queen. 151
 Rise of the Junta (1611-1620) 59

Roe discerned at once the nature and relations of all the characters arrayed
before him and believed full well that in the peculiarities of their familial alli-
ances lay his fate: "The Prince Sultan Coronne, Normahall the deare queene,
Aunt to his wife, Asaph chan his father-in-law, brother to the Queene, and
Etiman Dowlett, father to them both, beeing they that now gouerne all and dare
attempt anything."152
Powerless before what he called the "treacherous faction,"153 Roe found that
there was another equally as powerless as he: the emperor. While Jahangir was
his only refuge and source of justice, he was, nevertheless, also at the mercy of
the faction's whims. Jahangir, for whatever reason, had given them "liberty
beyond eyther the law of their owne Condition or the limitts of Policye and
reason,"154 and now had to suffer the consequences of having withdrawn in the
face of their increasing ascendancy: "[ Jahangir] is soe good of disposition that he
suffers ill men to gouerne. . . . [He] had yeeilded himself into the handes of a
woman, [and] could not defend his sonne [Khusrau] from their Practises. Hee
either sees not the ambition or trustes it too farr in Confidence of his owne
Power."155 Roe seemed to be of two minds as to Jahangir's complicity in the
junta's power, not being able to decide whether the king willingly gave up
authority or had had it tricked or stolen from him. Whatever his final assessment
of Jahangir on this issue, Roe seemed to be well-disposed toward the emperor,
casting him as a gracious, curious, and compassionate man who, though weak,
was still the majesterial head of the empire.156
The real center of the government, however, as Roe saw, was Nur Jahan. On
January 12, 1616, when he first arrived at court, Roe was asked to give up his
letter of commission to one of Jahangir's couriers so that the queen could see his
official seal,157 and from that moment forward the ambassador knew that this
woman, who in time came to be the "protectresse" of the English, "wholly
gouerneth" the king and all his affairs.158 He tried, therefore, not to make any
mistakes in seeking to conciliate her or her allies. Very soon, however, the
particular power of Nur Jahan, and the way it was manifest in the workings of
the junta, reflected a larger pattern for Roe:

Normahall fullfill[ed] the observation that in all actions of Consequence in a

court, especially in faction, a woman is not only alwayes an ingredient, but
commonly a Principall drugg and of most vertue; and shee showes that they are
not incapable of Conducting busines, nor herselfe voyd of witt and subtiltye. 159

What made the centrality of Nur Jahan even more difficult for Roe was that he
was denied the intimacy with her he clearly enjoyed with all the other members
of the junta, save Itimaduddaula, whom he described as distant and "always
indifferent."160 As a Muslim woman, Nur Jahan was screened from him behind
the walls of parda, and this inaccessibility only enhanced the loss of control Roe
experienced with regard to his own affairs at court.
Roe was able to work closely with other members of the junta, however, and
soon developed productive, if not always mutually respectful, relations with
Shah Jahan and with the prominent courtier, Mahabat Khan. His main point of
60 NUR JAHAN

contact with the junta, though, was always Asaf Khan, with whom he was in
touch almost daily and who served as the conduit for information and opinion on
trading agreements between Roe and the government. Roe knew that Asaf Khan
was, at least at this time, the puppet of his sister161 but since his connections were
excellent, through both his sister and his daughter (the wife of Shah Jahan), and
since he was by nature a man of greed and connivance, Asaf Khan was as
effective an agent of negotiation as the ambassador could have. Roe worked hard
to separate Asaf Khan from the rest of the junta so that the trading contracts
could more easily be settled—entertaining him, praising him, and being
conciliatory—but the fickleness of the Mughal court continued to work to his
disadvantage. As he noted on September 5, 1616: "Mochrebchan sent to speake
with mee, who reauealed to mee in great friendship that Asaph Chan was our
enemy, or at beste a false frend: that hee had faltered with mee in my business
with the king."162 Although Roe had no choice but to go on with Asaf Khan, the
process of negotiation with a man of his character was frustrating and, in the
end, a failure.
Negotiation could only take place in an atmosphere of openness and receptiv-
ity, and Roe found that entrance into the court and into the good will of its
members was possible only if he bought it, and with presents of extremely high
value and quality. As Best said: "The Portuguese will do their utmost, both by
gifts and by force, to expel us from this place. It is therefore necessary for us to
gain the goodwill of the King and of certain principal persons; the which may be
obtained with some trifles from our country."163 Bribing eventually became a way
of life for Roe and his people,164 and he routinely had to bring presents for all
members of the junta whenever he came to court.163 Often the presents were not
good enough and not frequent enough,166 and Roe occasionally found himself
wanting to break all rules by having no presents at all. He never did, however.

If the Queene must be presented (which I will not aduise too, and doe purpose,
as well out of necessytye as Judgment, to breake this Custome of daylye bribing)
fine needle woorke toyes, fayre bone lace, cuttworke, and some handsome
wrought wastcote, sweetbagges or Cabinetts, wilbe most Convenient. . . . I
would add any faire China Bedsteeds, or cabinetes or truncks of Japan are here
rich presentes.167

The generosity of the Mughal court to Roe in return was apparently substan-
tial, though given at whim and with great condescension. In addition to being
entertained in the palaces and at the homes of leading junta participants, Roe
used to receive spontaneous gifts like that of muskmelons from Itimadud-
daula—"with this Complement that they came from the handes of the Queene
his daughter"168—or that of a female slave, a former servant of Nur Jahan's "who
for some offence was putt away."169 "Loathe to receiue" a former offender, Roe
tried to refuse the woman but was forced to keep her the night in his dining
room before negotiating her departure to friends the next day.170 He was also
granted courtesies at court, presumably because of his official high standing at
the court of the English king, and Jahangir, characteristically, treated him inti-
 Rise of the Junta (1611-1620) 61

mately on any number of occasions. Nevertheless, Roe's pains were for nothing,
and in spite of all the efforts at personal and material cultivation of those in
power, his own advice would have been well worth taking: "I did aduise our
little Common wealth to keepe close and neare togither, to attend the issue, to
know no syde, to make few debtes, and to keepe as few residencyes as the
necessitye of their affaires will suffer."171
Even if Roe was eventually outmaneuvered in his bid for trading contracts,
he was eminently successful in approaching the junta and in observing it close to
hand. Because his tenure at the court (1616-19) coincided roughly with the
height of the junta's power (1614-19), and necessarily with the height of favor
for Shah Jahan (1617-19), Roe was able to confirm by his own participation
what others knew only at a distance. He knew, for example, that Pelsaert's claim
was true: that the king was "King in name only, while she and her brother Asaf
Khan hold the kingdom firmly in their hands . . . [and that many] misunder-
standings result, for the King's orders or grants of appointments, etc., are not
certainties, being of no value until they have been approved by the Queen."172
He could also draw his own firsthand opinion of the players and, in as discreet a
manner as his public journals would allow, cast support for his own personal
candidates. Roe was sure that fratricidal fighting would break out over the issue
of succession, but he was not sure that Shah Jahan would win; his own choice,
we know, was the pro-Christian elder son, Khusrau. Since even at its height, the
cracks in the junta were perceptible to Roe,173 we are not surprised that, given his
bad treatment at the hands of the "faction," he dreamt of a different lay of land
in the years to come. We are surprised, however, that he miscalculated the
staying power of Nur Jahan so completely. Given all that he knew of her pivotal
dominance at court, he must surely have foreseen that she would stand by the
controlling reins until the very end.
 4

"The World Conqueror"

. . . for sometimes he was barbarously cruel, and at other times he would
seem to be exceedingly fair and gentle.
Edward Terry, A Voyage to East-India

The ease with which Nur Jahan took control was as much a function of the
personality of Jahangir as it was of her own clear sight and charisma. The man
she married as her second husband, and with whom she spent more than a third
of her adult life as consort, was an odd mix of traits often much at war. It has
become commonplace to say that Jahangir had contradictory elements within his
personality, that he was as Terry noted above both barbarously cruel and exceed-
ingly fair and gentle,1 weak and yet amiable,2 and as given to scrupulous, severe,
and exact behavior as he was to caprice and whim.3 Modern scholars, too,
generally characterize Jahangir as a man of contrasts saying, for example, that he
was a "strange mix of savagry and kindness," a not altogether harmonious blend
of whimsical temperamentalness and sympathy, or of intolerance and under-
standing.4 While the view that Jahangir was a man plagued by inconsistency is
fair—great cruelty and random punishment did alternate with a love of justice
and odd affections—these inconsistencies masked another, greater vision. The
world peculiar to Jahangir grew, apparently, from a perspective that was clear
and satisfying and that seemed, internally at least, to be as reasonable and
coherent as any of those held otherwise.
Above all else, Jahangir's ties to the world were aesthetic. His orientation
toward his environment, his perception of his experience, and the guiding struc-
tures of his relationships with people derived directly from his senses and, of
these, primarily from the visual. What most satisfied Jahangir was what gave
him pleasure, and what gave him most pleasure were things he could see. He
was guided not by principles of right or wrong or standards of good behavior,
but by an affective and material order, which could be known, admired, and
manipulated by him as viewer. And pleasure arose when this aesthetic vision fell
into place around him confirming that he was, if not its creator, at least its
caretaker.
62
 "The World Conqueror" 63

Jahangir "the aesthete," as Das calls him, was most susceptible to items of
form. From his decision to pierce his ears in 16145 to his fascination with
Karnatic jugglers throwing up balls the size of oranges,6 Jahangir loved the
visual frenzy of life at court. He was a connoisseur of almost every aspect of
Mughal life. He loved the mangoes grown around Agra;7 he knew all the flowers
in north India and Kashmir;8 he helped create the delicacies of the Mughal
kitchen and could distinguish between fish that were almost identical in appear-
ance and taste;9 he had a collection of jade wine cups in various designs and sizes
to match his extravagant drinking habits;10 he wore magnificent clothes of em-
broidered silks and brocades and invented a special coat called a nadiri to be used
only by those he gave it to;11 he fancied himself a poet like the other Persian-
speaking rulers of his time;12 and he orchestrated elegant parades and mannered
royal camps that became a part of Mughal court in motion. 13 All this, Roe noted,
was part of the theater-like quality of Jahangir's court:

Three times a day hee sitteth out in three places: once to see his Elephants and
beasts fight, about noone; after, from foure to flue or sixe, to entertaine all that
visit him; at night, from nine till mid-night, with all his great men, but none
else, where he is below with them, in all familiaritie. I visited him in the second
of these, where I found him in a Court, set aboue like a King in a Play, and all
his Nobles and my selfe below on a state couered with carpets—a iust
Theater; . . . Canopies ouer his head, and two standing on the heads of two
wooden Elephants, to beat away flies.14

His love of life at court was not pure hedonism,15 however, for Jahangir's
proclivity for pleasure was often refined by his intellectualism into a keen sense
for beauty. Says Das: "He was an aristocrat with the eye of a naturalist, the
vision of a poet, the taste of a connoisseur and the philosophy of an epicurean."16
This made Jahangir a patron of all forms of art. His strong interest in what was
new and unusual and his exquisitely discriminating taste found room in the
current schools of Mughal art to take the creative impulse in all its variety out of
the constraints of a growing empire and allow it to flourish as the luxury it came
to be. Of all the arts, however, Jahangir loved miniature painting the best and it
was under him that European influences in perspective and shading, his own
interest in nature and naturalism, and Akbar's encouragement of character delin-
eation began to flower. Unlike his father, who had depicted the momentous
sequences of a civilization in adolescence, and his son, who was perhaps no more
than a glorified jeweler, Jahangir encouraged his artists to make paintings of
people in events rather than of events with people, to portray objectively yet
sympathetically the ordinary foibles of the great and the unusual, and to pre-
serve for posterity his own ideals and visions as well as reality as he, perhaps
alone, found it.
Jahangir's aesthetic vision came at a cost, however. It was fortunate for him
that he had been given a large and well-run empire by his father, for he had neither
the desire nor the temperament to tinker with regional boundaries or with the
machinery of government. Many contemporary travelers saw him as the great
64 NUR JAHAN

King of the East. Roe, for example, noted that "this king is one of the mightyest
Princes in Asia, as well in extent of territory as in revenew";17 Terry called him
"the greatest and richest master of precious stones that inhabits the whole
earth";18 Hawkins said he was "the greatest emperour of the East for wealth, land,
and force of men, as also for horses, elephants, camels, and dromedaries";19 and
Withington conceded that "the greatnesse of this Kinge, the Create Mogul, . . .
is soe greate in comparison of most Christian Kinges that the report would bee
almost incredible."20 That he was an emperor of great wealth is undisputed; that
his wealth was of his own making, however, is a grave misconception.
It is true that Jahangir ruled over a large and prosperous empire, but it had
been a gift to him not a reward. He did not love hard work, as his father did, and
he was not willing to dirty his hands in the building and maintenance of a
political state. He was, however, the perfect emperor for his time: a ruler who,
precisely because he had inherited a stable domain from Akbar, 21 did not have to
work hard at governing and who could more appropriately spend his hours in
pursuing artistic dreams. A second Akbar, with that emperor's determined perse-
verance, might well have brought more war and overextended the Mughal enter-
prise, while an aesthete like Jahangir might have been better suited to the leisure
time afforded by the unparalleled peace of the first years in power. The later
Das, in fact, says: "This slow and languorous lifestyle helped Jahangir to be a
great patron of all kinds of creative arts."22
Politically, then, Jahangir's reign was of little note. His tendency toward the
arts and to pleasure meant that there were no spectacular successes on the
battlefield and no great innovations in the workings of Mughal government.
Although some contend that there was in fact a loss of territory—Kandahar to
the Persians, for example23—what change there was in the configurations of the
empire or in the basic structure of Akbar's system was immaterial. Indeed, as H.
Beveridge notes, Jahangir's "peaceful temper, or his laziness, was an advantage,
for it saved much bloodshed."24
Jahangir's aesthetic vision gave him a place at the center of a pleasure-giving
world, which encouraged and infused a second tendency more fundamental
perhaps than the first: self-absorption. From the beginning, Jahangir lived in a
world that had, quite literally, been waiting for him, that had adored him when
he arrived, and that had existed for nothing else from then on than to please
him. When he opened his memoirs with the story of his birth—of how a father
had been deprived of a son and heir for some time, but on visiting a saint had
been granted not one but three sons, the first of whom was Salim25—it was not
an ordinary statement of historical facts, but an opening testament to the extraor-
dinary event of his existence. That he had come into the world as a result of
remarkable circumstances meant that from that time on he was to be the object
of special attention and regard.
Envisioning the uniqueness of his own appearance in the world, Jahangir
became self-centered and self-indulgent. He developed grand and inflated views
of himself and in time was less and less able to make connections with reality. His
exaggerated view of himself was perhaps nowhere more evident than in the politi-
cal allegory paintings he commissioned later in life, which depicted the emperor
 "The World Conqueror" 65

not only as the grand prince of Asia, benevolently patronizing the lesser rulers of
lesser nations, but also as a sovereign whose rule was divinely inspired.26 At court,
he easily dismissed visitors who didn't please him,27 and he routinely sent back
gifts from travelers and supplicants that were inferior in any way—damaged,
wrong in color or size, or simply inextravagant. 28 He was able without qualms to
rewrite history, to consign to oblivion by his silence whole peoples, incidences,
nuances of events if they did not fit the way he wanted to see the sequence of his
life. There is little mention in his memoirs, for example, of the European mer-
chants, especially the English, who were for years (1615-19) well placed at court,
conversing with Jahangir, receiving presents from him when they were sick,29 and
traveling with him when and wherever his camp moved.30 Nor is there mention of
his marriage to Nur Jahan, surprising in view of his later dependence upon her
and explainable only perhaps with A. S. Beveridge's wonderful phrase "an omis-
sion of the contemporarily obvious."31 His description of the murder of Abul Fazl
related the appropriate facts but in no way indicated grief or remorse on his part,32
and his eloquent vision of his father did not betray the strain and tension that
marked their last few years.33 Finally, there was no overt notice of the blinding of
Khusrau, an odd omission given the great attention paid to the issue of his eldest
son's transgressions over the years.
It may be that history has judged Jahangir as a lazy and indulgent wastrel of a
man who was jealous of his brothers and sons, who shirked the sovereign respon-
sibilities bestowed on him by his father, and who gave in too easily to the positive
gratification of his senses.34 But he was also an utterly appealing character. His
aesthetic vision beautified the court with its symbolic trappings and ritual postur-
ings and created in the Mughal arts, especially in painting, a lasting expression
of the refinement, sophistication, and luxurious repose the Mughals have come
to exemplify. His grandscale egoism, though damaging to the political empire,
gave rise to a diplomacy as pleasing and gracious as it could be random and
retributive and to a memoir that is as immediate and naively self-reflective as it is
selective and self-celebrative. Roe's verdict, though forged of his own humiliat-
ing and eventually unsuccessful bid for trading contracts, was clearly and surpris-
ingly eulogistic:

He is very affable, and of a checrefull countenance . . . and not proud in

nature, . . . for at nights he is ... full of gentle conversation. . . . The wis-
dome and goodness of the King appeares aboue the malice of others . . . [and]
all [are] reconciled by a Patient King, whose hart was not vunderstood by any of
all these [members of the junta]. 35

That Jahangir was an essentially good man misjudged and manipulated by his
retainers may not be an altogether accurate estimate of him, but foreigners who
knew the court felt that as a sovereign he was open, hospitable, and a lover of
fine things. Said van den Broecke:

Jahangir was a handsome man in his youth, but not tall of stature. He was very
ambitious, always striving after more and greater (things). . . . He was a great
66 NUR JAHAN

friend of all forcginers, and artists, whom he loved and treated generously. . . .
He was a great lover of all novelties which he had never seen before, and was
excessively fond of jewels. 36

His aesthetic vision and interior repose, for all their dangers, had shaped a man
who was at once extremely materialistic and self-indulgent, but who could ex-
hibit the taste of a true connoisseur and the open frankness of only the most
naively self-aware. He must surely be, as Gascoigne has noted, "the most sympa-
thetic of [all] the Great Moghuls."37
Of Jahangir's behavior, perhaps the most conspicuously repulsive was his
cruelty. He appears to have inflicted pain at random, condemned to punishment
on whim, and watched acts of brutal savagery just for the morbid fascination of
it. What is most disturbing, perhaps, is that Jahangir did not punish or inflict
pain out of principles of right or wrong or according to the mandates of civil law,
but only if the crime offended his aesthetic sensibility or somehow violated his
ennobled view of himself. For example, he ordered the thumbs of a servant to be
cut off for taking down some champa trees; these trees were "above the bench
alongside the river" and their removal apparently offended some personal appre-
ciation Jahangir held for the area.38 He had a maidservant of Nur Jahan's exe-
cuted by placing her in a pit with her feet tied to a stake and "the Earth hard
ramed" around her up to the armpits, to stay without food and water with her
head and shoulders continually exposed to the sun. If she survived after three
days and two nights she was to be pardoned, though she lived in fact only a day
and a half "crying out most lamentably," "Ah my head, my head!"39 She had
been a former concubine of Jahangir's but had passed the age of thirty when
most men's women were set aside in favor of others. Her crime in this "old age"
had been to kiss a eunuch. 40
Jahangir had men beaten and killed for breaking a china dish.41 He made
two Armenian children who had been raised as Christians become Muslims,
forcing them to be circumcised and to eat pork. 42 He had Hindu icons smashed
because he considered them ugly.43 He had rackish youths locked up with
women of low caste who were "dirty, malodorous, and covered all over with
filth."44 He killed servants who interfered with a good hunt. He condemned a
man convicted of killing his own father to be dragged for miles by the hind leg
of an elephant.45 He desecrated the grave of another man, Nasiruddin, who had
also murdered his father, by ordering the remains thrown into the fire.45 And
he condemned a man to die for killing his mother, judging "him to be stung to
death by snakes."47
Jahangir's special ire at a criminal's parricide48 did not prevent him, however,
from inflicting pain upon his own kin. In about 1612, Hawkins recounted the
famous example of Jahangir baiting his seven-year-old son, Shahryar,49 to see if
he would cry. When Shahryar, under instructions from his nursemaid to restrain
himself, refused to give in Jahangir got even angrier, beat the boy, and had a
bodkin thrust through his cheek.50 This was odd behavior for a man who con-
demned most vehemently those others of his acquaintance who violated the
sacred bonds of parent and child. Note again his irrational hatred for a man like
 "The World Conqueror" 67

Nasiruddin, who poisoned his father, as well as his curious incomprehension of

his colleague, Shah Abbas of Iran, who had had his own son killed in January of
1615. When Jahangir's spies could bring no satisfactory reason for Shah Abbas's
action, he reluctantly put the matter aside by saying, "The killing of a son must
have some powerful motive in order to do away with the disgrace of it."51
Jahangir himself had resolutely refused to kill his own son Khusrau at the time
of his rebellion and ordered him blinded instead, saying in 1607, "my fatherly
affection did not permit me to take his life."52
Nevertheless, Jahangir did live by the bloody rules of the Mughal dynasty,
and if there were concessions to things like "fatherly affection," these were
counterbalanced by a swift recourse to punishment, a refusal to allow transgres-
sion of imperial whim, and a belief that gory retribution would not only be "a
warning to others,"53 but a visually powerful spectacle as well. Only rarely do we
see Jahangir recant a punishment he had ordered: once, for example, when he
allowed Khusrau's blinded eyes to be treated by a physician for sight again,54 and
on another occasion when he interceded, too late apparently, in the infliction of a
death penalty. On this occasion, a huntsman, Subhan Quli, had just been con-
demned to die for seditious activities when the executioner hurried him away
and carried out the emperor's orders. Jahangir meanwhile had decided that
cutting off the offender's feet would be punishment enough, but when he real-
ized he was too late, "[he] regretted the circumstance, and directed that when-
ever an order was given for anyone's execution, . . . they should wait till sunset
before putting him to death. If up to that time no order for release arrived, he
should without fail be capitally punished."55 Such regret is reflected in a later
incident when Jahangir, in a moment of jest, encouraged a love-stricken black-
smith named Kalyan to fling himself off the roof of a house in confirmation of
his love for a reluctantly beloved widow. When the blacksmith's injuries from
the fall proved fatal, Jahangir was greatly repentant and "grieved in my mind."56
Jahangir's reputation for cruelty was widespread in both its magnitude and
its randomness. Said Terry, "when he did wickedly, none could do worse," and
he punished "to his will and passion, not justice."57 Although the streak of
sadism in Jahangir58 hardly affected the foreigners at court or in the surrounds,59
it severely compromised whatever appeal with his people Jahangir might have
had. According to Hawkins, "hee hath raigned in quiet, but ill beloved of the
greater part of his subjects, who stand greatly in feare of him."60
In assessing Jahangir's capacity for cruelty it seems clear that, however
susceptible his violent responses were to his own variable temperament and
unstable emotions, his cruel acts were occasioned either by violations of his own
aesthetic sensibilities or by transgressions of a very personal sense of self. They
were not, we would argue, brought on by the offender's breach of a moral code,
written or unwritten, or by his derision of a principle sacred to the Mughal
system. The crimes, for example, of cutting down champa trees, or of breaking
china, or of being an ugly icon were each distasteful to Jahangir because of his
own quest for visual order. Equally integral to his aesthetic vision were the
punishments he commanded: being crushed or dragged for miles by elephants
or being buried in the ground up to the neck and roasted alive, each carried with
68 NUR JAHAN

it an aesthetic appeal that pleased the eye and, in its extreme brutality, con-
firmed the majesty of Jahangir's reign. Likewise, other crimes disturbed his
exaggerated view of himself. Khusrau's seditious acts were an affront to
Jahangir's sovereignty; a maidservant's kissing a eunuch violated his own posses-
sion of women as well as the protective structures of his personal harem; parri-
cide offended the parent-child bonds so ambivalently symbolized in his own
strained relationship with Akbar and Khusrau; Christian children who resisted
conversion profaned the sanctity of the religion he called his own; and a child
like Shahryar who refused to rise to the bait belittled the direct power of
Jahangir's own personality. His cruelty, then, was not simply an example of
contradictory forces at work, but an expression of a self so inwardly focused that
the beauty and order of the world depended for their perfection upon nothing
other than his own sensual satisfaction.
On the other side of cruelty was Jahangir's love of justice. Among contempo-
raries at the court, he was acknowledged as a supreme example of a king who in
"his greate justice"61 "did relieve continually many poor people."62 When he
acceded to the throne, said van den Broecke, "Jahangir was at first very severe.
He meted out strict justice to all evil doers, for which he was called Adil
Padshah, or the 'Just' king."63 In that year, 1605, Jahangir decided to turn
against his reckless past and vowed "my justice . . . [will] not put up with
oppression from anyone, and . . . in the scales of equity neither smallness nor
greatness . . . [will be] regarded."64 With this in mind he instituted new prac-
tices in the structure of Mughal administration that would, he avowed, ensure
fair treatment of all his subjects. In keeping with his character, however, these
new practices became mere symbols, for he could in the end be a lover of justice
only in appearance. Jahangir came to be known as "just" not because he was in
fact a moral king or because he genuinely had his peoples' interest at heart, but
because he was able to surround himself with the trappings of the fair and the
right. His reputation for justice came to be carried by things outside of ongoing
acts of clear and responsible judgment; instead it was built and maintained by
visual symbols, which endured as reminders to him and to others of the vision he
had originally created of himself [see Figure 4-1]. Moreover, these symbols were
perfectly attuned to the man they represented, for not only were they simple,
clean, and aesthetically appealing forms, but they also placed him, Jahangir, at
the very center of the system, in this way circumventing the existing structures
of grievance and redress.65
To this end, then, Jahangir opened his administration by pardoning all long-
term criminals and by issuing twelve edicts known as the dastar ul-amal.66 These
edicts were to guide and encourage the good conduct of his subjects by, for
instance, setting up way stations (sarais) on roads normally frequented by rob-
bers, forbidding the search of merchants' goods without their permission, ensur-
ing the passing of a dead man's property on to his heirs, prohibiting the manufac-
ture or sale of intoxicating spirits and drugs, and establishing certain days of the
week and year as days free of animal slaughter for food.67 Although these edicts
would appear to have infused the system with a sense of fairness, they were in
fact only cosmetic—paying homage to a sensitivity to justice, but hardly offering
FIGURE 4-1. "The Emperor Jahangir with Bow and Arrow." Indian painting;
Mughal, ca. 1605; opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper mounted on board: 14.S
x 7.5 cm. Courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Wash-
ington, B.C. (S86.0408). Probably painted at Jahangir's accession, this traditional
standing portrait shows a youthful, though robust, emperor with the symbols of his
new sovereignty. The red turban and dark green ground make this an exceptionally
pleasing image.
70 NUR JAHAN

radical change in the way things worked. In fact, as the reign proceeded, they
themselves were frequently violated.
More importantly, as his very first order of business, he had a Chain of
Justice fastened up, "so that if those engaged in the administration of justice
should delay or practise hypocrisy in the matter of those seeking justice, the
oppressed might come to this chain and shake it so that its noise might attract
attention."68 This chain was made of pure gold and hung with sixty bells, and
was fastened at one end to the battlements of the Shah Burj of the fort at Agra
and at the other to a stone post on the riverbank of the Yamuna.69 It was to stand
as a symbol of his readiness to hear every complaint of every subject no matter
how petty the issue or how mean the supplicant. Hawkins saw this chain and
described it as follows:

A long rope is fastened unto two pillars, neere unto the place where the King
sitteth in justice. This rope is hanged full of bels, plated with gold, so that the
rope beeing shaken the bels are heard by the King; who sendeth to know the
cause and doth his justice accordingly.70

The second tangible and visible sign of Jahangir's justice was his custom of
sitting at thejharoka, or inspecting window of his palace, and hearing the affairs
of the poor and miserable.71 It was a custom that developed early in his reign and
that he honored three times a day (after morning prayers, between noon and
three in the afternoon, and just before sunset)72 no matter how sick his body had
become or how unfortunate the weather. According to Coryat:

The King presenteth himselfc thrice every daie without faile to his nobles; at
the rising of the sunne, which he adoreth by the elevation of his hands; at
noone; and at five of the clocke in the evening. But he standeth in a roome aloft,
alone by him selfe, and looketh uppon them from a window that hath an
embroidered sumptuous coverture, supported with two silver pillasters to yeeld
shaddowe unto him.73

In theory, Jahangir envisioned himself as a second Solomon, who occupied "the

throne of the wind, and hastened out, and released the people of God from this
pain and trouble."74 Said Roe: "On Tuesday at the Jamico he sitts in Judgment,
neuer refusing the poorest mans Complaynt, where hee heares with Patience
both parts."75 The immediacy of Jahangir's judgment was remarkable, appar-
ently, and Terry was often impressed by the swiftness of the hearing and the
directness of the sentence: "The Great Mogul will sit himself as judge, in any
matters of consequence that happen near unto him: and there are no malefactors
that lie more than one night in prison and many times not at all."76 Jharoka
sitting was an ideal custom for Jahangir, for it allowed him the appearance of
being a just and concerned king without requiring him to exert any effort in the
back corridors on behalf of the often tedious maintenance of a fair and equable
system. It also placed him squarely at the center of his subjects' vision of Mughal
rule, creating the perception of a unique intimacy with each and every one of
 "The World Conqueror" 71

them and of a visible presence at the very source of power from which the peace
and order of the empire emanated. At the window, then, Jahangir was indeed the
sun upon whose radiance his subjects depended for their sustenance.77
Jahangir's reputation for justice was enriched by the particular cases he saw
fit to adjudicate. There was, for example, the case of the widow's daughter who
had been forcibly taken in the port on the Gulf of Cambay by one of Muqarrab
Khan's servants. When inquiries were made, the widow discovered her daugh-
ter had died what was called "an unavoidable death." On learning of the affair,
Jahangir ordered the servant put to death, Muqarrab Khan's mansab reduced by
half, and the widow recompensed for her loss.78 In another instance, probably
apocryphal, the son of one of Nur Jahan's sisters whom she had adopted as her
own accidentally trampled a child to death while riding through the streets on an
elephant. Concerned, as any good Muslim might be, that the punishment fit the
crime, Jahangir eventually had the offending boy himself trampled to death by
another elephant.79 Again, Jahangir once noticed a Rajput being taken away to
be hung. Asking his offense, the emperor was told that he had violated a Muslim
woman. Jahangir called the woman in and asked her "if the Rajput's body was
hairless, like he was in the face." Supposing that he shaved the hair on his body
as he did his beard, the woman answered yes, whereupon Jahangir ordered an
examination. Finding the woman to have raised a false complaint, the emperor
released the Rajput and ordered the woman to die.80
By tradition, the most famous example of Jahangir's justice, however, was
his response to a crime committed by Nur Jahan herself. In a story that is almost
certainly not historical, Nur Jahan was standing unveiled in an inner courtyard
one day when a low-caste man happened by accident to wander in. Incensed by
this intrusion, the queen quickly drew an arrow and killed him. Notwithstand-
ing who she was, Jahangir sentenced Nur Jahan to prison, bound and chained,
to be executed.

Ah! Is it the same Nur Jahan who /

behind the curtain of Jahangir /
was but the true Ruler of the Time? /
Is it the same Lady /
that if her delicate forehead creased /
the leaves of governance creased too? /
[No], this Nur Jahan, now, /
is not the same. /
No more her conceit, cruel charms, /
devastating coquetry! /
A criminal, /
she has no supporter, no advocate: /
forlorn, homeless, belonging nowhere!

The emperor would have carried the requirements of justice out to their very
end, according to the story, and executed Nur Jahan had not she paid a hundred
thousand dirhams blood money to the poor man's heirs.81
Even though this story is probably the product of a tradition obsessed with
72 NUR JAHAN

the excesses of its king, Jahangir was himself responsible for his reputation of
impartially implementing justice. He said, for example, after ordering the death
of a nobleman's son who had committed "an unjust murder," "God forbid that
in such affairs I should consider princes, and far less that I should consider
Amirs. I hope that the grace of God may support me in this."82 Not only did
Jahangir agonize over inflicting punishment on the high-placed and noble, de-
serving though they might be, but he also visibly recoiled in horror when he
heard of the cruelty and injustice of others. When he heard, for example, that
Abdullah Khan had ordered the head of a man cut off who at a wine party was
drunk and in his "state of drunkenness . . . had uttered some improper expres-
sions by way of a joke," he was outraged and ordered that Khan's holdings be
drastically reduced.83
If Jahangir's reputed love of justice put him at the visual center of a domestic
system of redress and grievance, then it was a kindred diplomatic policy that
dreamt of placing his empire, with him as its symbol, at the center of all the
other nations of the earth [see Figure 4-2]. Here, Jahangir's self-indulgence
demanded that popular sentiment be focused directly upon him and be as firm
in appearance as he hoped it might be in reality. Terry, for example, told the
touching story of Jahangir's encounter with the Mercator map book. Among the
travelers and merchants at the court, Jahangir had fed himself "with this con-
ceit, that he ... [was] Conqueror of the world." Roe once gave Jahangir a copy
of Mercator's atlas when the emperor arrived unannounced and the Englishman
had nothing more suitable to give.84 At first Jahangir appeared to be much taken
with the map book looking for his own territory and asking questions about
those that surrounded it. He soon gave the book back, however, saying "that he
would not rob him [Roe] of such a Jewel." But, said Terry, "the truth, is that the
Great Mogul might very well bring his action against Mercator and others who
describe the world, but streighten him very much in their maps, not allowing
him to be lord and commander of those provinces which properly belong unto
him."85 Jahangir was no fool here and well understood the message the maps had
to tell. His response, however, was completely in character. He did not want to
know anything that might undermine the carefully crafted vision he had of
himself; even less was he willing to change, by conquest or treaty, the bound-
aries reflected in Mercator's maps so that they might more accurately match the
world as Jahangir had envisioned it. Better to keep intact his inflated sense of
himself than to tamper with the reality it was supposed to mirror.
Jahangir's self-centered geography was perhaps best reflected in the series of
miniature paintings he had commissioned later in life to portray, among other
things, his benevolent patronage of area rulers and emissaries. Unlike his early
paintings, which reflected a vigor and restlessness characteristic of youthful
impatience, and unlike the paintings of his mature rule, which showed him
politically responsible, managing in due course a daily life surrounded by sons,
friends, and nobles, the political allegory paintings of Jahangir's old age eulo-
gized him outrageously, flattering him beyond proportion as a mighty yet be-
nevolent sovereign, just short of divine stature.86 These paintings of his old age
functioned for Jahangir in a number of ways. In cases such as "Jahangir as the
FIGURE 4-2. "Durbar Scene of Jahangir." Indian painting; Mughal, ca. 1615; school
of Jahangir; by Abul Hasan; color and gold on paper: 16.9 x 12.3 cm. (6 11/16 x 4
7/8"). Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington,
D.C. (46.28). Note the footed globe under Jahangir's feet with a keyhole and the key
hanging from his sash. Arranged around him mandala-sty\e are courtiers, including
Karan Singh, Hindu prince of Mewar, a Europeanized "emperor of Rum," Shah
Jahan, Mahabat Khan, Asaf Khan, and Itimaduddaula.

73
74 NUR JAHAN

Queller of Rebellion"87 and "Jahangir Shooting the Head of Malik Ambar,"88

they transformed acknowledged fears and failures into decided victories. In a
case such as "Jahangir Embracing Shah Abbas,"89 they established Jahangir as
the preeminent ruler of Asia, generously patronizing and receiving homage from
neighboring rulers. And in cases such as "Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaykh to
Kings"90 they showed Jahangir making a clear choice away from secular author-
ity and toward the life of the spirit.91
Notwithstanding the wonderful intimacy and self-revelation of his memoirs,
it was these later paintings, perhaps, that best showed the dynamics of his
"mature" character. Even as they shored up icons to protect him from a failed
reality, they worked as well to a counter purpose: to betray (certainly not unbe-
knownst to him) his impotence and vulnerability to the court and to the people
of his realm. Not only do we see an aging and increasingly corpulent physical
body but also personal dreams too grandiose and impossible ever to be true. Are
these paintings, then, more than just the excessive visions of an old man help-
lessly out of touch with reality? Could they also be a kind of mockery of the great
abyss between what was and what was hoped to be, hopes so futile and preposter-
ous that now the visions could be played out in the open without any threat to
the integrity of the holder? It would have taken a substantial personality to allow
such a mockery to unfold over so many years, but perhaps by his later life he was
just such a man: hopelessly entangled in fantasies about his political rule, yet
clear enough about himself to let a public in on the wild and errant dreams that
had replaced any real efforts of his own to govern.92
Whether or not these paintings reenvisioned reality or self-consciously poked
fun at the patron who held such views, one of the central icons of most of them
was the nimbus around Jahangir's head, recalling the sun imagery so prevalent
in his use of the name nur93 and in the symbolic structures of his love for justice
(for example, the gold chain and the radiantly ctntraljharoka window). Use of
sun imagery for religious and political purposes had begun in earnest with Akbar
and with Jahangir had become so much a part of his public persona that the
emperor had come to truly believe he was, as a Hindi poet had told him, the son
of the sun.94 His royal standard, preserved in an engraving by Terry, showed "a
couchant lion shadowing part of the body of the sun,"95 and his daily rituals were
increasingly attuned to the movements of the sun, thus affirming the associa-
tion, if not the identity, of the two.95 These paintings of his later years, then, not
only brought to completion the presumptions of his earlier reign, but tied him as
well to the symbols of Akbar and, in the case of at least one painting ("Jahangir
Embracing Shah Abbas"), allowed him to become so overwhelmed by the solar
icon as to be personally absorbed within it.
That Jahangir loved justice for the aesthetic qualities and self-indulgence of
that love is clear. That this lore meant separation from the world for the preserva-
tion of justice was tolerable to him so long as his idealized perception of himself
as just remained intact. This love's distance from reality became counterpoised,
however, by an oddly objective scrutiny of nature that was, if not intimate, at
least highly curious and wonderfully attentive to particulars. Says Varadarajan:
"Jahangir may have lacked the charisma of Akbar but he had a finer eye for
 "The World Conqueror" 75

observation than his illustrous father."97 We have seen that Jahangir's aesthetic
vision produced in him a desire for the appearance of order and that his self-
absorption required a world that seemed to revolve around him. These two
tendencies found expression again in a naturalist's sympathy for the unique and
curious in nature. He took pity, for example, on elephants in winter, who had to
bathe in cold water, and provided for them water heated up to the temperature
of lukewarm milk.98 He had suits and shawls made for some jackals who had
called out craving "some protection against the cold." " And he erected a manar
or tower on the grave of a favorite antelope, who had excelled in fighting other
antelopes.100
He loved new and unusual animals,101 noting, for example, that the zebra
looked as if "the painter of fate" had colored it "with a strange brush,"102 and he
recorded seeing the albino of any number of species;103 he watched cranes mate104
and a mad dog inflict fatal wounds on two elephants;105 and he recorded in detail
all the animals he had killed while hunting—not out of morbidity but as a
naturalist might list populations.106 He had Inayat Khan, a courtier dying from
opium and wine, brought into his presence so that he might watch the ravages of
nature work their course;107 he marveled at a gardener's daughter who had a
moustache, a thick beard, hair on her chest and no breasts but who was in every
other way an ordinary woman(!);108 he noted being given an outrageously over-
sized peach109 that proved to be as sweet as any he had ever tasted; and he was
astounded at the appearance of snow in the lower Himalayas on the way to
Kashmir after so many years of its absence.110 His naturalist's instinct and his
sympathies for the quirks in the world were thus revealed with amazing accuracy
and attention to detail. Jahangir prided himself so much on his capacity for
detail, in fact, that he boasted that he could tell in a moment which of his artists
had painted a certain picture.111 This attention to little things and to the realia of
nature was best reflected in the honesty Jahangir asked for himself in all his
miniature paintings. In image after image, we can see him grow increasingly
wide in girth, and we can see the slackening skin of his jowls, the sometimes
unshaven skin of his cheeks, the shortish stature, and the eyes heavy with
drink.112 Jahangir never shied from having himself shown as he was, and if these
imperfections were part of his place in a larger scheme, his art would make them
known.
Two of the things that gave Jahangir great pleasure were wine and opium.
Although intoxication had been a habit of the early Mughal emperors113 and was
the habit of all of Akbar's sons (both Murad and Daniyal had died of its ex-
cesses),114 Jahangir might have drunk anyway because wine augmented his aes-
thetic vision and reaffirmed his self-indulgence, while unfortunately magnifying
his other faults and frailties [see Figure 4-3].115 By his own admission, Jahangir
began drinking in his eighteenth year.116 Except occasionally when sick as a
child,117 Jahangir did not drink until about January of 1586, when he became
involved in a campaign to put down a disturbance of Afghans at the fort of
Attock. Leaving the camp that had been set up on the bank of the river, young
Salim went out on a hunt. As he grew tired, one of his uncle's (Mirza Muham-
mad Hakim) gunners suggested that a little liquor might relieve his exhaustion
FIGURE 4-3. "Portrait of Jahangir." Indian painting; Mughal, ca. 1620; opaque water-
colors on paper: 10.8 x 5.4 cm. (4 1/4 x 2 1/8"). Courtesy of the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, from the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum Acquisi-
tion Fund (M.83.1.5). Note the wine cup.

76
 "The World Conqueror" 77

and, feeling well-disposed to it, Salim took a cup and a half of sweet yellow wine.
Finding "its quality agreeable," he began drinking regularly, increasing the
quantity day by day until wine no longer intoxicated him and he had to change
over to spirits (araq~).ng
During the next nine years, until he was twenty-six, Jahangir's "potions rose
to twenty cups of doubly distilled spirits, fourteen during the daytime and the
remainder at night," while his food consumption diminished drastically.

In that state of matters no one had the power to forbid me, and matters went to
such a length that in the crapulous state from the excessive trembling of my
hand I could not drink from my own cup, but others had to give it to me to
drink.119

In the wake of this period of heavy adolescent drinking, and at the insistence of
one of his father's physicians, who told him he had six months left in which to
turn his life around,120 Jahangir began to cut down his consumption. Over the
next seven years, he reduced his intake of liquor to six cups a day, each portion
containing two parts wine and one part araq.m This reduction was facilitated by
the use offiluniya, a drug of unclear identity,122 whose quantity increased as the
liquor decreased. With certain exceptions for given days of the week,123 Jahangir
continued at the rate of six cups of liquor a day for the next fifteen years, or until
he was forty-seven. It was at the same time, at some point during this twenty-
two-year period, that Jahangir substituted opium for thefiluniya, and by 1615,
when he gave this detailed account of his history of drinking, he was taking
opium twice a day, eight surkhs (a red berry being used as a measure) after five
gharis of day and six surkhs after one watch of night, 124 in addition to his liquor.
As might be expected, Jahangir's consumption of wine and opium severely
affected his health. Although he admitted that after the first nine years of heavy
drinking his body was ready to give out, he continued drinking despite its ill
effects. In mid-1614, for example, he came down with a fever and headache, but
drank his usual wine at night just the same, even though "it brought on greater
weakness."125 Later, in 1618, when doctors again assessed his state of health,
Jahangir was told that: "As soon as you moderate your habit of taking wine and
opium, all these troubles of yours will disappear."126 Jahangir did, in fact, reduce
his intake of both intoxicants this time and noticed "a great gain on that first
day." A week and a half later when his headache returned, he reduced his liquor
again, but with the consent of his doctors, had to resume his normal pattern of
drinking after three days. It appeared that the withdrawal symptoms from reduc-
ing his liquor had only exacerbated his illness, which was already quite ad-
vanced.127 Although later again in that year he was advised by his physicians to
reduce his usual number of cups of wine because of the harshness of the climate
of Gujarat where he was then staying, 128 it appears in general that until the end of
his life he continued his habit of daily wine and opium. 129
It seems odd that a man who could be at once so obsessed with his own
health,130 could also be so stubborn in holding onto those very things that devas-
tated his body. We know that he had a powerful capacity for delusion about
78 NUR JAHAN

drink, as he rationalized in 1605 that now "I drink only to digest my food."131
But he also must have known what wine and opium were doing to him. While
there is no doubt that his life was foreshortened by these intoxicants, there can
be no doubt as well that their consumption helped to stave off the feelings of
inferiority he held in the face of the powerful memory of his father and helped
also to sustain the high standards of his own aesthetic vision.
We are not privy to Jahangir's inner feelings about his addiction, but he did
leave us with one story that suggested a deep sense of the knowledge of the power
of drink. In his 1618 memoirs, he related an event previously narrated to him by
Akbar. Once in his early youth, apparently, Salim had had two or three cups of
wine and, mounting an elephant, urged the beast to charge and fight another
elephant. The fight took both elephants to the head of a bridge over the Yamuna
and Salim, who was pretending to onlookers to be even more drunk than he
actually was, wondered to himself whether to hold his own elephant back.

I thought that if I held him back from the bridge the people would regard those
drunken ways (of mine) as a sham, and would believe that neither was I beside
myself, nor was the elephant violent and headstrong. Such pretences on the part
of Kings are disapproved of, and so after imploring the aid of God—Glory be to
Him—I did not restrain the elephant.132

Even though the story was told by Akbar, and betrayed Akbar's clear moralistic
sense as well as his knowledge of his own son's temperament, it was completely
characteristic of Jahangir to have kept the facade he had created for his audience
intact. This early story about Jahangir's drinking indicated, moreover, that
alcohol may have been one sure way for Jahangir to encourage in himself a
personal recklessness large enough to compete with the courage and fearlessness
of Akbar. Wine and opium, then, besides being an expected custom of the
family, were both a source of shame before his father and the very agent by
which he fended off Akbar's powerfully competent image. They provided per-
haps the only medium by which Jahangir could feel comfortable as Akbar's son,
for they afforded him not only a mental screen to cloud out his filial memories,
but also an avenue for contributing to the empire—the aesthetic—that was
impossible for his father's generation as the evolution of the empire had not yet
fully provided for the luxuries of leisure. Jahangir's addiction, then, was a
complex structure—part family habit, part indulgence in the sensual, part ma-
nipulation of those who cared for him, part blind against his father, part false
courage for his father, and part stimulant for the arts. It seems quite certain in
any case, that it was not to be given up.
If Jahangir did, in fact, exercise little control over his own drinking habits,
he was quite vocal about those of others. At the beginning of his reign, as one of
his twelve orders, he forbade the manufacture or sale of any intoxicating spirit or
drug;133 he openly criticized one of his commanders, recently dead, who "had
been maddened with wine and drank immoderately," assuming, probably
rightly, that it had been this habit that had brought about his destruction;134 and
he appeared belatedly pleased when another noble had been able to give up "this
 "The World Conqueror" 79

man-destroying intoxication" in one stroke without leaving "it off gradually" as

Jahangir had advised.135 Others were aware of Jahangir's apparently high stan-
dards as well, and Roe noted that drunkenness was strictly forbidden at the
court where one's breath was tested upon entering and a positive result meant a
whipping.136
The puritanical streak in Jahangir that moved him to ban tobacco137 as well as
drink at court, but did not seriously limit his own indulgence,138 was not strong
enough to include his own children. It was in 1615 that Jahangir turned to his
son, Khurram, then twenty-four and with wife and children, and observed,
certainly not proudly, that he had "never defiled himself with drinking wine."
On his twenty-fourth birthday, then, and on the occasion of his yearly weighing,
Khurram was introduced by his father to the pleasures of wine.139 Why this son
had not yet ever drunk is somewhat of a mystery, but his long restraint may have
stemmed from poor health,140 from a general prohibitionist personality, from his
increasingly orthodox Muslim ways, or from the negative modeling of his father.
Whatever the reasons for his earlier abstinance, however, Khurram, though
reluctant, eventually took the wine.141 Although we have no further record of his
reaction to the liquor that day or to the windy speech on moderation delivered
by his father, Khurram was now indulgent for life. Why Jahangir felt it neces-
sary to initiate Khurram into the mysteries of wine is unknown, but he might
have felt, as he certainly did for himself, that Khurram was no man without it.
Some may suggest that Jahangir's addiction clears up one of the puzzles of
his relationship with Nur Jahan. Although she had one daughter by Sher Afgan,
Nur Jahan had no children by her second husband and Jahangir himself re-
corded no more children born after the births of Jahandar and Shahryar in 1605
to concubines.142 It is certainly possible that Jahangir's heavy consumption of
alcohol and opium rendered him either impotent or uninterested. Equally possi-
ble, however, is an early menopause for Nur Jahan, concern by her doctors for
her advancing age and therefore of an increased risk in childbirth, or the cus-
tom, noted by Terry, of putting women aside sexually after their thirtieth year,
presumably when they had lost their youthful bloom.143 This last possibility is
not likely: although Jahangir married Nur Jahan when she was thirty-five, he
was, from all accounts, truly smitten by her beauty. The effects of Jahangir's
addictions, then, may well have included their childlessness.
Jahangir's basic proclivity for the orderly structure and self-reflective quality
of his world was voiced, finally, in his durable interest in signs and portents.
Jahangir saw the natural world as at every point invested with a unique meaning
tied directly to the experience of men. Each sphere—the human and the
natural—was a map whose points had significance, and each map in its turn
mirrored the constantly changing movements of the other. As emperor, Jahangir
played a special role in the correspondence between these two spheres, for not
only could his future well-being or demise be read in the manifestation of natural
omens, but his own human actions were thought to be especially powerful in
altering the flow of events in nature. Beginning with the prophetic origin of his
own birth,144 Jahangir's life was in many ways ruled by the proclamations of
soothsayers and fortune-tellers. Pelsaert, for example, said: "Some of the brah-
80 NUR JAHAN

mans are very ingenious, good astronomers . . . indeed the present King gener-
ally kept one at Court, whose prophecies, or most of them, proved quite accu-
rate."145 Jahangir, we know, minted zodiacal coins;145 he weighed himself in gold
and silver, vegetables and animals, and gave "his weight" to the poor in order to
stave off the ill effects of an eclipse of the sun;147 his premonition to hold back
from a trip to Agra was confirmed by an outbreak of the plague in that city;148
and he used astrologers to fix auspicious hours for his marches.149
He noted with unabashed satisfaction that Shaikh Salim Chishti accurately
foretold the occasion of his own death—that it would be when he, the child
Salim, learned and recited something from memory;150 that an astrologer, Jotik
Rai, foretold the fall and safe recovery of Jahangir's grandson, Shah Shuja; 151
that this same astrologer foretold the death of one of the emperor's wives,
Padshah Banu Begam, which had been perceived in Jahangir's horoscope two
months earlier;152 that this same astrologer again accurately foretold that Shah
Shuja would not die from a sickness but that it would take some other child
instead;153 that a female soothsayer predicted the recovery of a valuable pearl lost
in the harem;154 and that a gold tray used to carry refreshment to a hunter, which
had fallen from a servant's hand as he was crossing the river, was recovered the
next day, still in the river, right side up, "and not a drop of water had got into the
cups"!155 Jahangir, moreover, operated in a system where some days were lucky
and others unlucky, Nur Jahan, for example, had lost a valuable necklace of
pearls and rubies on a hunt in 1618. Huntsmen who looked for them on a
Wednesday, an unlucky day for the emperor, could not find them but then
successfully recovered them on Thursday, one of his lucky days.156 Van den
Broecke reported that soothsayers were consulted for the most auspicious day on
which to bring a treasure of gold and silver out of Agra and away from the reach
of Shah Jahan,157 and Pelsaert noted that Jahangir slept in different palaces each
night according to the "day name of the" building.158
Jahangir was drawn to signs and portents, then, because this system of
referents had an intrinsic order and beauty and provided him a central position
in the allocation of meaning. Like thejharoka window, the sciences of auspicious
prophecy catapulted Jahangir to the head of an ordering system that made him
an essential component in linking together the human and natural spheres. And
again like the jharoka window, it was Jahangir's position not his person that was
important, for he did not actually have to do anything to make the system work;
he simply had to be in place and let the system set him forth. The science of
signs and portents, moreover, perfectly suited Jahangir's temperament, for it
was based on an aesthetic sense of a vague and distant divine order not fully
knowable to man. Man's only access to it was through secondary markers and,
because these markers always had a specific referent, it was easy for Jahangir to
center the system on himself. Believing in signs and portents, then, gave him an
established order that was visible, tangible, and material and that could be
comfortably explained and sometimes manipulated by persons from within.
It was this personality, self-absorbed and sensual, superstitious and prone to
excess, that found its ideal match in Nur Jahan. Theirs was a real love, no doubt,
born of a physical attraction and personal allure powerful on both sides, but also
 "The World Conqueror" 81

an alliance of perfectly suited talents and needs. Nur Jahan was by the time of
her second marriage an experienced woman, no longer prey to adolescent desires
and already successful in bearing a child. Hers could be a mature love, some-
times nurturing, sometimes scolding, sometimes relinquishing, but always a
partner to her husband's idiosyncrasies. Jahangir, as well, was past his prime.
Already hopelessly under the influence of wine and opium, he had spent too
many youthful years enjoying the fruits of a noble birth and scheming his way
onto his father's throne. He had married many women already, sported a surplus
of heirs, and was surrounded by courtiers who fawned, physicians who nagged,
and poets and seers who too readily offered their words. Why, then, did he
marry Nur Jahan? He did not need an heir; he did not need to firm an alliance
with Persian nobility; and he did not lack for beautiful faces in his zanana. This
already aging woman, herself the victim of a tragically ended first marriage, was
somehow able to clear out the debris and stave off the emptiness of Jahangir's
life. She came to him in his middle age and, thus deprived of any memories of a
firmer, more handsome, and more hospitable consort, she had to accept her new
husband for what he had become. Knowing him from no other time than 1611,
she could offer him unconditional approval and out of that affirmation could
create a marriage in which she accepted yet refined, celebrated yet transfigured,
attended yet ruled.
It is because it was a mature marriage for both, shaped by the peculiarities of
men and women in their later years, that the alliance of Jahangir and Nur Jahan
has received such devastating press and that the reputation of Nur Jahan in
particular has suffered the most damage. The needs of a Jahangir in his middle
years and the experienced abilities of a Nur Jahan easily lent themselves to the
regressive dependency that surfaced so readily in the accounts of contemporary
writers. Mutamid Khan and Kamgar Khan, for example, both stated that
Jahangir passed the affairs of state on entirely to Nur Jahan and that he was able
to remain emperor of India only in name.159 Terry, who called Nur Jahan
Jahangir's "most beloved wife," also said "she made such a thorough conquest
on his affections, that she engrossed almost all his love, [and] did what she
pleased in the government of that empire."160 Van den Broecke, whose opinion of
Jahangir was almost always critical, said that soon after his accession Jahangir
"gave himself up to pleasures, allowed himself to be misguided by women, and
became addicted to drink, caring very little about his kingdom."161 More specifi-
cally, however, "he got into the clutches of this woman, who has ruined his fair
name" and who kept "very much . . . in check" his natural inclinations and
generosity.162 And Delia Valle, sometime in 1623 to 1624, noted that Jahangir
"hath one Wife, or Queen, whom he esteems and favours above all other
Women; and his whole Empire is govern'd at this day by her counsel."163
Although the view that Jahangir simply abandoned his government to the
power-mongering hands of his middle-aged wife is frequently recapitulated in
secondary sources,164 there is another, equally persuasive view to the contrary.
Many argue that "it is a mistake to think Jahangir was reduced to a cipher"165 and
that, while Nur Jahan did exercise considerable authority, Jahangir retained
much of his control over the government. The balance was tenuous, no doubt,
82 NUR JAHAN

and given the weakness of the central authority system and the strengths of the
internecine struggles, some rightly believe that "Jahangir's credit lies [instead]
in the [very] fact that he survived."166 If we examine Jahangir's memoirs it shows
in fact that, in his relationship to Nur Jahan, there lurked a personality that had
always depended upon advisers for support and that had always elicited doting
affection from its intimates. It is only with Nur Jahan, however, that all these
tendencies took up rest in a single person. The vacuum of government left by
Jahangir's aesthetic interests and physical debilities was filled, in this marriage,
by a capable, strong, and aggressive woman, who provided a shield behind
which Jahangir felt safe but who could also hold him up squarely in his office.
There is no doubt, however, that the power he gave up to her was founded
upon a real affection. He noted in his memoirs, for example, a time when Nur
Jahan had fallen sick. She had been attended by both Muslim and Hindu doctors
but had shown no signs of recovery when Jahangir ordered in Hakim Ruhullah.
Under this man's expert ministrations, by "the aid of God (Glory be to His
name!), in a short time she quite recovered," and Jahangir rewarded the success-
ful physician most amply.167 Such concern was shown for no other wife and only
rarely for a stricken son. On other occasions, what took Nur Jahan's fancy also
took his and when she built "a lofty house, and . . . royal garden," calling it Nur
Mahal Sarai and celebrated its completion in early 1621 with a feast, Jahangir
showed great pleasure.168
Later in January of 1622, when Nur Jahan's father Itimaduddaula died,
Jahangir's concern was not that he was losing his most trusted and loyal minis-
ter, but that his favorite wife was losing her father: "The next day news came
that his state had undergone a change, and that the signs of hopelessness were
apparent. I could not bear the agitation of Nur Jahan Begam, and considering
the affection which I bore towards him, I returned to the camp."169 Just before
Itimaduddaula finally passed on, Nur Jahan beckoned Jahangir to come close to
her father's pillow, and when she asked the dying man if he recognized her
husband, he responded with a couplet that praised his son-in-law's splendor as
evident even to a man blind from birth. Had Itimaduddaula not been Nur
Jahan's father, Jahangir would probably not have sat so attentively by his pillow
for the last two hours of his life, and although the posthumous praise might have
come in any case, he certainly would not have responded so touchingly to other
members of the mourning family.170
Following the Mughal custom of escheat, of bestowing a dead man's fortune
upon whomever the emperor so designed, Jahangir then gave Itimaduddaula's
entire estate, including all his political holdings, to Nur Jahan "and ordered that
her drums and orchestra . . . be sounded after those of the King." 171 In so
bypassing the expected heir, Itimaduddaula's eldest living son, Asaf Khan,
Jahangir was exercising a prerogative that was his indeed, but one which in this
instance made no friends for Nur Jahan. Not only was this substantial gift an
expression of Jahangir's love for his wife but it resulted in a consolidation of
power evermore firm, evermore influential, and evermore feared as it went into
hands that were increasingly closed. With this gift, though, the declaration
Jahangir had made of his wife just earlier in 1621 seemed to have been con-
 "The World Conqueror" 83

firmed: "From the date on which Nur Jahan Begam entered into the bond of
marriage with this suppliant . . . she had made such arrangements as were
becoming to the State, and knew what were the requirements of good fortune
and prosperity."172
Nur Jahan's response to the personal affection and largesse bestowed on her
by Jahangir was to give back in kind. In all she did for Jahangir, at least by his
own account, she was as generous, as hospitable, and as nurturing as any mother
might have been for a child. It seems most appropriate that Jahangir's very first
mention of Nur Jahan in his memoirs was some three years after their marriage
when, in 1614, he came down with a fever and headache. Fearing that knowl-
edge of his illness might throw the country into an unstable state, he did not tell
his family nor any of his doctors. He did not tell anyone, in fact, except Nur
Jahan, "than whom I did not think anyone was fonder of me."173 Jahangir
continued to turn to Nur Jahan in his other sicknesses and, in 1621, when his
health succumbed, as it often did, to the evils of hot weather, he found his most
satisfying repose with her, for her "skill and experience are greater than those of
the physicians."174
It was in Jahangir's drinking that Nur Jahan was probably most helpful, for
his own natural restraint was quite low and her powers of discipline notoriously
high. On this same occasion in 1621, in fact, Nur Jahan's remedy for the ill
effects of heat was a reduction in Jahangir's cups of wine. She had not approved
the prescriptions of the attending physicians and, by measures Jahangir did not
record in his memoirs, "she, by degrees, lessened my wine, and kept me from
things that did not suit me, and food that disagreed with me."173 Pelsaert went
even further and recorded an evening scene that must have taken place almost
every night at the close of Jahangir's business hours. After the last of the wine
had been drunk, he said, the king went to bed and there the queen with her
female slaves undressed him, "chafing and fondling him as if he were a little
child." Having so completely disposed him into her powers, Nur Jahan now
took advantage of his intoxicated state—"his wife, who knows so well how to
manage him that she obtains whatever she asks for or desires, gets always 'yes;'
and hardly ever 'no,' in reply."176 The debilitating control Nur Jahan acquired
over Jahangir's drinking habits became legendary and, said Manucci: "It was
enough for the queen to deny him a drink of wine to drive him to tears, and to
dry them . . . [she] had only to present him a glass well filled with liquor."177
In another story recorded by Manucci, a physician called on Jahangir's court
when the emperor was drunk. Deciding to kill the man, Jahangir called for a
bow and arrow, but Nur Jahan, "who was behind a screen," had arrows made of
cane sent so that "the king might not kill him." When the arrows failed to do
their job, Nur Jahan had the courtiers motion to the physician to fall down as if
dead to bring, thereby, the emperor's drunken displeasure to an end.178 On yet a
different occasion, Jahangir was listening to the singing of his musicians when he
came to the end of his allotted nine cups of wine. He turned to Nur Jahan to ask
her for more, and when she said no, "he fell into a passion, laid hold of the
queen and scratched her, she doing the same on her side, grappling with the
king, biting and scratching him, and no one dared to separate them." The
84 NUR JAHAN

musicians devised a ploy to end the scuffle and themselves, in the outer room,
began to weep and cry out and tear their garments. The couple heard and,
coming out to see "that it was a feigned plot, . . . they fell a-laughing, and the
fight ended." The musicians were rewarded, but Nur Jahan could be placated
only by having Jahangir fall at her feet, which he did by having his shadow cross
her path one day in the garden.179
Much of what the later Europeans recorded may be exaggerated local tradi-
tion, but van den Broecke, writing in 1627 or so, must have preserved some of
what was authentic, even in his radically critical account of their relationship:

He suffered in his mind because he found himself too much in the power of his
wife and her associates, and the thing had gone so far that there were no means
of escaping from that position. She did with him as she liked, his daily reward
being pretended love and sweet words, for which he had to pay dearly.180

Somewhere between the fond, almost idealized, accounts of Jahangir and the
debasements of contemporary merchants like van den Broecke, then, lies uie
truth of Jahangir's rapport with Nur Jahan. It is fair to say that the relationship
was intimate, that of all Jahangir's wives, Nur Jahan was his most trusted and
most solicitous; and that for all the power that seems to have passed between
them, there was real affection there indeed. The mercenary vision projected
onto Nur Jahan by her detractors stemmed from the control she really did
exercise within the government and over her husband, but it was a control
drawn, by all the evidence, from marital bonds of decided strength.
If we believe what contemporary accounts have told us, we find that Nur
Jahan fits smoothly into the overall pattern of Jahangir's character developed
earlier. That she was an exquisite beauty is attested by many,181 and given
Jahangir's aesthetic vision, he could only have been animated and emboldened
by her entrance into his life. Her beauty would have exemplified the very best
the natural world could offer and, now in his service, would confirm that he did
indeed preside over a visually perfect order. Moreover, the particular constructs
of their marriage were testimony to Jahangir's power of self-preoccupation, for
Jahangir and Nur Jahan fit together as a unit each half of an inseparable whole.182
Absorbed together in one personality, when Jahangir ruled so did Nur Jahan and
when she did, so did he. Proclamations offarmans in her name were testimony of
Jahangir's rule, while decisions about the fate of Khusrau issued through him
were testimony of Nur Jahan's power. While we can only guess at the appeal
such a vision of marital unity would have had for Nur Jahan, it may have been
the only way Jahangir was able to integrate his wife's increasing sway (and his
own enfeeblement) into the overall structure of his world.
The pattern of their relationship fit most easily, however, into that of mother
and child. While it was rare that the Indian tradition cast Nur Jahan into a
decidedly maternal role, noting even so that she was the mother of Ladli Begam
and the tender of such charges as Shah Shuja, 183 her tie to Jahangir seems more
than anything else to have been nurturing. Since the primary role of Mughal
women was that of child care, a mothering role was natural for a woman nor-
 "The World Conqueror" 85

mally past her sexual prime and newly married to an innately needy, somewhat
absentminded, and certainly self-indulgent king. In the end Nur Jahan's essen-
tial appeal may have been her parental charisma, which so perfectly fit the
increasingly child-like dependencies exhibited by her husband. In this regard,
then, it is fair to say that Nur Jahan responded to the filial needs extended to her,
but in fulfilling her role, she in no way violated or unduly transgressed the
personal requirements made of her as a Mughal queen.
In his attachment to Nur Jahan, Jahangir expressed a strength of affection
familiar in his relations with other, especially older, women who were close to
him. We note, for example, the important role Maryam Makani, Jahangir's
paternal grandmother, and Salima Sultan Begam, one of Akbar's favorite wives,
played in Jahangir's reconciliation with Akbar during the last years of the elder
Mughal's reign. In addition, Jahangir's affection for his own mother, Maryamuz-
zamani, was exceptional and his memoirs are filled with tales of the stature and
largesse he bestowed upon her,184 of the birthday weighings (both lunar and
solar) he held at her house,185 of the marriage ceremonies he hosted there,186 and
of the powerful sentiment which he had for her.187 Said Terry: "Not seldom
would [he] shew many expressions of duty and strong affections to his
mother, . . . so that he who esteemed the whole world as his vassals, would help
to carry her in a palankee upon his shoulders."188
The mother-son relationship was typically strong in Muslim families because
it was seen as the bond that outlasted all others. Given the structure of Mughal
households, where religious custom obligated providing shelter for any older
unattached women and where "multiple mothers" (wet-nurses, barren aunts and
foster mothers of all types) were the norm, Jahangir found it easy to feel strongly
for the older women around him. When Qutbuddin's mother, Salim's wet-nurse
as an infant, died in 1607, Jahangir noted that she was "as a mother to me or
even kinder than my own kind mother,"189 and he went so far as to place the feet
of her corpse on his shoulders and carry her part of the way to her grave. When
Nur Jahan's mother Asmat Begam died in 1621, Jahangir said, "I did not value
her [any] less than my own mother,"190 and spent considerable time in consoling
her natural son, his own minister Asaf Khan. A Mughal son's reverence of his
mother was total and without bounds and in all reigns was colorfully shored up
by the customary trappings of Indian life. Akbar, for instance, gave great honor
to his mother, Maryam Makani, when he chose to carry her litter while on a
journey.191 Coryat suggested of this account that it was exceptional for Akbar to
burden himself with the actual portage of his mother and that the gesture here,
as in most other instances like this, was a genuine and spontaneous burst of
affection for the woman who had given him birth as an infant and who continued
to nurture him throughout his adult years.
Jahangir's own expression of the filial bond was manifest especially in his
preoccupation with the Christian image of Madonna and Child. It comes as no
surprise that Jahangir, when afforded the chance to order prints and paintings
from Europe, included in his lists (as Akbar had) numerous copies of the Virgin
Mary and Christ Child. Even before his accession to the throne he pursued this
quest, and as Du Jarric said: "The Prince showed the Fathers, with whom he
86 NUR JAIIAN

was on intimate terms, many proofs of his devotion to our Savior and His holy
Mother, whose images he held in the highest veneration. Indeed, the Fathers
could make no more acceptable present than a well-executed representation of
either."192 The use of Christian imagery in his palaces became even more pro-
nounced after Jahangir acceded to the throne, and there is good evidence that he
closed his official documents with seals bearing images of Christ and of Mary,193
that he prayed on a black slate throne with pictures of both Christian figures
graven into its stone,194 and that paintings of both hung continuously on the walls
of his galleries.195 It would not be unexpected that most of the pictures brought
by the Jesuits to the court were religious in nature, and given the strongly
biblical origins of Islam, it is clear that pictures of the Madonna and Child would
find great appeal among the Muslims of India.196 Moreover, it is often charged
that Jahangir curried favor among the Jesuits—to the point, they hoped, of
conversion to Christianity—in the last years of the sixteenth century because he
feared he might need Portuguese assistance in his attempt for the throne.197
Nevertheless, above and beyond any general cultural interest in the Marian
pictures, the Madonna imagery fit quite naturally into the Mughal reverence for
the mother-son relationship and even more naturally into the peculiar strength
of this relationship for Jahangir. Aside from the testimony of European donors
of pictures at the court, however, and the numerous examples of Madonnas
prominently displayed in Mughal galleries [see Figure 3-1], we do not have
evidence enough to substantiate the claim of a personal cult of the Virgin Mary
at Jahangir's court. But we do contend that the Madonna and Child imagery we
know was available to Jahangir must certainly have fed his natural inclination
toward reverence of the mother, and that his attachment to and sympathy for
older women must have found easy expression in the maternal symbolism of
Mary, Mother of God.
The mother-child patterning of Jahangir's relationships with the senior
women of his household and of his interest in Madonna paintings culminated, of
course, in his powerful attachment to Nur Jahan. There can be no doubt that
when later Indian tradition tried to remold Jahangir's love for Nur Jahan into an
adolescent obsession born of the romantic frenzy of youth, it had completely
misunderstood both Jahangir's character and the quality of the woman he mar-
ried in 1611. We do not in fact know anything of Nur Jahan's adolescent fanta-
sies, but that she had married and born a child long before meeting Jahangir at
the Nauroz festival of 1611 means that she came to Jahangir at a time when the
passions of youth were long rechanneled and, at age thirty-five, were now trans-
formed into more mature emotions. Given what we know of their daily relation-
ship, of the tending in sickness, of the curbing of wine, and of the exercise of
ripened skills like patronizing the arts and marksmanship, it seems clear that
Nur Jahan was completely miscast as the seductive vamp of later novels and
cinema. Instead, all evidence of the period points to a middle-aged wife, still no
doubt very beautiful and personally charismatic, but whose claim on Jahangir
was not by way of adolescent romance, but of a mature partnership heavily
colored by Jahangir's vision of ideal maternal care.
What can we say, finally, of Nur Jahan herself? We do not, quite remarkably,
 "The World Conqueror" 87

have any firsthand personal account of her thoughts and feelings. We have no
memoirs, no authentic poetry, no miniature paintings verified to her hand. All
we can do is project onto her what might be reasonable responses to the course of
life she experienced. Nur Jahan, we assume, must have been flattered to have
been brought with her daughter into Ruqayya Sultan's service after the death of
Sher Afgan. She had relatives at the court, to be sure, but her husband had gone
down in ignominy and she could have rightly expected only the worst. She must
have been flattered even more to have been married to the emperor and in no
time elevated to be his chief queen. She certainly loved, or had great affection
for, her second husband and, despite vague, unfounded rumors about Shah
Jahan, was faithful to Jahangir and to his memory throughout her life. She loved
the acquisition of power and was, without any doubt, exceptionally good at
wielding it. She was radical enough to stretch the limits of a Mughal queen's
life—through trading, issuing farmans, overseeing promotions at court, design-
ing tombs and gardens, and influencing religious policy—but she was not radi-
cal enough to actually overstep the boundaries accepted by custom for women
related to high office. She accepted, apparently authentically, the psychological,
emotional, and philosophical rapport that was supposed to exist between hus-
band and wife and, recalling perhaps the unit concept of Hindu marriage, she
moved smoothly, if creatively, through the duties assigned a king's consort.
Most importantly, however, she knew how to match the needs and quirks of the
difficult personality of her husband with talents and abilities that were now
assuredly her own.
If Jahangir was a king whose grand conceit of a just rule and often ignomini-
ous behavior in and out of office were governed by an aesthetic vision that was at
best amoral, then Nur Jahan was a queen who knew quite clearly the moral
limits of her role. We have argued earlier that Jahangir's character, in its need for
a visual and pleasure-giving order with him at the center, was beyond any
sensitivity to ethical or even legal standards of right and wrong and that his
reality was more often than not a cerebral world not readily shared by others but
surprisingly responsive to the details of natural life. This amoral stance was
matched by his consort's decided susceptibility to moral laws and to the plea-
sures of virtuous judgment. When Nur Jahan did what was right, she did so
knowing it was good (dowries to five hundred orphan brides, for example),198
and when she did what was wrong, she knew full well she had overstepped the
boundaries of corruption. Manipulating the fate of her eventual enemy, Shah
Jahan,199 or actively encouraging a young Jain monk to break his monastic
vows200 were conscious intrusions into an otherwise orderly and acceptable
world, and Nur Jahan certainly knew that in cases like these she was playing
counter to a moral code acknowledged by others. Nevertheless, such knowing
breeches of righteous behavior must have been tempting against a background
that was so completely immune to concepts of virtue. Living under the shadow
of a king as oblivious to morality as Jahangir was must have frustrated, if not
actively terrified, all those in any way affected by the movements in his sphere.
Nur Jahan, it seems, was neither frustrated nor terrified, for she had acquired
early on exceptional powers of orchestration and survival.
 5

Life in the Women's Palaces

Oh yes, I shall marry someone; but he shall be a man whose collar my hand
can touch, and not one whose skirt it does not reach.
(Hamida Banu Begam, hesitating on her marriage to Humayun)
The History of Humayun, by Gulbadan Begam, translated by A. S. Beveridge

We have heard that prosperity and bad luck depend on four things: first,
upon your wife; second, upon your slave; third, upon your house; fourth,
upon your horse.
The reflection of the lamps fell on the water and had a wonderful appear-
ance. I passed the most of that night with the ladies of the mahall on the
bank of that tank.
The Tuzuk-i-Jahangin, translated by A. Rogers
and edited by Henry Beveridge

Three things sustained the power of a Mughal emperor: his army, his treasury,
and his women. Of these, the army was perhaps the least fixed and the most
distant from the king, large parts of it being entrusted to underlings to whom
rank was assigned for purposes of honor and income. The treasury, which rose
and fell with the vagaries of politics, was also an impersonal, if fairly stable,
symbol of the majesty of state. But the women of the zanana, the women of the
inner apartments, were as constant, as unfailing, and yet as demanding a touch-
stone as any head of state could claim. Not only were they the closest to him in
proximity and affection, but they could offer the emperor more personal plea-
sure, more unchallenged support, and more wise counsel than any other person
or group.1 The zanana women went with the emperor everywhere, and if A. S.
Beveridge can marvel at "how fully the fate of the ladies was involved in that of
the Emperor,"2 then we must note with Roc that the emperor was in turn just as
dependent upon the whims and the schedules of his women, for no court busi-
ness could take place until after their needs had been fully satisfied.3
An uncritical vision of the harem might suppose that its women were, like
88
 Life in the Women's Palaces 89

the treasury, simple possessions of the king. Jahangir certainly spoke at times as
if that were the case—"I sent back Dust Muhammad . . . to take charge of the
fort of Agra and of the zanana and the treasuries"4—and Mughal lifestyle often
depended upon being able to send large groups from the zanana quickly to
various parts of the country or to dispatch small groups to a court as tokens of
allegiance and support.5 The basis for this, argues Dow, was that a noble's or
emperor's "affection for the woman" was not bound up in his private pledges of
fidelity to her but in the sovereign honor that he placed "in her person," and that
he then made over to his own custody.6 Women and the honor of their lord were
thus inextricably bound, and the medieval codes of etiquette linking these two
set the future of the empire unfailingly upon their bonds.7
Although the women of the palaces were ultimately under the jurisdiction of
their male principal, they were a diverse, internally mobile, and highly vocifer-
ous group who exercised enormous freedom in reworking the configurations of
their restraint. The palaces in which the zanana women lived were self-sufficient
cities with a full range of castes, occupations, and administrators, and were as
cosmopolitan a mix of religions, nationalities, and artistic talents as to be found
in any metropolis of the time.8 But, while an emperor like Jahangir may have
found his central support in the strength of the harem—he did, after all, like
other young boys of class, grow up in the zanana—for an individual woman the
central issue was not how much power she could exert at court but how she
could fit into the complex lives of the others immediately around her. Finding a
productive and satisfying place in a society where pleasure (in all its forms) was
the main competitive commodity was a substantial task, but this process was
surely a more vibrant and honest affair given that it took place in the company of
women.
The public lives of women of nobility were governed by the laws of seclu-
sion. The practice of parda, or the sequestering of women behind a veil or wall,
had already been known to ancient and medieval India and had been used
throughout history by many of the upper classes.9 By the time of the Mughals,
seclusion was an accepted way of life for aristocratic families, and the institution
as practiced by Jahangir had come to be a sign to foreign travelers of a strict
adherence to Islam. Said Roe at the beginning of his tenure:

All the People are strickt Mahometans, . . . They are veary Jelous to let their
weomen . . . be seene; of which we had experience by an alarum of one of their
Priests, who espied one of ours comming toward a village, who shutt vp all the
woemen, and cried out if we came neare them or their church they would kill
us.10

Terry reported that he never "had . . . sight of those [women] of the greatest
quality,"11 and it appears that no one at court was allowed to see the women
housed there except the principal man and a few select male relatives:12 "There
are none admitted, strangers or others, to have a sight of those houses, while the
King's wives and women are there, which must not be seen by any but by
himself, and his servants the eunuchs."13 Such women, said Terry, "as have the
90 NUR JAHAN

reputation of honesty, [are not] to be seen at any time by any man, besides their
own husbands, or by those before named, and by them but very seldom."14
Those men given special, if brief, privileges included the brothers and fathers of
the women inside, but even these men were not allowed to come to the harem or
to speak to the women except in the presence of the husband. 15 It must have
been a very great honor, then, when Jahangir decreed that Nur Jahan's father
Itimaduddaula had become such "an intimate friend" that "the ladies of the
harem [were] not to veil their faces from him." 16
As practiced by the Mughals, then, seclusion was a religious, social, and
class arrangement. Dow speculates as to the causes of parda and concludes that it
had a sexual origin: women were kept in seclusion, he argues, in order to protect
their modesty and thereby the honor of the family. And India, especially, was
prone to the practice of seclusion because of her climate, "where continence is a
more arduous virtue than in the bleak regions of the north."17 No doubt parda
was supported by the quasi-religious rationale of the time that a woman's honor
needed protecting by a socially enforced institution rather than by the force of
her own character, but parda had much more important ramifications in the area
of work. The practice of seclusion in a family was a sign of high economic
standing: a family able to afford so many servants that its women were not
needed to work could cloister them off in a harem. Moreover, the lord of a family
who was himself free from the everyday demands of labor could spend his
leisure time in pursuit of pleasure with his women. The harem, then, became the
ultimate mark of social standing, and for the king, who had the largest support-
ing staff and the most leisure at hand, women were the real symbol of his
imperial sovereignty.
We do not really know what it was like to be an inmate of a zanana.
Gulbadan, whose Humayunnama is one of the few chronicles of Mughal history
written by a woman and who spent some time detailing the activities of women
of her time, did not, unfortunately, reveal much of the feelings and sentiments of
those behind the walls. There is no doubt, however, that as far as the times
permitted women were regarded highly and treated with great respect by their
men. 18 Women's advice was sought, their material needs attended to, and their
community supported by whatever staff was required to meet the individual
eccentricities of its members. But we don't know if women inside saw their lot as
better or worse than those who exercised more freedom outside, nor do we really
know what effect seclusion had on the psychological and spiritual development
of those it embraced. We suspect, however, given the diversity of personnel and
the wide range of activities open to them behind the walls, that the women of the
zanana were, as a group, sophisticated, self-assured, and by most accounts
happy.
The physical residences in which royal women lived were lavish. During the
Mughal period, the apartments reserved for the use of the emperor's women
were called mahals, and because there were so many women involved, these
mahals took up large portions of the main palace area. In Agra, for example,
which Jahangir called "the centre of the State, the abode of the ladies of the holy
 Life in the Women's Palaces 91

harem, and the depository of the world's treasures"19 and where earlier Babur
himself had had special buildings erected for the use of the harem,20 there were
separate palaces for each of the important female relatives of Jahangir. Along the
bank of the Yamuna could be found, for example, the individual residences of
Shahzada Khanam, sister of Jahangir and the wife of Mirza Muzaffar Husain, at
one time governor of Gujarat, Gulazar Begam, and Ruqayya Sultan Begam, one
of the widows of Akbar and a senior woman in the harem—as well as the Shaikh
Pura, "a large enclosure inhabited by the [other] widows of the late King
Akbar."21 Inside the Shah Burj itself, the royal bastion of Agra fort, was the
palace of Nur Jahan and near it other palaces for women of the zanana. Three of
these mahals were called respectively the Itwar (Sunday), the Mangal (Tuesday),
and the Sanichar (Saturday) indicating the day on which the emperor slept there,
and a fifth palace inside the enclosure, called by Akbar the Bengali Mahal, was
"occupied by ladies of various nations."22 "Internally then the Fort is built over
like a city with streets and shops, and has very little resemblance to a fortress,
but from the outside anyone would regard it as impregnable."23
Behind the high walls of the mahals were tanks and gardens, as well as
separate apartments for each wife and for "her slaves, of whom there may be 10,
or 20, or 100, according to her fortune."24 Running water through the rooms was
standard, and it flowed into the various courtyards via troughs or pipes where it
was released through elaborate fountains and waterfalls [see Figure 5-1] Water
often came from spring-fed wells beautifully "wrought up with firm stones,
[and] laid in fine plaster," and was drawn fresh each day by oxen turning large
wheels with many small buckets. 25 The tanks of the mahals were usually large
and quite deep and were designed so that those used for bathing offered some
degree of privacy.26
Plants also were an important "refreshment and recreation" within the ma-
hals and, when carefully placed throughout the gardens, provided a welcome
antidote to the often uncomfortable vagaries of the climate.27 Fruit trees gave
"daily yields" of produce,28 squares of flowers provided continual beauty, and
shade trees placed conspicuously apart kept off the hot sun. "They have no
furniture of the kind we delight in, such as tables, stools, benches, cupboards,
bedsteads, etc.," but instead the women (and men) sat on cushions, rugs, or low
cots, which "are lavishly ornamented with gold or silver."29 The spaces, then as
now, were open and clean and laid out so as to encourage cool winds and diffuse
light, and to minimize the effects of the persistent heat and dust.
The wealthier and more noble the lord, the more ornate the decoration inside
the mahal. Surface ornament has always been valued in Indian aesthetics, and the
extended courtyard style of residence with its pillared verandas, open halls, and
turreted gazebos was optimal for the application of paint, inlay, mirror-work,
and carved molding that came to be the single most desirable way of relieving the
visual sameness of the mahal interior. Roe had a chance to look inside a mahal
room once and, although it was very rich, it overwhelmed him with its patch-
worked appearance: the room decoration, he said, was "so diuers . . . [and its
pieces] so vnsuteable that it was rather patched then glorious, as if it seemed to
92 NUR JAHAN

FIGURE 5-1. Interior water-chute, Red Fort, Delhi. Courtesy of the Archaeological
Survey of India, New Delhi.

striue to show all, like a ladie that with her plate sett on a Cupboard her
imbrodered slippers."30 Again, according to the ungenerous Pelsaert: "Their
mahals are adorned internally with lascivious sensuality, wanton and reckless
festivity, superfluous pomp, inflated pride, and ornamental daintiness."31
The hanging of paintings on palace walls was also fashionable, among
 Life in the Women's Palaces 93

Mughal emperors, and the art gallery style of decoration eminently suited the
need for variety inside the harem as well as the burgeoning trade with Europe
and the Far East in paintings and objets d'art. Finch reported that in the mahals
of the palace at Lahore, for example, Jahangir had hung pictures in his interior
galleries "of Banian dews, or rather divels, intermixt in most ugly shape with
long homes, staring eyes, shagge haire, great fangs, ugly pawes, [and] long
tailes." The creatures in the paintings were so deformed, he said, "that I wonder
the poore women are not frighted therewith."32 There was plenty of room to
escape unwanted sights, however, and in spite of Terry's claim that "these
Mahometans . . . [have] so many wives, . . . [that] they keep [them] pent up in
little cottages or tents,"33 the mahals were spacious and comfortable.
In the fort at Lahore described by Finch, there were three mahals con-
structed during the reign of Jahangir. The first of these was a small two-storied
palace, each story containing "eight faire lodgings for severall women, with
galleries and windowes looking to the river and to the court."34 The second
palace was a large square building called the "New Moholl" which could accom-
modate two hundred women "in state," presumably with all their baggage and
personal paraphernalia.35 The third palace was "the stateliest of the three" and
contained sixteen "great lodgings, each having faire lodgings, a devoncan (or
hall), a small paved court, each her tanke, and enjoying a little world of pleasure
and state to herselfe."36 The walls in these mahals were decorated with mirrors
and pictures and, as Finch noted, "[all] the doores of these chambers are to bee
fastened on the out-side, and none within."37 Anything the women could ever
want, presumably, was already inside the enclosure.
The women within the zanana were numerous. Estimates of the total num-
ber in Jahangir's harem ranged from that of Hawkins of "three hundred wives,
whereof foure be chiefe as queenes,"38 to that of Terry of "four wives, and . . .
concubines and women beside, . . . enough to make up their number a full
thousand."39 Where the exact figure lay is not altogether clear, but it was cer-
tainly in the hundreds and may have fluctuated at the outer reaches as Jahangir
continually gave away and brought in women of lesser place. We know, however,
that he probably did not have women in the greater thousands, for he was aghast
to learn of Nasiruddin "that he had collected 15,000 women in his harem."40
Those in the inner palaces came from a variety of religious, ethnic, and class
backgrounds.41 In addition to the wives to whom Jahangir was legally married
and to his various female relatives—for example, daughters, sisters, mothers,
and aunts—Jahangir's harem housed ladies-in-waiting of all sorts who were in
attendance upon the queens and female relatives there. These noblewomen were
joined by concubines, servants, slaves, female guards, spies,42 entertainers,
soothsayers, and stray women of all classes brought in under a variety of circum-
stances for stays of indeterminate length. In addition, the zanana housed eu-
nuchs and all the children of the women inside, including young boys until they
were old enough to move into quarters of their own. Women came into the
harem either through marriage, birth, purchase, appointment, gift, or other
accretive process, and the resulting mix was astonishingly international. Hamida
Banu Begam (Maryam Makani), wife of Humayun, for example, "had amongst
94 NUR JAHAN

her household slaves a Russian of Moscow and his Polish wife, with their two
children,"43 and Hindu women of Rajput families were a consistent and conspicu-
ous presence in the predominantly Muslim harem from the days of the Sultanate
period onward. 44 Moreover, Jesuits at court firmly believed that Jahangir's mo-
tive in encouraging the sons of Daniyal to be baptized Christians was "to intro-
duce Portuguese women of good position into Jahangir's own zanana."45
Noblewomen who came into the zanana were often given new titles as a
special mark of honor or privilege.46 Mihrunnisa, of course, was the most fa-
mous, receiving the name Nur Mahal, "Light of the Palace," upon her marriage
in 1611 and Nur Jahan, "Light of the World," in 1616.47 Said Terry: "His most
beloved wife (when I lived at his court) he called Noor-Mahal, which signified
the light of the court; and to the other of his wives, and women which he most
loved, he gave new names unto them, and such names as he most fancied."48
Akbar gave his mother the title Maryam Makani, "Mary of Both Worlds,"49 and
Jahangir's mother was known as Maryamuzzamani, "Mary of the Universe."50
Shah Jahan's mother was called Bilqis Makani, "the Lady of Pure Abode,"51
after her death and his wife, Arjumand Banu Begam, was popularly known as
Mumtaz Mahal, "Exalted One of the Palace,"52 and Malika-i Jahan, "Lady of the
World." After Arjumand Banu's death in 1631, Shah Jahan's favorite daughter
Jahanara was given the place of honor in the harem as well as the title
Sahibatuzzamani, "Mistress of the Universe."53 The most important title in the
zanana, however, was that of Padshah Begam, the "Imperial" or "First Lady" of
the realm. Begam was a general title of respect given to ladies of rank, "which
signifies that they are void of care,"54 and seems to have been conferred upon
women of the royal family as a mark of special favor or at some momentous
occasion like the birth of a son.55
The normally friendly relationship between women in the harem, ostensibly
shaped by the courtesy of the seniority system, was often undercut by routine
jealousies, which "dusted the poison of gossip on the intricate web of internal
relations."56 A. S. Beveridge notes that women frequently entered the zanana
bound by old political allegiances, which would occasionally flare up and cause
great friction among the other women there. 57 This friction would then be
exacerbated into a constant level of "animosity and quarrel," Dow contends, by
the simple fact that there were a great number of wives and concubines present
at one time.58 Each consort desired the exclusive attention of the emperor but
had to subject these feelings to the exacting structure of harem life, thus making
any relationship within the zanana a routinely mannered affair. "Jealousy itself,
that most violent of the feelings of the soul, is curbed within the walls of the
haram. The women may pine in secret, but they must clothe their features with
cheerfulness when their lord appears."59 Pelsaert noted that, in Agra at least, all
food for the zanana came from one kitchen but "each wife takes it in her own
apartments; for they hate each other secretly, though they seldom or never allow
it to be seen, because of their desire to retain the favour of their husband."60 The
emperor tried to be fair to all by visiting a different wife or apartment each
night, but if it happened that he took a fancy to a pretty slave girl at any time and
enjoyed her, the wife did not dare "to show any signs of displeasure, but dissem-
 Life in the Women's Palaces 95

bling, . . . [took] it out on the slave-girl later on."61 Women were thought to lose
their sexual appeal at a fairly young age (thirty) and, because of this, Muslim
families felt "the law for a multiplicity of wives . . . [was] necessary for the
support of the human race." But, as Dow further notes, the children of these
many women often inherited the petty squabbles of the zanana and "the jealousy
between mothers in the haram grows into hatred among their sons."62 On the
other hand, however, we must note the many examples of adult male friendships
in the Mughal period—like that of Akbar and Mirza Aziz Koka (Khan-i
Azam),63 and Jahangir and Qutbuddin Khan Koka64—that originated in obvi-
ously supportive relationships between zanana women. Here the prince in each
set was nursed by the mother of his friend, a tradition that in almost all cases
made lifetime alliances between the two men.
By Jahangir's time the structure of the Mughal harem had become an elabo-
rate affair, far surpassing in complexity the earlier Turkish or Sultanate harems
or anything found in contemporary Indian households. From Akbar, Jahangir
had inherited a system based on seniority that was designed to keep a large
number of women in the best possible order. Akbar's harem, for example, had
five thousand women in it, each of whom was given a separate apartment. The
women were divided into sections headed by "chaste women" superintendents
known as daroghas, whose duty it was, apparently, not only to keep order but to
make sure all the women were "attentive to their duties."65 One woman was
selected as writer and it was her responsibility to keep an accurate record of
zanana life.66 The most important office for a woman in the harem, however, was
that ofmahaldar, who was "like a female major domo . . . [acting] as a spy in the
interest of the Emperor."67 The mahaldar, it seems, coordinated most of the
relationships between the harem and the nobles at court. This was a delicate task
and she had to try to avoid any friction such as that which often arose when she
was overly zealous in reporting to the emperor on the activities of the young
princes in the zanana.6* Just which of these roles the woman Aqa Aqayan had in
Jahangir's harem is not clear, but the emperor noted with pride that this female
relative of his, who had been taken from his sister Shahzada Khanam at the time
of his first marriage and placed "in charge of my zanana" by Akbar, had been in
his service for thirty-three years and, he said, "I esteem her greatly, for she has
served me with sincerity."69
The harem was guarded on the inside by "sober and active women." Armed
with bows and arrows and short daggers, women guards, such as the urdubegis70
from Kashmir and Central Asia,71 were placed throughout the zanana, "the most
trustworthy . . . [being stationed in] the apartments of his Majesty."72 Over
these guards presided a chief armed woman, in the manner of Bibi Fatima, who
held the post during the time of Humayun. 73 Jourdain noted that the guards
around Jahangir, both men and women, were changed every twenty-four
hours,74 presumably to keep them alert and to prevent internal conspiracies.
Beyond them eunuchs guarded the zanana from outside the enclosure of the
apartments,75 and "at a proper distance" from them stood a guard of loyal Rajput
soldiers. Porters patrolled the palace gates and beyond even them were guards of
nobles, including the famous quiver-bearing Ahadis, who were arranged accord-
96 NUR JAHAN

ing to rank. 76 At sunset the doors of the zanana were closed and torches were left
burning to restrict any secret intrigue involving members of the harem. Each
woman guard then sent a report to the nazir or supervisor detailing the activities
of the women during the day or, alternately, as Manucci noted, a report was read
by women of the mahal themselves once a week in the presence of the emperor
around nine o'clock at night.77 The twenty-four hour security around the zanana
was kept so strong that if ever a noblewoman from the outside wished to come
into the harem to visit someone who lived there, she first had to tell the servants
of the zanana in the hopes that they would bring her a quick reply. She then sent
on her request to the officers of the palace, who would let only those "who are
eligible" into the harem. Permission to visit was generous, however, and some
women visitors of rank were granted stays in the harem for as long as a month. 78
Order within the harem was maintained by a strict system of salaries and
allowances. Akbar's salaries to the women in the zanana were "sufficiently
liberal," and we can assume that Jahangir's were as well. In Akbar's time,
women of the highest rank received between Rs. 1028 and 1610 a month, while
servants received salaries in ranges given alternately as Rs. 20 to 51 and Rs. 2 to
40.79 A special accountant, or writer of the harem, was attached to the zanana to
oversee the flow of cash and to keep check at all times on the reserves. Under
him were the tahwildars or cash keepers, who granted almost all the requests
they received from women, provided the desired amounts were within the limit
of the women's salaries. The tahwildar would then send on the request to the
writer, who checked with the general treasurer before making the payment in
cash. The writer was also in charge of drawing up an annual budget, writing out
a receipt for it, and having it countersigned by the ministers of state. This
receipt was then stamped with a seal used exclusively for grants for the harem.
Money designated by the receipt could only be paid out by the cash keeper of the
general treasury, who gave it to the general tahwildar, who under instruction
from the writer of the harem, divided it among the harem tahwildars to be
distributed as designated among the women.80 In all, the expenses of the harem
were apparently extraordinary, with the "best and most costly" of all items
reserved "for the king's person, the queens, and the princesses."81
Women of rank seemed to have acquired more control over their wealth as
the Mughal period progressed. Not only did they probably have more wealth to
begin with—Jahangir, for example, "increased the allowances of all the veiled
ladies of my father's harem from 20 percent to 100 percent, according to their
condition and relationship"82 upon his accession in 1605—but they had more of
their own officers to administer it. Manucci noted that during Shah Jahan's
reign each lady of rank had a nazir, who was responsible for looking after her
property, land, and income.83 Nur Jahan had her own vakils, who supervised her
jagirs and the construction of buildings on various of her properties,84 and the
emperor's mother, Maryamuzzamani, had numerous agents in and out of the
harem appointed to help her oversee her trading activities and to advise her on
investments. Moreover, many of the women of the Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb
eras had men of note supervising their holdings and accounting for the cash and
goods that flowed in and out of the harem under their egis.
 Life in the Women's Palaces 97

While guards at all levels insured the physical protection of the harem, and a
routine of salaries and allowances secured at least a minimum of order and
adherence to duty, it was the seniority system that was the harem's most power-
ful guarantor of personal civility, internal cohesion, and generational compatibil-
ity. Ordinarily there was a senior wife who among the wives and female relations
of the emperor commanded the most respect,85 had the final word in harem
matters, and had the special attention of the emperor at court: such senior
women, says Lall, "enjoyed an authority on tradition and etiquette that was
virtually supreme."86 Under the most senior, all the other wives and female
relatives, ladies-in-waiting, and concubines were arrayed according to their
length of time in the zanana and to that often precarious element, the special
favor of the male principal. Rank in the harem was indicated by any number of
things, allowance, quality of presents, and title being three of the most obvious.
But it was in the living arrangements of camps and in the hierarchy of parties,
however, where rank was seen to be a most jealously guarded arrangement.
Gulbadan's high standing with Humayun, for example, was shown clearly "by
the record of the place assigned to her tent in the encampments. It was pitched
next to Hamida's well within the great enclosure, and not far from the Em-
peror's own."87 Gulbaden also preserved a detailed account of the Mystic Feast,
which commemorated Humayun's accession, and of the feast accompanying
Mirza Hindal's wedding, in which the seating arrangement reflected the harem
hierarchy at large. During both parties Humayun and his "dearest lady" sat on a
gold-embroidered divan in front of a gold throne in the forecourt of the house.
To their right, on cushions, sat their elder female relatives and other senior
women, and to their left sat women of lesser status including nurses and wives of
the amirs.m Although there was certainly some flexibility and mobility within the
ranks, harem seniority was a fairly stable system and may have accounted, at
least in part, for the long period Nur Jahan remained unnoticed by Jahangir in
the mahal.
One of the special privileges of women of rank was to care for ranking
children not their own. All young children of the palaces were brought up in the
harem, and this included young princes who lived with the elder women of the
zanana until they were old enough to have palaces of their own. 89 Often childless
women of rank would adopt the children of other women—even over the objec-
tions of the natural mother—in order to satisfy their own maternal instincts, to
have something to do, and to acquire legitimacy in the generational struggle for
power. Gulbadan, for example, was taken from her natural mother, Dildar, a
younger wife of Babur, when she was about two and, with her brother, Hindal,
was given to Maham Begam, the senior wife of Babur (and mother of Humayun)
who had lost four children in infancy.90 Maham Begam died, however, when
Gulbadan was ten and the young girl was then given back to her natural mother
for care.91 Jahangir's sisters were given the care of Daniyal's children, two boys
and four girls, at the same time as the third and eldest boy, Tahmuras, was taken
in to wait on the emperor himself.92 Ruqayya Sultan Begam, of course, the
childless first wife of Akbar and daughter of Mirza Hindal, took Mihrunnisa in
after the young woman's first husband was murdered and cared for her during
98 NUR JAHAN

her next four years.93 She was also given charge of Shah Jahan in his early years94
and then of Parhez Banu, one of his daughters by his first wife.95 Nur Jahan
herself was, except for her daughter by Sher Afgan, a "childless wife" of
Jahangir's and was given Prince Shuja, a son of Shah Jahan, to raise in the
harem. The new responsibility was the result as much of her own political
ambition as it was of the emperor's affection for her, but it was an honor
nevertheless as the young boy was a special favorite of Jahangir's.96
Within the structure of the harem, there was perhaps no one more important
to its smooth running than that all-purpose servant, the eunuch. Neither fully
man nor fully woman, the eunuch could travel freely throughout the mahal and
to the world beyond, thus serving as an accessible conduit of favors and informa-
tion. He has been described as a "sort of brute," prey to his own base emotions
of greed, pride, and hypocrisy,97 but in fact the eunuch was most often a loyal
retainer caught in the irreconcilable tensions of mahal life. Each woman of rank
had two or more eunuchs, head eunuchs being called nazir ("guardian" or
"superintendent"), who were "usually faithful to their master, . . . [but were]
appointed for each wife, to ensure that she is seen by no man except her hus-
band."98 Said Terry: "The women there of the greater quality have eunuchs,
instead of men, to wait upon them, who in their minority are deprived of all that
might provoke jealousy."99 Eunuchs were often purchased as slaves from Ben-
gal100 and, in spite of the fact that at the beginning of his reign Jahangir "had
repeatedly given orders that no one should make eunuchs or buy or sell them,"
saying "whoever did so would be answerable as a criminal,"101 they were a staple
in the harem and given significant roles in and out of the zanana. Not only were
they part of the protective system used by the emperor to safeguard his
women102—keeping as able a control over the locked doors as possible103—but of
all the servants of the women, they had the most freedom to arrange contacts
outside the zanana on matters of trade, military maneuvers, courtly intrigues,
and secret communications. Eunuchs also accompanied mahal women when
they traveled and on their various adventures and expeditions, serving both to
protect them from being seen by men while out in public and to transmit
messages to them from outsiders come to call.104 Pelsaert noted that "the whole
management of the mahal is in their [the eunuchs'] hands, and they can give or
refuse whatever is wanted." They were so important, in fact, that "they can get
whatever they desire—fine horses to ride, servants to attend them outside, and
female slaves inside the house, [and] clothes as fine and smart as those of their
master himself."105
The most important duty of the eunuch, however, was to manage the deli-
cate relationship between the emperor and his women. On the emperor's side,
the eunuch's responsibility was to make sure that the women saw no men in the
harem except the principle male, and if he failed in this he, in addition to
"everyone else to blame for the stranger's presence," was "in danger of losing his
life."106 The eunuch was equally responsible to the women, however, for he was
uniquely able to keep whatever happened in the zanana concealed from the
husband and was amply rewarded when the protective cover he gave allowed
women freedom of movement and meeting. The chief eunuch or nazir of
 Life in the Women's Palaces 99

Jahanara, for example, was famous for his complicity in her affairs and, rather
than restrain her would-be lovers from entering the apartments (as Bernier has
suggested), "the man obeyed her, and sought every mode of gratifying her,
seeing the great interest he had not to work against her."107 Eunuchs themselves
were often involved in their women's love lives, and Pelsaert was quite explicit in
his description of what happened in the mahal when the principal male went on a
trip. Those women left at home, he said, "allow the eunuch to enjoy them
according to his ability, and thus gratify their burning passions when they have
no opportunity of going out."108 Eunuchs, then, had an advantageous position
that could be both remunerative and satisfying if the delicate balance between
husband and wife were kept intact. But, if the husband's need to safeguard and
the wife's desire for freedom were not properly synchronized, the eunuch's
position could be most dangerous, his life itself at considerable risk.
The sexual life of the eunuch was supposed to be nonexistent. Deprived at a
very young age "of all that might provoke jealousy," they were "a soft tender
people . . . that never come to have any hair on their faces."109 Eunuchs were,
despite Pelsaert's observation above, officially forbidden from having liaisons
with the women of the harem, but many of them did, and Bernier, for example,
preserved the story of a eunuch in Aurangzeb's time who carried out a long affair
with a beautiful Hindu neighbor. Her brother, it seems, was "a scrivener by
profession," who, discovering the affair, attacked and killed the couple with a
knife—it being a brother's duty to do so in cases of family honor. The harem
was filled with "horror and indignation" at the deed, and women "and eunuchs
entered into a solemn league to kill the scrivener" in turn. The orthodox Aurang-
zeb, however, was content, to have the perpetrator convert to Islam.110 Roe and
Terry recorded an equally fateful end to another eunuch liaison during
Jahangir's time. A "gentell woeman of Normalls"111 was found kissing a eunuch
and was buried alive in the ground up to her armpits to die by the scorching of
the hot sun. The eunuch she had met was then killed as she watched from her
burial spot.112 Liaisons like these of some sexual nature certainly must have
developed between eunuchs and the women they guarded, but there was pres-
sure equal to the opportunity from within the zanana to keep any such relation-
ship seriously circumspect.
The sexual life of mahal women was governed by general rules of religion.
Undergirding all intimate activity was a code of modesty that held that the
physical protection of a woman was of utmost importance to the maintenance of
her moral virtue. Says Dow:

Women are so sacred in India, that even the common soldiery leave them
unmolested in the midst of slaughter and devastation. . . . The haram is a
sanctuary against all the licentiousness of victory; and ruffians, covered with the
blood of a husband, shrink back with confusion from the secret apartments of
his wives.113

The modesty of a woman was so important, in fact, that during times of war if a
man were in danger of imprisonment or of death he often killed his women
100 NUR JAHAN

beforehand lest they suffer the shame of abuse by the enemy.114 Because a woman
was thought to carry not only the honor of her husband but the safekeeping of
her entire family in the quality of her conduct, a life that was blameless and
above reproach became the very measure of womanhood.
Within the zanana, women who were not married far outnumbered those who
were. While the status of wife applied only to those legally espoused to the
emperor, many hundreds of others around him, including female relatives, concu-
bines, ladies-in-waiting, and servants of all types, were required to live the same
lives of virtue and in the same restricted circumstances as their more legitimate
colleagues. Perhaps the most unfortunate victims of this system were the prin-
cesses, the sisters and daughters of a reigning king, who by reason of their relation-
ship to the throne were prohibited from marrying. Said Manucci: "Akbar be-
queathed to his descendants the rule not to give their daughters in marriage. This
rule remained in force up to the time of Aurangzeb, who gave his daughters in
marriage upon their insisting."115 The reasons why princesses were not allowed to
marry had as much to do with the stability of the crown as it did with the virtue of
the royal family: "the marriage of a Princess . . . [is] of rare occurrence in
Hindoustan, no man being considered worthy of royal alliance; an apprehension
being entertained that the husband might thereby be rendered powerful, and
induced perhaps to aspire to the crown."116 Any husband of a princess, who was
herself (had she been male) in line for the throne, was considered a threat not only
to the real sons at the time of succession but to the father as well, who was in
constant fear of filial insurrection. In fact, a son-in-law, precisely because of his
lack of consanguinity, would be more fickle, it was thought, than real sons when
given a chance at early power. Princesses, then, had to be content with the
material luxuries of the harem and the platonic affections of fathers and brothers,
which, as all knew, were as constant as anything available at the court. There were
exceptions to this prohibition, however, such as the marriage of a daughter of
Prince Murad to Parviz,117 of a daughter of Daniyal to Mirza Wali,118 and of several
daughters of Aurangzeb (e.g., Zinatunnisa Begam and Badrunnisa Begam) to
nobles.119 Tavernier noted that when princesses married nobles "they became the
rulers of their husbands" and, if these men displeased their wives in any way, the
princesses would go to the emperor and "persuade him to do what they please, to
the disadvantage of their husbands; most frequently asking that they be deprived
of their offices."120 In general, however, marriage remained a luxury prohibited to
women of immediate royal blood.
The institution of marriage for Mughal emperors was primarily a political
affair. Akbar had made a practice of marrying women, especially Rajput daugh-
ters of renowned families, in order to enhance his political alliances and to
stabilize his empire.121 Jahangir himself was born of a Rajput mother who had
come into the mahal as a result of just such an alliance, and he certainly contin-
ued his father's practice of using the daughters of political colleagues to further
his negotiations with them. But Jahangir moved beyond the purely political
context of marriage and introduced into it an element of love. As Terry noted,
Jahangir was less interested in the genealogical background of his wives than in
the beauty they brought with them to court.
 Life in the Women's Palaces 101

For that great monarch, the Mogul, in the choice of his wives and women, he
was guided more by his eye and fancy, than by any respect had to his honour,
for he took not the daughters of neighbouring princes, but of his own subjects,
and there preferred that which he looked upon as beauty, before any thing
else.122

And it was precisely because Jahangir chose his wives for their beauty and not
necessarily their parentage that Nur Jahan came into his harem, for Itimadud-
daula was already, without further persuasion, a close associate in counsel.
Whatever romantic views of marriage Jahangir might have had, the actual
experience of his wives and women was far from ideal. Sexual life in the harem
was a barren mix of occasional visits from the emperor, secret trysts with visitors
or eunuchs, and a shadow cult of fantasy and creative practice. Foreigners of the
period who imagined what it must be like for women in the harem drew devastat-
ing pictures of life inside. For Pelsaert: "These wretched women wear, indeed,
the most expensive clothes, eat the daintiest food, and enjoy all worldly plea-
sures except one, and for that one they grieve, saying they would willingly give
everything in exchange for a beggar's poverty."123 The general lack of sexual
satisfaction among women of the harem, ascribed to their frequent and long
separations from men, led many to speculate, as Tavernier did, "[that] it is not
difficult to imagine that strange things take place in the enclosure where these
women and girls are shut up."124 The most important focus of a woman's atten-
tion, of course, was her husband or consort, for whom she dressed and anointed
herself, learned the courtly arts of music and poetry, and competed against her
equally fervent sisters. To give a noble, or especially the emperor, his firstborn
son was a great honor and was sure to catapult a woman to a position of high
standing and affection. Competition for this honor was great and often resulted,
unfortunately, in a woman's trying to miscarry the pregnancies of the other
women around her. I25
The sexual graces of a woman were considered expendable, however, and she
was soon beyond the age considered physically attractive. Neither the emperor
nor his nobles, Terry noted, "came near their wives or women, after they exceed
the age of thirty years,"126 the women "never [being] much regarded by those
great ones, after the very first and prime of their youth is past."127 Although
many childbearing years and much satisfaction were thus wasted, older mahal
women still provided companionship and wise counsel for their male principal.
Nevertheless, together with their less desirable comrades, they were consigned
to looking elsewhere for sexual intimacy and physical pleasure.128 Perhaps the
most risky of options available was adultery, and it appears, at least from the
writings of the Europeans, that its risk attracted rather than restrained women
from its practice. As Pelsaert said, mahal women "spare no craft or trouble to
enable them to enjoy themselves outside,"129 and women of high as well as low
rank were drawn into the lure of relationships with men beyond the harem walls.

Some of the nobles, again, have chaste wives, but they are too few to be worth
mentioning; most of the ladies are tarred with the same brush, and when the
102 NUR JAHAN

husband is away, though he may think they are guarded quite safely by his
eunuchs, they are too clever for Argus himself with his hundred eyes, and get all
the pleasure they can, though not so much as they desire.130

Although popular culture of the time assumed that women in parda engaged
in frequent liaisons with eunuchs, male servants, visitors to the court, and local
nobles—indeed Indian literature and miniature painting of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries portrayed an adulterous population as prominent, if not
more so, than its faithful counterpart—the dangers of extramarital relations
were great. Terry noted that a woman's dishonor of her husband in adultery, like
an unmarried woman's wanton behavior, deserved "the severest punishment"
and that it was her own brother's hand that would be the first to take away her
life.131 Adultery was dangerous not only for the mahal woman involved but also
for the adulterer himself. Tavernier, for example, preserved a story of an affair
between Raushanara Begam, Aurangzeb's sister, and a handsome young man
whom she had allowed into the zanana for almost twenty days. When "she was
tired of him," she found she could not let him out without the emperor discover-
ing the tryst and so told her brother that the man had entered the harem to rob
and kill her. Since the eunuchs were clearly at fault for not sufficiently protect-
ing her, she argued, they should be punished as well. When Aurangzeb came to
the spot, however, the young man jumped out of the window into the river. A
crowd had gathered to catch him, and the emperor, aware of the ruse and of his
sister's fault, asked that the erstwhile lover not be killed but taken instead to the
chief judge. 132
In another story, preserved by Bernier who got it from "an old woman, a
half-caste Portuguese, who has been many years a slave in the seraglio,"
Raushanara again had to let two men out of the zanana with whom she had been
secretly carrying on. One was found wandering in the gardens and treated
lightly by Aurangzeb but thrown from the top of a wall by the eunuchs who
"exceeded their master's instructions," while the other (also found in the gar-
dens) was allowed to leave by the way he said he had come in. The eunuchs,
however, were severely punished for allowing the harem to go unguarded and for
bringing dishonor thereby upon the Mughal house.133 As in all things, however,
an emperor was himself exempted from the normal punishments given to an
adulterer (or to an unwary eunuch), for Shah Jahan was well known for his later
dalliances among the wives of his nobles, particularly with the wife of Jafar
Khan.134
Other practices, besides adultery, were known. Although we have no explicit
reference to lesbian relationships, we cannot discount them in a society where
women spent so much time with one another. Physical affection and contact
within genders has always been a part of both Hindu and Muslim India, and this
may have served to lessen the potential for explicitly lesbian relationships within
the mahal. Terry, however, has twice made reference to the possibility of
Jahangir's bisexuality. In the first, he mentioned some boys who had been called
to court to help with the tricks of a divining ape: these boys "he was conceived to
keep for such use as I dare not name."135 In the second reference Terry was more
 Life in the Women's Palaces 103

explicit, saying that in order "that he [Jahangir] might raise up his beastly and
unnatural lusts even to the very height, he kept boys."136 Although we have no
other specific charge of sodomy against Jahangir, the Sribhanucandraganicarita
implied at one point that the emperor was physically attracted to handsome male
youths. At court once was a young Jain monk named Siddhicandra, who was so
pleasing and perfect in form that Jahangir spent some time in trying to woo him
(unsuccessfully) from his vow of austerity. Although it may have been that
Jahangir's great anger at not being able to persuade Siddhicandra from his vow137
had nothing to do with being denied special physical favor in this one case, we
must honor in general Terry's clear suggestion of Jahangir's bisexual tenden-
cies.138 Terry seems convinced of some activity divergent from ordinary English
standards, but what that activity was and who it involved remains unknown.
That regular life in the palaces may have been conducive to homosexual relations
between men and between women must remain a possibility and would be
especially so for the women there whose lives were perforce oriented one to-
wards another.
Nor can we discount the possibility of incest involving members of the
zanana. Although there is only one case in which incest has actually been
charged, that between Shah Jahan and his favorite daughter, Jahanara, others
may simply not have made it into the texts. Of this case, Tavernier was quite
outspoken in his condemnation of the princess, whom he fully suspected of
"improper relations with Shahjahan,"139 and who "had full power over him in
consequence of the intimate relations which existed between them."140 Certainly
other foreigners, like Mundy141 and Bernier, suspected the same as did the gossip
brokers in the countryside, and Bernier even offered a rationale for the liaison:
the mullas argued that it would be "unjust to deny the King the privilege of
gathering fruit from the tree he had himself planted."142 Manucci, however,
argued persuasively against the charge.

It was from this cause [Shah Jahan's affection for Jahanara] that the common
people hinted that she had intercourse with her father, and this has given
occasion to Monsieur Bernier to write many things about this princess, founded
entirely on the talk of low people. Therefore it is incumbent on me, begging his
pardon, to say that what he writes is untrue. 143

Although we have no reason to believe that incest occurred between other

relatives of the imperial household, it may be that the notoriety of the suspected
Shah Jahan/Jahanara relationship masked other, less prominent, liaisons.
Women of the mahal were also thought to have made creative use of objects
brought into their apartments. Certainly, romance of the mind was part of the
appeal of the fantasy-oriented poetry, dance, and music of the surrounding
culture. That it may have existed alongside some unusual practices has been
suggested from the very early days of European contact with Indian courts. In a
famous passage about the Nauroz festival, Coryat noted that care had to be
taken with items brought into the fair: "whatsoever is brought in of virill shape,
as instance in reddishes, so great is the jealousie, and so frequent the wicked-
104 NUR JAHAN

nesse of this people, that they are cut and jagged for feare of converting the
same to some unnaturall abuse."144 Certainly, European imaginations embel-
lished (perhaps overly) the sexual possibilities of what they knew was taken
behind zanana walls, and when Manucci noted that the eunuchs refused to
allow "radishes, cucumbers, or similar vegetables that I cannot name"145 into the
harem, Gascoigne consigns the information to unfounded rumor and bazaar
gossip.146 Paintings of the period by Indians, however, depict a life of such
scintillating luxury and ease that it is not hard to imagine some truth to these
early European suggestions.
The laws of parda restricted those who were allowed to visit the women's
apartments. Women visitors were carefully screened by a formal process of
written request and supervision,147 but men visitors, except in a few special
cases, were prohibited any entry at all.148 Except for the ubiquitous eunuch149 and
the intimately regarded male relative, like Itimaduddaula,150 "safe" men were
relatively few. Into this category fell monks like the Jain Siddhicandra who came
into the harem for educational reasons, to read works on grammar, poetry, logic,
rhetoric, prosody, and dramaturgy, 151 as well as teachers and poets who were
patronized by high-placed women like Zebunnisa and brought in to instruct
interested mahal members in certain subjects. 152 Service men, like "masons or
carpenters, or other workmen [who] are wanted to carry out any job" were also
allowed in, but the eunuchs guarding the doors would take down "the descrip-
tive marks on their faces, and so forth" so that they could be sure each male
worker who entered also left as soon as the job was done.153 An occasional
European was allowed in, but as in the case of a Master Steele who (as reported
by Purchas) was needed to interpret for a painter at court, when passing through
the women's quarters he wore "a cloth ouer his head [so] that he should not see
the Women (which hee might heare as hec passed)."154 Special friends of the male
principal were also invited in in the hopes that they would be so flattered by a
reception in the zanana that they would grant anything the principal desired.
Shah Jahan, for example, brought the Khankhanan into his female apartments
in "order to please him and strengthen his promises and oath," thus making an
intimate of him,155 and Dara Shikoh allowed his wife to invite Raja Sarup Singh
into the harem where she could, by sweet words and gifts, try to persuade the
Raja to support her husband against his brother Aurangzeb.156 Such cases were
rare, however, and were often not as politically successful as they were intended
to be.
Although not routinely allowed into the harem, Europeans were nevertheless
curious and Bernier recounted using two stratagems in order to see "these
hidden treasures . . . the finest burnettes in all Indies . . . justly renowned for
their fine and slender shapes," housed in the homes of the noble. In the first
(learned from townsmen), he would follow the steps of "richly harnessed" ele-
phants through the streets, "because the ladies no sooner hear the tinkling of the
silver bells suspended from both sides of the elephant than they all put their
heads to the windows." In the second (used in Kashmir), Bernier needed the
help of an old man with whom he had read Persian poetry. The Frenchman
would buy large quantities of sweetmeats and accompany the scholar to houses
 Life in the Women's Palaces 105

"to which he had freedom of access," pretending that he himself was a "kinsman
lately arrived from Persia, rich and eager to marry." As soon as the two entered a
house the scholar would pass out the sweets among the children, "and then
everybody was sure to flock around us, the married women and the single girls"
hoping to get a share for themselves. Although Bernier spent many rupees doing
this, the practice "left no doubt on my mind that there are as handsome faces in
Kachemire as in any part of Europe."157
The most important of the regular nonfamily visitors to the harem was the
doctor, often the court physician or some specialist, who came when one of the
women fell ill. Illness usually put a woman out of commission, and if she were of
high rank it often affected harem business, politics, or travel tremendously, so
the care of a reputable physician was essential.158 Nur Jahan, for example, was
seen by both Muslim and Hindu doctors when she became sick in 1618,159 and
Maryamuzzamani, too sick that same year to come out from Agra to meet
Jahangir, had to stay behind (presumably under the care of physicians) until she
had recovered.160 The conduct of doctors in the harem was, by design, extremely
circumspect. Whether the doctor was foreign or Indian, he was not allowed
actually to see his patient. Ordinarily, he had his head covered and was led into
the harem by a eunuch;161 there an elaborate curtain was set up around the sick
woman and she was diagnosed either by extending the afflicted part out from
under the cover, or by allowing the doctor to put his hand inside and touch her
where necessary. Tavernier noted the case of a particular young Dutch surgeon
named Pitre de Lan, who was called in by Shah Jahan in 1652 to bleed the king
under his tongue in four places in order to relieve a chronic headache. De Lan's
operation was so successful that the "young Queen and the Queen-dowager"162
became extremely curious about the doctor—"for he was a young and well-made
man, and probably in their lives they had not seen a stranger at close
quarters"163—and they decided each themselves to be bled for the same thing.
So, "they drew a curtain, and the young Queen putting out an arm through a
hole, the surgeon bled her, and he afterwards did the same for the Queen
mother."164 More explicitly, Manucci reported that when a doctor came to visit
the women in the harem he

stretches out his hand inside the curtain; they lay hold of it, kiss it, and softly
bite it. Some, out of curiosity, apply it to their breast, which has happened to
me several times; but I pretended not to notice, in order to conceal what was
passing from the matrons and eunuchs then present, and not arouse their
suspicions.165

Such elaborate subterfuge may not always have been the case when a doctor came
to call, however, and it is quite likely that often enough conditions did not warrant
a curtain and a doctor was allowed to see his patient in the open. Bernier, for
example, was called in to examine one of Shah Jahan's wives who had a bad wound
in one of her legs. As Tavernier recounted: "Monsieur Bernier went to his tent,
where he saw this lady and examined her ailment, for which he gave a remedy and
quick relief."166 In general, however, most male visitors were turned away from
106 NUR JAHAN

zanana quarters. Should there be a petitioner who wanted to pay his respects to a
woman in the harem or to solicit her help or intercession on his behalf, his best
recourse, if he were an important enough noble, was to enlist the appropriate
eunuch at the harem gate and send his compliments inside along with a generous
present. If the woman was pleased and became well-disposed toward him, she
would send back a jewel or an ornament as a sign of her good-will accompanied,
perhaps, by the promise of assistance. All other men with whom she had relation-
ships, however—be they traders, soldiers, and even to a point, lovers—were
subject to the layers of grillwork that enclosed the business of women.
Travel for Mughal women of rank was a way of life. Because so much of the
emperor's time, or for that matter the time of most nobles, was spent in military
maneuvers, guarding widely scattered family holdings, hunting wild animals, or
simply escaping seasonal temperatures, whole families spent much of their time
on the move. Often women were subjected to dangerous routes, lack of adequate
provisions, and difficult weather conditions, but in the end they had no choice but
to make do with whatever the male principal could provide. While on the move
women could, under proper supervision, go off for brief excursions to see natural
wonders like waterfalls or fruit stands, to visit nearby buildings and gardens, or to
make pilgrimages to local religious shrines. Always, however, except when on
pilgrimage to Mecca, women had to confine themselves to the traveling party of
their lord, for modesty and family honor were uppermost at all times.
Wherever the emperor or a noble went, his women went. Whether Jahangir
was going sight-seeing167 or to visit a melon bed168 or to hunt, 169 or Khusrau was
on one of his flights,170 or Shah Jahan was fleeing a flood,171 the whole camp
moved, women and all. On the road, the women always traveled behind the
men,172 and their presence severely reduced the pace the group might otherwise
have gone.173 Although women slowed down travel time considerably, they never-
theless made the whole party more conscious of safety and in this way averted
many accidents. Men, for example, often went down the Kabul River on rafts,
doing in twelve hours "what ten marches [ordinarily] covered," but because
women were not expected to make this dangerous journey, it was always passed
over for the longer, more tedious, but perhaps safer, road route.174
When the group made camp during a maneuver, placement of the women
was second only to the establishment of the central offices and apartments of the
emperor. Just inside the grand enclosure (gulalbar) (where Akbar, for example,
had a two-storied pavilion of painted wood and canvas for worship and for
audiences with nobles) were elaborate tents for the women and their servants,
the important women making camp "with her own establishment and within her
own enclosure."175

Adjoining the royal tents are those of the Begums, or Princesses, and of the great
ladies and principal female attendants of the Seraglio. These tents are also
enclosed on every side by rich kanates', and in the midst of them are the tents of
the inferior female domestics and other women connected with the Seraglio,
placed generally in much the same order, according to the offices of the respec-
tive occupants. 176
 Life in the Women's Palaces 107

None of the women were allowed to enter the emperor's pavilion—no "one
connected with the seraglio enters this building without special leave"177—and
around the women were placed sturdy guards of both genders. When traveling
with the army, overcrowding became a major problem178 and Akbar devised a plan
whereby tents for the harem, the audience hall, and the naqarkhana were pitched
in the middle of a flat plain and surrounded on three sides by an open space
patrolled only by guards. On the fourth side were the offices and workshops of the
emperor, and at the four corners of the encampment were bazaars. Around the
whole, nobles and their soldiers arrayed themselves according to rank.179 The
result was often an arrangement as big and as regularly organized as a full-size
town, and duplicate tents for the king and nobles were made so that one series
could always be set up at the next stage ready for the entourage to move in.180
Because of the needs of parda, however, the manner of travel for a woman of
rank was substantially different from that of a man.181 While most ordinary
women traveled about on foot182 noblewomen, and certainly women of the impe-
rial harem, traveled by a variety of conveyances, the most prominent perhaps
being the palki or palanquin. The palanquin was "a kind of bed, 6 or 7 feet long
and 3 feet wide, with a small rail" around it and was usually made of bamboo
and roofed over with satin or brocade. It was carried on poles by men at each
corner—who could "travel in this way faster than our chairmen in Paris"—or
between two camels or two small elephants, and was accompanied by servants
with fancy umbrellas who could shield the occupant from the sun.183 The palan-
quins of princesses were covered over with "a rich cloth or net of gold, some-
times ornamented with precious stones or pieces of looking glass,"184 or with a
net made of the finest silk. When a princess like Jahanara went out for a ride,
eunuchs with peacock feathers drove away flies and men in front threw down
water to lay the dust. Said Bernier: "I have sometimes seen Rauchenara-Begum
pursuing her journey, and have observed more than once in front of the litter,
which was open, a young, well-dressed female slave, with a peacock's tail in her
hand, brushing away the dust, and keeping off the flies from the princess."185
Guards in front and behind carrying sticks of gold or silver pushed away the
crowds, and servants near the palanquin carried various perfumes for the use of
whomever was inside.186 If on the road a princess met a nobleman, any of whom
would have been most "anxious to acquire such protectors at court," she ac-
cepted his compliments and gifts. If she was pleased, she gave him betel in an
ornamental bag and, if she was not, she ordered that he "receive a shower of
blows which makes him run."187 In general, however, it was only with great
difficulty that women in procession could be approached.

Woe to any unlucky cavalier, however exalted in rank, who, meeting the proces-
sion, is found too near. Nothing can exceed the insolence of the tribes of
eunuchs and footmen which he has to encounter, and they eagerly avail them-
selves of any such opportunity to beat a man in the most unmerciful manner.188

Women also traveled in haudas strapped like little towers on the backs of
elephants. As throughout Indian history, elephants were important in Mughal
108 NUR JAHAN

times for conveying tents and baggage over long distances, and each animal was
strong and wide enough to carry a good number of women (often eight) as
well.189 The hauda was a square construction "all most richly furnished" with
gold, with screens of gold on every side so that the women could look out and a
canopy over the top for protection which was made "of Cloth of siluer."190
Jahangir estimated that the gold-covered haudas in use by the imperial family
were each worth Rs. 30,000.191 An excellent description of the haudas for women
in use by Akbar was given by Monserrate.

The queens ride on female elephants, hidden from view in gaily decorated
howdahs. They are guarded and escorted by five hundred old men of very
dignified and venerable appearance. Great care is taken to drive away to a great
distance all who are found in the line of the queens' march. The higher the rank
and dignity of these old men, the more careful they are in fulfilling their
functions. 192

A third type of conveyance for women was the carriage. These carriages were
usually drawn by oxen not by horse, according to Terry and Tavernier,193 and
were closed on all sides to maintain parda.m Women could and did go out in
open carriages under their own veils, but such public travel was a mark of
considerably lower status. A famous and much more elaborate carriage was the
English coach given to Jahangir by Roe in 1616. Jahangir had given this coach to
Nur Jahan, who had had it "newly couered and trimed rich,"195 whereupon the
emperor had made an exact copy of the vehicle for himself. Both coaches, to the
delight of the English ambassador, were given regular use as part of the imperial
entourage. Faster travel for women could be found on horseback196 either by
riding directly on a saddle or by using a horselitter.197 The advantage of the horse
over the elephant, or over the man-powered palki, was that it was not only faster
but more efficient on the rough terrain of the northern hills and mountains, and
it was often a normal mode of travel, for example, when the Mughal family went
on trips up to Kabul. Camels and camel litters (kajawas) were also used,198
although Terry consigned these to passengers "of the meaner sort [who] ride in
cradles, hanging on the sides of dromedaries, all covered close, and attended by
eunuchs."199 Tavernier noted, however, that these side-slung kajawas were used
not only by women but also by soldiers who could hide in the closed compart-
ments and, as at the siege of Troy, jump out off the camels in a surprise attack. 200
Although women ordinarily traveled with the party of the male principal, it
often happened that a woman or a group of women traveled alone with their
ladies-in-waiting, separate from the larger zanana group. Women could be sent
on ahead, for example, to keep the emperor's journey a secret,201 to forego a long
and tedious wait while he hunted, 202 or to get a head start by horseback on a
rough journey. 203 Or, certain women could be allowed to delay their start until
after the emperor left if they, like the elderly Maryamuzzamani, were sick or
wanted to travel at a more leisurely pace.204
Women's lives inside the harem were a rich mix of art, religion, and leisure.
Although Gascoigne has cautioned us against thinking of the harem "as nothing
 Life in the Women's Palaces 109

more than a gilded cage full of pretty but idle women,"205 it is difficult to imagine
what normal hardships lay in store for a woman who belonged to the zanana. It
is true that the emperor could not attend to each and every women on a regular
basis and that the time actually spent in his company was relatively small.206 It is
also true that the women as a group were at his beck and call and that they had to
subject their own lives to his rigorous yearly calendar of hunting, visits to
Kashmir, and continuous military and political maneuvers. At the same time,
however, inmates of the zanana had most of their material needs met, did not
have to work for a living—except insofar as the business of pleasure was work—
and in their splendid isolation from the general public207 were free to pursue
whatever pastimes took their fancy.
Food, for example, was always available in the zanana and the pantry, at least
in Akbar's time, was open from morning till night.208 As Pelsaert noted, all meals
for the mahal came from one kitchen, but because there were often squabbles
between the women, they tended to take their food each into their own apart-
ments.209 Most of the cooking was done by servants hired for that purpose, but as
today, women of rank occasionally enjoyed cooking themselves, and Jahanara, in
fact, wrote of preparing many kinds of dishes for the saint Hazrat Mian Mir.210
Eatables for the harem were of the "daintiest" sort,211 and most food was served
with gold and silver serving pieces used only in the mahal. Such serving utensils
were "seen by scarcely anybody except women,"212 probably to forestall theft as
well as to be kept counted as part of the imperial treasury. "Before eating they
first wash their hands; then the tablecloth is brought and spread on the floor."213
Dishes consisted of great varieties of spiced roast meat and fish, dressed rices,
vegetables and fruits from all over the subcontinent, and sweet puddings and
pastries.214 No eating utensils were used and Pelsaert noted that "they besmear
[their five fingers] up to the knuckles soldier-fashion, for napkins are not used,
and it is very bad manners to lick the fingers." As in Hindu custom, no food was
touched with the left hand and little or nothing was drunk with the meal—wine
and water being saved until after the washing of hands and prayers. 215
Although much time was spent in the preparation and taking of meals,
zanana women had a wide range of activities available to them outside of the
kitchen, many of which depended upon the acquisition and expenditure of
wealth. In addition to their regular allowances, which were based upon duties
performed in the mahal and relationship to the king (by either kin or affection),
women could acquire wealth in a number of ways.216 There were often special
gifts from the emperor, who periodically gave land and money to women he
deemed worthy 217 and who often used the proceeds from his lunar and solar
birthday weighings as presents for the inmates of the harem. 218 Special-occasion
gifts of money, jewels, dresses, and ornaments were also given to individual
women by their male relatives, such as Shah Jahan's gifts to Nur Jahan at the
time of his 1617 victories in the Deccan219 and Itimaduddaula's gifts "to the
Begams and other ladies of the Palace" at the time of the 1619 Nauroz. 220 Women
also received presents from visiting traders, nobles, and other petitioners who
hoped that a fortuitously placed offering would gain precious time at court.
Wealth could come to women through inheritance as well, and although women
110 NURJAHAN

were not guaranteed equal shares by Islamic law, they sometimes faired well
through the favor of the emperor. The most famous example here, of course,
was Jahangir's transfer of the late Itimaduddaula's holdings to Nur Jahan when
the emperor received the estate through the process of escheat.221 Finally, women
often received substantial return on investments they made in the currently
burgeoning business of inland and overseas trade. Profits on the sale of textile,
mineral, and agricultural goods, as well as duties taken from merchants crossing
lands belonging to mahal women, were collected by specially appointed officials
and brought to the mahal for proper distribution. 222
Women spent their wealth, and spent it lavishly, almost as soon as it reached
their hands. Although most women paid out money freely in the normal course
of life at court—none so extravagantly as the profligate wife of Jafar Khan, a
longtime lover of Shah Jahan223—some, surprisingly, tried to keep their costs to a
minimum. Khafi Khan, for example, preserved an exchange between Nur Jahan
and Jahangir, which idealized the queen as a paragon of thrift.

Once the royal elephants were being displayed before the Emperor. All the
animals were decked with coverings of a very fine brocade. The Emperor was so
much impressed by them that he inquired from Khan-i-Saman (the controller of
establishments) about the cost of the coverings.
"Your Majesty, I know nothing about it. They were prepared in the harem and
Her Majesty the Empress has sent them to me."
The Emperor now turned to Noor Jahan. The Empress smiled and said,
"Your Majesty, I did not purchase any cloth for them. These coverings have
been made by palace tailors from the bags in which letters and petitions of the
mansabdars and nobles are received, spending practically nothing on them."
The Emperor was immensely pleased on the information. 224

Nur Jahan did, however, like to spend money, and like most of her colleagues in
the zanana, she used her money first and foremost on luxury items for her own
personal use. Perfumes, hair ointments, jewelry, silks, brocades, mirrors, glass-
ware, and small porcelain vessels were necessities in any woman's toilet and were
the most common purchases in the harem. Money also went to pay for parties,
marriages, feastings, and religious festivals for which food, decorations, pres-
ents, and new clothes were needed each time.225 Especially important was the
extravagant cycle of gift giving women had with each other and with those
outside. Presents were given not only to fellow members of the mahal and to
male relatives—such as the two large pearls Nur Jahan gave to Jahangir226 and
the new dress, horse, and elephant she gave to Parviz 227 —but to those who came
to birthdays,228 marriages, weighing ceremonies, accessions, and special political
occasions.229
Women also used their money to lay out gardens and waterways and to build
buildings like sarais for travelers,230 or mosques for worshippers,231 or tombs for
relatives.232 The sarai built by Jahanara, for example, was said by Manucci to be
"the most beautiful sarae in Hindustan," and there were "put up none but great
 Life in the Women's Palaces 111

Mogul and Persian merchants.233 Women's money was also given in charity,
generally to the needy and impoverished at large,234 but occasionally to individ-
ual persons or establishments that seemed worthy of mahal indulgence. And
finally, women spent their money in trade, buying ships and carts, hiring cap-
tains and middlemen, and procuring all manner of goods that might be wanted
in other parts of Asia or Europe. Nur Jahan, Maryamuzzamani, and Jahanara
were three women especially involved with overseas trade, and the ships they
ran often took pilgrims to Mecca along with their cargo.235 Women invested in
inland trade as well; Nur Jahan, for example, had officers stationed in Sikandra,
across the Yamuna from Agra, to collect duty on goods that came from Bengal
and Bhutan before they crossed over the river.236 This duty was in addition, it
should be noted, to monies she collected as revenue from tenants on these lands,
as well as to profits she made on the sale of her goods.
A special part of a woman's wealth was allotted to her in outright gifts of land.
Manucci reported that usually a woman's allowance was paid half in cash and half
in the grant of a land assignment (jagir) from which she could collect an often
sizable amount of money.237 These parganas granted to women could be fairly
large238 and were often scattered throughout much of Mughal-held India. The
practice of granting parganas to women appears to have begun with Babur,239 was
continued under Humayun, abated somewhat during the time of Akbar, and
became a considerable practice under Jahangir.240 Jahangir gave many of his
women grants of land as part of their regular allowances and also at times of their
special service to the empire. Nur Jahan, for example, received the pargana of
Toda with a revenue of Rs. 200,000 as a result of having passed on the news of
Shah Jahan's 1617 victories in the Deccan to her husband, 241 but later had another
pargana, that of Dholpur, seized as a political ploy by Shah Jahan at the time of his
1622 rebellion.242 More often than not, however, the land-holdings of his women
provided personal pleasures for the emperor and were often sites of entertainment
whenever Jahangir and his party happened to be passing through.243
How women spent their time after their financial affairs had been settled was
a matter of choice. All women, it seems, had to have an interest in clothes since
the elegance of their finery reflected and legitimized the authority of the empire.
These clothes, Pelsaert noted, were "the most expensive" of anything avail-
able,244 with women often having so many outfits that once-worn garments were
reportedly buried in the ground "there to rot."245 Each member of the mahal was
provided with apparel and jewels "according to the extent of ... [the man's]
affection"246 for her, and clothes and jewelry became an easy indication of class
and religion. In public (that is, out on the street, in a coach, or on horseback),
Mughal women generally wore white veils covering their faces, while the un-
veiled Hindu women "commonly use no other colour but red [for their dress], or
certain linnen stamp'd with works of sundry colours . . . but all upon red."247
Terry noted that Muslim women "abroad" wore clothes very much like their
men—"coats and breeches one very like the other"—and had long hair down
their backs that had been bound with fillets.248 Pictures of Jahangir's harem [see
Figures 3-1 and 5-2], however, indicate that most women inside his zanana,
Muslim and Hindu alike, wore short tight bodice tops with the midriff showing,
112 NUR JAHAN

ankle-length loose pants under a thin, long skirt, and a large veil covering their
heads but not faces—all made of silk or cotton in striped, brocaded, or stamped
designs rendered in a great variety of colors.249
Jewelry was an essential part of women's adornment, and much time was
spent putting it on and admiring it in tiny mirrors set in pearls that were worn by
ladies on their right thumbs. 250 All women wore pierced earrings, the wealthier
having large pendants of gold or silver, the less wealthy ones of brass or iron.
The left nostril of each nose was pierced and a stud or nose ring of pearls or
precious stones was passed through it at all times.251 Elaborate pendants, brace-
lets, and anklets of metalwork and gems were worn around the neck, arms, and
legs of each woman, providing not only ornament but concealment for parts of
her body left uncovered by her clothes.252 Head ornaments were worn as well,
and Manucci reported that when they wore turbans, they often had in them "a
valuable aigrette, surrounded by pearls and precious stones."253 Terry did not, he
claimed, observe the dress of women inside the zanana, but he imagined based
on what he saw outside that "doubtless, the women of the greatest quality
(though I saw it not) are bedcck'd with many rich jewels."254 Jewelry and jeweled
decorations on clothing were certainly a sign of wealth and leisure, and women
of the harem, who did not need to labor in the fields for their keep, would have
indulged in them as much for their own as for the emperor's pleasure.
Women's toilet in the Mughal harem was a complicated affair. Manucci
reported that unguents and sweet-smelling pastes used before and after the bath
and hair oils used to enhance the many twists and rolls of hair were common-
place.255 In addition, colored pastes decorated many parts of the body: black
(collyrium), for instance, on the eyes and eyebrows,256 red (vermilion) on the hair
parts of married Hindu women, 257 red (betal leaf) on the lips and (henna) on the
hands and feet,258 and all colors (for example, red, yellow, white, and black) as
bindu on the forehead.259 Flowers were often used as body ornaments as well and
popular varieties such as marigolds and jasmine were freely woven into the hair,
while ribbons, bells, tassels, and mirror-work decorated clothes and jewelry all
over the body. A woman's toilet could be a daylong task and a proper routine of
bathing, anointing, dressing, and adorning might normally have filled most of
the hours any woman had at hand.
Many women did, however, take advantage of the education available in the
zanana. Women competed among themselves in various fields of learning,
spurred on by each of the emperors, who valued high standards of intellectual
life in all parts of the court. Of the subjects studied, certainly one of the most
popular and important was language. In the harem, the language of everyday use
was Turki for the Mughal women, and Hindi or some other regional language
for the Hindu women. Persian was the language of literature and poetry, as was
Sanskrit, and to master either one of these in some degree was indeed an accom-
plishment.260 Gulbadan and Salima Sultan were both known to have been well-
versed in Persian, and Nur Jahan knew Persian and Arabic and herself had a
library rich in their classics.261
Other subjects were available in the mahal as well, and a good sampling was
given by the Jain monk Siddhicandra. He had apprenticed himself in Jahangir's
 Life in the Women's Palaces 113

harem and while there had studied Sanskritic texts on grammar, poetry, logic,
rhetoric, prosody, and drama. At the instigation of Jahangir, he also studied
Persian and Persian literature 262 and knew that mathematics, astronomy, and
calligraphy could be had should he want them. All of these subjects were avail-
able to mahal women also, and if they were interested they could have studied
with female tutors or with knowledgeable male relatives.
In the mahal, women were encouraged not only to learn from texts but also
to make substantial contributions in the arts. Poetry was a popular pastime and a
number of women are known to have written some verse. Gulbadan and Salima
Sultan Begam both composed poetry, and Nur Jahan not only wrote poetry
herself but also held contests for other women poets of the mahal and patronized
outside poetesses who were especially renowned. A particularly able Persian
poetess, who had been sponsored and brought up by Nur Jahan, wrote under
the name of Mehri and of her works at least the Persian mathnawi Sarapa-i Mehri
survives.263 Other women used pen names (takhallus), too—Salima Sultan
Begam wrote under the often-used name makhfi ("concealed," as in parda),2M as
apparently did Zebunnisa265—and what survives under these names indicates
that zanana women often achieved a remarkable proficiency in composition.266
Women were also acquainted with music and were often entertained by male
and female singers who would be a part of larger entertainments brought in for
their amusement.267 Gulbadan reported that dancing girls had been sent in once by
a friend of the emperor's and passed out among the women as gifts to be enjoyed as
each woman saw most fit268 and that the ongoing presence of players and singers
was a common feature of all festive gatherings.269 Finch noted that professional
singers and dancers were always at the beck and call of Jahangir and his women,
waiting just outside one of the palace gates,270 and Manucci reported that Jahanara
especially "treated herself to many entertainments, such as music, dancing, and
other pastimes."271 Just how many or how often women of the harem themselves
took up singing or a musical instrument is not known, but paintings of the period
do show princesses, their companions, and their ladies-in-waiting playing instru-
ments like the vina or singing to an accompaniment,272 and Manucci reported that
there were female superintendents of music and their women players in the harem
who presumably would be available for instruction.273 Dancing may have been a
different matter, however, for it was not as respectable an art as music and was
usually left to various groups of professionals.
Women of the mahal engaged in other arts as well. Miniature painting ap-
pears to have been popularly appreciated, judging from the number of paintings
that show women holding or looking at such images up close, but we have
relatively little evidence that mahal women themselves became prominent as
artists. Nur Jahan, however, took an active interest in working with Jahangir's
atelier, and we know that she herself ordered considerable drawings, paintings,
and engravings from foreign traders, especially the English, to be brought back
to the royal couple from Europe.274 Women certainly had many paintings hung
around them on zanana walls,275 or in their makeshift galleries at camp, and it
would be no surprise if some of them received instruction from the painters in
residence at the palace.
114 NUR JAHAN

With much of their wealth women also created buildings and gardens, elabo-
rating and extending quite considerably the architectural heritage of their em-
pire. Women built tombs for themselves or their male relatives—such as Salima
Sultan Begam for herself;276 Nur Jahan for her father, Itimaduddaula, and for
herself;277 and Zinatunnisa, a daughter of Aurangzeb, for herself278—as well as
sarais for travelers, garden houses, mosques, wells, bazaars, monasteries, poor-
houses, reservoirs, and gardens.279 The sarai that Jahanara built, as noted before,
was called by Manucci "the most beautiful same in Hindustan,"280 and Jahangir
often walked through what he called "the famous gardens of Kabul," three of
which had been made by his women relatives: Bika Begam, grandmother of his
father, Maryam Makani, mother of his father, and Shahr Banu, an aunt of
Babur's. 281 In addition, Jahangir's mother, Maryamuzzamani, built a garden and
well in Jusat in 1613, and when the emperor himself inspected them a few years
later, he pronounced the baoli, or step-well, "a grand building . . . [which] had
been built exceedingly well" and found that his mother had spent a mere Rs.
20,000 in constructing it. 282
Nur Jahan likewise was an extravagant builder and two of the most famous
and historically important sites were the Nur Manzil garden outside of Agra,
reworked around 1618 to 1619 and called by Jahangir "that garden of delight,"283
and the Nur Sarai near Jalandhar, a travelers' house and royal garden completed
in late 1620.284 Jahangir also noted the constructions of Aqa Aqayan, a female
relative who, at the time of his first marriage, was put in charge of his zanana by
Akbar where she remained for thirty-three years. In her old age, she had been
sent to Delhi for a rest and there had built a garden, a sarai, and a tomb, all of
which she had been constructing "for some time past" when Jahangir visited her
in late 1619.28S Later Mughal women like Jahanara, Raushanara, Zebunnisa, and
Bibi Akbarabadi (a wife of Aurangzeb's) built gardens as well and, as earlier,
these became extravagant places for dalliance and pleasure.
Women's pursuit of pleasure was epitomized in their experiments with the
making of perfume, a mix of science and sensuality relying as much upon the
olfactory tastes of the emperor as upon the technological skills of his staff. Of
Jahangir's time, Pelsaert noted that women studied "night and day how to make
exciting perfumes," some of which were derived from the redfalanja seed,286 and
we know from Abul Fazl that the imperial kitchen areas were elaborately
equipped for all kinds of techniques that might be needed in the process—
drying, extracting, fermenting, distilling, and straining.287 Akbar had taken a
keen interest in the making of perfume and encouraged it, said Abul Fazl, "from
religious motives," and the court hall of his palace was "continually scented with
ambergris, aloewood, and compositions according to ancient recipes, or mix-
tures invented by his Majesty."288 The chronicler listed thirty-four different
types of perfumes together with their current prices and included detailed reci-
pes for the preparation of some of the most popular fragrances at court, includ-
ing among them those made from ambar, camphor, zabad (civet), chuwa (aloe),
and sandalwood.289
The most famous perfume story was that in the Tuzuk, which attributed the
discovery of attar of roses to Nur Jahan's mother, Asmat Begam. "When she was
 Life in the Women's Palaces 115

making rose-water" once,290 Jahangir noted, "a scum formed on the surface of the
dishes into which the hot rose-water was poured from the jugs." Little by little
Asmat collected this scum and discovered that it was so strong "that if one drop be
rubbed on the palm of the hand it scents a whole assembly, and it appears as if
many red rosebuds had bloomed at once." It was such a good perfume that
Jahangir "presented a string of pearls to the inventress," and Salima Sultan Begam
gave the oil the name "Jahangiri itr."m This story circulated widely, but in time the
discovery was falsely attributed to Nur Jahan rather than to her mother. Manucci,
the main beneficiary of this misattribution, said in his version that in the after-
math of a scrap between husband and wife (over drinking) Nur Jahan decided to
please Jahangir by giving him a large banquet. She filled all the reservoirs in the
palace and garden with roses in water and prohibited anyone from washing his
hands in them. She happened, however, to fall asleep by one of the tanks and when
she awoke she noticed that a film of oil lay on top of the water. Furious at the
thought that "someone had thrown fat into this tank," she had the oil tested on the
fingertips of a companion. Finding that it smelled very sweet and that it must have
come directly from the rose petals, Nur Jahan rubbed some all over her clothes
and ran to awaken the king who became "lost in admiration at such a fine per-
fume." "It was thus," concluded Manucci, "that the secret of essence of roses was
discovered in Hindustan."292
The enjoyment of palace life was enhanced as well by the frequent use of drugs
and alcohol. Intemperance was the Mughal family's main affliction, and despite
continued public abjurations and the clear ban on the use of liquor by Islam, it
remained not only a private curse but a public habit.293 Women were not immune
from the effects of intoxicants, either from the customs that allowed or encour-
aged them or from the negative consequences of their addiction. With inebriants a
regular part of their daily lives and of the lives of the Hindu population around
them,294 it should be no surprise that when Man Bai, first wife of Jahangir, came to
feel so dishonored by her son Khusrau's revolt against his father in 1605, she
"swallowed a quantity of opium, and quickly passed away."295 Pelsaert related that
mahal women experimented with "efficacious preserves . . . containing amber,
pearls, gold, opium, and other stimulants" and ate them during the day because
they produced "a pleasant elevation of the spirit." At night, he said, women drank
wine—"the women learn the habit quickly from their husbands"—and did it
increasingly in Jahangir's time as "drinking has become very fashionable in the
last few years."296 Manucci, always the voyeur of the habits of women, reported
that Jahanara liked to drink wine, which she imported from Persia, Kabul, and
Kashmir. "But the best liquor she drank was distilled in her own house," being "a
most delicious spirit" made from wine and rosewater and spiced with flavors and
aromatic drugs. "Many a time," said Manucci, "she did me the favour of ordering
some bottles of it to be sent to my house, in sign of her gratitude for my curing
people in her harem."297 Opium and hashish were also commonly used, and
miniature paintings of the period attest to the frequent practice among women of
smoking from a water pipe or huqqa as part of their social or private meditations.298
For the most daring of the women, hunting and military activities provided
an adventurous diversion from what might have seemed like the humdrum roll
116 NUR JAHAN

of harem life. By necessity, to be sure, those armed guards in the mahal who
were women came to know the intricacies of armaments and protective weap-
ons,299 but knowledge of weapons was also an accomplishment of their friends of
leisure. Gulbadan reported, for example, that some of the younger women
present at the Mystic Feast "used to wear men's clothing and were adorned by
varied accomplishments, such as the making of thumb-rings and arrows, playing
polo, and shooting with the bow and arrow."300 If women did learn to shoot,
however, either with a bow and arrow or more probably with a gun, it was most
likely so that they could participate with the emperor and other nobles in the
hunt for wild animals. Gulbadan noted that hunting by women was popular in
Humayun's time,301 and it was most certainly a regular pastime of several women
in Jahangir's harem.
The most famous markswoman, of course, was Nur Jahan, who from at least
1616 onward came to be known as an excellent and consistent shot. In that year,
Jahangir reported, she shot a huge qarisha "the like of which for size and beauty
of colour had never been seen,"302 and the next year in 1617 she shot four tigers
with a total of only six shots. Said Jahangir of this feat, until

now such shooting was never seen, that from the top of an elephant and inside
of a howdah (amari) six shots should be made and not one miss. . . . As a
reward for this good shooting I gave her a pair of bracelets (pahunchf) of dia-
monds worth 100,000 rupees and scattered 1,000 ashrafis (over her). 303

Nur Jahan also made a record shoot in 1619 when a tiger reappeared after having
troubled a village neighborhood and its byways for some time. Jahangir had
recently taken a vow of nonviolence,304 and as "I had vowed that I would not
injure any living thing with my own hand, I told Nur-Jahan to shoot at him."
Nur Jahan was, as usual, in a hauda on top of an elephant, a perch that was
ordinarily very awkward as an "elephant is not at ease when it smells a tiger, and
is continually in movement, and to hit with a gun from a litter (imari) is a very
difficult matter."305 Mirza Rustam, in fact, who next to Jahangir was unequalled
in the empire for shooting,306 "has several times missed three or four shots from
an elephant. Yet Nur-Jahan B. so hit the tiger with one shot [this time] that it
was immediately killed."307
Nur Jahan's legendary shooting ability was deflated, however, by later writ-
ers, and Khafi Khan, for one, preserved an apocryphal story implying that she
only learned to shoot in order not to be outdone by a rival wife, Jagat Gosaini.
According to him, both women were shooting once and when the party was
confronted by a lion "Noor Jahan was left perplexed and spell-bound" while
Jagat Gosaini quickly picked up a gun and struck the lion's chest with a bullet.
The emperor, who had been asleep through all this, woke up and applauded his
one brave wife and chastised the other, the cowardly Nur Jahan. He only forgot
his displeasure when Nur Jahan's mother intervened and reminded Jahangir that
women were supposed to be delicate coquettes and that bravery in arms was
reserved for soldiers on the battlefield.308 The story is certainly a product of the
anti-Nur Jahan tendency of Shah Jahan chroniclers, and of this emperor's promo-
 Life in the Women's Palaces 117

tion of his own mother, but it does show that women did hunt regularly under
Jahangir and that Nur Jahan was apparently so good that some explanation of
her expertise had to be sought.
Other sports helped pass the time as well. It is clear that horseback riding
was known by women and, as Gulbadan has noted, polo was a popular recreation
for some of the younger and more active members of the mahal,309 although the
laws of seclusion would have checked involvement by any except the most
courageous. Less physically strenuous games also filled the leisure hours, and
from the substantial information given to us by miniature painting, we know
that a variety of board games were common in the inner chambers.310 Women
also kept pigeons and falcon hawks and flew kites of various shapes when the
weather was right. Fireworks were known, too, and appeared as large torches of
wax and oil lit at night, or actual displays from powdered pieces set against the
evening sky.311
The religious practices of women in the mahal were diverse and depended to
much extent upon the sectarian background of each member. The general tone
of religious life was pious and tolerant, with an overall flexibility to religious
observance that had been set from the time of Akbar. Badauni, for example,
described Akbar's official policy as: "No man should be interfered with on
account of his religion, and everyone should be allowed to change his religion, if
he liked."312 This policy was applied judiciously to the women in the harem, and
it was a tradition of emperors through most of the Mughal dynasty not only to
marry women of different faiths, but to allow them freedom of practice as well.
By the Shujauddins' count Jahangir had eleven Muslim wives and seven
Hindu, 313 and from all we know, they and all the other women of his harem lived
together in what must have approximated ecumenical harmony. That there was
bound to be some discord, however, was evidenced from the time of Gulbadan:
"Hamida-banu is named by the Father as protesting, with other ladies of the
haram, against the royal countenance of Christianity, and assuredly Gul-badan
would swell the chorus of complaint, in which, too, Hindu wives would join the
Moslim lamentation." 314 Moreover, it is quite possible that the language barrier
between Muslim and Hindu wives precluded any serious communication about
their mutually exclusive religious lives. Nevertheless, each woman was bound
into the one community by her particular relationship to the emperor, and
tolerance, if not affirmation and understanding, made that community work
supportively for each of its members.
Perhaps the most difficult of issues for a Muslim woman to understand was
the sati, the devoted Hindu wife who immolated herself on her husband's
funeral pyre. Although the practice of immolation would not have directly
affected women of a Muslim emperor, it might have affected some of their
servants and would certainly have been a custom the mahal women knew from
the countryside.315

When the Rasbooche dies, his wife, when his bodye goes to bee burned,
accompanieth him, attyred with her beste arrayments and accompanyed with
her frends and kyndred, makinge much joye, havinge musicke with them. And
118 NUR JAHAN

cominge to the place of burninge, the fyer beeinge made, sitteth downe, havinge
twice or thrice incompassed the place. Firste, shee bewayleth her husband's
death, and rejoycinge that shee is nowe reddye to goe and live with him agayne;
and then imbraceth her frends and sitteth downe on the toppe of the pile of
wood and dry stickes, rockinge her husband's head in her lappe, and soe willeth
them to sett fyer on the wood; which beeinge done, her frends throwe oyle and
divers other things, with sweete perfumes, uppon her; and shee indures the fyer
with such patience that it is to bee admired.316

The sati was a common figure in Akbar's time,317 and many of the European
travelers who came during Jahangir's reign knew of the custom's frequent obser-
vance and of the emperor's disdain for it: Hawkins,318 Withington,319 Terry,320
Delia Valle,321 and later Mundy,322 Bernier,323 and Tavernier324 all knew the details
of this elaborate Hindu ritual and of the role played by the wife's relatives and
priests in the making of her decision to burn with her husband.
Jahangir frequently admired the piety and devotion of the Hindu wife who
died with her husband, saying in late 1608 that few "women among the
Musulmans have ever shown such fidelity,"325 and was thoroughly acquainted
with the Hindu view of marriage by which "no good deed can be thoroughly
performed by men in the social state without the partnership of the presence of a
wife, whom they have styled the half of a man."326 Nevertheless, he abhorred the
violent consequences of this philosophy of marital unity and in late 1620, con-
cerning the practices of both widow immolation and female infanticide, he "gave
an order that hereafter they should not do such things, and whoever was guilty
of them, should be capitally punished."327 While Jahangir's views may seem
fairly enlightened to the modern reader, they certainly indicated some willing-
ness to interfere with indigenous religious life. Although A. S. Beveridge's
interpretation of earlier Mughal harems—that these "Hindus can never have
been welcome inmates of the palace to any of the Moslims"328—was certainly not
true by Akbar's or Jahangir's times, there was probably some small residue of
condescension in the attitudes of the Muslim wives to their Hindu colleagues.
Nevertheless, we do have a painting of Jahangir playing Holi with the women of
his harem [see Figure 5-2],329 and the universally festive ambiance of the piece
confirms the general view that religious tolerance and widespread participation
in all major religious holidays by the women of the zanana were the norms.
The religious lives of mahal women moved against a background of magical
practices overseen by sorceresses and women astrologers permanently attached
to the court. At the beginning of 1619, for example, Jahangir described an event
that happened to him when he was a child of two years and seven months. He
was visited then by a sorceress who "used to burn rue constantly in order to
avert the evil eye, and on this pretext had access to me." Shaikh Salim Chishti,
who had foretold to Akbar the birth of his three sons, had also prophesied that
he himself would die when the eldest, Jahangir (then Salim), memorized and
recited a verse. Because of his attachment to the shaikh, Akbar had given strict
orders that no one should teach the prince anything either in prose or in verse.
The sorceress, however, was able to enter the boy's quarters on the pretext of
FIGURE 5-2. "Jahangir Playing Holi with his Women." Indian painting; Mughal, fr.
the Minto Album, fol. 4. Courtesy of the A. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (ms. no.
7, no. 56; CB86-200601). Note the nimbus around Jahangir's head, the traditional
box-like hat of one of his supporting women (probably Nur Jahan), the four metal
squirts for shooting red liquid, the wall niches with imported porcelain, and the large
cat in the upper left doorway. An obviously inebriated Jahangir is being led, perhaps,
to his bed.

119
120 NUR JAHAN

forestalling some black magic and there taught him a couplet. The young Salim
did not, apparently, know of the prophecy and went to the shaikh to tell him
what he had just learned. Within a day of the recital, the shaikh came down with
a fever and, after taking "his turban from his head" and placing it on the boy's,
he died.330 On another occasion, in 1622, a pearl valued at Rs. 14,000 or 15,000
was lost in the harem, and one astrologer (Jotik Rai) and two soothsayers, one of
whom was a woman, each gave prophesies as to the manner of its recovery. The
female soothsayer "represented that it would soon be found, and that a woman
with white skin would bring it in a state of ecstacy" and give it to the king. "It
happened that on the third day one of the Turkish girls found it ... and all in
smiles and in a happy frame of mind gave it to me."331 Misra speculates that this
office of female soothsayer came into being because male soothsayers were not
allowed into the women's apartments.332 Moreover, as we saw in the case of
Jahangir, the first experience of young princes with soothsayers would also be
with women, as their early personal encounters were primarily those of the
mahal.
Little is known about the private side of women's religious lives, but we
assume that it followed the normal daily and seasonal routines of their male
counterparts. For a Muslim woman, this would mean a regular schedule of
prayers five times a day, study of the Quran, and faithful observance of such
things as Ramadan and, for Shias, of the dramas of Muharram. 333 For a Hindu
woman it would mean the daily practice of havan314 and/or of puja to whatever
gods or goddesses (ishtadevata) she ordinarily worshipped and yearly participa-
tion in such festivals as Holi, Navaratra, and Divali.335 Both traditions encour-
aged charity and, given the goodly amount of mahal women's income and given
among other things the important political consequences of such acts, we can
assume that most women gave generously and at frequent intervals. A. S.
Beveridge, for example, notes that Gulbadan's charities, especially as she got
older, "were large, and it is said of her that she added day unto day in the
endeavor to please God, and this by succouring the poor and needy."336 Nur
Jahan was also noted for her generosity, and of her openhandedness the
Iqbalnama said:

Whoever threw himself upon her protection was preserved from tyranny and
oppression; and if ever she learnt that any orphan girl was destitute and friend-
less, she would bring about her marriage, and give her a wedding portion. It is
probable that during her reign no less than 500 orphan girls were thus married
and portioned. 337

Hindu women, as well, would be under religious obligation to give to the poor
and, as Abul Fazl has noted, there were many ways according to contemporary
practice by which to fulfill the Hindu duty of dana or almsgiving.338
Perhaps the most public of a woman's religious observances was the pilgrim-
age, a practice shared by both major faiths of the mahal. For Muslim women the
preeminent pilgrimage (hajf) was to Mecca, and it became the special pleasure of
the emperor, particularly in the early days of the dynasty,339 to encourage and
 Life in the Women's Palaces 121

support such journeys with substantial largesse. Unmarried women were forbid-
den by tradition from going, however, so "the younger women, who go in as
large numbers as the older, all get married beforehand, so as not to break the
law."340 One of the most famous women's pilgrimage parties of the era left for
Mecca in 1575 under the fortunate auspices of Akbar and included a large
number of high-ranking members of the harem: Gulbadan Begam, Salima Sul-
tan Begam, Sultanam (widow of Akbar's uncle Askari), Haji and Gulazar
Begams (two stepnieces of Gulbadan), Umm Kulsum (a granddaughter of
Gulbadan's), and Salima Khanam. The party left Fatehpur Sikri on October 15,
1575, and after taking a year to get to the sea, set sail for Mecca on October 17,
1576. They were said to have spent three and a half years in Arabia and made the
hajj four times, returning home to Agra in March of 1582.341 Women continued
to make the hajj under Jahangir, and Roe reported that in September of 1617 the
emperor sent his sister, presumably Shahzada Khanam, to Mecca;342 Tavernier
reported later in the century that the Queen of Bijapur had stopped at Isfahan on
her way back from Mecca.343
Women also made pilgrimages to their father's tomb, as Ruqayya Sultan
Begam did in 1607 to the tomb of Mirza Hindal,344 and to the tomb of other
ancestors, as Jahangir and his ladies did in late 1619 to the mausoleum of Huma-
yun. 345 But the practice was not confined to Muslim pilgrims as Hindu women in
the mahal would have journeyed equally far to visit their sacred spots throughout
India as well.346 Although we have little evidence that these women did so, the
imperial policy was such that, under Jahangir at least, pilgrimage to Hindu sites
would have been a normal part of harem life. Finally, however, we must note that
pilgrimage was not always religious in intent. It was Pelsaert who reported that
religious journeys were often the cover for romantic liaisons: "Under pretext of a
pilgrimage, they used to come without reproach to see, and perhaps even speak to
their lovers. Assignations were made in the gardens, . . . [and on] such occasions
new passions were aroused by the sight of a handsome youth." 347 Whether for love
or for religion, then, pilgrimage was a regular part of women's lives, and it was
perhaps primarily because of its hardship and duration that through it some
women were able to achieve a measure of autonomy and independence.
Direct political influence at the court was ordinarily a power outside the
realm of the harem, but physical proximity behind a screen at court while the
emperor did business meant that women could give their own opinions on the
matters at hand. We know, as well, that important imperial issues were often
brought before the emperor while he was in his women's chambers,348 and that
foreign travelers were routinely astounded to find themselves the object of in-
tense inspection by women they could not see. Roe's description of this is
perhaps the most famous.

At one syde in a window were his [Jahangir's] two Principall wifes, whose
Curiosity made them breake litle holes in a grate of reede that hung before yt to
gaze on mee. I saw first their fingers, and after laying their faces close nowe one
eye, Now another; sometyme I could discerne the full proportion. . . . When I
lookd vp they retyred, and were so merry that I supposed they laughd at mee.349
122 NUR JAIIAN

The scrutiny of women from behind the screen was rarely silent, however, and a
wonderful story was preserved of Salima Sultan Begam who interceded most
vociferously on behalf of Mirza Aziz Koka. Aziz Koka had been a foster brother
of Akbar's and consequently a great favorite in the harem for decades. One of his
daughters had married Khusrau and when Khusrau revolted against his father
Jahangir, Aziz Koka was discovered to have been involved in the plot from the
very beginning. Aziz Koka would surely have received capital punishment had
not Salima Sultan Begam yelled out from behind the screens:

"Your Majesty, all the Begams are assembled in the Zenana for the purpose of
interceding for Mirza Aziz Koka. It will be better if you come there, otherwise
they will come to you." Jahangir was thus constrained to go to the female
apartment, and on account of the pressure exercised by the Begams, he finally
pardoned him.350

The pressure exerted by the women in the zanana was apparently so strong in
this case that Jahangir could do nothing but treat Aziz Koka with some leniency.
Women intervened on any number of issues and it is safe to say that their
advice and counsel, or even their earnest persuasion, changed the course of
many events. Khanzada Begam, for example, was sought "to mollify Humayun
and smooth the way for Askari when the latter should submit,"351 just as later
Maryam Makani and Salima Sultan Begam interceded in 1603 when Jahangir,
then Salim, revolted against his father Akbar.352 Women like Haram were put in
charge of calling up extra forces for the army while the emperor Humayun
recuperated from a wound, 353 and women like Nur Jahan corresponded with
other women in foreign government as she did with the mother of Imam Quli
Khan, the ruler of Turan. 354 Moreover, Nur Jahan was a powerful force in the
Khusrau affair of 1616, working hard to make sure he would not be a contender
for the throne when the time came, just as the other women of the harem were
working equally hard on Khusrau's behalf. Said Roe: "[Jahangir's] sister and
diuers weomen in the Seraglia mourne, refuse their meate, crye out of the kinges
dotage and Crueltye, and professe that if hee dye ther will 100 of his kindred
burne for him in memorye of the kinges bloudines to his woorthyest sonne."355
Maryamuzzamani, in fact, was so worried about the danger to Khusrau's life at
this time that she "is gone to the king with an ouerture of all the Practice."356
Women were also, as we noted before, heavily involved in the political and
economic decisions of inland and overseas trade, and because their ships were
not only cargo ships but pilgrimage ships and international messengers as well,
knowing the political protocol of every detail must have been extremely impor-
tant to their success.357
Finally, some women of high rank were often allowed to issue edicts and
royal orders (farmans), which carried all the weight and obligation of other
imperial commands. Nur Jahan was the only other person under Jahangir, be-
sides his mother, who was allowed to issue an imperial farman and, although she
did so only in moderation, several of them still exist: concerning the financial
affairs and legal debts of a certain Raja Surat Singh (1617); concerning the
 Life in the Women's Palaces 123

disposition of the woman Ganga Bai's relatives in confinement (1619); and again
concerning the proper disposal of the affairs of Raja Surat Singh.358 According to
the Iqbalnama, on "allfarmans also receiving the Imperial signature, the name of
'Nur Jahan, the Queen Begam,' was jointly attached."359 Several women were
allowed to issue other kinds of edicts as well, such as hukms (issued by prime
ministers), nishans (issued by royal princes), and sanads and parwanas (issued by
other court officials), and these women included in their number Hamida Banu
Begam (Maryam Makani),360 Maryamuzzamani,361 Nur Jahan,362 and Jahanara.363
As Misra notes, however, although the various edicts were not always confined
to the women's own jagirs, their scope was fairly limited as they dealt primarily
with personal favors to individual petitioners.364 Every farman that went out was
stamped with the royal seal, which was usually kept under the protection of the
queens and therefore stored in the harem. Nur Jahan, however, had her own seal
and, as the Iqbalnama noted, no "grant of lands was conferred upon any woman
except under her [the queen's] seal," and gold coins were struck in her name as a
symbolic (if also real) affirmation of her political power.365

II

The Mughal family had many talented women, and in each generation the
character of the harem emerged as a distinct interweaving of the personalities it
contained. Central to Jahangir's zanana, of course, were his wives, and any list
of the real loves of Jahangir must begin with the legendary Anarkali. Anarkali
was a title presumably given to a woman named Nadira Begam or Sharifunnisa,
whose tomb in Lahore dates to 1615, being completed sixteen years after her
death in 1599. According to the story popular among the European travelers of
Jahangir's time, Anarkali ("Pomegranate Kernel") had been a wife of Akbar
and, as suggested by Finch, the mother of Daniyal.366 Jahangir, then Salim, had
taken notice of her and had incurred the wrath of his father "for climbing up
into the bed of Anarkelee, his father's most beloved wife."367 As Finch noted
much more subtly, she was the wife of his father "with whom it is said Sha Selim
had to do."368 Latif's version, based perhaps on popular legend, says simply that
Anarkali, a favorite of the harem, had returned a smile given to her by Salim and
that Akbar, noticing it in the mirrors of his inner hall, had suspected the worst.369
In any event, Akbar had become very angry at the liaison or suspected liaison
between his wife and his son and had caused Anarkali "to be inclosed quicke
within a wall in his moholl, where shee dyed,"370 subsequently changing the
succession over to bypass Salim in favor of Khusrau. Salim was overcome with
grief at her death and "in token of his love" had built for her "a sumptuous
tombe . . . of stone in the midst of a foure-square garden richly walled, with a
gate and divers roomes over it."371 The popular version says that Anarkali was
placed alive in an upright position and that the wall was built up around her
brick by brick. When Jahangir ascended the throne he then had an immense
structure raised over her sepulcher.372
If the dating of Anarkali's death is correct, then Jahangir had already mar-
124 NUR JAHAN

ried several wives and fathered three of his sons by the time of his suspected
affair. What he had imagined the outcome of the relationship would be, given its
clear incestuous nature (at least by some traditions), is not altogether certain
and, in light of Jahangir's known maternal respect and affection for Akbar's
wives, the relationship seems somewhat out of character. On the other hand,
however, Jahangir was capable of falling madly in love and the Anarkali legend is
most significant, perhaps, precisely because it pays tribute to this capacity.
Whether the legend of Anarkali is historically true or not, it does not seem to
have curtailed his marital alliances in any way. The following is an account of
Jahangir's wives, ordered for convenience by the Shujauddins' list, but not
necessarily depicting the correct chronology of the women's marriages to
Jahangir:373
1. Man Bai, daughter of Raja Bhagwan Das of Amber and sister of Raja Man
Singh (Hindu). Salim's "first marriage and that at the commencement of my
adolescence" was with his cousin, the Hindu girl Man Bai, made officially his
wife on February 13, 1585, after the two families had settled upon a very rich
dowry.374 Man Bai's first child was a daughter, Sultanunnisa, born April 26,
1586, amidst great rejoicing375 and her second, Jahangir's first son, Khusrau, was
born August 6, 1587, in Lahore;376 on his birth, Man Bai received the title of
Shah Begam.377 Man Bai was a charming and intelligent woman who seems,
however, to have been prone to frequent depression. When Khusrau continued
to exhibit an unrelenting tendency to rebel against his father and suspicion of
involvement fell on her brothers, Raja Man Singh and Madho Singh,378 she grew
so despondent that on May 6, 1605, just before Jahangir's accession to the
throne, she "killed herself by swallowing opium (tiryaq)." Said Jahangir of her
character:

What shall I write of her excellences and goodness? She had perfect intelligence,
and her devotion to me was such that she would have sacrificed a thousand sons
and brothers for one hair of mine. She constantly . . . urged . . . ([Khusrau] to
be sincere and affectionate to mee . . . [but] When she saw that it was of no
use . . . she from the indignation and high spirit which are inherent in the
Rajput character determined upon death. Her mind was several times dis-
turbed, for such feelings were hereditary, and her ancestors and her brothers
had occasionally showed signs of madness, but after a time had recovered.379

Jahangir was so attached to her that, when she died, "I passed some days
without any kind of pleasure in life or existence, and for four days . . . I took
nothing in the shape of food or drink."380 Man Bai was buried in "a sumptuous
tombe"381 in Allahabad where later, in 1622, her son Khusrau, was buried after
his mysterious death in the Deccan.382
I.Jagat Gosaini, daughter of Udai Singh, Mota Raja (H).383 Jagat Gosaini was
also a Hindu princess, and though it may well have been a political marriage, she
was known not only for her beauty and charm but for her wit, courage, and
spontaneity of response—all of which greatly endeared her to her husband and
to the Indian tradition. Known most popularly as Jodh Bai, the Jodhpur prin-
 Life in the Women's Palaces 125

cess,384 Jagat Gosaini was married to the emperor on June 26, 1586, and on
January 5, 1592, gave birth in Lahore to what would be Jahangir's third son,
whose "advent made the world [so] joyous (khurram)" that they named him
Khurram. The prince who was to become Shah Jahan "was more attentive to my
father [Akbar] than all (my) other children. . . . He recognised him as his real
child."385 Aside from being mother of Khurram, Jagat Gosaini was known chiefly
for her quick tongue and dexterous repartee. The Shujauddins preserve two
stories of her verbal defeat of her archrival Nur Jahan. In the first story, both
women were in royal company once—Nur Jahan dressed in white and Jagat
Gosaini in colors—when Nur Jahan pointed out to the emperor that the other
wife, that rustic Hindu woman, was, as usual, clothed in gaudy rather than the
more sophisticated subtle tones. Jagat Gosaini replied that while a married
woman could wear clothes of all colors, a widow could wear only white, a
reference not only to Nur Jahan's previous marriage but also to the rigidly
upheld Hindu ban on widow remarriage. In the second story, Nur Jahan once
flattered Jahangir by telling him that his breath was sweet and, when he men-
tioned this to Jagat Gosaini, she told him that only a woman who had been
around many other men could judge the sweetness or sourness of any one man's
breath.386 Jagat Gosaini died in 1619 in Agra387 and was buried in Dahra Bagh as
was her wish. After her death, Jahangir ordered that she be called Bilqis Makani
in all of the official documents.
3. Sahib Jamal, daughter of Khwaja Hasan and cousin of Zain Khan Koka
(Muslim).™ Sahib Jamal was one of the four chief queens of Jahangir mentioned
by Hawkins, having married the future emperor in 1586. She gave birth to
Parviz, Jahangir's second son, in November of 1589 in Kabul and on her death
she was buried in Lahore. The Shujauddins argue that her tomb was the same
one that has been otherwise attributed to Anarkali.389
4. Malika Jahan, daughter of Raja Kalyan of Jaisalmer (H).390 Kalyan was a
Rajput chieftain whose family had maintained a strong alliance of patronage with
the Mughal government. Jahangir himself noted that he married Kalyan's daugh-
ter while still a prince and that he gave her the title Malika Jahan ("Lady of the
World"). The marriage was primarily a political one made, as Jahangir noted,
because "the ancestors of this [her] tribe had come of ancient loyal people."391
5. Nurunnisa Begam, sister of Mirza Muzaffar Husain (M).392 Mirza Muzaffar
Husain was married to Jahangir's sister, Shahzada Khanam.
6. Saliha Banu, daughter of Qaim Khan (M).393 This wife was from a well-
placed family in the government as her brother, a man named Abdur Rahim
(titled Tarbiyat Khan), was said by Jahangir to be "of the hereditary houseborn
ones of this Court."394 For much of Jahangir's reign, she was the Padshah Banu
Begam, also called the Padshah Mahal, and when she died in 1620,395 the title
was passed on to Nur Jahan.396 Jahangir noted that Saliha Banu's death had been
foretold by the astrologer Jotik Rai; grief stricken at her loss, he nevertheless
marveled at the accuracy of the prophecy, which had been taken from his own
horoscope.397 She was one of the four chief wives attributed by Hawkins to
Jahangir.398
7. Karamsi, daughter of Raja Kesu Das (H).399This Rajput wife came from the
126 NUR JAHAN

Rathor clan and gave birth in September 1590 to one of the two known surviving
daughters of Jahangir, a girl named Bihar Banu Begam. Bihar Banu was later
married to the ill-fated Tahmuras, eldest son of Prince Daniyal, when the young
man was in his twentieth year.400
8. The daughter of AH Rai, ruler of little Tibet (M).401 Her marriage to Jahangir
took place in 1592.402
9. The daughter of Mubarak Chak of Kashmir (M).403
10. The daughter ofHusain Chak of Kashmir (M).404
11. The daughter of Raja AH Khan, king of Khandesh (M).405
12. The daughter of Khwaja-ijahan of Kabul (M).406
13. The daughter of Mirza Sanjar and granddaughter of Khizr Khan Hazara
(M).407 In that Khizr Khan was married to Gulbadan, Jahangir's great aunt, this
wife would be Jahangir's second cousin.
14. The daughter of Rai Singh ofBikaner (H). Rai Singh was one of the great
amirs and according to Nizamuddin his daughter married Salim on June 28,
1586.408
15. The daughter of Said Khan Ghakkar (M).409 A possible daughter of this
union, Iffat Banu, is mentioned.
16. The daughter of Jagat Singh, eldest son of Raja Man Singh (H). In the
spring of 1608 Jahangir sent Rs. 80,000 as a marriage present (sachaq) to Jagat
Singh so that he, the emperor, might marry his daughter. The wedding cere-
mony took place in the early summer in the house of Maryamuzzamani, and on
that occasion Raja Man Singh sent sixty elephants as part of the wedding present
accompanying his granddaughter.410
17. The daughter of Ram Chand Bundela (H). In 1609 Jahangir married the
daughter of Ram Chand of Bundela at the request of her father. 411 The bride's
father had recently submitted to the sovereignty of the Mughal government after
a revolt, and we can assume from this that the marriage was primarily a political
one.
18. Mihrunnisa, daughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg (M).
Jahangir's harem was, from all accounts, a rowdy and exuberant place to live
and Nur Jahan's fulsome charisma played out profitably against its many walls.
There is no doubt that she was not universally liked for her obvious political
affiliations and her strident acts for power. The Khusrau affair, for example,
only accentuated her style, and in her overt efforts to dispense of this first
obstacle to fully shared authority, she made many enemies among her colleagues
in the mahal.m There is no doubt either that she tangled with the other wives for
Jahangir's affection. The stories preserved of her rivalry with Jagat Gosaini, for
example, suggest not only the animosity felt toward her and her ascendancy by
others equally legally espoused, but also the need of later tradition to put her in
her place in the face of her clear talent, wit, and enduring presence.413 Neverthe-
less from the time of her marriage to Jahangir in 1611, she was indisputably the
chief wife, whose gifts of management, courtly etiquette, and perseverance had
combined with her beauty to compel her husband to hand over to her not only
the major responsibilities in the zanana, but in the larger court as well. Delia
Valle's assessment of her role in the harem was, thus, singularly critical:
 Life in the Women's Palaces 127

And as such she commands and governs at this day in the King's Haram with
supream authority; having cunningly remov'd out of the Haram, either by
marriage, or other handsome wages, all the other Women who might give her
any jealousie; and having also in the Court made many alterations by deposing,
and displacing almost all the old Captains and Officers, and by advancing to
dignities other new ones of her own creatures, and particularly those of her
blood and alliance.414

Unfavorable as these comments are, however, they show the ease with which
Nur Jahan could take the structures of power offered by the harem and reshape
them without violation to their integrity, thus giving them life for purposes
entirely her own.
 6

The English Embassy

The disposition of the King is to bee very familiar with strangers if they bee
in Cash.
The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of the Great Mogul,
edited by William Foster

Of the channels to the outside world, the most enticing for women were the
possibilities opened up by foreign trade. The local marketplace and the palace
fairs of the Nauroz had always provided women of means the chance to buy and
sell, but the coming of European merchants in substantial numbers to the
Mughal court made available a life beyond the harem walls that could also,
fortunately, be totally in keeping with domestic practices. Although India had
traditionally been a self-supporting country,1 trade had been a consistent part of
her history and had served not only to disperse raw materials and luxury items
among various parts of the subcontinent, but to bring goods from more distant
parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, as well.
In Jahangir's time, as in others', overseas trade was inextricably bound to the
pilgrimage needs of the Muslim population. Ordinarily, Muslim pilgrims from
India could travel to Mecca by one of two routes: either by caravan on the
overland road through Iran, or by sailing ship from Gujarat across the Arabian
Sea. Either way was filled with danger, for the overland route had bandits and
undesirable contact with unbelievers and the sea route had the menace of the
Portuguese pass system and the vagaries of the monsoon.2 Nevertheless, pilgrim-
age and its suffering were obligatory to the Muslim community and no amount
of abuse could curtail its practice among the religious. Moreover, Mecca itself
was a central market 3 and ships trafficking in pilgrims also brought goods to be
exchanged for things from all over Europe, Africa, Arabia, and Asia. Almost all
trade for Mecca from India came through the Red Sea port of Mocha,4 which
acted as the main distribution point "for all Indian commodities"5 that had
passed across the sea. Because of the monsoon6 and of the difficulties of sea
voyage, however, the trip to Mocha was usually made only once a year and, for
Mughal trade at least, these voyages emanated primarily from the port of Surat.
128
 The English Embassy 129

Surat was located on the Tapti River about fourteen miles up from its mouth
and up from the more coastal town of Swally. It was, in Jahangir's time, "one of
the chief ports of India, and the centre of trade with the Red Sea,"7 made even
more important because the harbor of its more northerly rival on the Gulf of
Cambay, Cambay itself, was fast silting up with sand and dredge. Surat had its
own problems, however, the chief being that its deep water anchorage off the bar
at the mouth of the river was especially exposed during the monsoon,8 but it was
a well-built city9 with good access to the major marketplaces of the interior10 and
afforded both native and foreign traders an excellent center for business. In fact,
in March of 1616, Surat was officially designated the chief factory of the English
East India Company in India.11
The story of the first official English embassy to the Mughal court and of its
difficult relations with Nur Jahan and her junta is irrevocably bound to the
history of the other main European presence, the Portuguese. The Portuguese
and their Roman Catholic agents, the Jesuit missionaries, had first come to India
some time before the Mughals in order to ply their religion in the countryside. In
time they had gotten involved in the lucrative business of exporting textiles and
indigo from the local markets, using their holdings in and around Goa as a
primary base, and had gained control over the shipping lanes in the Arabian Sea.
Relations with the Mughals had been fairly friendly, as the Jesuits could provide
the much-loved Christian images to the nobility, engage in theological discus-
sions with other religious at court, and give some protection at sea. But because
they had cultivated a monopoly in trade, they could be equally offensive to their
hosts and in time acquired a reputation for considerable brutality. Portuguese
banditry at sea, diversion of Arab and other trade away from the subcontinent,
curbs on export goods and the consequent stunting of local industry, exuberant
proselytizing at every level, and stinginess in gifts to the court all eventually
wore away at Indian good will12 and caused the government to begin to look
elsewhere for trading partners.
Most offensive, however, especially to orthodox Muslims, was the Portu-
guese development of a pass system. In order to travel in Portuguese waters,
each Asian ship had to obtain a cartaz or pass by paying customs at a Portuguese
port or by keeping an agent in residence there. Listed on the pass were all the
ports the ship was allowed to visit and the specific articles of trade the ship was
allowed to carry on board. If a ship did not carry the pass or if it was in violation
of the conditions there listed, it could be seized by any Portuguese agent on
patrol. 13 Particularly distasteful was that each pass carried stamped on it pictures
of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, and for orthodox Muslims to travel under such
conditions, especially if on pilgrimage, "would mean to countenance idolatry."14
Often, for strict interpreters of Islamic law, this meant the periodic suspension of
the obligation of pilgrimage; although given the freer religious milieu of the
Akbar and Jahangir eras, pilgrimage to Mecca did, in fact, continue at a healthy
rate despite the religious problems of the journey.
All of these issues, however, did not curtail the relatively friendly relations
with the Portuguese, which continued until well into Jahangir's reign. Although
Moreland cites the decay of Portuguese commerce in India as beginning about
130 NUR JAHAN

1610 (coinciding with the rise of Dutch and English interests), there was one
incident in particular a few years after this that permanently turned the Mughals
away from their early European friends. In September of 1613, an exceptionally
large and well-known pilgrimage ship called the Rahimi belonging to Jahangir's
mother, Maryamuzzamani, was captured by the Portuguese at Surat and taken
with all her goods and all seven hundred people on board down to Goa:

The shippe, which arrived at the barre of Suratt the 13th of September,
1613 . . . was taken by the Portungales armado of friggotts, notwithstandinge
theire passe which they had of the Portungales. This shoppe was verye richlye
laden, beeinge worth a hundred thowsand pounde; yet not contented with the
shippe and goods, but tooke allsoe 700 persons of all sorts with them to Goa. 15

As Withington noted, the ship was carrying the necessary pass and was apparently
not in violation of any of the terms posted on it, yet out of pure greed, or anger at
the new Mughal friendship with the English,16 the Portuguese acted "contrarye to
theire passe." Jahangir's reaction was one of outrage: "takinge yt soe haynosly that
they should doe such a thinge"17 in blatant disregard of their own rules and,
perhaps worse, against the ship of his own mother. His response was to move
quickly to curtail the activities of the Portuguese in India and to undermine the
privileges they had enjoyed up to now. When it became clear that the Portuguese
had no immediate intention of returning the Queen Mother's ship or its cargo,
however, Jahangir sent Muqarrab Khan, his governor at Surat, down to stop all
shipping traffic and to lay seige to the Portuguese town of Daman. The Jesuit
church in Agra was closed and the Jesuit Fathers were taken off the allowance they
had been receiving up to that point.18 According to Thomas Aldworthe and Wil-
liam Biddulph in a letter to the East India Company dated August 19, 1614,
Jahangir's reprisals against the Portuguese were complete:

The king caused a city of the Portingals called Damaen (Damaun) to be be-
sieged, and hath likewise taken order for the seizing of all Portingals and their
goods within his kingdoms. He hath likewise sealed up their church doors and
hath given order that they shall no more use the exercise of their religion in
these parts, and beyond all this he hath caused Xavier the great Jesuit, whom
before he loved, to be sent down hither unto Mocrob Chan, who now layeth
siege unto Damaen, to do with him as he shall see good.19

The Portuguese capture of Maryamuzzamani's ship thus served to bring

about a major change in the relationship between the two governments and was
by fortunate accident a substantial windfall for the English. After this, English
letters home referred to "the wars that is between the Mogul and the Portingals,
which proceeded of the Portingals taking of one of the Mogore's ships richly
laden."20 In this same letter Edwards noted that the Portuguese offered to return
the Rahimi if the Mughal king would "deliver the English that were here into
their hands," but Jahangir refused. 21 Thereafter "the wars betwixt the Portingals
and the Indians" continued for several years stopping virtually all Portuguese
 The English Embassy 131

trade in the area22: "the Great Mogul's mother was a great adventurer, which
caused the Great Mogul to drive the Portingals out of this place."23
The fortunes of the Rahimi herself, however, went down with those of the
Portuguese, for in a letter dated December 16, 1614, from Surat Thomas El-
kington reported that Portuguese frigates had been in Goa and "there burned
120 ships." Of that large number, ten ships were classed as "great" and one of
them, perhaps not by chance, had been Maryamuzzamani's Rahimi.24 The Portu-
guese later agreed to compensate the Mughal government for the loss of the
Queen Mother's vessel and "to grant certain additional passes to native vessels
proceeding to the Red Sea," but since the agreement was contingent upon the
expulsion of the English, Jahangir balked. Eventually an agreement was made
by the emperor by which the Portuguese had to pay "three leeks of rupees for
the ship taken," but the issue of English expulsion was left hanging as Jahangir
was increasingly aware of English power at sea.25
After the Rahimi incident in 1613 through 1614, the Portuguese became a
relatively insignificant factor in trade. They continued to maintain a presence at
the Mughal court, but their harrassments of the English, which had earlier been
so prominent and so successful,26 were no longer seemly with the English
quickly gaining the upper hand at court. Tension remained between the English
and the Portuguese, especially at the lower levels, and Jahangir himself reported
on the sea fight between the two in the Swally channel in January of 1615 during
which the English burned most of the Portuguese ships.27
The only other major European contenders for trade at the court were the
Dutch, and of the three they were clearly the least significant in Jahangir's time.
Unlike the Portuguese and English, the Dutch were not in the business of
offering protection of the seas or any other such privilege to the Mughal govern-
ment.28 Rather, having found that a good and steady supply of cotton goods from
Gujarat was indispensable to their commercial operations29—which revolved
primarily around spice trading in pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and mace30—the
Dutch wanted to set up a base at Surat to manage their business. After some
only mildly successful attempts at sea trade early on, little was done in India
until Pieter van den Broecke established a factory at Surat in 1616.31 Another
Dutch envoy under Pieter Gillesz van Ravesteyn arrived at court in January of
1618 and obtained from the Mughal government terms of trade very similar to
those of the English. Although troubles for the Dutch had brewed in the Far
East during these years, with the conclusion of a peace there, attention could be
turned once again to India and at the end of 1620 van den Broecke reappeared at
Surat as the Director of the "Western Quarters" comprising north and west
India, Persia, and Arabia. He remained around Agra presiding over a growing
Dutch indigo and cotton goods trade for the next seven years.32
The Europeans who were most important in the time of Nur Jahan, however,
were the English. Unlike the Portuguese, the English had not come to India to
proselytize33 but to establish trading contracts at the highest levels with the
Mughals. Although English interest in a sustained and exclusive friendship was
in the profits derived from a commercial relationship, Mughal interests were not
in the direct benefits of commerce. Rather, the Mughals wanted protection of
132 NUR JAHAN

the seas for those of their subjects who went on pilgrimage. Indian ships, despite
courtly shows of friendship, had long been under the threat of Portuguese attack
and although Roe could say somewhat wryly of Jahangir's court, they "feare the
Portugal!, they feare vs, and between both patch vp a friendship,"34 the Mughals
saw clearly that the Portuguese were their most dangerous enemy. The English
recognized this immediately and used the difference between their own good
intentions and those of the Portuguese who "robd and abused the subiectes of
this kingdom" as a decided diplomatic tool. Although Jahangir denied there was
a problem and continued in his fashion to play the various interests off against
each other, he did recognize that his country's trade and pilgrimage needs were
at the mercy of whomever controlled the seas.35 The Portuguese folly in the
capture of the Rahimi, then, tipped the scales in favor of the English, and
whenever the English could win a sea engagement against the Portuguese36 or
whenever the English could play the peaceable European in the face of "the wars
betwixt the Portingals and the Indians,"37 Roe's prospects for binding the
Mughal government to a long term commercial agreement soared.
An examination of the first official English embassy (1615-19) to the Mughal
court does more than simply provide another example of how Nur Jahan's junta
operated in the years it sustained its greatest power. Women of the harem had
wealth and time, and the newly burgeoning European trade provided a means by
which to both enhance that wealth as well as develop relations beyond the
zanana walls. Nur Jahan was preeminent among the women traders of nobility,
and the details of her relationship with Thomas Roe's embassy help reveal, first,
to what degree she or any other women in the harem obstructed or facilitated the
opening up of trade with the Europeans and, second, to what degree the women
themselves traded. It is not initially clear, for example, why the foreign trade of
the Europeans would have appealed to Nur Jahan and her colleagues, or why
conversely the women might have seen it in their best interests to work against
it. Of all the Europeans present, Roe and company were the most familiar by
proximity and privilege to Nur Jahan and, although he never actually saw the
chief queen face on,38 he did do business with her and did feel the presence of her
and her junta in every dealing he had at court. Roe's chronicle, then, by timing
and familiarity, comes the closest to any available of a European eyewitness
account of Nur Jahan in power. And in examining the relations he developed at
court, many reasons emerge as to why Roe had to leave India without obtaining
the formal trading agreements he had so desired.

English interest in India began to take shape at the time of the defeat of the
Spanish Armada in 1588. Confident of their abilities at sea, a group of English
merchants got permission from Queen Elizabeth to send trading ships to India,
and in 1591 three vessels, under her aegis, left the English shore. Although only
one ship completed the voyage, that under James Lancaster, its success opened
the way for other expeditions to follow. In December of 1600, a charter was
 The English Embassy 133

granted to the East India Company allowing member English merchants to trade
in the name of the crown and in the next year, 1601, the first official East India
Company voyage set out to the East Indies for spices under Captain Lancaster's
command.39 The English move to set up factories or posts in India, specifically at
Cambay and Surat, in order to trade in calicoes followed soon thereafter, and on
August 24, 1608, the first ship to fly the English flag off the coast of India
dropped anchor in the Tapti River near Surat. Its captain, William Hawkins, left
his ship the Hector at Surat with instructions to proceed without him and himself
went on to Agra with letters for Jahangir40 in order to solicit from him specific
trading privileges. Hawkins knew Turki, the language of the court, and received
immediate and familiar attention from the emperor.41
Despite his encouraging reception, however, Hawkins's mission would not
succeed. The Portuguese were adamant about not sharing their trade in India
and, still strong at court during this period, used their influence to intrigue
against the Hawkins mission. Muqarrab Khan, an old friend of the emperor's
soon to convert to Roman Catholicism, was the primary opponent of the English-
man, but Hawkins knew that, despite Muqarrab Khan's giving orders, it was
"the Jesuites and Portugalls [who] slept not, but by all meanes sought my
overthrow."42 Eventually Hawkins' petitions for trade were rejected, and in spite
of the fact that Jahangir offered to keep him in comfort should he decide to stay
on, Hawkins left Agra on November 2, 1611: "to stay I would not amongst these
faithlesse infidels."43
On September 26, 1611, ships under the command of Sir Henry Middleton
anchored off the bar at Surat. Although repulsed by the Portuguese, Middleton
found a way to land some of his men and merchandise. Muqarrab Khan, know-
ing full well that Jahangir still wanted the goods promised to him by Hawkins,
obtained as many of the items as he thought worthwhile and then, entirely under
the sway of the Portuguese, ordered the English to leave without any hope of
future trade. Middleton was angry and after he left Surat in February of 1612,
with the erstwhile envoy Hawkins now on board, he forced the Indian vessels he
met in the Red Sea to trade with him at his own rates and, in the case of some, to
pay a heavy ransom for passage.44 This retaliation against the Surat traders of the
Red Sea was likely, many thought, "to make the breach irreparable" between the
two governments45 and to undermine any future attempts at establishing trade.
Nevertheless, unaware of the Middleton problems, Thomas Best and his
fleet arrived at the mouth of the Tapti in September of 1612. Middleton had left
a letter behind with Jadu his Indian broker indicating the difficulties awaiting
anybody in search of trade there, but he had apparently so terrified the local
merchants that his successor received an exceptionally cordial welcome. Best
was able initially to enter into a written agreement for English commerce in
Gujarat, an agreement that so angered the Portuguese that they then attacked
Best's ships. This first attack was repulsed, and when Best moved his ships out
to get more sea room, the Portuguese attacked twice more but were twice again
defeated. The Mughal government, now swayed by the demonstrations of En-
glish power at sea, sent Best an imperial farman on January 6, 1613, confirming
English trade in Gujarat. 46 The terms of the agreement were apparently vague
134 NUR JAHAN

but did give general approval to the arrangements with the English that were
already set and did, most importantly, stipulate that an English representative of
some high standing should be sent to reside at the Mughal court to represent his
country's interests.47 With the agreement in place, Best departed Surat on Janu-
ary 17, 1613, leaving behind Thomas Aldworth as chief of the factors in Surat
and Paul Canning, his second in command, to be a provisional English represen-
tative at court. Canning died on May 27, 1613, however, just following his
arrival in Agra, but not until after he had presented his two musicians to
Jahangir. His cousin, Lancelot Canning, played the virginals and Robert Trully
the cornet, and although the virginals made no favorable impression, the cornet
did.48 Paul Canning's death (just weeks after his cousin's) left temporarily vacant
the formal representation of the English at court; the post envisioned by the Best
agreement would not then be officially filled until the arrival of Sir Thomas Roe
in January of 1616.
The mechanics of English trade at this time were set by the factory system.
Young men who had departed England with the various East India Company
voyages were left behind in India as agents or factors to collect articles of trade
and to prepare them for the next fleet out. The men lived in houses or factories,
each one separate from the other and each one functioning as an autonomous
unit. 49 Factors were given general guidelines about the goods to collect, but since
at least in the early stages there was no central control, English posts were often
characterized by personal rivalries and the individual hoarding of goods. To
make matters worse, the factors had no standing with Jahangir for as merchants,
who in their own country were middle class at best, they stood on par only with
the low-caste Indian traders the emperor most despised.50 What was needed was
a central office to give cohesion to the commerce undertaken at the various
scattered settlements and to give prestige not only to the English presence in this
part of India but to the general business of foreign trade as well. During this
period factories came to be set up in the four cities of Surat, Ajmer, Burhanpur,
and Ahmedabad. In time other factories were established, such as those in Agra,
Baroda, Broach, and Cambay, but all remained subordinate to the powers in
Surat.
Best's agreement with the officials in Gujarat had been that the King of
England would be allowed to keep "his embassador at the courte of the Greate
Magoll" during times of peace, "there to compound and end all such greate and
waightie questions" as may come up. 51 Aldworthe had further written to the
Company in November of 1613 requesting that "a sufficient man" be sent to the
king in Agra "whose person may breed regard, for they here look much after
great men."52 The Company scouted around and found that "none were es-
teemed soe fittinge for that seruice as Sir Thomas Roe, yf hee may bee had."53
Thomas Roe (1580/81-1644) was by personality, education, and connection a
perfect choice [see Figure 6-1]. Called by Terry "that most noble gentleman,"54
Roe came from a substantial city family and was, when called upon by the
Company, a member of Parliament for Tarn worth. He was a man "of a pregnant
vnderstandinge, well spoken, learned, industrious, and of a comelie personage,"
his fleshy appearance of later years only just beginning to show. Handsome,
FIGURE 6-1. Sir Thomas Roe (ca. 1581-1644). Line and stipple engraving by M.
Mirevelt (artist) and G. Vertue (engraver). Engraving published London, 1740. By
permission of the British Library (P 634), London.

135
136 NUR JAHAN

dignified, well-spoken, and tactful, Roe was also shrewd and his broad knowl-
edge and experienced common sense made him an excellent choice to represent
his country's interests at a foreign court. 55
For his part, Roe was happy to go to India. Though a member of Parliament,
his liberal views were not in keeping with those of his king and may, in fact, have
prevented further advancement at home. Moreover, his moderate fortune of
earlier years had been wasted away and he was now fallen on hard times. From
India he would later write: "I had fully ended and wasted my patrimony and saw
no way but scorne . . . [but here] beeing as it were newborne, hee [God] re-
stored mee to a new Inheritance and sett me right."56
In his midthirties when he set out on the mission, Roe had recently married a
woman of good position. The marriage had been a secret one, however, with no
one at home knowing of it except her uncle "to whose discretion I haue referrd
her and the revealing of the marriage."57 For unknown reasons, Roe kept the
information from Jahangir and the other courtiers as well, and this position of
his gave rise to a humorous interchange with the emperor once over the subject
of a picture in Roe's possession. Jahangir had heard that Roe had a picture he
had not shown him and demanded it be presented. It was of a very lovely lady
and the emperor, confessing, "hee neuer sawe so much arte, so much bewty,"
wanted to know who she was. Roe replied that the picture was of a friend of his
now dead, and Jahangir, seeing that the ambassador was very much attached to
it, agreed only to borrow the picture for his painters to copy.58 Although the
reasons for Roe's secrecy are unclear, he was, nevertheless, a faithful if long-
distance husband, returning all female servants given to him and proclaiming in
1618: "You see I desier noe weomens company, but labour to leaue such
incumberances behynd."59 Upon his return to England, however, Roe resumed
what was to be an enduring, fruitful, and exceedingly tender relationship with
the subject of the painting Jahangir had had his artists copy.60
Roe's official position in India was as an ambassador.61 William Hawkins had
used this title before, as had William Edwards, a merchant in Nicholas
Downton's expedition of 1614 who was the English agent at court when Roe
arrived (though, as Roe said in a marginal note in The Embassy, "I heare Master
Edwards disavowes it").62 Because of Hawkins's unfortunate experience, how-
ever, the Company had prohibited any of its later employees in India from
assuming it as a personal form of address.63 Roe, then, was the first Englishman
sent expressly as "an Embassador . . . by the king of England," and he made it
quite clear upon his arrival at Surat that he came in a very different capacity than
had his predecessors: "they must not esteeme me in the qualetye of my forerun-
ners,"64 he noted, for he was not an ordinary merchant but an official representa-
tive of the English king. Furthermore, Roe clearly believed that he had come
with the full understanding and consent of Jahangir's government to carry out
negotiations at the highest level.65
That Roe had come as "a man of qualetye,"66 however, did not insure him of
deferential treatment. Using the title, in fact, put him in an awkward position
for his predecessors had "almost made yt ridiculous to Come vnder that
qualetye," and with the title he was initially treated as "an Imposture."67 Al-
 The English Embassy 137

though he was eventually received at court and was eventually accorded many of
the privileges he thought due his office, he came to the conclusion early on not
only that his job could have been done as easily by someone of lesser stature, but
that the Indian context itself was an inappropriate one for the ambassadorial
office as conceived of by the English: "This place is either made, or [is] of itselfe
vnfitt for an ambassador."58 This lament would be heard in his letters home
throughout his tenure in India, and he often complained that, though authorized
by the Mughal farman issued to Best to be present as an official at the highest
level, the same or better results could have been obtained through a lower level
official: "A meaner Agent would among these proud Moores better effect your
busines. My qualety often for Ceremonyes eyther begettes you enemyes or
suffers vnwoorthely."69
Roe's most well-known colleague in India was the Rev. Edward Terry (1591-
1660), who acted as Roe's chaplain during much of the embassy [see Figure 6-2].
Roe's original chaplain was John Hall, who had died suddenly on August 19,
1616, to Roe's "great greife and discomfort."70 At that time Roe had written
immediately to Surat for another clergyman, not wanting to live in India as an
atheist without "the Comfort of Codes woord and heauenly Sacraments." When
the factors' original choice turned down the position, the matter was postponed
until a new fleet arrived with two young ministers on board. A letter to Roe of
September 26, 1616, recommended the "graver" of the two, Edward Terry, who
was then about twenty-five years old and very eager to stay on in India and do
service to the English embassy.71
The mission of Roe and Terry was colored by the differing desires and
expectations of three governments. Through Roe, the English, who had become
dazzled by the prospects of expanded international trade, hoped to bind the
Mughal empire to a long-term commercial agreement. Roe had early on stated
his country's position to the Portuguese Viceroy of Goa: "It is not the Purpose of
the English to roote out or hinder your trade; but to Continew theyr owne in
frendship, and wilbe ready as Christians to doe you any curtesye or assist your
Excellence or nation in any want." 72 To this end, then, Roe presented Jahangir,
through the emperor's agent, Asaf Khan, a list of demands that might constitute
"a solemn treaty" between England and the Mughals.73 Included in the demands
were free access to Mughal ports for English merchants, free passage for English
goods with only the usual payment of customs dues, free access to buy and sell
goods, rent factories, and hire boats and carts, and freedom from confiscation of
dead factors' possessions and from unlawful search and seizure.74 All that Roe
asked of Jahangir, said Terry, was "that his countrymen, the English, might have
a free, safe, and peaceable trade in his dominions."75 In desiring "absolute trade
in any partes within the Dominions of the greate Mogore,"76 Roe made clear that
his vision of the region was not exclusive trade for the English but "open trade
for all nations,"77 including the Portuguese, contracted mutually as Roe was
trying to do now for his own country. In return the English would help preserve
the peace and offer protection of the seas to representatives of the Mughal
government should they need it.
On Jahangir's part, English overtures were welcome on two accounts. First,
FIGURE 6-2. Portrait engraving of Edward Terry, then Chaplain to the Right Hon.
Sir Thomas Row. Frontispiece to 1655 Terry, Voyage. By permission of the British
Library, London.

138
 The English Embassy 139

he was excited by the prospect of English and European goods—not so much,

however, as articles of trade in India but as presents for himself and his court-
iers. The promise of goods, then, or more realistically of personal presents, were
responsible perhaps more than anything else for opening the way for the English
at court. Jahangir was receptive as well to the English promise of protection
against Portuguese attack. More belligerent now than ever before at sea and on
land, the Portuguese posed a real danger for Indian trade, and English pledges of
security were considered timely and exceedingly welcome. Although Jahangir
was genuinely open to the English, Roe's embassy had to overcome a long
history of negative Portuguese influence against them, and it was to Roe's credit
that by the time he left India in 1619 most of the danger from the Portuguese had
passed.78 During his stay, however, Portuguese harassment was a persistent
presence: even as Roe arrived, the Portuguese were tendering treaties with the
Mughals conditional upon English banishment;79 Portuguese friends in Cambay
continued to badger Mughal officials against trading with the English;80 and
Portuguese rhetoric against the English crown increased proportionate to their
own decreased influence.
Roe arrived in Surat in September of 1615, but because of quarrels with local
authorities over ambassadorial etiquette, he did not leave for Ajmer, where
Jahangir had set up court, until October 30, 1615.81 On the way he paid a visit to
Parviz in Burhanpur, and as one of the presents Roe had brought was a case of
liquor, the meeting ended amicably with the ambassador receiving the promise
of a major factory in that town and the prince retiring to bed quite "drunck."
That night, November 18, Roe came down with a fever,82 and severe sickness
plagued his journey and subsequent early stay in Ajmer so continuously that he
was prevented from officially calling on Jahangir until January 10, 1616.83 When
he did finally present his credentials [see Figure 6-3], Roe made a good impres-
sion on the emperor, and Jahangir offered him his own physicians should he
need them and blanket permission to ask him for anything he desired. Ever wary
of new points of power, however, the queen Nur Jahan asked to see the ambassa-
dor's seal, keeping it overnight,84 and Shah Jahan, who was in charge of the
province where Surat was, gave Roe an audience on January 22.K
From these and other early instances, Roe soon saw that to have any of the
grievances of the English in Surat redressed or to effect any negotiations on trade
whatsoever he was going to have to deal with "the faction" under the leadership
of "the beloued queene."86 Knowing that, he went about his task graciously and
firmly, presenting the specific demands to be met by a treaty to Jahangir on
March 26, 1616. Although Roe did not speak the language of the court and
needed an interpreter throughout his stay,87 he "prepared my demandes perfect
and in the Persian Toong"88 in the hopes of a good reception. As it happened,
Jahangir was less than anxious to conclude the treaty and months passed with
haggling over only minor issues as the emperor waited for new presents from the
English. Caught between Shah Jahan's desire for specific powers over trade in
Surat, and Asaf Khan's general duplicity, Roe's efforts were increasingly frus-
trated as Jahangir's interest was taken up by other things.
In November of 1616 Jahangir left Ajmer heading for Agra but turned south
FIGURE 6-3. "Jahangir Investing Courtier with a Robe," ca. 1616. By permission of
the British Museum, London (OA 1933-6-10-01). The European figure in the audi-
ence may well be Sir Thomas Roe.
140
 The English Embassy 141

instead to Mandu, important to the Mughals as a home of Persian culture,

reaching "this desolate spot" in March of 1617 and staying on until October to
watch the campaign of his son. Roe had no choice but to go with Jahangir, and
there in Mandu found residence in a deserted mosque—"My Roome and House
was good"—and water from a spring on the hillside.89 Little of consequence
happened for Roe's negotiations during the stay, and when Jahangir left Mandu,
Roe proceeded on ahead of him to Ahmedabad,90 the principal city of Gujarat,
where Roe spent the remainder of his tenure at the Mughal court. When Roe
made his yearly report to the Company in February of 1618, all hopes of a formal
treaty were gone, despite assurances by Jahangir to the contrary.91 "You can
neuer expect to trade here vpon Capitulations that shalbe permanent," he said,
because "the Gouerment dependes vpon the present will."92 So sure was Roe that
he had no chance of getting any concessions that he "was fully resolued to
returne by this fleete,"93 but was prevailed upon at the last minute to stay.
During his last year in India he visited Burhanpur and, returning to Ah-
medabad, miraculously escaped infection from an outbreak of plague there.
When Jahangir prepared to move on to Agra in August of 1618, Roe took formal
leave of him and departed for Surat in September. On February 17, 1619, the
English fleet put to sea, with Roe on board the Anne.94
Trade with Indians at that time was governed by both the special interests of
a consuming ruling class and the social boundaries of the lower castes. Those in
power had enormous personal wealth, but were dependent (as in the law of
escheat)95 upon the ruler's good will for the stability and increase of what they
possessed. Moreland had observed that, as elsewhere in Asia, "the ruler was the
principal merchant of the country,"96 investing in trade the wealth he acquired
through revenues, through presents, and through the estates of his nobles.97
According to the calculations of merchants like van den Broecke,98 Akbar left
behind enormous wealth, which was then reflected in the contemporary ac-
counts of Jahangir. Hawkins, for example, gave Jahangir's annual income from
his lands as fifty crore rupees (or five hundred million rupees) and detailed by
type the gold and silver coins, the jewel stones, and the wrought jewelry he had
in his treasury.99 Coryat noted that "in his revenue he exceedeth the Turk and the
Persian his neighbour by just halfe,"100 and Roe continually marveled "that this
King is one of the mightyest Princes in Asia, as well in extent of territory as in
revenew,"101 and that Jahangir "was so rich in lewelles that I must confesse I
neuer saw togither so vnvaluable wealth."102
Involvement in trade took place on a number of different levels. Patronage
came most often from the ruling family and from the noble classes, whose
investment delineated the extent of trade and whose peculiar interests shaped
the quality of imports from overseas. Shah Jahan, for example, ran his own ships
to Mocha in the Red Sea and had a substantial interest not only in developing
commercial structures friendly to him but also in amassing sizable profits for his
own bid for the throne.103 Below them were middlemen who acted as agents for
the patrons and who, though having had neither the money nor the goods
themselves, were indispensable in connecting the courts with the commercial
outposts. A famous middleman was the baniya Jadu, who acted as principal
142 NUR JAHAN

broker for Roe and his embassy and who was for many years the chief Indian
agent employed by the English. Finally, there were the merchants themselves
who, as either administrators of provinces and factories or their shifting under-
lings, were directly responsible for the procuring and dispersal of goods. The
English would have had most contact with the Muslim merchants, for example,
who were spread out along the shores,104 but might also have had some direct
dealings with the craftsmen themselves, the dyers and weavers, for example,
who belonged to both Hindu and Muslim craft guilds.105 Jahangir had tradition-
ally held a low opinion of the merchants he had dealt with, but their contacts and
perspicacious endurance were essential to his style of life.
Of the officials in the Mughal government, Roe and his embassy had most
contact with three men, each of whom used his relationship with the English to
bolster his own personal position, and among whom Roe had to maintain a most
fickle and chameleon-like balance:106 Shah Jahan, Asaf Khan, and Muqarrab
Khan. Shah Jahan was in charge of the province containing Surat and therefore
had control over the governorship of the port.107 Officially it was he who was the
imperial sponsor of the English mission, but he was suspicious of all foreigners
and held the English in particular in great contempt.108 Although Roe cast Shah
Jahan as an "enemy to all Christians,"109 "a ... hater of all Christians,"110 and
"one that by an inveterate hatred wisheth ill to all Christians,"111 Shah Jahan was
in fact regularly partial to the Portuguese cause. Perhaps because the alliance
with the Portuguese was an older one, or because the current English representa-
tive was a more successful match for the prince,112 Shah Jahan was consistently
hostile to English concerns and more open instead to those of their European
rivals.
It was no surprise then that Roe quickly developed a preference for the fickly
disfavored Khusrau, who was seen not only as an advocate of all Christians, but
a genteel and well mannered diplomat as well. Observing the faction's endless
dealings, Roe noted that "if Sultan Corsoronne preuayle in his right, this king-
dome wilbe a sanctuary for Christians,"113 a situation that would also have ap-
pealed to Roe's English inclination toward primogeniture. Nevertheless, Shah
Jahan was the man to deal with, "for his favour is as necessary for you as the
King's,"114 and despite later times of celebration when this prince fell out of
favor with Jahangir,115 Roe had to make the effort to win Shah Jahan to his side.
He rejoiced then whenever the prince appeared to be on "new termes of
frendship," knowing himself privately, however, that his own hospitable con-
duct was often a matter of pretense.116
The man Roe had most to do with, however, was Asaf Khan, whom Jahangir
had made the chief negotiator with the English and through whom all English
business had to pass. In a letter to King James of August 8, 1618, Jahangir said:
"The care of this matter [i.e., trade] has been committed to Asaf Khan, who has
been instructed to grant the English all their desires."117 Asaf Khan had been a
principal agent at court for Hawkins, being entertained by the Englishman
"often at my house,"118 and was also the point man for the English during
Edwards' stay.119 Both envoys seem to have been on good terms with Asaf Khan,
who quickly proved to be an exceptionally adept courtier and an unctuous
 The English Embassy 143

servant to the king. There is no doubt, however, that it was in part through the
Persian minister's malice that Hawkins' mission was a failure.120 It appears that
Asaf Khan was often under the sway of the Portuguese,121 who brought more
"curious toyes for the king" than did the English,122 and that he loved to treat
whomever he could, in this case the English, as a pawn in his daily joust for
power and wealth at the court.
On the whole, however, Asaf Khan proved to be a less than diplomatic
mediator whose least sin seems to have been "barberisme" and "vnmannerlye"
behavior123 and whose greatest sin was outright duplicity. Although Asaf Khan
often protested his allegiance to the English with cries "that he was neuer [a] lyar
nor of a double hart,"124 and although Roe often had to pledge his absolute trust
in the minister,125 the truth was that Asaf Khan only moved to the English side
when he needed this foreign allegiance against Shah Jahan. As the junta began to
strain at the seams, Asaf Khan sought to use the English as a means of
outmaneuvering the king's third son, his own son-in-law. In hopes of obtaining
some extra English goods in 1617, for example, Asaf Khan was willing "to
betray" Shah Jahan with sweet talk about the benefits of an English alliance126
and later to defend the English against being "vsed very rudely by the Princes
seruants."127 Roe was wise to the ploys, but was as always powerless to reshape
the channels of patronage.
Subordinate to Shah Jahan was the governorship of Surat, an office filled
from 1611 to 1618 by Muqarrab Khan. Muqarrab Khan had been "a great
favourite" with Jahangir since the emperor's youth, "having won his regard by
his skill in surgery and by his usefulness in the field sports to which that
monarch was so much addicted."128 Muqarrab Khan was in charge of the cus-
toms for the Gujarat ports—in particular, of those monies going directly into the
royal treasury 129 —and for this reason had much to do with early English trade.
Like those of his colleagues, then, Muqarrab Khan's dealings with the English
were particularly fickle and inconstant, and foreigners often experienced out-
right abuse at his hands:

By Mocrob Chan, chief governor of Surat, we had many wrongs done us,
ourselves stayed so that we could have no recourse to our ships, our goods taken
and used at his pleasure, our arms that we brought for our defence taken from
us, and [he] forced us to show the king's presents.130

Many Englishmen complained of bad treatment from Muqarrab Khan who,

though he had religious ties to the Portuguese (having converted to Christianity
about 1610 under their influence) and often schemed with the Portuguese
against the English,131 seemed to act most often out of self-interest.
Finally, Roe's work with the three officials of the Mughal government was
facilitated by a man whose whole career was spent furthering the business
interests of the English in India. Jadu "the broker" had been the principal agent
of the English for years, having served Hawkins and Middleton as well as others
during the first voyages of the Company.132 He became Roe's chief agent upon
the ambassador's arrival, and Roe's dependence upon him is evident from the
144 NUR JAHAN

many references to Jadu in The Embassy. Not only did this baniya undertake the
tedious and routine errands involved in negotiation, but he often acted as Roe's
interpretater at the court as well.133 Jadu was not known, however, for his mental
or physical swiftness, and Keridge had complained earlier that a Portuguese
servant "one An.de Guerra . . . can dispatch more business in an hour than this
banyan in a day."134 Roe later noted that Jadu was "lazy and offers voluntary to
quit our business," but the Englishman needed him too much in the end and
would not accept a resignation. Said Roe: "Necessity enforceth me to bear,"135 a
lament as fitting for Roe's whole experience in India as it was for the one man
Jadu.

II

At the heart of the relationship between the Mughals and the English were the
goods offered up in trade. Because it was the English who most wanted a trading
agreement, it was the goods they desired that formed the nucleus of the discus-
sion. India of the early seventeenth century could offer the European and Asian
market a substantial variety in natural resources. Among them in good quantity
were gum-lac,136 iron,137 copper,138 brass,139 and silver,140 though, as Terry noted,
the Indians "need not open" their silver mines "being so enriched from other
nations of Europe, and other parts, who yearly bring thither great quantities of
silver to purchase their commodities."141 Diamonds were also available, coming
primarily from mines in the Deccan. These stones were "accounted [the] most
precious" and formed much of the yearly tribute paid to Jahangir by minions in
his empire;142 skill in procuring and buying diamonds was highly prized and
there were many "natives [who] know very well how to value" the stones.143
The shipment of "drugs" from India was also brisk and several items were a
regular part of European trade. Borax came from "the Eastern mountains" (in
Tibet) and was mined there from the Manasarowar Lakes. The supply, said
Pelsaert, "is very large, sufficient to satisfy the whole world."144 Another re-
source was the plant spikenard, used to treat stiffened limbs, and since it only
grew wild in the mountains it, like borax, had to be harvested and taken some
distance to Agra to sell.145 A third item, however, saltpetre (a saline earth used in
gunpowder and to cool water), was found close by in Agra—as it was in other
places—and could be refined there directly from abandoned villages. Although
originally cheap, saltpetre's price rose, Pelsaert noted, when Indian peasants
realized how desired it was by both the Dutch and the English.146 Opium, from
markets in Malwa and Benares, for example, was brought for trade through the
west coast ports,147 and spices of astounding assortment came from all over India:
pepper,148 ginger,149 tumeric, and Kasmiri saffron, 150 for example, were sold in
quantity in Agra, the biggest spice-market then on the subcontinent.151 Sugar in
great stores was ranked among the chief Indian commodities desired by the
English,152 and musk from the muskcat was widely available "in good quan-
tity . . . [from] the Mogul's provinces."153
Articles manufactured in India's local industrial sectors were marketable
 The English Embassy 145

abroad as well, and boxes,154 trunks, 155 chess sets,156 and pottery all became part
of the growing overseas trade. Roe was disappointed, however, that more curios
were not available, for soon after his arrival he lamented: "I thought all India a
China shop, and that I should furnish all my Frendes with rarietyes; but this is
not that part,"157 what he saw being not as good as articles already available in
England. There were carpets, though, and of good quality and in great abun-
dance158 from markets in cities like Lahore and Srinagar. They could be made to
order, "fine or course as required,"159 and the variety of color, material, and
design meant that European and Asian consumers had a good and serviceable
range from which to choose.
By far the two most important commodities for export, however, were indigo
and cotton goods.160 Indigo was a dark blue vat dye used to color cottons, wools,
and silks in gradient tones widely pleasing to the English and Asian markets.
The dye came from a plant that grew well in places like Bayana, a town just
southwest of Agra, because of the brackish water that was found in the wells
nearby.161 Indigo was made by soaking the leaves of the plant in large containers
of water for about a day and a half until the blue dye had seeped out. The water
was then drained off and "the indigo which has sunk down is taken out, and laid
on cotton clothes until it becomes as firm as soap, when it is made into balls."
The round blue "gobbets" were then stored in earthen jars for shipment.162
Standing indigo plants, still in the ground, were subject to a precarious fate,
being "liable to many more accidents or misfortunes than other crops or prod-
ucts." Too much or too little rain, insubstantial sunshine, extreme cold, and
plagues of locusts each threatened the vulnerable stalk, and Pelsaert noted that
many men who had planted large fields for years and had reaped great rewards
from their crops had been reduced to poverty by a single act of nature.163 More-
over, the quality of indigo produced depended upon the cycle of the plant—the
second crop being a superior cut with "a violet infusion" in its dye that was
missing in the coarser brown results of the first crop164—and cultivators had to
be extremely careful in the planning and working of their harvest.
Because of the water issue, most of the best indigo available to European
merchants came from the vicinity of Agra.165 Indigo prices in that city fluctuated
depending upon the vagaries of the season and the demands of the market, and
Roe was kept consistently apprised of the current price in that key factory so as
to insure a good profit to the Company: "I am of opinion if the Indico will make
mony it is no ill bargayne."166 In the days before the coming of the English,
however, a chief market for indigo was Lahore, as merchandise was carried by
caravan to points north and west out of the commercial lanes of this city. Indigo
reaching Europe from the Levant, for example, was known as Lauri or Lahori
even though it might have been produced in a place like the Bayana region.167
Lahori indigo did, however, also travel by ship, for the English factor Richard
Cocks noted in 1613 that two bales of the indigo were taken from tht Queen
Mother's vessel, the Rahimi, and put aboard the English ship the Hector.m
Trading from India, however, was to be primarily in cotton cloth. Said Roe:
"The trade here will doubtlesse in tyme bee very profitable for your Maiesties
Kingdomes, and may vent much cloth."169 The general term used by the English
146 NUR JAHAN

for cloth was calico, deriving from the port city of Calicut from which many
loads of stuffs were shipped to the west and east.170 Calicos or cotton wools came
in many "divers sorts;" as white cloths they could be broad or narrow and
coarse, fine, or very fine—some of them being so delicate that Terry said, "I
believe [they are] as fine as our purest lawn." The coarser cloths were dyed or
printed with "well-shaped and well-coloured flowers or figures, which are so
fixed in the cloth, that no water can wash them out." This art of staining or
printing cloth belonged so peculiarly to India, he concluded, that countries far
and wide brought "their money to fetch them hence."171 Pintadoes, the Portu-
guese term for "painted" cloths, were so popular, in fact, that they became a
staple in the decoration of European and early American homes.
Finally, the shipping lanes to Europe and Asia carried Indian silk—the best
coming from Bengal, where it was sold either in skeins or cloth bolts172 and could
be procured at reasonable rates.173 Silks were woven as fine or coarse materials
and were also made locally into velvets, satins, and taffetas "either plain or
mingled, or striped in party-colours." Although India could offer a wide variety
of silk cloth by weight, dye, and design, European traders, however, often found
that the highest quality came from weaving centers elsewhere. Said Terry: "the
best of them [Indian silks], for richness and goodness, come not near those
which are made in the parts of Italy."174 Persia, likewise, was a good source, for
"the greatest quantity of that rich commodity, that any place in the whole world
affords, comes out of Georgia, a province belonging to the King of Persia,"175 and
Persian silk in time even came to be procurable "at a more reasonable price."176
Cotton weaving, then, remained the most extensive industry in India and
that which produced the most exportable product. It is important to remember,
however, as Moreland has pointed out, that even though the average quality of
the cloth made then was probably higher than it is now, the proportion of cloth
traded overseas was very low compared to the total produced. Moreover, the
upper classes in India consumed a relatively insignificant quantity of cotton,
most of that woven being "similar to the coarse but durable fabrics which are
still produced"177 and consumed by the Indian populace at large. Nevertheless, a
great deal of Indian cotton goods soon began making their way overseas by ship,
and as Roe said, Jahangir made no complaint "that wee [English] buy not their
Comoditie, but Contrarie, that wee buy so much that their owne Merchants
want for the Red Sea."178
In return for Indian indigo and cotton cloth, the English sought to trade
articles of their own, or alternately articles produced in other countries they had
access to through established commercial channels. On the whole those things
that aroused the most interest at court, however, were not what could be traded
and sold broadly in local Indian markets, but the presents the English brought,
or could bring, for the emperor and his nobles at court. For the most part, these
constituted luxury items and, in addition to some one-of-a kind presents like a
ruby-studded gold whistle that made its way into the zanana"9 and a fully
appointed English coach Jahangir had dismantled to copy for a second coach and
then reassembled and reupholstered with new velvets and gold work,180 English
presents to the court formed an unusual and somewhat motley list: mirrors,181
 The English Embassy 147

swords and knives,182 liquor or "hot waters,"183 precious stones,184 dogs (espe-
cially large powerful ones),185 and horses and saddles.186 Certain cloths found
favor with the Mughals, such as "french Muff or veluett,"187 woven gold cloth,188
and English broadcloth that was red "for that is the colour they most love."189 On
the whole, however, there was a limited market for each of these items, and even
that depended upon imperial whim.
The only presents Roe brought that truly impressed Jahangir were pictures—
prints at first, then paintings, done of human faces and figures in either secular or
religious settings. European art had been known and admired for some time at the
court, and it had been because of their capacity for giving pictures, especially of
Christ and the Virgin Mary, that the Portuguese had been able to preserve so firm
a place in the Mughal entourage. Jahangir was fond of hanging these images on the
walls of his inner chambers, and pictures played an important role in decorations
for the Nauroz190 and in maintaining the domestic spaces of his encampments
when on tour. Galleries, in fact, were often set up in his many gardens, and bowers
hung with pictures were intended to complement and to enhance the beauties of
nature.
Roe sensed immediately that pictures may provide him an entree like noth-
ing else he could give, and only two weeks after he met Jahangir he wrote to the
Company asking for pictures, "lardge, on cloth, the frame in peeces." But "they
must be good," he added, "and for varyetye some story, [and] with many
faces."191
The subjects of the pictures Jahangir eventually requested from the English
were different from those he asked from the Portuguese. Terry noted that in-
stead of pious renderings of Christ and the Virgin Mary, what "pleased the
Mogul very much" were portrayals of fair and beautiful women. He liked por-
traits, especially of noblemen and noblewomen when the workmanship was very
fine, and scenes representing biblical or mythological stories; landscapes do not
appear in the lists of requests per se, but battle scenes, banquet scenes, maps of
the world, comic incidents, and pictures of Parliament do.192 Roe found out,
however, after a particularly prickly session, that care had to be taken in choos-
ing each image in order to avoid giving a damaging message. In one of his
shipments of gifts, for example, were three pictures, the first two of which
proved to be innocuous portraits of two English noblewomen. The third, how-
ever, was a picture of Venus and a satyr, showing "the Satyres homes, his
skinne, which was swart, and pointed to many particulars." Wanting an interpre-
tation of the painting, Jahangir at first asked the English to remain silent, and
turned instead to his own men, each of whom "replyed according to his fancie."
The emperor thought they were all deceived and turned back to Roe and Terry,
neither of whom in the end could speak to the meaning of the image. Jahangir
then gave his own explanation, implying that it showed "a scorne of Asiatiques,
whom the naked Satyre represented, and was of the same complexion, and not
vnlike; who, being held by Venus, a white woman, by the Nose, it seemed that
shee led him Captiue." Although the emperor graciously accepted the picture as
a gift, Roe concluded that from then on the Company had "to be very wary what
they send [that it] may be subject to ill Interpretation."193
148 NUR JAHAN

Pictures proved to be excellent presents, however, both for their workman-

ship and for their ease of imitation by Jahangir's painters. At the conclusion of
his stay, Roe noted that they "imitate euery thing wee bring,"194 and Terry said
that they "are excellent at limning, and will copy out any picture they see to the
life." "The truth is", he continued, "that the natives of the monarchy are the
best apes for imitation in the world, so full of ingenuity, that they will make any
new thing by pattern."195 Edwards had noticed the same thing but with one
picture, apparently of Sir Thomas Smith, Governor of the Company, Jahangir's
painters "confessed that none of them could anything near imitate the same
which makes him prize it above all the rest."196 Keridge noted that pictures of
women, presumably high-born ladies of good English stock, were not esteemed
by the Mughals "according to their value," but were only prized "for the rarity
of the workmanship."197
Aside from presents to the Mughal court, the English brought articles they
hoped to sell in trade at the local markets. Chief among these was their own
English broadcloth, which Best had said "sells here fairly well, much of it for
cash down."198 But Best's later experience with Jahangir's governor (who told
Best "the Kinge would not esteeme" the cloth)199 was far more prophetic. After
extensive efforts, Roe found that "our Cloth will neuer vent" here,200 and even
though for "one yeare gould or siluered veluettes, Grogrames, Chamletts and
silk stuffes may serue vs, but constantly noething."201 Terry attributed the Indian
indifference to English cloth to "that country's immoderate heat," saying that
the broadcloth was "not fit to make habits for that people." What was sold, he
noted, was red in color and was used to make trappings for local elephants and
horses and to cover over coaches.202 Representatives of the Company in the past
had warned against sending English cloth, which "would in no sort vent" in
India,203 and Edwards had even hoped that a letter, asking that 1,000 broadcloths
be sent over, would be lost at sea "for more experience hath since showed
[him] . . . the error."204 Although when English cloth did come, some colors sold
more popularly than others—in addition to Venice reds, popinjay and grass
greens and yellows in deep tones205—in the end it was good advice to counsel
against sending over broadcloths for "our cloth is but a dead commodity" here.206
There were four staples, however, that did sell well in India: quicksilver,
lead, elephants' teeth (ivory), and vermilion.207 The demand for these items was
variable and depended upon their availability from local sources, but during the
early English tenure in India, at least, there was a healthy market for these
materials.
On the whole, however, the English had to pay for the merchandise they
took out with them not in goods in kind, but in silver bullion, which was then
melted down and made into coins with Jahangir's stamp and Persian inscriptions
minted on them. Said Terry: "yet the greatest part by far of commodities
brought thence, are caught by the silver hook. . . . And this is the way to make
any nation of the world rich, to bring, and leave silver in it, and to take away
commodities."208 That the balance of trade in India's favor was paid in silver did
not set particularly well with the English, who feared a widespread sapping of
their monetary strength into South Asia as a result of their need for textiles. No
 The English Embassy 149

one was more aware of this than Roe, who concluded in April of 1616: "Seeing
our state cannot beare the exportation of mony, except some new trade can be
discouered from the East to serue this Kingdome, it must fall to ground by the
weaknes of itts owne leggs."209
It became clear early on, then, that the market for English goods in India was
very limited, and that England simply did not produce anything that India really
wanted and could buy in large quantities. "I see no Comoditye that will proue
staple and certaynly vendable, able to returne a ship yearly," said a depressed
Roe.210 On the other hand, there were large supplies of indigo and cotton goods
England wanted to ship out of India, and short of dumping huge supplies of
silver bullion into the subcontinent, English merchants had to rely on the large
trading networks in other parts of the world. In this way, the English could use
the goods they received in trade from Africa, Sumatra, and China, for example,
to pay for their wares from Indian merchants. Thus, India could get porcelain
from Macao, camphor from Borneo, and spices from Achin and Bantim. 211 From
Thailand could come raw silk, benzoin (benjamin), and lignum aloes,212 from
Africa ivory and amber, and from Japan silver213 for, unlike China, this last
source had no embargo on the export of the precious metal. Moreover, English
ships could bring examples of each of the goods sold at the huge markets in
Mecca—cloths, drugs, spices, metals, precious stones, and so forth 214 —all the
time making a profit in goods, while theoretically, expending as little as possible
of their own short supply of bullion. Being a relatively self-sufficient country,
however, India had the upper hand in any trading agreement, and European
merchants coming over found that trinkets pleased as much as anything else:
"Things best for presents generally with all the people of these countries are
novelties and things of little worth, and are esteemed for their rarity and not for
their value."215
Noblewomen were among the major consumers of goods brought into India,
and although it was rarely specified which articles were expressly for them,
many of the luxury items brought into court ended up in the zanana. Roe once,
in decrying the need to bribe Nur Jahan daily in order to gain favor at the court,
went on to offer a list of possible presents that would be suitable for women if
indeed they did need to be given things: "fine needle woorke toyes, fay re bone
lace, cuttworke, and some handsome wrought wastcote, sweetbagges or Cabi-
netts, wilbe most Convenient. . . . I would add any faire China Bedsteeds, or
cabinets or truncks of Japan are here rich presentes."216
The one item expressly imported for women, however, was hats. In a letter
to the East India Company dated September 10, 1614, Keridge asked for "half a
dozen of coloured beaver hats, such as our gentlewomen use, . . . for the king
demanded for such things of me for his women to wear a-hunting."217 He re-
quested them again of the Company in a letter dated March 20, 1615: "two or
three beaver hats also for his chief women, and half a dozen of felts would be
liked of, for they wear them on hunting." 218 And Roe as well received a request
for hats from Jahangir "for that his women liked them'219 and was forced to give
up the few that he had when the emperor discovered them among his things.
That it would be hats that would be expressly brought for noblewomen is
150 NUR JAHAN

significant, for the Indian body image designates the head as the most sacred
part of the figure. Head coverings as ornamentation and protection were then, as
now, an important part of any dress, and women especially found modesty and
purity essential attributes in treating that sovereign part of the body.
It is not clear whether non-noble women were direct recipients of imported
goods as well, though it is likely that they were not. Women of all classes, however,
were major consumers of products internal to the country and in that had a certain
decided influence on the market. The millions of yards of cotton and silk materials
produced in India every year were bought primarily by women for their own use,
and the "copper pots, dishes, basins, and other articles for use in Hindu houses"
were ultimately scrutinized by women of all classes for their quality and value.220
Likewise the craft industries that produced gold and silver jewelry and set stones
for earrings, bangles, necklaces, and nose ornaments all had women's tastes in
mind, and drug and cosmetic vendors knew that it was women who would be the
primary purchasers of their commodities. In this way, then, specific articles
successful in both domestic and foreign trade were dependent upon the tastes and
demands of women in the Indian marketplace who, at least as consumers, could
exert substantial influence on the nature of commerce.

Ill

While we can fairly assume that the goods available in bazaars and through
private traders were subject in large part to the needs and judgments of the
women who bought them, we must also allow for the contributions of women in
other areas of trade as well. Beyond their role as consumers, women were known
to take a more active interest in commerce as traders themselves, and during the
Jahangiri period, wealth and opportunity increasingly allowed women access to
the channels that directly selected and moved merchandise. One of the most
distinguished of the early women traders was Jahangir's mother, Maryamuzza-
mani, whose ship, the Rahimi, was captured by the Portuguese in 1613 and
burned in 1614. Known as "a great adventurer"221 and as a woman of high-spirit
with a taste for the unusual, Maryamuzzamani was the most famous of all
women shipowners running vessels in Jahangir's time. From descriptions left us
by a subordinate to Sir Henry Middleton in the summer of 1613, we know that
Maryamuzzamani's greatest ship, the Rahimi, had a sail area so vast that it was
identifiable to sailors from miles away, its main mast reaching up a full forty-
three or forty-four yards. This ship could displace up to fifteen hundred tons
and ordinarily carried fifteen hundred passengers, many going as pilgrims to and
from Mecca.
The Rahimi was home-ported in Surat but often traveled to Jiddah, the port
near Mecca on the Red Sea, where she carried merchandise for the vendors of
the holy city and trafficked in pilgrims on various parts of their journey.222 One of
the most controversial aspects of the Rahimi's passage was the amount her
officers had to pay the Portuguese for a cartaz. Finch preserved one account in
which the Rahimi was held up on a trip to Mocha because the Portuguese
 The English Embassy 151

demanded a huge sum; the principals eventually settled on a smaller sum, but
the Mughals "were faine to give" the presents that were demanded of them in
accompaniment.223 The Rahimi's "sum" became, in English reckoning, a stan-
dard by which other vessels were taxed, and Middleton's subordinate, who was
apparently in charge of setting rates, noted the following:

The ground that I had to work by was the sum formerly agreed on by general
consent and that in the forenoon agreed on for the Remee . . . and according to
that rate by my nearest esteem to myself set down rates on other ships . . . [not]
out of proportion to the Remee sum. 224

Exactly what the Rahimi carried is not now known—except that she did take on
indigo225—but we can presume that her cargo, undoubtedly arranged for by
Maryamuzzamani herself, covered the whole of what was offered up in trade at
the time. When the Rahimi was seized by the Portuguese226 and burned along
with 119 other ships,227 an era in overseas trading came to an end. Not only did
these acts effectively ruin the future commercial prospects of the Portuguese in
India, but after the Rahimi's time, trade, while becoming more complex, was
also governed more increasingly by the English sense of fair play.
Like her mother-in-law, Nur Jahan engaged in substantial commercial activ-
ity. We do not know the names of the ships she owned and ran out of the western
ports, but the evidence available suggests that her trading network was an
extensive one entailing domestic markets as well as foreign ones. Pelsaert was the
only foreign merchant who specifically detailed Nur Jahan's domestic trade and
then only that which he could have himself observed around the city of Agra. He
told us that in Sikandra, across the Yamuna from Agra, Nur Jahan's officers
collected duty on goods before they were crossed over the river to be sold,
presumably in the profitable markets of the main city. The goods that arrived
there came mainly from the east and northeast, from Bengal and the Bhutan
mountains, and included in their number: "cotton goods from Bengal, raw silk
from Patna, spikenard, borax, verdigris, ginger, fennel, and thousands of sorts
of drugs, too numerous to detail in this place." Many of these goods were
intended for foreign markets, but grain, butter, and "other provisions" also
came in great quantity for consumption locally. "Without these supplies," said
Pelsaert, "this country could not be provided with food, and would almost die of
hunger, so that this is a place of great traffic." 228 Agra was "at the junction of all
the roads from distant countries," and since all goods from all directions had to
pass through the city to markets either there or elsewhere, Nur Jahan's officers
were in a position to take in substantial monies. Being at such a crossroads of
commerce, then, the Agra stations not only provided Nur Jahan with a sizable
income, but also allowed her some control over the types of goods that passed
through the gates and were then dispensed to local and foreign merchants.
Moreover, although there is little mention of customs collection elsewhere, we
can assume that Nur Jahan had similar control over commerce in other areas,
especially in thejagirs that were her own like Ramsar and Toda and even perhaps
in the lands managed personally by the king.
152 NUR JAHAN

Nur Jahan was also involved in negotiations for overseas trade, and during
the time of the embassy, developed a firm, if prickly, relationship with the
English ambassador. In the fall of 1617, Roe received a servant of Nur Jahan's
who announced that with Shah Jahan's consent the queen had obtained afarman
"that all our goods might bee in her protection, . . . and [that she] was readie to
send down her seruant with that, to see and take order for our good establish-
ment: that shee would see that wee should not bee wronged." The servant had
actually been sent by Asaf Khan who, at least officially, wanted to circumvent
the prince Shah Jahan's reluctant behavior toward the English. The order,
however, came from Nur Jahan herself, Roe was told, and she had "charged her
seruant to assist our Factors, so that we should haue neuer more cause to
complaine of Surat." As he could do nothing else, Roe accepted the change in
patronage—coming as it did with special requests from the queen for "some
toyes"—but saw clearly that it rested on a consistent avarice at court now newly
awakened by the stores of additional goods Roe could provide. Nevertheless,
Nur Jahan was from this moment on a regular buyer through the English trading
networks, for which purpose Roe declared, "I haue ordered your Factory [at
Surat] to sell to the seruants of Normahall and her brother whatsoeuer may bee
spared."229 Roe reiterated the terms of the new relationship with Nur Jahan some
days later—"His Sister I haue promised to visit, whom hee hath made our
protectresse"230—seeming to acknowledge outright that Nur Jahan was an inde-
pendent figure in commercial dealings now with whom he must cement firm
trading ties.
Roe never saw Nur Jahan, protected as she was from foreign view by parda,
but he clearly found her as central a trading partner as any in the government.
Her reasons for wanting the official sponsorship of English trade were more than
apparent: first, with the very earliest rifts in the junta now just beginning to
show, Nur Jahan, in taking English commerce out from Shah Jahan's jurisdic-
tion, gained a symbolic and perhaps real advantage in power over her stepson;
second, the financial benefits due her from her patronage were to be substantial,
and if they happened to turn out otherwise, she had nothing to lose; and, third,
sponsorship of the English would win her protection at sea from the Portuguese,
who still threatened vessels sailing under Mughal dominion. It is hardly likely
that Asaf Khan masterminded the shift against Shah Jahan without his sister's
consent or encouragement. Not only must she have approved the move, but
more likely, urged her brother to make it. The effects on the English chances for
successful negotiations were probably minimal: without Shah Jahan there would
be less blockage, but with Nur Jahan there would still be a self-serving interest
on the part of a government and a country that, ultimately, could manage very
well without European contracts.
Other evidence that Nur Jahan traded for overseas goods came from inciden-
tal letters written to the East India Company. John Browne, writing to the
Company on February 10, 1617, noted that toward the end of the year 1616,
now that peace with the Portuguese had been concluded, "there are many buy-
ers, and never so many great ones as now, viz. the Queen, Prince, Muckrob
Chan, Meir Joffer, etc."231 Danvers, in his note, assumes that the Queen Mother,
 The English Embassy 153

Maryamuzzamani, was meant here because Roe often referred to her trading
activity, but three elements indicate instead that this reference was probably to
Nur Jahan: first, this occurred about the same time, between 1616 and 1617,
that Nur Jahan began making serious overtures to Roe about involvement in the
English trading networks; second, by this time Maryamuzzamani had more or
less retired from trade, her primary ship burned 232 and her own health not as
good as it used to be;233 and, third, to list the Queen and Prince together as
Browne did was to indicate nothing else but the junta, very powerful at this time
and with Nur Jahan as the woman at the helm. Likewise, James Bickford's
reference in his March 4, 1617, letter to Sir Thomas Smythe, which mentioned
"the Queen" among the "divers others beginning to buy,"234 must for the same
reasons have referred to the current chief queen on the throne rather than to her
mother-in-law, the Queen Mother. A later reference, in a document dated No-
vember 23, 1621, which made note of "goods . . . sould the Kinge and Quene,"
indicated beyond question that Jahangir and Nur Jahan were buying things
through the English factors in Agra and Surat235 and that they had been for
sometime. From these we can conclude that the overtures to Roe made by the
queen were neither the beginning nor the end of Nur Jahan's business dealings
with the English.
Indeed, it is clear that, even after Roe left, Nur Jahan continued to engage in
overseas trade despite the fact that it meant submitting to the still-present yoke
of the Portuguese. In a letter dated March 12 and 13, 1619, to the Company,
Kerridge and his colleagues reported that Nur Jahan was once again running
ships and once again paying huge sums for the privilege:

The Portingalls, that incroacheth as much on them [the Mughals], permitt none
of their shipps to sayle without lysence, and even now since the Anns departure
have forced the Goga junck, appertaineing to the beloved queene, to pay them
65,000 mamoodes for custome to the porte of Dieu (an antient dutie), which
striveing to infringe loste her voyage the laste yeare, and made greate shew off
warrs; yett after much contention have submitted againe to the yoake.236

Some time later, consultations among the factors of Surat indicated that the
English there were still grievous over injuries suffered earlier and had planned,
as a result, to seize some of the trading vessels sailing for the Mughal govern-
ment. In a letter received March 7, 1623, for example, a ship destined for Mocha
was mentioned, "and thatt the shipp and goods onely belonged to the Kinge, the
Normall [Nurmahal], Assafcon, Suffichan, and other greatte men." It was given
out that the English were going to seize this ship belonging in part to Nur Jahan,
but subsequent provisions seem to have been made for her secure passage.237
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Jahangir's chief wife continued to trade in
channels of overseas commerce and did so despite the obvious danger to her
charges even if from her erstwhile allies of the embassy.
More time-consuming, more frustrating, and ultimately more debilitating
than the trade negotiations with any member of the Mughal government, how-
ever, was the gift-giving cycle Roe found himself caught up in almost from the
154 NUR JAHAN

start, a cycle that as time went on increasingly involved Nur Jahan. Others
before Roe had noted that Jahangir did not like to see his visitors come without
gifts. Hawkins, for example, had said "there is no man that commeth to make
petition who commeth emptie handed."238

His custome is that when you petition him for any thing, you must not come
empty handed, but give him some toy or other, whether you write or no. By the
gift you give him he knoweth that you demand some thing of him; so after
enquiry is made, if he seeth it convenient, he grantcth it.239

Terry described Jahangir as having "a covetous heart . . . [that was] so unsa-
tiable, as that it never knows when it hath enough; being like a bottomless
purse, that can never be filPd."240 Although Roe expected to have to come
bearing presents,241 he always felt that the gifts he brought were inadequate, and
once at the beginning gave Jahangir a present "but not in the name of his
Majestie, it beeing too meane."242 Again, at the beginning of Roe's stay after
Jahangir had accepted some things, the emperor took aside the resident Jesuit
and asked him "whether the King of England were a great Kyng that sent
presents of so small valewe."243 Somewhat later Roe's tone reflected the weary
humiliation of being constantly deficient in his gifts: "The Presentes sent this
yeare were too good; but (to deale playnly with my frendes) soe farr short of
their greedy expectation that they rather disgrace then helpe mee."244 Several
times Roe tried to lay down the law on gifts, telling Asaf Khan that if he didn't
like what he brought to write down a list of what would please,245 but ultimately
became so discouraged that he began to counsel against any presents at all:
"[because] our trouble is all aboute the presents . . . I am inforced by experience
to change the Course."246
To make matters worse, Jahangir was not simply a passive recipient of the
gifts Roe brought but often interfered with the process and changed its course.
As in the case of other petitioners,247 Jahangir often gave back to Roe the things
he didn't like, complaining as always about the poor quality of gifts coming from
presumably so great a man as King James I of England. Nobles at the court often
said that better presents came from the Portuguese,248 and Roe lamented halfway
through his tenure that the English were now "the scorn of nations" because of
their gifts that were "so unworthy of merchants that our enemies have moved
upon that advantage to turn us out."249 Asaf Khan had warned Roe that the
English had brought all the trouble on themselves for, had they come merely as
merchants, nothing would have been expected of them "but to buy."250 More-
over, Roe himself always seemed to be having money problems both profession-
ally, when at the outset he didn't have enough silver to cover even a third of the
cloth and other goods251 the English needed, and personally—as he said in
November of 1616: "I was vnfitted with Carriadge, and ashamed of my
Prouision."252 And having come to India out of wasted financial circumstances,
such poverty was humiliating. It is a surprise, then, that Roe did not try to line
his own pockets on the sly, remaining instead ever a gentleman and good sport:
 The English Embassy 155

"I neuer gaue a knife for myne owne endes, nor vsed the least basenes of
begging; my riches are accordingly."253
Almost from the start, Roe knew that a substantial draw on his presents
came from Nur Jahan. In 1611, Hawkins had noted that Jahangir's new bride
was already powerful enough to be asking for gifts for herself. Knowing the
obvious, that he would get nowhere at court without the necessary bribes,
Hawkins said: "I sent my broker to seeke out for jewels fitting for the Kings
sister [Shahzada Khanam] and new paramour, and likewise for this new Vizir
and his sonne."254 To be so powerful so soon after her marriage was a sure sign
that, in the future, Roe could not forget the pleasures of the chief queen. Nur
Jahan's needs were immediately apparent to the English ambassador who in
January of 1616, shortly after his arrival at court, noted that "the Queene must
be presented" with something whenever he came even though he did not ap-
prove of this "daylye bribing."255 During Jahangir's famous seizure of Roe's
goods, Roe protested at the beginning that some among his things had been
"entended for the Prince and Normahall." Jahangir's response, that since "the
Prince, Normahall and he were all one" all presents should go to him, brought
no reply from Roe who knew full well that Nur Jahan must be remembered for
presents personally—as with one of the two glass chests he noted later during
that same exchange.256 Afterward he would be advised by Asaf Khan "to giue his
sister Normahall some toy,"257 which he would do posthaste.258 Roe complained
early on that the queen's expectations of him were extravagant: "they did expect
ten times as much from me as from Mr. Edwards, and spake it openly: that now
an ambassador was come, a great man, they should receive proportionable
gifts."259 And when Nur Jahan's expectations were not met, Roe was fully ap-
prised for, as he said of her late in 1616, the "neglect of her last year I have felt
heavily."260 Without her favor, however, Roe could make no headway at court
and he left each time knowing that "toys for presents . . . above all things
prevail with the King and stop the mouths of all the aforesaid," that is, of Nur
Jahan and her faction.261
Roe's gifts of wine, pictures, knives, precious stones, mirrors, and fancy
cloths262 were not left unrequited, however, for Jahangir and his family returned
gifts that were, they judged, in kind. Roe, for example, received several servants
from the emperor and his queen, some of whom came to the ambassador as
slaves, whom he refused to buy for himself but instead offered to ransom as free
citizens.253 Jahangir also sent Roe various kinds of food, deeming fresh fruits like
muskmelons,264 wines,265 and freshly slaughtered animals like elk,266 wild pig,267
and venison,268 some of which he had killed himself in hunting, as especially
prized rewards for his efforts. Roe did not often refuse a present of food, as his
own board had been at best a flexible item on the Company's provision for him,
but he did refuse other grander gifts from the emperor, believing them not to be
a part of his office's protocol. Said Terry, asked why "he did not desire some
good and great gifts at his hands . . . the Ambassador would reply, that he came
not thither to beg any thing of" the emperor,269 his only reward being, quite
sincerely, good service to the Company.
156 NUR JAHAN

Roe's overall views of his embassy to India were generally negative. He was,
first, highly frustrated by the gift-giving needs of the court and overwhelmed
with feelings of inadequacy because the expectations of him were so much more
than he could produce. His final advice to the Company was to downgrade the
post in the future to that of a merchant so that imperial desires, and indeed
involvement, would be comparably low.270
Second, from the start Roe saw the Indians he dealt with, and indeed the
Mughals themselves, as woefully indifferent to what he felt was proper protocol
and etiquette. From their initial attempt to search his men even after an agree-
ment to the contrary was made,271 to a list of abuses in Surat to himself, his
goods, and his men,272 to the general rudeness and bad manners he felt affronted
him everywhere, Roe responded with what he hoped was a tempered demeanor.
If at first he vowed to change the behavior of those around him—"I was resolued
to bring these People to a better vnderstanding or to perish in yt"273—he later
sank back into a passive resignation that felt abuse almost to its limits but did
not try to change it. As he said in early 1618: "My toyle with barbarous vniust
people is beyond patience,"274 a major revision of his earlier view that English
treatment in India was "so bad . . . that [it] will require much patience to suffer,
much Industry to sett vpright."275 Roe did not often take personally what he saw
as insults, attributing mismatches of cultural behavior instead to peculiarities in
the Indian perception of the English ambassadorial office.276 Some time later,
however, Delia Valle would charge the English with mismanaging their business
in India, assuming somewhat mistakenly as they did that the Mughals "hath
great need of the Sea" when in fact most of Jahangir's revenues came from his
lands. What was seen as insulting behavior, the Portuguese trader continued,
arose rather from the English sense of self-importance, "for it is not possible for
a few strangers and immigrants to contest with and get the better of a great King
in his own Country."277
Roe's experience in India was colored, third, by an increasing anger at the
power of the junta. Certain at the beginning that to win the king he must win the
junta and convinced at the end that it was the junta that had done him in—"the
faction I knew was too strong"278—Roe increasingly identified Nur Jahan as the
chief obstructionist. To focus thus on specific people, indeed on a specific per-
son, as the cause of his frustration allowed Roe the luxury of an easy rationale for
his somewhat more complicated grievances. Fourth, Roe was beset with a strong
dislike of the country to which he had been sent. Terry entitled an early section
in his A Voyage to East-India, "Of the Discommodities, Inconveniences, and
Annoyances, that are to be found or met withal in this Empire," and proceeded
to describe at length the myriads of "venomous and pernicious creatures" to be
encountered, the fickle and destructive monsoon rains, and the excessive tem-
peratures that are "so hot to us English, that we should be every day stewed in
our own moisture."279 Roe's early sickness280 and the "house of Mudd" that he
lived in "which I was enforced to build halfe"281 did nothing but encourage his
view that "this is the dullest, basest place that euer I saw"282 and that while there
he was forced to "hue a miserable life."283 The "base . . . Conditions"284 in which
he found himself coupled with the perceived lack of civility to him and to his
 The English Embassy 157

entourage often resulted in earnest pleas to be recalled to England. Said Roe to

the Company toward the end of his first year at court: "I assure you I can doe
you better seruice at home" and so hope that you will send for me soon.285 And
Terry ended his Voyage with an apology "for the leanness and lowness of my
stile" but hoped that his readers would understand for it was the Indians among
whom he lived "which made me rude."286
The harshness with which Roe and his embassy viewed their whole Indian
experience was balanced, however, by three important elements. First was the
ever-present hope for trading contracts for England that, though it dimmed over
time, did provide a continuous source of stability and inspiration, especially
with the knowledge of the Company's great resources at home and the potential
bonanza in profit should they succeed. Second was Roe's increasing facility at
maneuvering elements in the Mughal court. As he saw the junta weakening, for
example, he learned how to use each opportunity to his best advantage: when a
fine pearl was acquired by the English factors, Roe sold it at substantially less
than cost to Asaf Khan in the hopes of buying favor,287 and whenever the issue of
injustices suffered by the English came up before the emperor, Roe knew how to
play successfully to Jahangir's sympathy for him against various junta mem-
bers.288 Finally was Roe's genuine affection for Jahangir, which was apparent
from the very beginning and which lasted throughout the duration of his stay.
"He is very affable, and of a cheerefull countenance, without pride,"289 said Roe
of the emperor, and he "respectes vs very well and is ready to grant all reasonable
demandes."290 Roe's good feeling toward Jahangir was based on the king's recep-
tive demeanor toward him, "I stand . . . in extraordinarie Grace with the King,
who is gentle, soft, and good of disposition."291
In assessing the reasons for Roe's inconclusive results at the Mughal court,
we must raise the issue, central to our larger concerns, of whether Nur Jahan
actively obstructed the efforts of the English ambassador. Roe openly described
the work of her stepson Shah Jahan in blocking the trade of the English ships in
early 1616: "He [Shah Jahan] had a ship to set out for the Red Sea and was
willing to wink, yea, to encourage his ministers to molest and hinder the de-
spatch of our fleet until his ship were clear."292 Roe did not, however, record any
acts of the queen herself that were as blatantly hostile to the English enterprise as
this, but he did continually refer to her definitive influence over the others in
positions of power. Nur Jahan, recorded Roe of Jahangir, "conducts all his
actions" and each one of his decisions or directives "depends on her."295 While
some, like Roe's modern chronicler Michael Brown, see in the Embassy refer-
ences a substantial case against Nur Jahan, a clear argument in fact that, because
"she had grown accustomed to reaping handsome profits," she felt "threatened
by the European powers whose purpose was to lure the trade of India into their
own ships" and therefore "used her influence against the foreign representatives
in her husband's court,"294 another reading of the text gives less conclusive
results.
We will argue below that there were a number of reasons why Roe left India
without the treaties he wanted and that Nur Jahan's influence may or may not
have had anything to do with his lack of success. As for what she actually did
158 NUR JAIIAN

with regard to the English, we have no way of knowing precisely except that she
was a presence behind the parda screen whenever Roe paid court to Jahangir and
that she did have considerable, and perhaps even final, power over the junta's
directives at this time. But based on these generalities, we cannot charge her
with specific acts of hostility or obstruction as we can in the case of her brother
and stepson. The evidence just isn't there. As for the motivations she may have
had, the possibilities are likewise inconclusive. On the one hand, she may admit-
tedly have wanted exclusive or at least a proportionately larger share of the rights
to the profits from overseas trade, but on the other, she may, being the shrewd
businesswoman that she was, have seen that there was far more to be gained by
expanding her trading networks to include the English than not. We do know
that she wanted to use the English channels available to her to procure goods and
that, in fact, because of this, the English were to her a commercial opportunity
not a commercial foil. In the end, it is probable that Nur Jahan was more
indifferent to the English than anything else. Her time and energies were taken
up with so much other junta business that Roe's perception of obstruction may
simply have been benign unconcern.
Roe's inability to formalize trading relations between England and the
Mughal government before he left in 1619 may have had as much to do with
historical circumstance and the personality of Jahangir as it did with the quality
of Roe's efforts or any malicious dealings on the part of Nur Jahan. Historically,
the English were not the first Europeans of recent times to try to set up trading
arrangements with the Mughals. The Portuguese had gotten there first, and
when the English came, the earlier arrivals did everything they could to belittle
their new European competitors. Moreover, when Roe's embassy did succeed in
getting a foothold in Jahangir's court, ambassadors from rival governments
continued to show up with larger and better presents for the emperor. Although
in general Roe seemed to have captured Jahangir's ear during his stay in India,
representatives not only from Portugal295 but from Holland296 and Persia297 as well
only heightened the Englishman's anxiety each time they approached Jahangir
with the gifts. Finally, since the English came in the interest of trade, their
concerns fell in naturally with those of a lower strata of Indian society. In spite of
the fact that Roe was an official ambassador and a direct representative of his
country's ruler, Jahangir may not ever have been able to see him as more than a
glorified merchant. Try as the emperor might to change his expectations of
Roe,298 the Englishman's ultimate desire for a trading agreement permanently
cast him amongst those bound strictly to commercial concerns and therefore
beyond Jahangir's imperial purview.
Jahangir himself and the habits of Indian culture may have contributed just
as much, if not more, to Roe's undoing. First, and perhaps most important,
there was no real market for English goods in India. English cloth was too heavy
and too hot for the Indian climate299—even though it came in the beautiful
scarlet red so admired by Hindus—and knives, leatherwork, mirrors, and fancy
textile work could not be sold in great quantities as there were abundant indus-
tries in these crafts already on the subcontinent. Second, rumors of unruly
English behavior on the streets of Surat—"drincking and quarreling . . . and
 The English Embassy 159

draweing swoordes in the Custome house"300—had reached the imperial family

and, despite Roe's defense of his countrymen, the image of brawling foreigners
on his shores may have set Jahangir against any trade that might be disruptive.
Third, in spite of the fact that Roe had wanted a civilized etiquette to prevail
over a fair and just agreement that would obligate each party to items of mutual
interest, the need for a binding "legal" contract was neither understandable nor
desirable to Jahangir. As Brown has observed, the kind of agreement put for-
ward by Roe "was repugnant to the Mogul's idea of sovereignty because, by
binding him to the performance of certain provisions, it sought to limit his
future freedom of action." To make matters worse, such an agreement would be
"with the representative of an obscure and distant state"301 and would subject
Jahangir to certain obligations on his own sovereign soil. For an emperor who
increasingly thought of himself as ruler of the whole immediate world, the
possibility of such a treaty, just as he was, was not only unthinkable but outright
insulting as well.
All of these resulted, finally, in a general indifference to the English mission.
Although there was mild interest in overseas trade, in particular for the luxury
items procurable for the court, and although Muslims did need the protection of
English ships for the pilgrimage to Mecca, Mughal benefit from a sustained
relationship with the English did not hold considered promise. Jahangir did not
once mention the English mission in his Tuzuk,m in spite of the fact that at least
one miniature painting of the period showed an Englishman at court [see Figure
6-3], In this painting, Jahangir invested a courtier with a robe of honor before
an audience, which included a European who, though not identified, was almost
certainly Sir Thomas Roe. Another painting, "Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaykh
to Kings," now in the Freer, had along its edge a likeness of King James I of
England. Although Roe preserved letters from Jahangir to James in his Em-
bassy,™ Jahangir made no mention of any such correspondence and, in the Freer
painting, clearly meant to downgrade the English king's significance in the
ultimate scheme of things.
Roe's mission, then, was incomplete. He was not in the end able to get
Jahangir to sign a formal treaty covering the wide-ranging issues in English-
Mughal trade he had outlined earlier. But he was able to get Shah Jahan to issue
a farman covering the more specific province of the English factory at Surat,
over which the prince still had jurisdiction. Roe successfully got Shah Jahan to
agree to free trade for the English factors there, general respect and courtesy for
their business dealings, freedom of worship and of arms, and the grant of
considerably substantial living conditions.304 By Roe's own account, he had also
"gotten many bribes restored, many debtes, many extortions, and Commandes
to take noe more,"305 but when it was all finally assessed, Roe knew that though
"I shall trauell much in myne owne eies . . . [I shall] performe little in yours."306
Of the aftereffects of Roe, Pelsaert said: "Formerly the English maintained an
ambassador at the Camp, an arrangement which was very expensive to their
Company; but it has now been abandoned, because a factor who sells their goods
at Court can also look after all their incidental business, and obtain farmans, or
rescripts, from the King."307 More important than the specifics of his accomplish-
160 NUR JAHAN

ments, however, were the seeds of future ties that were sown. The Company was
now more realistically apprised of the conditions necessary for any future at-
tempts at commercial agreement, and the Mughal government was now privy,
more than ever before, to the particulars involved in international trade with
Europe. After this encounter, Nur Jahan's personal dealings with the English
were somewhat diminished, but her role in the activities of this early envoy,
however two-faced it might have been, contributed substantially to the slow and
perhaps evenhanded fashion by which the Indian entrance into larger interna-
tional markets took place. On the one hand, her hedging of an early contract
with Roe's embassy may well have helped protect the current flourishing of
Mughal culture and, in the process, have forestalled a ravaging of Indian re-
sources. But on the other, the considerable trading that she did do, with and
without the facilities of the English, may well have helped infuse new elements
into Mughal culture that, in part, gave it its health.
 7

Breakup of the Junta

(1620-1627)
When ["the wretch," Shah Jahan] . . . acts in this manner, I appeal to the
justice of Allah that He may never again regard him with favour.
The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri translated by A. Rogers
and edited by Henry Beveridge

The effectiveness of the alliances made within Nur Jahan's junta began to wane
around the turn of the decade in 1620. Coming off the victories of Shah Jahan in
the Deccan in 1617, the group was heady now with a sense of limitlessness to its
power and rightness to its course. These victories, it seemed, signified the
ascendancy of rule by counsel and wisdom through consensus, but revealed little
of the turmoil possible when counsel would become command and consensus
cartel. Bubonic plague had broken out in 1616, introduced into northern India
most probably from Central Asia,1 and it continued to devastate the country
during cold weather for the next eight years. 2 Moreover in November of 1618,
two heavenly phenomena appeared that lasted for about a month: one, in the
southern sky, was shaped "like a pot boiling out fire"3 or "a sickle"4 and the
other, in the northern sky, was a comet. 5 The monsoon failed that year and the
famine, pestilence, and mortality that came in the years following were blamed
on the appearance of these astrological signs.6 In the wake of these occurrences,
the power of the junta declined, and the Iqbalnama went so far as to say that
"through the effects of this [heavenly] phenomenon . . . a misunderstanding
arose between His Majesty and the fortunate Prince Shah Jahan. The distur-
bances which thus originated lasted seven or eight years. What blood was shed
in the country! and what families were ruined!"7
Whatever the connection between the junta's decline and heavenly distur-
bances, it was clear that the alliance was weakening as early as 1617. On October
21, Roe noted the dangerous rift he saw between Shah Jahan and Nur Jahan over
patronage for English trade when Asaf Khan came to promise that, with his
sister now as "Protectresse" of the English, "the Prince would not meddle."8
161
162 NUR JAHAN

This rift would widen in the next few years, and with the second phase of Nur
Jahan's ascendancy, Shah Jahan would pull decidedly away from his early
benefactress and become steadily and more clearly a contending power in his
own right.
At the height of the junta's influence, the four protagonists—Nur Jahan,
Shah Jahan, Itimaduddaula, and Asaf Khan—ruled over as prosperous and
extensive an India as ever was to be under the Mughals. The capital city of Agra,
for example, had become a large, open, and sprawling trade center of great
traffic, where Hindus mixed with Muslims, rich with poor, and foreigners with
natives. Trade, both domestic and foreign, passed through the great markets of
the city and her surrounds and tied this particular seat of Mughal power to
provinces in all parts of India and, therefore, to much of the prosperity of the
realm.
The decline of the junta was linked perhaps to no sequence of events more
than to the successive loss of parents by junta members. The first to die in this
illustrious series was the mother of Shah Jahan, known as Jagat Gosaini in the
Tuzuk and earlier as the daughter of the Mota, or "Fat," Raja. 9 She died in the
spring of 1619, and Jahangir noted the death succinctly, saying simply that she
had "attained the mercy of God."10 Whatever his own grief for his wife was, it
went unnoted in the memoirs, but the grief of his son for the mother was
apparently substantial. Shah Jahan's need for solace was so strong, in fact, that
he had to be brought back to the main palace to mourn his loss.11
The events of this period took place against the background of Jahangir's
increasingly poor health. Jahangir had never taken good care of himself, but he
had a robust constitution and seemed to be able to avoid, sometimes treacher-
ously closely, the calamitous ends that befell both his brothers. The years of
wine, opium, and general excess, however, began to catch up with him, and in
1620 while on one of his trips to Kashmir, he noted in his memoirs a shortness of
breath and difficulty in breathing.12 Later, in 1621, the difficulty in breathing
returned, now severely intensified, and he drew about him the best physicians
known in the country. One of his own physicians who had accompanied him to
Kashmir, Hakim Ruhullah, gave him some medicine that worked for a time but
could not prevent the return of Jahangir's painful symptoms when he came
down from the hills. Another personal physician, Hakim Rukna, who had been
excused to stay in Agra, now joined Jahangir and gave him "warm and dry"
medicines, but these too did not help as Jahangir's pain increased and he became
considerably weakened.13 To make matters worse, Hakim Sadra, one of the chief
physicians of Persia whom Jahangir had honored extensively at court and to
whom he had given the title Masihuzzaman, "Messiah of the Age," refused at
this point to treat the emperor saying, "I have no such reliance on my knowledge
that I can undertake the cure."14 Hakim Sadra's reluctance, whether for profes-
sional or personal reasons, was compounded by that of a fourth physician,
Hakim Abul Qasim, who said that he was "suspicious and afraid . . . terrified
and vexed" and could not, therefore, help Jahangir out of his affliction. Jahangir
then gave up all professional advice and yielded his care to the Supreme Physi-
 Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627) 163

cian,15 deciding to drown himself in wine in what appeared in his memoirs to be

suicidal excess.
As the weather became hotter, Jahangir's condition grew worse, and Nur
Jahan—"whose skill and experience are greater than those of the physicians"16—
took over complete control of the nursing. Although she had previously ap-
proved of the remedies ordered by the court physicians, Nur Jahan now tried a
new course: regular decreases in Jahangir's cups of wine coupled with attention
so obsessive it could only have suited a child. Nur Jahan's watchful control over
her husband's consumption of wine and other unsuitable foods was successful.
In return for a year of "severe illness" that ended "well and in safety," Jahangir
allowed his wife great extravagance in preparing the festivities for his solar
weighing, at which all supporters who had been loyal to him during his infirmity
were to be rewarded." Jahangir's illness, in the long run, however, did not abate,
and he continued to ask for divine mercy and to search for healthy climates (like
Kashmir) for the rest of his life.18 His physical condition later deteriorated to
such a point, in fact, that at the beginning of 1623 he had to give over the writing
of his memoirs completely to Mutamid Khan, "who knows my temperament
and understands my words."19
The increasing severity of Jahangir's illness—his weakness, his shortness of
breath, and at times his mental debilitation—posed a dilemma for Nur Jahan.
On the one hand, as his health faded she could have taken efforts to consolidate
power in her own hands and to shape the government and array of alliances to
her best advantage. On the other, however, her marriage to Jahangir was the
very reason she had power and if he died of his excesses Nur Jahan would no
longer have a sovereign base of her own from which to work. As Jahangir
became sicker, then, Nur Jahan, had to shore up those alliances she did have and
to establish new ones fruitful to her and her lineage should the worst happen, all
the while trying to preserve and extend the life that had already, for so many
years, given her the throne. Central to this drama was Shah Jahan, who was
becoming increasingly powerful and independent and who, she realized, would
probably not allow her comparable supremacy at the court if he were to succeed
his father. As Shah Jahan began to drift away, Nur Jahan was obliged to turn to
others she might use as tools, others whose claims were equal to those of Shah
Jahan and who she thought, in their pliancy to her, would be willing to fight the
current contender for the throne.
If the condition of Jahangir's health provided the backdrop for the decay of
the junta, three more or less contemporaneous events acted on the junta's alli-
ances to bring them to an almost complete state of collapse: (1) the marriage of
Nur Jahan's daughter to another son of Jahangir, Shahryar; (2) the deaths of Nur
Jahan's parents, which deprived the junta of its elder advisers; and (3) the
revival of problems in the Deccan and the ensuing death of Khusrau. The
deciding event, perhaps, was the marriage of Nur Jahan's daughter, Ladli
Begam, by the empress's first husband, Sher Afgan, to Jahangir's youngest
surviving son in April of 1621.
The marriage between Ladli Begam and Shahryar was by no means a love
164 NUR JAHAN

match. Years of negotiated matchmaking had consumed the time of Nur Jahan,
who had wanted her daughter to marry into her second husband's lineage so as
to ensure the presence of her own descendants at the imperial court as well as the
continued prominence of her own advice and counsel on sovereign matters.
There is little evidence that Nur Jahan seriously approached Shah Jahan as a
future son-in-law. He had married her niece, Arjumand Banu Begam, in a love
match that was consummated in April of 1612, and although there were other
wives and although there is a tradition that maintains that Ladli Begam was
Arjumand's rival for Khurram's hand, 20 Arjumand was clearly his chief wife in
all respects. Instead, the most talked about "negotiations" were those that took
place in 1616 and 1617 between Nur Jahan and Jahangir's eldest son, Khusrau.
Delia Valle's famous account of these negotiations stated that Nur Jahan had
frequently offered her daughter to Khusrau, who had refused each time either
because he loved his first wife too much or because he "scorn'd" Nur Jahan's
daughter. At this time Khusrau was in prison, and Delia Valle said that Nur
Jahan promised him immediate freedom if he would consent to marry her daugh-
ter. Khusrau continued to refuse, despite the protests of his wife, and continued
to enjoy an imprisonment voluntarily shared by this wife, who never ceased "to
persuade him to marry Nurmahal's Daughter."21 The love between Khusrau and
his wife, in fact, was well known to all chroniclers of the tradition, and the
English adventurer, Thomas Coryat, told the story of Jahangir's building an
escape-proof prison for Khusrau so that the imperial entourage could hunt in
peace and of Khusrau's wife begging on bended knee to be put there too. As
Coryat effused, "she utterly refused any other comfort then to be the companion
of her husbands miseries."22 Despite these obstacles, Nur Jahan's marital negotia-
tions on behalf of her daughter continued, becoming well known to the English
as well, with Roe noting on August 25, 1617: "This day Asaph Chan feasted
Normahall [and?] the Prince Sultan Corsoroone; as is reported, to make a firme
alliance, and that he will bring away a Wife, by his Fathers importunitie. This
will beget his full libertie, and our proud Masters ruine."23
The brokering was eventually a failure, however, and in despair over not
successfully persuading Khusrau to marry her daughter, Nur Jahan turned to
Shahryar. She had hopes of finding in him a well-placed husband for Ladli
Begam and of bringing him forward, in the face of Shah Jahan's willful indepen-
dence of her, as an alternate successor to the throne. Shahryar was the youngest
surviving son of Jahangir, having been born to a concubine in 1605. By reputa-
tion he had shown little promise of greatness and had, as Prasad notes, a "docile
nature, feeble mind, and imbecile character."24 According to van den Broecke,
Shahryar was "without sense or understanding, and not fit to govern a king-
dom"25 and again, to the Padshahnama, was in "want of capacity and intelli-
gence, . . . [and had therefore] got the nickname of Nashudani, 'Good-for-
nothing.' "26 One anecdote, however, preserved by Hawkins suggested instead
that Shahryar was a young man capable of showing great restraint and courage.
When Shahryar was seven, apparently, his father asked him if he wanted to
accompany him on a short trip, and the child replied he would go or stay
depending upon his father's desire. Jahangir was not pleased by this diplomacy
 Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627) 165

and struck Shahryar, who refused to cry. When Jahangir pressed him on this
restraint, Shahryar replied that his nurses told him it was shameful for a prince
to cry when pained, at which point Jahangir, so infuriated by this speech, had a
bodkin pushed through his son's cheek. Although Shahryar bled profusely, he
did not cry, and Hawkins pronounced, ironically, that there "is great hope of this
child to exceed all the rest."27
Certainly Nur Jahan had her own hopes for Shahryar, and perhaps because of
the qualities earning him the nickname of "Good-for-nothing," Ladli's mother
thought he would serve as an excellent puppet in her efforts to keep the throne in
the family. Accordingly, Shahryar and Ladli Begam were betrothed in Decem-
ber of 1620 and a great exchange of gifts in honor of the tie took place, with
feasts and entertainment provided by the bride-to-be's grandfather Itimadud-
daula. 28 The two were married in April of 1621 in Agra at the usual places for
such family gatherings—the putting on of henna took place in the home of
Jahangir's mother, Maryamuzzamani, and the marriage feast itself took place in
the home of Itimaduddaula. In honor of the occasion, a happy Jahangir gave his
son a jewelled coat, turban, and cummerbund, and two horses with fancy sad-
dles,29 and raised his son's mansab to 8,000 zat and 4,000 suwar.x At the time,
both bride and groom were about seventeen.
As a result of the marriage between Ladli Begam and Shahryar, the prestige
of the Nur Jahan family was greatly enhanced. Nevertheless, an irreparable
cleavage in the solidarity of the lineage was now visible as Asaf Khan, whose
daughter was married to Shah Jahan, became increasingly anxious and mistrust-
ful of his sister's activities. Itimaduddaula was able to prevent the cleavage from
becoming too cancerous, but he was old and, with his death in early 1622, the
now fragile bonds of the junta fell apart. More important than the simple realign-
ment the marriage involved, however, was the surge in activity that from this
time on propelled the Asaf Khan/Shah Jahan faction forward as its members
adjusted and compensated for the shift in power the new marriage lines had
brought about.
The second set of occurrences that overwhelmed the junta was the deaths of
Nur Jahan's parents. Asmat Begam, Nur Jahan's mother, who had traveled
impoverished out of Persia with her husband and their young children and had
watched over her family as its members had secured increasingly influential
positions at the court, died in October of 1621. Jahangir's eulogy of her "amiable
qualities" was touching, and he wrote: "Without exaggeration, in purity of
disposition and in wisdom and the excellencies that are the ornament of women
no Mother of the Age was ever born equal to her, and I did not value her less
than my own mother."31
Itimaduddaula's grief at this wife's death was considerable, and it became
even greater when he saw the sorrow of their son Asaf Khan, who in his distress
had abandoned all conventions of society. Nur Jahan's grief is mentioned only
briefly, but we can be sure that the loss of so important a mainstay in her
personal and social affairs was devastating. Jahangir himself, by his own ac-
count, rose to the occasion and administered "the balm of kindness" to all
aggrieved survivors for many days thereafter.32
166 NUR JAHAN

Itimaduddaula's grief, born with the great resignation expected of an old but
courtly man, eventually took its toll. He had outwardly controlled his emotions
over the loss of his wife,33 but the inward cost was substantial and at the end of
January of 1622 he himself succumbed. The death of Itimaduddaula occurred as
Jahangir's entourage was camped at the village of Bahlwan near Kangra during
the imperial couple's second tour to Kashmir. Jahangir had gone out to inspect
the fort at Kangra, leaving his sickened father-in-law behind in the tent. When,
on the next day, he heard that Itimaduddaula had gotten worse and that his
condition was now thought hopeless, Jahangir returned to camp immediately,
noting that he did so not only because he bore great affection for the old man,
but also because he "could not bear the agitation of Nur Jahan Begam."34
Jahangir and Nur Jahan stayed by her father's pillow for two more hours and
finally, that evening, Itimaduddaula died.35 He was eventually buried in an
exquisite tomb of marble and pietra dura inlay in Agra [see Figure 7-1], which
was designed and built by his daughter in her father's memory.36
The family's grief at the chief minister's death rivaled only the great sense of
loss felt by the kingdom. Itimaduddaula had been, except for occasional sugges-
tions of financial misdealing, a man of impeccable character. He was exception-
ally learned, excellent at letter writing and conversation, and especially skilled at
running the affairs of the empire. His advice to Jahangir was greatly valued, and

FIGURE 7-1. General view, tomb of Itimaduddaula, Agra. Courtesy of the Archaeo-
logical Survey of India, New Delhi.
 Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627) 167

he had been particularly helpful to the emperor in deciding matters of individual

reparation: to release Diyanat Khan from the Gwalior fort and return his confis-
cated property in 1615,37 to appoint Raja Man as the leader of the attack on the
fort of Kangra in 1616,38 to request that the negligent Itiqad Khan be allowed to
pay his respects to the emperor in 1617,39 to allow Allahabad Khan to return to
the court after fleeing the country without permission, and to appoint Abdullah
Khan, son of Hakim Nuruddin of Tehran, among the personal servants of the
emperor.40 In this way Itimaduddaula had become known for his generous and
compassionate response to all petitioners. Jahangir noted, for example, that "no
one ever went to Itimad-ud-daula with a petition or on business who turned
from him in an injured frame of mind,"41 for he was always pleasing and hopeful
to him who was in need. The high esteem in which Itimaduddaula was held by
the emperor was marked by his frequent raises in mansabs, his free roaming
before unveiled women in their palaces, and his receipt of the emperor's turban
from Jahangir's own hands.
Immediately after the death, Jahangir moved to transfer the minister's hold-
ings to an appropriate heir. Following the rule of escheat, all that Itimaduddaula
owned reverted back to the crown, which could then do with the estate as it
pleased.42 Jahangir had regularly conferred such estates accrued by death upon
the offspring of the noble, but in cases past these offspring had usually been
male.43 Jahangir now bestowed "the establishment and everything belonging to
the government and Amirship of Itimad-ud-daula . . . [upon] Nur Jahan
Begam" and ordered her drums and orchestra to be played immediately after
those of the King.44 What was unusual about this was not so much that he passed
on an inheritance to a woman, but that he passed on all of it to her. Ordinarily,
the women and children belonging to the family of a deceased noble were "given
enough to live on, but no more," and since every part of the property in question
had been carefully and publicly inventoried, no chance for concealing part of the
fortune or of tampering with the "designated needs" of the survivors was possi-
ble.45 In passing everything on to Nur Jahan, then, Jahangir completely by-
passed a logical recipient to a major portion of the estate, her brother Asaf Khan.
The emperor immediately compounded the insult by appointing Khwaja Abul
Hasan, a noble not related to Itimaduddaula who had distinguished himself in
the Deccan, to the position of diwan-l kul, or supreme dizvan.46
We can only guess at Nur Jahan's role in the making of these decisions.
Jahangir was, to be sure, grief-stricken over the loss of his chief minister and
still, as always, suffering from indulgence in wine and opium. Nevertheless, he
must have at least approved if not encouraged the outright neglect of Asaf Khan
and his daughter, the wife of Shah Jahan. The inheritance decision, suggested if
not actually enacted by Nur Jahan, not only reflected the existing rift within the
inner circle of Itimaduddaula's family, but also served, by design to be sure, to
cut off those members of the junta whom Jahangir and his wife already sus-
pected of seditious loyalties or whose growing power and independence they
were coming to fear: Asaf Khan and, indirectly, Shah Jahan.47 With Itimadud-
daula dead, and with this insult so blatantly and publicly handed down, more-
over, Asaf Khan and Shah Jahan would now become increasingly opposed to the
168 NUR JAHAN

interests of Nur Jahan, who would begin to act more frequently on her own. For
the remaining years of Jahangir's reign, then, five years of slow but consuming
debilitation in the emperor's physical and mental state, Nur Jahan would rule
much more closely from within the walls of the women's palaces.
The third and final affair to weaken the bonds of the junta was the revival of
problems in the Deccan and the subsequent death of Khusrau. By 1620 the
situation in the Deccan had again become critical. Jahangir's enemy, Malik
Amber of Ahmadnagar, had fashioned coalitions with leaders in Bijapur and
Golconda and had recruited about sixty thousand troops, including rebellious
Maratha bands, to defend the Deccan. He had violated the treaty he made with
the Mughals only two months earlier, and as a result of the outbreak of hostili-
ties, a good deal of the territory conquered by the Mughals had been liberated
by Malik Amber's army.48 The Mughal commander Abdur Rahim, the Khan-
khanan, had repeatedly asked Jahangir for reinforcements, and because of his
past military successes in Mewar, the Deccan, and Gujarat, Shah Jahan seemed
the natural choice to head such an expedition to the south.
Jahangir had become suspicious of Shah Jahan of late, however, for his
seditious alliances had now grown strong and he had built up an experienced
army of his own.49 Under Nur Jahan's urgings, though, Jahangir finally decided
to send Shah Jahan anyway in the hopes that this second time his son could
match his successes of 1617. Shah Jahan, however, refused to go unless Jahangir
send along with him his eldest brother, Khusrau, arguing from the tender
affection he held for him. 50 Jahangir "justly doubted his sincerity"51 here, and the
general consensus of the time and later seems to be that Shah Jahan was, in fact,
worried that if he were to be so far away from the center of power, his brother,
who was now being treated a bit more leniently at court, would be a clear
contender for the throne should Jahangir die. Shah Jahan was worried, and
rightly so, that in his absence, at the very least, various factions would consoli-
date their power behind his back and, at the most, he would lose what he
thought to be the just dessert of his labors. And so he pressed for Khusrau to
accompany him to the Deccan, in the hopes of depriving Nur Jahan of his
popular brother as a candidate for the throne. As Terry had reported in 1618:
"Sultan Caroom . . . raised and kept together very great forces, and stood upon
his guard, and would not disband 'till his father had delivered his eldest son,
Sultan Coobseroo, into his hands."52
Nur Jahan, however, already had a history of trying to get rid of Khusrau.
During the period when Khurram was still her favorite stepson, she had tried
several times to get Jahangir to put Khusrau in Khurram's care and, if we
believe Roe's 1616 account, to engineer with the help of the rest of the junta
Khusrau's death." Khusrau's refusal to marry Ladli Begam, it seems, perma-
nently embittered Nur Jahan toward him and this rancor continued for some
time after the period 1616 through 1617.54 Moreover, Nur Jahan did not need
Khusrau's partisanship for she now foresaw a puppet all her own in the person
of her future son-in-law, Shahryar, whom she could manipulate freely and
mount quickly to the throne should her own husband pass on. And so it was that
for the last time in their joint careers Nur Jahan, Shah Jahan, and Asaf Khan
 Breakup of'the Junta (1620-1627) 169

acted unanimously in their bid to see Khusrau accompany Shah Jahan to the
Deccan. "Nur Jahan and her brother, Asaf Khan, begged the King to put
Khusrau in the charge of his brother Sultan Khurram, and to send Khurram on
an expedition to the Deccan."55 It was apparently against his better judgment
and under much pressure from this oddly reunited junta that Jahangir capitu-
lated and gave his permission to Shah Jahan to take Khusrau along with him.
The gravity of the situation in the Deccan necessitated, he felt, some kind of
precipitous action.

Sultan Chorrom, after the alliance that he made with Asaf Chan, so wrought by
the means of his Father in law, and Nurmahal, his Aunt, that the King granted
him the prisoner Sultan Chosrou into his own power, taking him out of the
hands of him that kept him, and committing him to keep, yet with order to use
him very well and have great care of him.56

Thus, toward the end of December in 1620, Shah Jahan was dispatched by his
father with many gifts of honor, including an elephant from Nur Jahan, and with
many troops to the Deccan.57
It is in all likelihood that Nur Jahan knew what might happen to Khusrau
while in the charge of Shah Jahan and far away from the watchful eye of the
emperor. The Shujauddins are quite convinced that Nur Jahan knew, and per-
haps even hoped, that Khusrau would meet some unnatural end, thus doing
away with his candidacy for the throne altogether. They also argue that Nur
Jahan actually planned that Shah Jahan would be so clearly perceived as the
instigator of the foul deed that his candidacy would thereby be permanently
discredited.58 C. Pant does not agree with this "two birds" theory, however,
saying that "Nur Jahan definitely played in the hands of the faction without
probably knowing its consequences,"59 but given what we know of the empress
such naivety is highly unlikely. That Nur Jahan should not know the conse-
quences of sending Shah Jahan and Khusrau far away from the court together
does not fit well with the general picture of her as an astute and careful manipula-
tor of power. Although her strong hatred of Khusrau is hinted at by several
sources,60 it was probably her growing apprehension of Shah Jahan that above all
made her urge Jahangir's final decision. "She saw the great lines of ambition,"
says Dow, "and an unrelenting perseverance in pursuit of power, in all his
conduct."61 With Shah Jahan and Khusrau out of the way where nature might
take its barbarous course, then, the empress would have a freer hand with which
to arrange the remaining lines of power around her.
Shah Jahan was sent off with great fanfare. He left from his father's court in
Lahore and this meeting, in December 1620, in which Jahangir gave him many
supplies and presents preparatory to the trip into the Deccan, was to be the final
one, the last time Shah Jahan and his father ever saw each other. For most of the
next seven years after the Deccan affair, Shah Jahan was a rebel, a fugitive, and a
nonentity with regard to his father's rule, not surfacing again until his own
accession to the throne from 1627 to 1628.
Leaving Lahore, Shah Jahan proceeded southward, routing the rebels and
170 NUR JAHAN

pushing them farther away from their strongholds of power and, in so doing,
scoring major victories near Burhanpar, in Khirki, and in Ahmadnagar.62 His
expedition was without a doubt a success, taking him only six months to recap-
ture power in the Deccan and receive Malik Amber's surrender, and his father,
grateful for his son's triumph, rewarded him and his men with fine presents of
jewels and clothes.63 Shah Jahan, in his turn, sent on to Jahangir all those
presents of tribute given to him by the now-subject kings of the Deccan.64
Celebrating their victory, Shah Jahan and his men then returned to Burhanpur
to rest and to consolidate their newly reestablished base of power.
Jahangir's reaction to his son's second set of victories in the Deccan was
curious. Although he noted the victories in his memoirs and gave presents in due
course, the Tuzuk prose was neutral and the gifts paltry. Jahangir's somewhat
cold response here can be attributed either to his increasingly poor health (but
notice how inspired the prose was in the same pages when he saw a zebra for the
first time65) or to the dampening influence of Nur Jahan. Although by 1621 there
was not yet an open struggle between Shah Jahan and the throne, there was
certainly a struggle of wills. Jahangir may have increasingly feared his powerful
son, whose ambitions he knew were on the throne, and therefore did not, for
seeming a fool, celebrate the Deccan successes too much.
What happened next was given only three lines in the Tuzuk, but made much
of by other contemporary sources. Shah Jahan and his entourage had been
staying in Burhanpur in the Deccan, and from there in the north, on January 29,
1622, Jahangir received word from his third son that Khusrau had died of colic
pains (qulanf) .66 At first everyone accepted the official story that Khusrau had
died a natural death.67 Jahangir made only short and neutral notice of the death
in the Tuzuk before passing on to report other news of the time. European
sources, however, and a few Persian sources were suspicious, and in their final
drafts were quick to level charges of murder at the victim's younger brother.
Terry, for example, said simply that Shah Jahan "strangled that most gallant
Prince his eldest brother,"68 but the Dutch sources of a slightly later period went
into much greater detail.
The most popular version of the story was that while he consulted his minis-
ters and then himself left on a hunting trip, Shah Jahan had ordered a slave
named Raza Bahadur69 to go into Khusrau's room in the middle of the night.
Knocking on the door, Raza pretended that he and his companions had brought
letters from the king and imperial robes for Khusrau to try on. When Khusrau
refused to open up, not believing the story, Raza and his men unhinged the door,
rushed in, and attacked the sleeper. Although the still partially blinded Khusrau
defended himself bravely and screamed loudly to awaken his party, it was to no
avail. His attackers were able to wrap a cord or a cloth around his neck and
strangle him. After Khusrau was dead, Raza's men lifted his body up onto the
bed and arranged the bedclothes to look as if his death had been natural. 70
This same story appeared in slightly altered versions in other sources. Delia
Valle included the murder by strangling, noting that it was done instead with a
bowstring, but preceded the actual murder with Shah Jahan's attempt to poison
Khusrau by sending him tainted meat. Each time the poisoned meats arrived,
 Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627) 171

Khusrau refused them knowing they were meant to kill him. The nighttime
strangling was then plotted by Shah Jahan's party only as a last resort and only
because "there was no other remedy"71 to the Khusrau problem. Peter Mundy
mentioned the strangling as well, but focused his attention, in the short narra-
tion, upon others killed in the action surrounding Khusrau: a porter outside
Khusrau's door "for denyeing entrance" and one of Raza's own men before the
main murder took place.72 The later account by Dow goes so far as to relieve
Shah Jahan of most of the criminal responsibility. Raza, he claims, was "a
notorious villain" in his own right, and because he was worried about Shah
Jahan's chances for the throne and in the hopes of receiving a substantial reward,
took it upon himself to rid his hero of a rival for power by stabbing the sleeping
Khusrau in the heart. 73 Persian sources as well, except for those which were
entirely silent on the matter, held Shah Jahan responsible for Khusrau's mur-
der,74 and Aurangzeb himself, Shah Jahan's own son and heir, assumed his
father's murder of his uncle to be a stated fact of family history.75
Few, if any, contemporary sources actually refuted the charges levelled
against Shah Jahan. Although many Persian texts were silent, presumably to
preserve the facade of the line's good breeding within the official chronicles, the
indictment of the middle son was clear. H. Beveridge, apparently, doubts the
story of the murder,76 but Foster believes the evidence is too strong to be ig-
nored.77 But because so many contemporary sources include the story, and be-
cause the circumstances and motive seem perfectly appropriate, the probability
of Khusrau's death being of unnatural causes—and at the indirect hand of his
brother, Shah Jahan—is very high.
In the morning after the murder, Khusrau's wife, a much-beloved78 daughter
of Aziz Khan Koka, foster brother to Akbar,79 came from her room to Khusrau's
and finding the door open went in. At first she thought her husband was just
sleeping but touching his face with her hand and finding it cold and still, she
"ran out and began to scream and cry whereupon all maid servants and others
came running to her."80 The shrieks and cries were so loud that soon everyone in
the area knew that Khusrau was dead, and news was sent on ahead to Shah
Jahan. The prince at that time was out hunting, but upon hearing the report
("that [his plan] had succeeded"81), he returned to Burhanpur, and as van den
Broecke said, had all his ministers bear witness to the letter he wrote Jahangir
about the sudden demise of his brother, Khusrau. As Dow notes, Shah Jahan,
"shewed such apparent symptoms of grief, that he was believed, for some time,
innocent of the murder."82 Out of the confusion that followed, Khusrau's son by
Aziz Khan Koka's daughter, Prince Bulaqi, was placed in the care of his mater-
nal grandfather and given a considerable mansab by Jahangir.83 The whole of the
immediate family, including the widow and son, was then brought to Lahore.
Khusrau's body was at first buried in a local garden near Burhanpur, but
Jahangir, becoming suspicious later of the circumstances of his son's death, had
it exhumed and sent to Agra and then on to Allahabad to be buried beside his
mother84 in what is now known as Khusrau Bagh. Jahangir's early reaction to the
news of his son's death seems to have been fairly neutral. In spite of the fact that
Terry reported Khusrau's death "did so trouble his father, that the grief thereof,
172 NUR JAHAN

as it was strongly believed, shortened his days,"85 Jahangir showed neither plea-
sure nor grief in his memoirs at the news from Burhanpur. 86 What seems to have
made him most angry was the process by which he was informed of the death
and the possibility that his other son, Shah Jahan, was trying to deceive him
about the true sequence of events. Jahangir was told of it on January 29, 1622;
how much earlier than this it actually took place is uncertain. 87 It seems clear
that Shah Jahan at some point wrote Jahangir a letter informing him of what had
happened and affixing to it the signatures of all his chief nobles in witness to the
truth of the contents88—"in order the better to conceal his own crime."89
It happened that one Matab Nuruddin Quli, who was present at that time in
Burhanpur, also wrote to Jahangir with a full account of events, evidently sug-
gesting that Khusrau's death may have been planned. Upon receiving this sec-
ond letter, Jahangir became furious and wrote back to the nobles in Burhanpur
"a very angry letter . . . enquiring why they had failed to write to him the truth,
whether his son had died a natural death or been murdered by some one."90 It
was then that Jahangir ordered Khusrau's body exhumed and brought to Al-
lahabad and committed Khusrau's surviving family to the care of his still living
father-in-law. Jahangir's final course of action was to order Shah Jahan himself to
come back to court and to give in person his account of Khusrau's death. Shah
Jahan refused to obey his father's summons and instead gathered together his
forces "to withstand his Father" and with the help of local alliances moved
toward Agra.91
Although this Deccan affair began auspiciously for Shah Jahan, it ended with
his complete and willful disenfranchisement from Jahangir. Reacting perhaps
too hastily to the news of his father's illness in 1621, Shah Jahan had put into
effect, quite clearly and premeditatively, plans for his brother's death, thereby
clearing his own way to the throne. When his plan backfired on him—that is,
when his father didn't die and began to suspect instead, quite accidently, that his
middle son had in fact murdered his eldest—Shah Jahan had to flee, no longer
ever welcome at the court and by his own actions now a seditious rebel. With
these events in the Deccan, then, Shah Jahan went into open and permanent
struggle against the court.
The complicity of other members of the junta in the final Khusrau affair,
however, is not altogether clear. Certainly Nur Jahan and Asaf Khan agreed to
and encouraged entrusting the care of Khusrau to Shah Jahan. That they had a
hand in his actual murder is doubtful, though their courtly manipulations be-
hind the scenes certainly made them accessories to the crime in some degree.
That they were pleased with the results is beyond doubt for Khusrau's perma-
nent absence now allowed each to mount seriously the cause of a protege: Nur
Jahan that of Shahryar and Asaf Khan that of Shah Jahan. From this point
forward, however, brother and sister would be on opposite sides. With Shah
Jahan in rebellion, Asaf Khan could not openly champion his cause, but could
and did work secretly on his behalf. Moreover, the Khusrau murder cast the
whole ruling family, except perhaps for Jahangir, into a bad light and whatever
popularity Nur Jahan had garnered up to now began to wane as her partisan
activities became more prominent.
 Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627) 173

Imperial attention now turned to Kandahar. Proceeding from Khurasan,

Shah Abbas of Persia, perhaps sensing a momentary weakness in the Mughal
administration, moved to capture the important border post of Kandahar.92
Jahangir received the news in mid-June 1622 while at the royal camp at
Rawalpindi and, because of past friendly relations with the shah, refused at first
to believe the report. Finding it to be true, however, that the shah was moving to
lay siege to Kandahar with troops from Iraq and Khurasan, Jahangir ordered his
high-ranking commanders with armies from the Deccan, Gujarat, Bengal, and
Bihar to proceed toward the area.93 Aziz Khan was currently governor of
Kandahar on behalf of the king and was ordered by Jahangir to "fortify the place
and furnish it with provisions, and that he [Jahangir] would send reinforce-
ments."94 As he was increasingly under attack, Aziz Khan made sorties out daily
to fend off the Persian forces as best he could. It was not good enough, however,
for he "wrote to the King many times that he should quickly send relief or
Kandahar would fall, since they were hard pressed."95 Jahangir had written to
Khan Jahan, governor of nearby Multan, "to procure large supplies of rice,
butter and salt to go with all his forces to assist Asaf [sic] Khan,"96 but it is not
clear what the emperor instructed Khan Jahan to do about the timing of his
move on Kandahar. The Tuzuk said that Jahangir ordered Khan Jahan to stay in
Multan until the reinforcement armies from the south arrived,97 but van den
Broecke said that, although Jahangir repeatedly ordered Khan Jahan to proceed
and give aid to Aziz Khan "with all his forces," the governor of Multan, "always
raised difficulties."98
When he had first heard the news of the seige of Kandahar, Jahangir had
ordered Shah Jahan and the Khankhanan Abdur Rahim, then still in the Dec-
can, to proceed toward the northern post to check the progress of the shah.
About the time the situation was getting critical, however, Jahangir received a
messenger with a letter from Shah Jahan that stated in no uncertain terms that
the prince was going to "pass the rainy season in the fort of Mandu [in Malwa],
and then come to Court."99 Moreover, Shah Jahan made as the conditions of his
return to court that he be given full command of the imperial army, full com-
mand of the Punjab, and the fort of Ranthambhor for the safety of his family.100
Jahangir was offended by the letter and said: "I did not like the style of its
purport nor the request he made, and, on the contrary, the traces of disloyalty
(bi-daulati) were apparent."101 The emperor had no choice, however, but to let
his son wait before coming to court until after the rains had stopped. Jahangir
then ordered Shah Jahan to send instead the great commanders and armies who
were assisting him in the south—especially the Sayyids of Barha and Bukhara,
the Shaikhzadas, the Afghans, and the Rajputs—on to support the defense of
Kandahar.102
One could argue, with little evidence to the contrary, that Shah Jahan fell
into rebellion gradually and that his revolt came as a result of Nur Jahan's
conscious policy of forcing him out of the lines of power. It is quite possible that
Nur Jahan, now securely in power herself and with the decisions for the adminis-
tration of the empire almost totally in her hands, saw Kandahar as a way to get
Shah Jahan into trouble. There can be no doubt that Jahangir's orders to his son
174 NUR JAHAN

to proceed to Kandahar and to aid in its defense were instigated by his wife.
Furthermore, we assume that Nur Jahan intended these orders to place Shah
Jahan in a difficult situation: if he refused to go, he would be denounced as a
rebel and crushed, most likely, by the imperial armies; but, if he left the Deccan
for Kandahar he would lose the base of power he had spent so long in cultivat-
ing. Moreover, if he was far off in Kandahar fighting and Jahangir died, Shah
Jahan might miss his chance for the throne. His response, then, from his point
of view was a balanced one. He would delay and make time for himself by
spending the monsoon in Mandu, yet fend off the rage of his father with the
promise to Jahangir of proceeding later to the north. Shah Jahan must also have
seen through the ruse of the orders; they could have no other intent than to be a
subtle declaration of war upon him by his stepmother, who was clearly provok-
ing a seditious response on his part in order to secure her own place after
Jahangir's death. Shah Jahan must have come to see that this woman, with
whom he had so ably negotiated a favorable relationship early on in order to
impress and eventually eclipse Jahangir, was now negotiating to outclass him for
ends that were openly self-interested. Such a vision of Nur Jahan was the only
one possible given the evidence available to Shah Jahan.
Believing he knew who his enemy really was now, Shah Jahan tested his
power. Shortly after the confrontation with Jahangir over Kandahar, in the
summer of 1622, Shah Jahan forced the issue of ownership over some property
that belonged by right to Nur Jahan and Shahryar. Among the contested proper-
ties was the pargana of Dholpur, some miles to the southeast of Agra, which was
in a jagir assigned to Shahryar.103 Shah Jahan had petitioned for Dholpur for
himself and, anticipating that his request would be granted, had sent one of his
men, an Afghan named Darya Khan, with some assistants to take charge. In the
meantime, Nur Jahan had procured Dholpur for Shahryar, who had sent his
own men there. Upon arriving, then, Shah Jahan's men met Shahryar's and,
when the two sides clashed, many men from both camps were killed. Jahangir
was furious when he heard the news of the confrontation and sent a servant to
Shah Jahan to hear "the cause of this boldness."104 Because Shah Jahan was
deemed "unworthy of all the favours and cherishing I had bestowed on him,"
Jahangir ordered his son to behave more appropriately, to be content with the
property he already had, and to refrain from coming to wait on the emperor.105
As punishment for his insolence, and because it was clear that Shah Jahan
had no intention of ever proceeding to Kandahar, Jahangir now gave the appoint-
ment to the Kandahar expedition to his "fortunate son," Shahryar.106 This ap-
pointment must have been made at the instigation of Nur Jahan and was accom-
panied, as expected, by a raise in mansab for Shahryar to 12,000 zat and 8,000
suwar. Nur Jahan, however, though certainly happy at the turn of events, could
not have been their sole author. Shah Jahan was himself responsible for his part
in undermining the Mughal frontier policy at Kandahar and in deliberately
provoking the Dholpur clash. Nevertheless, his misguided judgment played
right into the hands of his stepmother, and she was able to make the very best of
the events as they were presented to her.
Jahangir now proceeded in managing the Kandahar affair as if the possibility
 Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627) 175

of Shah Jahan's taking up command in any manner were no longer at issue. He

continued to appoint new people to join the armies in the north, and in order to
alleviate some of the wartime expenses, he ordered his finance ministers to pay
the salaries of the men involved out of the northern jagirs of Shah Jahan, which
he had transferred to Shahryar. The reason for this action is not altogether clear,
especially when Jahangir immediately followed it with a blanket proposition to
Shah Jahan that he might take possession, as recompense, of almost any district
in the south that he desired: "An order was passed that the Subahs of Gujarat,
Malwa, the Deccan and Khandesh should be handed over to him (Khurram),
and he might take up a permanent residence wherever he might wish, and
employ himself in the administration of those regions."107 This order was fol-
lowed, however, by a repeat command that Shah Jahan send the requisitioned
troops from the south to help out where they were needed.108 If the reprimand
behind the confiscation of Shah Jahan's jagirs was redeemed by the granting of
new ones, then the halfhearted repetition of his request for reinforcements from
his third son was an equally futile and perhaps consciously hollow demand.
Jahangir, though he desperately wanted his son's good will and obedience, was
helpless now either to buy or to command them.
The Kandahar affair proceeded from here on of its own accord with the
result, however, that the city "fell again into the hands of Shah Abbas."109
Unaware of this, however, Jahangir, had been planning to send Abdullah Khan,
secretly sworn in allegiance to Shah Jahan, with some other men on to assist the
cause there. To help out he had decided to have the imperial treasury brought
from Agra to Lahore110 and had appointed Nur Jahan's brother, Asaf Khan, to be
in charge of the move.111 The decision to remove the treasury from Agra was
based either, as van den Broecke has argued, on the need for the wealth in
resolving the Kandahar affair,112 or as Delia Valle has argued, on Jahangir's
desire to keep it away from Shah Jahan,113 who was at that time moving toward
the city, having vowed to take decisive action against his father.
Whatever the motive, the issue of the Agra treasury served to crystallize
Jahangir's relationship with his son. He had until this time still harbored a secret
hope that Shah Jahan's rebellion was a temporary whim, that his third-born
really was still Baba Khurram and "my worthy son Shah Jahan."114 When he
realized, however, that Shah Jahan's intentions were now seriously seditious,
Jahangir christened him Bidaulat, "the wretch," and referred to him by this
name from then on. 115 Although at this time Jahangir was so sick that he could no
longer write his own memoirs, entrusting them to his faithful minister, Mutamid
Khan,116 he nevertheless continued his last, futile propitiations of his son as well
as his fairly clearheaded oversight of what was now the Agra affair. Civil war
loomed on the horizon, and Jahangir saw with ominous foreboding that he must
work to consolidate the empire that he had and prevent the internal forces
focused around his rebellious son from destroying the bonds of the immediate
union.
With the situation in Agra becoming critical, then, Jahangir turned his
attention from what he must have known was an impossible cause in Kandahar
to the more pressing familial concerns at home. Judging that the "momentous
176 NUR JAHAN

affair of Qandahar must now be postponed"117 and assuming, if he did not

already know, that Kandahar was to be lost to the Persians, Jahangir became
caught up in the incoming and increasingly depressing reports about Shah
Jahan. Itibar Khan sent news from Agra that Shah Jahan had left Mandu and
was on his way to the city. The prince had apparently heard that the treasury was
going to be removed and, "having let fall from his hand the reins of self-
control," decided to proceed and seize the wealth himself before it left Agra. Van
den Broecke and others have argued that Shah Jahan learned of the impending
removal of the treasury from none other than Asaf Khan, his father-in-law and
most ably connected supporter. Asaf Khan, the Dutchman continued, had sent
word to the prince that as soon as the store had left Agra, he "should rapidly
follow him [Asaf Khan] in the region between Agra and Delhi, and (there) he
would hand over the treasure to him."118 If van den Broecke was right, and if the
removal of the treasury from Agra was to keep it away from Shah Jahan, then to
have appointed Asaf Khan to oversee the operation was either a very stupid
move or a very brilliant one, designed deliberately to provoke the prince into
action.
Nevertheless, seeing that his son was on the move, Jahangir was himself
forced to act. At the beginning of February 1623, having urged another son,
Parviz, to assist, Jahangir marched out with his troops from Lahore toward
Agra. Reports from Itibar Khan continued to come in and, because Shah Jahan's
march on the city was becoming increasingly decisive, the ministers in Agra
decided that it was not advisable now to move the treasury, but instead to work
on "strengthening the towers and gates, and providing things necessary for the
defence of the fort."119 Asaf Khan, consistently intent on good appearances
despite what were clearly devious designs, also wrote a report to Jahangir, saying
that Shah Jahan had "torn off the veil of respect" and, as it was not safe to move
the treasury, was himself on his way to attend Jahangir.12°
Receiving reports that servants once faithful to him had gone over to Shah
Jahan's side, Jahangir moved to punish and disenfranchise them and called once
more for the help of his other son, Parviz. In the middle of February 1623, the
imperial army arrived at Nur Sarai, one of the way stations built by Nur Jahan,
and Jahangir received there the report that Shah Jahan had arrived at Fatehpur
Sikri near Agra in the hopes of catching the imperial army unawares. Shah Jahan
discovered, however, that intelligence moved quickly and that the gates of the
fort had already been closed to him: Itibar Khan had "fortified the castle (of
Agra) and put it into a state of defence, mounting all the guns in the arsenal on
the ramparts, and walling up all the gates."121 Being unable to confiscate the
treasury as hoped, he had his men loot and plunder valuables from the surround-
ing local houses.122
Rebuffed now after their unsuccessful attack and having failed to capture the
royal treasury, Shah Jahan and his men, after almost a month, turned away and
moved northward toward Delhi. He was resolved, said van den Broecke, "to
offer battle to his father."123 Hearing of this, and in a move that would have wide-
ranging repercussions, Jahangir placed Mahabat Khan, a trusted friend and
adviser, in charge of managing his affairs and of the army,124 and himself began
 Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627) 111

the advance down from the capital toward his son. Jahangir knew not only that
Shah Jahan had paid his men well, thereby ensuring their loyalty, but that many
who had formerly been the emperor's allies had gone over to the other side.125
Nevertheless, he proceeded southward from Delhi receiving reports all the time
as to the whereabouts of his son's advancing army: 126 an army that was, though
nominally under Shah Jahan's command, in reality led by Raja Bikramajit, or
Sundar, a fearsome brahman leader from Gujarat.
The decisive battle between Jahangir and Shah Jahan took place in the
neighborhood of Baluchpur on March 29, 1623. The day before, the tail end of
the imperial march under Baqir Khan had been attacked by the rebels, but
Baqir Khan had successfully turned the skirmish to the king's advantage. The
next day, under forces led partly (and ironically) by Asaf Khan,127 or alternately
Shahryar and Mahabat Khan,128 the imperial troops routed the rebels. In the
process they killed many of Shah Jahan's important commanders, including his
chief commander, Sundar. Those not killed turned in disgrace and ran from the
field until they came to Shah Jahan, himself stationed some distance from the
battle. 129 Jahangir, of course, was overjoyed at the victory, and the next day
received Sundar's head as a sign of rebel submission. "In consequence of his
[Sundar's] destruction," said Jahangir, "Bi-daulat did not gird his loins again."130
The emperor rewarded all those who had helped in the routing of the rebels and,
although Baqir Khan, Itibar Khan, Shahryar, and Mahabat Khan were among
those immediately honored, Asaf Khan, oddly, was not. 131
On April 10, 1623, the imperial party rested on the bank of the lake at
Fatehpur, postponing their pursuit of Shah Jahan until the arrival of Parviz.
Parviz came and as new news was received about the whereabouts of Shah
Jahan, in May Jahangir sent Parviz out "in pursuit to overthrow Bi-daulat." To
keep Parviz in line and to ensure military success, Jahangir appointed Asaf
Khan's staunch enemy, Mahabat Khan, to have the "reins of authority over the
powerful Prince, and (to be) the centre of the ordering of the victorious army."
The campaign's orders were to capture Shah Jahan alive, but if that did not
prove possible, they had the full permission of the court to kill him.132 With
Parviz and Mahabat Khan in pursuit of Shah Jahan, Jahangir was now free to
attend to other matters. He appointed Dawar Bakhsh, Khusrau's son, to the
government of Gujarat, with a mansab of 8,000 zat and 3,000 suwar, and placed
him under the tutelage of his now much aged maternal grandfather, Aziz Khan
Koka, as ataliq. Aziz Khan Koka then led the Dawar Bakhsh campaign directly
to Ahmedabad to recover successfully the suba of Gujarat; the Khankhanan was
to die there in Ahmedabad during the next year.133 Jahangir himself now pro-
ceeded to Ajmer to wait out the various campaigns, reaching it on May 9,
1623.134 As Prasad says, "There he had once resided to support Shah Jahan's
Mewar operations. There he now resided to support a campaign against him."135
About this time, Jahangir's own immediate family experienced some
changes. His mother, the charismatic and adventurous Hindu widow of Akbar,
Maryamuzzamani, died early in the summer of 1623 in Agra and was buried in a
tomb in Sikandra near her husband, Akbar. Maryamuzzamani had played an
important social role in Jahangir's life by hosting most of his family celebrations
178 NUR JAHAN

at her own home, and she had, in the larger arena, helped chart the role of
Mughal women in the newly expanding business of foreign trade.136 Though
Jahangir must have grieved immensely at her death, his notice of it in his
memoirs was very short, saying only that "I trust that Almighty God will en-
velop her in the ocean of His mercy."137 She was the last in the illustrious series of
parents to die in this period, and her death came, strangely, only four years
before Jahangir's own.
Also at this time, on September 4, 1623, a daughter was born to Ladli Begam
and Shahryar. The child's name has been given alternately as Arzani Begam,
Lardili Begam, and Wali Begam in the manuscripts, and Jahangir heralded her
birth by saying, "I hope that her advent will be propitious and blessed to this
State."138 Because Shahryar would die violently in the climactic and crisis-ridden
period around Jahangir's death, this girl would be the only known offspring of
the marriage, and because Ladli was not known to have married again, the baby
would be the only known grandchild of Nur Jahan. Since Nur Jahan and her
daughter spent the last years of their lives in Lahore and were buried together
there when they died, any true descendants of Nur Jahan are likely to have old
Lahori ties.
After his defeat at Baluchpur, Shah Jahan had retreated to Mandu in
Malwa.139 Hearing now of the advance of Parviz and Mahabat Khan, he marched
out toward them, but because his forces were light, he was easily subdued and,
in time, many of his key men deserted to Mahabat Khan. "Mahabat K. was
continually capturing, by messages and letters, the afflicted hearts of a number
of men who out of timidity and confusion had accompanied Bi-daulat." The
forces of Parviz, under the able guidance of the older general, continued in their
push to undermine the campaign of Shah Jahan,140 and as more and more of the
rebellious troops turned treacherously on their leader and came over to the
imperial side, Shah Jahan had to consolidate his base of power. He therefore, in
September of 1623, crossed the Narmada River and made for the fort of Asir, a
fort now under the rule of Mir Husamuddin, the husband of a cousin of his
wife's. It happened that the ruler was also the husband of a niece of Nur Jahan's,
and the queen wrote a letter to him strictly urging the following:

Beware, a thousand times beware, not to allow Bi-daulat and his men to come
near the fort, but strengthen the towers and gates, and do your duty, and do not
act in such a manner that the stain of a curse and ingratitude for favours should
fall on the honour or the forehead of a Sayyid.141

Mir Husamuddin did indeed strengthen the fort well, but when Shah Jahan
arrived he sent one of his attendants, a man named Sharifa, to seduce the ruler
into submission "by means of promises and threats." This Sharifa did and, by
the end of the assault, Mir Husamuddin had surrendered the fort of Asir with-
out resistance to Shah Jahan in return for a title and a sizable mansab.142 Shah
Jahan planned to use the fort as a retreat for himself and his family, but the post
did not, in fact, serve as a strategic center for very long.
Leaving Gopal Das, a Rajput, in charge of the fort, Shah Jahan took his
 Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627) 179

family and went to Burhanpur. Realizing that his retreat toward the Deccan had
seriously jeopardized and weakened his efforts in Gujarat, Shah Jahan now
tendered proposals of peace to Mahabat Khan. Through letters and messengers,
it became clear that Mahabat Khan would not grant peace until Shah Jahan
turned over the old Khankhanan, Abdur Rahim, "that head of deceivers who
was the ring-leader of trouble and sedition."143 Shah Jahan, who had imprisoned
the ever duplicitous Khankhanan himself, took him out of prison and made him
swear an oath of loyalty to the prince on the Quran. Then, taking him into the
women's palaces, Shah Jahan beseeched him to act sincerely on his behalf: "My
times are hard, and my position difficult; I make myself over to you, and make
you the guardian of my honour."144 The Khankhanan then left Shah Jahan's
camp, but before he got to the southern bank of the Narmada River where he
was to correspond in writing with Mahabat Khan, some imperial troops crossed
over the river at a point where the rebel commander Bairam Beg's men had been
careless. Bairam Beg's rebels could not repulse Parviz's men, and they scattered
in all directions, some deserting to Mahabat Khan. The Khankhanan, himself
finding confusion, then went over to Mahabat Khan's side and made his cause,
despite the pledge to Shah Jahan, with the imperial forces of Parviz.
With the virtual desertion of the Khankhanan, the flight of Bairam Beg and
his men, and the crossing of the Narmada River by the imperial side, Shah Jahan
lost all courage.145 In spite of heavy monsoon rains and flooded waterways every-
where, Shah Jahan "in a state of wretchedness" left Burhanpur and, in the
middle of September 1623, crossed the Tapti River to the south, going off from
there toward the Deccan. In the confusion, he was separated from some of his
men but pushed on with his family anyway despite the rains, leaving aside excess
baggage as each piece became too much to carry through the mud. Under orders
from Jahangir and Nur Jahan to persist, Parviz and Mahabat Khan then took up
pursuit of Shah Jahan and, reaching Burhanpur, they too crossed the Tapti.146
Shah Jahan moved as quickly as he could, and in October of 1623 he escaped
into Golconda, foreign territory happily outside the purview of Mughal rule.
Once there he could rest easily, as Mahabat Khan could not pursue him, and the
imperial forces, certainly weary now from their marches, returned to Burhanpur
to wait out the rains. Finally "at ease with regard to the affair of Bi-daulat,"
Jahangir proceeded in November of 1623 to Kashmir, where he could escape
"the heat of Hindustan" and pamper his badly broken constitution.147 Before
going, however, Jahangir appointed Asaf Khan as governor of Bengal stating as
he did so that he "had taken a great liking to his society . . . (and) regretted
separation from him."148
Now in the Deccan with his family and close associates, Shah Jahan began
making alliances with the Golconda government and the new English factories of
the south. While some of his former followers like Jagat Singh in the north were
seeking protection and patronage from Nur Jahan, Shah Jahan had procured the
firm alliances he wanted and had decided to move on. In mid-November, with
the help of Golconda officers, he marched northeast and entered Orissa.149 Al-
though he lost some of his men in the process of reentering Mughal territory,150
Shah Jahan found the conquest of Orissa relatively easy. The governor of the
180 NUR JAHAN

province, Ahmad Beg Khan, a cousin of Nur Jahan's, had been uninformed of
Shah Jahan's march and, when he finally heard of the prince's safe passage into
Orissa, "was struck with terror and leaving everything took to flight."151 Orissa's
treasures and many ministers falling thus to Shah Jahan, the prince went on
toward Barddhaman and wrote to Ibrahim Khan, Nur Jahan's uncle and at that
time still governor of Bengal, who was then in Dacca, that he wanted to hold
Bengal and would grant Ibrahim Khan any jagir in the country in return. Nur
Jahan's uncle rejected the offer, maintaining loyalty to the imperial throne, and
Shah Jahan proceeded to beseige and take Barddhaman and then move on to
Akbarnagar (Rajmahal) where Raja Man Singh had formerly built his strong-
hold.152
There, in the spring of 1624, Shah Jahan faced off against Ibrahim Khan,
who had fortified the area and substantially strengthened his troops. During the
battle of Rajmahal, both sides lost considerable men in the fighting that took
place there on the banks of the lower Ganges. Eventually, however, the tide
turned in the favor of Shah Jahan and his men, and Ibrahim Khan's forces, who
"disliked him, as their pay was in arrears,"153 began to desert him. Left with
relatively few men, Ibrahim Khan, brother of Asmat Begam, was attacked and
killed by the prince's forces on April 10, 1624, and all of his property and
holdings fell to Shah Jahan. 154 With the prince's victory at Rajmahal, the leading
nobles surrendered, and Shah Jahan now held Bengal and Orissa firmly in his
possession. He then successfully advanced to take Bihar and to swear the alle-
giance of its nobles to his cause. When he moved further on to take Oudh and
Allahabad, however, he was at last checked by the counteradvance of the impe-
rial forces. Parviz and Mahabat Khan had, it seems, at the news of Shah Jahan's
successes, set off for Allahabad in March of 1624 and there again on the banks of
the Ganges engaged in heavy skirmishes with the prince, during which the son
and grandson of the old Khankhanan were killed. In time, Shah Jahan was
beaten back from Allahabad and fled with his men to Orissa.155
Parviz and Mahabat Khan had, meanwhile, secured alliances with the king
of Bijapur in the Deccan. This had left Malik Amber, of rivaling Ahmadnagar,
with no one to support, ironically, but Shah Jahan. Malik Amber, however, was
greedy on his own behalf after receiving back tribute from Qutbulmulk, and set
out in seige upon Bijapur. In spite of imperial reinforcements on the other side
there, he was able to make substantial headway against the Mughal alliances.
When Shah Jahan, who had passed quickly back through Orissa and Telingana,
arrived in Golconda, he was welcomed by Amber and, on "the basis of common
enmity to the Imperial government," the two former enemies then laid seige
together to Burhanpur. 156 The joint assaults might have succeeded had not Parviz
and Mahabat Khan arrived with substantial forces and had not Shah Jahan fallen
seriously ill.
Assessing his strengths and realizing that his cause was futile, Shah Jahan
now saw the "error of his conduct . . . and . . . felt that he must beg forgiveness
of his father for his offenses."157 So he wrote a letter to Jahangir, who had
returned to Lahore from Kashmir, "expressing his sorrow and repentance, and
begging pardon for all faults past and present."158 At the instance of Nur Jahan,
 Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627) 181

Jahangir replied in March of 1626 that if Shah Jahan surrendered Rohtas and the
fort of Asir and sent his sons Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb to court, he would
give him full forgiveness and the province of Balaghat. Shah Jahan felt he had no
other choice but to comply, so he made arrangements for the surrender of
Rohtas and Asir, sent his two sons to court, and proceeded with his wife and
youngest son, Murad, to Nasik near the coast.159 Thus with this pardon, Shah
Jahan's civil war against his father ended. It had lasted over three years, cost
millions of rupees and thousands of lives, and left in its wake an empire deeply
broken along its borders in Afghanistan and in the Deccan. Shah Jahan was now
to remain in exile in the Deccan for most of the time until his father's death in
October of 1627.
Nur Jahan's role in the events of Shah Jahan's rebellion are probably much
greater than contemporary texts reveal. She was certainly instrumental, first, in
sending Shah Jahan to the Deccan in 1621 and, thus, in setting up the context
for Khusrau's murder.160 Although she had nothing to do with Shah Abbas's
seige of Kandahar, it afforded her, second, an excellent opportunity for putting
Shah Jahan in a position that would push him into seditious activity—a position
Shah Jahan saw as one of her own design.161
Third, the clash over thejagir of Dholpur was undoubtedly a setup by Nur
Jahan who, in her efforts on behalf of Shahryar, had been more persuasive with
Jahangir than Shah Jahan over whom should finally be given the rights to the
jagir.162 Nur Jahan had also had, no doubt, a decided hand in the appointment of
Shahryar to the ill-fated Kandahar expedition, and in the confiscation of Shah
Jahan's northern jagirs for her new son-in-law. Fourth, in removing the treasury
from Agra and in deciding whom to put in charge of the operation, Jahangir was
clearly swayed by Nur Jahan. To entrust Asaf Khan with the task meant either
that the queen was on good terms with her brother again and hoped to cement
family loyalties in the act or, more probably, that being in certain collusion with
Shah Jahan, Asaf Khan's obvious presence in Agra would draw the rebellious
stepson out into the open.163
Fifth, although the appointment of Parviz to head the pursuit party of Shah
Jahan in the wake of the battle of Baluchpur did not further the Shahryar cause,
it did continue to deepen the divisions between the rebel prince and Jahangir's
other sons, thus undermining the power behind Shah Jahan's eventual bid for
the throne. Consistent with the divide and conquer strategy, the appointment of
Mahabat Khan, made certainly with Nur Jahan's approval, set his staunch
enemy, Asaf Khan, at odds with the imperial cause. Asaf Khan's deep loyalties
to Shah Jahan were openly known to Nur Jahan and the designation of his
enemy as the official general overseeing the pursuit of his protege undoubtedly
tested his public show of allegiance to the crown. Finally, Shah Jahan's defeat
and surrender at Burhanpur must have been joyful news to Nur Jahan, and his
subsequent pardon at her hands a bitter turn for him. 164 To be in a position to
pardon her erstwhile colleague while thus compounding the pain of his submis-
sion was all Nur Jahan could have hoped for from the lengthy struggle, which
was, more than anything else, a contest of nerves. For Shah Jahan the pardon
made the humiliation complete, and he refused to return to court not so much
182 NUR JAHAN

because "he was ashamed to see a father whom he had so much injured," but
because "he was actually afraid of the machinations of the favourite Sultana."165
While Nur Jahan could be openly supportive of Shahryar, the other courtly
partisan, Asaf Khan, had to be more covert in his loyalties. Although he could
remain quietly consistent in his allegiance to Shah Jahan, in order to ensure his
family's stable goodwill in the eyes of the throne, he had to give lavish and public
support to Jahangir. On the one hand, then, Asaf Khan was often in a position of
advantage for Shah Jahan: in urging Jahangir to send Khusrau to the Deccan
with him,166 or in passing on intelligence to him while in Agra concerning the
removal of the treasury,167 or in commandeering a sensitive position in Bengal.168
But Asaf Khan had to play a game of balance, for as Delia Valle suggested of the
Agra affair, "the King still entrusts him [Asaf Khan], and consequently either he
is not in fault, or ... his fault is not yet known."169 Clearly Asaf Khan had to
make sure that the latter condition prevailed and, to this end, worked extremely
hard at a "suave game of diplomacy"170 to keep Jahangir convinced of his good
faith and free of all suspicion.
Asaf Khan's efforts at court, then, were critical and, as evidence of his great
success in duping the emperor, were his continued raises in mansab,171 his official
reports to Jahangir about the doings of his rebel son "the wretch [who] had torn
off the veil of respect,"172 and his general acts of courtly obeisance.173 His excel-
lence in deception probably went only so far as the emperor, however, for van
den Broecke reported that Itibar Khan, during the maneuvers in Agra, "did not
wish to entrust the royal treasure to Asaf Khan" and consequently went about
his work of compiling the treasury very slowly and deliberately so as to prevent,
in this delaying technique, any hasty action on the part of the queen's brother.174
In the end, the rebellion of Shah Jahan not only tested Asaf Khan's emotional
and diplomatic reserves of duplicity, but severely weakened his own position of
power. Not only was he rightly suspected by many to be double-dealing, but he
had risked his standing, and perhaps his life, on behalf of the expected, though
not necessarily secure, heir to the throne. If Shah Jahan had been killed in one of
the many skirmishes or if he proceeded to mishandle the accession bid when it
came, Asaf Khan's traitorous intentions would have been immediately acknowl-
edged, and he would have been fortunate to get away with only his life. His
public massaging of Jahangir, then, was crucial and so was his increasing inclina-
tion to disengage himself from open scrutiny and to stand aloof from the court.
In the end, we know, the queen's brother was very lucky.
As it happens, the surrender and ruin of Shah Jahan crystallized the realign-
ment of loyalties that had resulted from the slow but certain breakup of the
junta. By the spring of 1626, each of the remaining sons of Jahangir sat in the
camp of a crucially placed and actively patronizing benefactor. Parviz (b. 1589),
the eldest surviving son, was championed by the able general Mahabat Khan,
and old and trusted wartime colleague of Jahangir's from before the time of the
emperor's own accession to the throne. Shah Jahan (b. 1592), the favorite grand-
son of Akbar and by ability the expected heir to the throne, was championed by
his father-in-law, Asaf Khan, who was, at the end, well placed at the court as
vakil. This appointment, made in mid-1626 in the wake of the rebellion of
 Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627) 183

Mahabat Khan, was due primarily to the administrative gifts of his father and to
the charismatic charms of his sister, but as well, of course, to his own consider-
able courtly ways. Shahryar (b. 1605), the youngest surviving son and the one of
most meager ability, was championed by Nur Jahan. Although least likely to
succeed militarily if given the chance, Shahryar's patron was the most advanta-
geously placed at court and the most well-suited to manipulating the lines of
power. At this point, however, none of the three sons was the obvious heir to the
crown.
The breakup of the junta, so visibly played out in Shah Jahan's rebellion
(1622-26), brought a decided shift in the working habits of Nur Jahan. Until the
death of her father Itimaduddaula, Nur Jahan, though certainly the craftiest of
the operators in the main palace, had submitted nevertheless to the accepted
code of courtly decorum which encouraged good manners, high entertainment,
and above all cooperation. With the deaths of both her parents, the failure of her
preferred marriage negotiations, and the increasing autonomy of her erstwhile
protege, however, the oil in the machinery dried up and the delicately crafted
bonds of the junta fell apart. Despite the seeming indivisibility of the junta as a
family clique,175 the hidden grievances and budding ambitions of the early years
had finally become full-blown as Nur Jahan entered the second half of her rule.
With the dislocation of old loyalties, then, Nur Jahan had to rework the
sources of her considerable power. Jahangir's growing incapacity had left her
with greater total authority and the death of her father had left her with greater
total wealth. This authority and wealth, coupled with her virtually complete
isolation—now without her father, her husband, and her stepson—could have
set Nur Jahan seriously and dangerously adrift. Instead of succumbing to paraly-
sis, however, Nur Jahan used increasingly overt tactics to consolidate her re-
sources at court and, in the vacuum that was left behind by the loss of the junta,
to create at least the semblance of a strong sovereignty. In doing this, Nur Jahan
strained at the boundaries of the roles usually allotted to women of place and,
because she had to, did things ordinarily done by men. Said Dow:

Her abilities were uncommon; for she rendered herself absolute, in a govern-
ment in which women are thought incapable of bearing any part. Their power,
it is true, is sometimes exerted in the harem; but, like the virtues of the magnet,
it is silent and unperceived. Noor-Jehan stood forth in public; she broke
through all restraints and custom, and acquired power by her own address,
more than by the weakness of Jehangire.176

The shift in power, then, served on the one hand to intensify old traits like her
desire to survive at all costs, her greed, and her manipulative charm. It also,
however, allowed new skills in policy-making to emerge, without which the
substantial developments in trade, religion, and art so central to the period
might not ever have taken place.
 8

Nurjahan and Religious Policy

I cannot forget that memorable pietie, when at Asmere hee went afoot to the
tombe of the prophet Hod. Mundin there buried, and kindling a fire with
his ownc hands and his Normahal under that immense . . . brasse-pot, and
made kitcherie for five thousand poore, taking out the first platter with his
owne hands and serving one; Normahal the second.
Coryat in Foster, Early Travels in India, edited by William Foster

By reputation, Nur Jahan was not an especially religious woman, but like
Jahangir she was fond of charitable acts. Whether her charity was the result of
her own generous benevolence or of her intuitions about policy best befitting the
government may not ever be clear, but it is apparent that she took a decided
interest in religious matters at the court, both by way of the administration and
of the functionaries who appeared before her from time to time. What is crucial
to discern here is the nature of the influence she exerted over Jahangir: was she
responsible, for example, for an increasing religious conservatism in the regime,
for a movement away from her father-in-law Akbar's universalist sentiment to a
more narrow, exclusivistic view consonant with her Shia background? Or did
she exercise a somewhat liberal influence, judging that as a minority she and her
fellow coreligionists would benefit more from a tolerant, open-ended policy?
Surprisingly, her influence may have generated more flexibility at court than
confinement, and yet whatever specific configuration it took, we can be sure it
accommodated, or at least expertly complemented, Jahangir's own view and
treatment of religion. Moreover, not only may Nur Jahan have weighed precipi-
tously on Jahangir's judgment of a number of religious matters, but his affinity
for her may have been patterned by certain religious structures of his own that
had had a strong hold on him since youth and that provided a neat and fitting
mold for her own personality in the later years of his life. In a sense, then, Nur
Jahan's influence on the development of religious policy was a function of the
way in which Jahangir himself was religious, and his vision proved to be a
variegated and often contradictory meld, which derived as much from his rela-
tion to his father as from the cultural assortment of his surroundings.
184
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 185

Jahangir's religious vision was characterized by three pervasive patterns of tem-

perament. First, he had a predilection for holding onto forms that were already
established, in this way structuring both his seasonal life and his sense of place
within the family tradition: for example, the yearly festival of Nauroz, introduced
in 1582 by Akbar in imitation of the Persian custom;1 the reverence of Shaikh
Muinuddin Chishti by regular visits to his tomb in Ajmer; the weighing ceremo-
nies on Jahangir's solar and lunar birthdays at which he would pass out the
proceeds to the local poor; the policy of open admission for almost any religious to
his court in preservation of Akbar's provisions for religious tolerance; and his
veneration of the sun, as clear symbol of power and visibility, which though it
became preeminent in his own reign was, in fact, a holdover from his father's. All
these practices helped to legitimize Jahangir's administration by pinning it up
with religious forms from the past and by providing Jahangir himself with some
sense, at least early on, of the religious direction he ought to take.
Second, Jahangir's own interest in religion was less theologically and philo-
sophically informed, and much more aesthetically inclined. What pleased him
and kept his attention in religious matters was form and form, more than any-
thing else, that he could see. When he visited the Jami mosque in Mandu in the
winter of 1617, for example, what appealed to him most was not what he felt or
thought but what he observed: "A very lofty building came to view, all of cut
stone, and although 180 years have passed since the time of its building, it is as if
the builder had just withdrawn his hand from it."2 In the winter of 1619 he
visited the tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti at Fatehpur Sikri, and after recounting
the circumstances of the shaikh's death, Jahangir gave at length the dimensions
of the gateways, the domes, the verandas, and the cells, and said of the lamps on
holy days that "they are enveloped in coloured cloths, so that they look like
lampshades."3 And again, we have an account of Jahangir as he listened to the
Jesuit fathers debate Muslim scholars on the significance of religious matters
raised by paintings that had been brought to court. Said Guerreiro: "The occa-
sion arose out of the pleasure which the King took in looking at the coloured
pictures of sacred subjects which the Fathers, knowing his interest in these
things, had presented to him."4
Finally, the religious quest of Jahangir—not apparent to any, not even to
himself, until just about the middle of his reign—revolved in many ways around
his unspent feelings of both admiration and inadequacy before his father. What-
ever the pattern that emerged as Jahangir's own religious vision, it came, in part,
out of an internal battle with his father's image. Jahangir's history with his
father, at least in Akbar's later years, had been one of insurrection and murder:
the death of Abul Fazl at the hands of Salim's henchmen had occurred during
the years of his independent court at Allahabad, and with it Jahangir had vio-
lated, almost irreparably, the trust invested in him by his father for future
sovereignty. The guilt and remorse Jahangir felt over his behavior during the
years from 1600 to 1604 had become even more intolerable, however, in the face
of his father's unquestionable greatness.
186 NUR JAHAN

There is no doubt that Jahangir admired Akbar to an extraordinary degree.

As a part of the opening remarks of the Tuzuk, he lionized his father's appear-
ance saying, "the glory of God manifested itself in him."5 Of his father's char-
acter, however, he made only one point: that he was illiterate. By way of an
offhand compliment, he proclaimed that his father had conversed so often with
learned men "that no one knew him to be illiterate,"6 but to Jahangir this lack of
book learning was crucial. Whatever his own feelings of inferiority before the
greatness of his father, they paled in the knowledge that his father was flawed.
And to announce it now, at the beginning of his own reign, was to prepare the
way, by some form of negative magic, for the rule of what he hoped would be his
own unsurpassed administration. It was partly out of this contradictory tie to
Akbar, then—out of the need to vanquish and to please him, to win over him
and to win him over—that Jahangir's religious views developed, and no one
knew that change was coming until the turmoil began to erupt around the
middle of his reign [see chart, Figure 8-3].
Against these patterns of temperament, Jahangir's view of Islam appeared to
range from fervent veneration of the saints to open contempt for the interference
of Muslim scholars in his government. Some claim that Jahangir had come into
power in large measure because of the support he received from the newly
emergent Naqshbandi silsila and especially from the Sufi activist Shaikh Ahmad
Sirhindi (1564-1624) and those nobles in Akbar's court he had won to his side
through letters. Men such as the Murtaza Khan Shaikh Farid Bukhari (d. 1616),
Abdur Rahim Khankhanan, and Mirza Aziz Koka Khan-i Azam were all benefi-
ciaries of Sirhindi's correspondence, and some, like Nizami, claim "that in the
later years of Akbar's reign, under the influence of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, a
definite ideological cleavage had developed between Akbar and his nobles."7
This cleavage8 pitted the supporters of Khusrau against those of Jahangir and,
given the substantial honors and presents bestowed on Naqshbandi adherents
just after Jahangir's accession—on Shaikh Farid Bukhari, 9 Abdur Rahim,10 Qulij
Khan, 11 and Khwaja Abdullah, 12 for example, it is argued that Jahangir was
beholden in some way to this religious faction for the throne. In support of this,
Nizami mentions the account of Shaikh Husain Jami, a disciple of "the dervish
of Shiraz," who had written to Jahangir from Lahore to tell him of a dream in
which he had seen that "saints and pious men had delivered over the affairs of
the kingdom to that chosen one of the Court of Allah (Jahangir)." 13 Appended to
this account came a petition to pardon the faults of one Khwaja Zakariya, a
Naqshbandi who was in disgrace—a petition that Jahangir, in fact, did grant. 14
And then there is the claim by the Jesuits Du Jarric15 and Guerreiro16 that
Jahangir made a commitment upon his accession to orthodox Muslim leaders to
uphold and encourage the practice of Islam. The first passage of Du Jarric's,
especially, suggested that a bargain was reached with those who might have
supported Khusrau 17 —said to have been pro-Christian anyway 18 —to withdraw
their support and throw it to Jahangir in return for a pledge of loyalty on his part
to uphold orthodox Islam. We know in fact that two of the early correspondees
of Sirhindi, Mirza Aziz Koka, father-in-law to Khusrau, and Abdur Rahim,
were involved in pro-Khusrau activity, the former before Jahangir's accession19
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 187

and the latter in Khusrau's revolt of 1606, for which he was severely punished
by Jahangir when the revolt failed.20 (Ironically, and perhaps by some shrewd
design of Jahangir's, it was Shaikh Farid Bukhari who was placed in charge of
the imperial forces of 1606 that were sent in successful pursuit of Khusrau. 21 )
Some sort of pact with the Naqshbandi's upon his accession, then, may well
have taken place,22 primarily to ease his worries (unsuccessfully as it turned out)
about the threat of any renewed Khusrau activity. And his honoring of these
Naqshbandi associates in 1605 could then have been as much a genuine gesture
of appreciation for past services as an expected guarantee of future political
harmony.
Jahangir, however, was not one to tie himself inflexibly to any one religious
institution or group, and his post-accession honors showed that he saw himself
as equally beholden to the non-Khusrau supporting family of Shaikh Salim, the
most recent luminary of the much older Chishti silsila. The Sufi lineage of the
Chishtis had had long ties to the Mughal family and Chishti saints had been
venerated in the imperial household from the time of Babur.23 Shaikh Salim
Chishti held an especially important place in Chishti hagiography for the
Mughals because once, when in the pursuit of the blessing of sons, Akbar had
made a foot pilgrimage to Ajmer to visit the tomb of Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti
and had happened to visit Shaikh Salim in "his abode on a hill near Sikri."24
Shaikh Salim had correctly prophesied that Akbar would have three sons and in
gratitude Akbar had named the first of these sons (in 1569) after the illustrious
Sufi and had moved his capital to the shaikh's village of Sikri. Named Fatehpur
Sikri, this city did not last long as a central pivot of Akbar's reign, primarily
because of water problems,25 but Shaikh Salim Chishti's (d. 1572) tomb had
been built there by Akbar and remained a pilgrimage place for members of the
Mughal family.26 Jahangir had been tied thus from birth to Shaikh Salim had
grown up thereafter in the company of many of the shaikh's descendants.27
Akbar himself had promoted Shaikh Ahmad, the son of Shaikh Salim, and
had patronized as well a nephew of the shaikh, Shaikh Ibrahim. 28 In the years
just before he died, the emperor had also promoted Shaikh Bayazid Muazzam
Khan, a grandson of the shaikh, to a mansab of 2,000. 29 Bayazid's mother had
been the "first person who gave me [Jahangir] milk, but for not more than a
day" and, tied thus to Bayazid as a foster brother, Jahangir continued to promote
him during his own reign.30 Jahangir also promoted as part of his accession gifts
Shaikh Kabir, another member "of the family of the venerable Shaikh Salim,"
whom he had honored with the title of Shajaat Khan while still a prince "on
account of his manliness and bravery." Now he gave him the rank of 1,000.31
And he gave another grandson of the shaikh, Shaikh Alauddin, "who had strong
connections with me," the title of Islam Khan and the rank of 2,000.32
Most dear to Jahangir, however, was a son of Shaikh Salim's daughter,33 a man
named Qutbuddin Khan Koka, who was destined to play a crucial, if ambiguous,
role in the legends of the early Nur Jahan. Qutbuddin's mother had nursed
Jahangir as an infant, making the two boys foster brothers, and on her death in
1606 Jahangir celebrated her by saying: "I have not so much affection for my own
mother as for her. She is to me my gracious mother, and I do not hold him
188 NUR JAHAN

[Qutbuddin] less dear than my own brothers and children." Jahangir was much
attached to her son, who was "the foster-brother . . . most fit for fosterage,"34 and
promoted him grandly at the beginning of his reign.35 One of his promotions was
to the subadar-ship of Bengal, and it was there at Barddhaman that Qutbuddin
had died in the fray with Sher Afgan. 36 Qutbuddin's role in Sher Afgan's death
would come back to haunt the family of Shaikh Salim Chishti, for scholars like
Husain are of the opinion that Nur Jahan did not easily forget Qutbuddin's hand
in the slaying of her first husband and because of this systematically shut out
others of the Shaikh Salim family from promotion in the years that were to come.37
The bonds cemented at Jahangir's accession did not pull him toward one
Muslim group or another, and it seems quite clear that he was determined to
remain a mainstream Muslim, eclectic and antinomian to be sure, and that he
intended his reign and its symbols to be bearers of the truth of Islam here on
earth. While he was not fond of Islamic leaders or institutions transgressing the
boundaries of his political rule,38 he did manage to maintain the general Muslim
organization of his father's administration.39 He encouraged converts to Islam40
but prohibited conversions into the faith from being forced. 41 He consorted with
any number of religious teachers from different Muslim sects,42 but he moved
against those (like the Afghan Shaikh Ibrahim Baba43 or Shaikh Ahmad
Sirhindi44) who he felt were speaking out of turn or accumulating too much
power. He celebrated Muslim festivals like Ramadan45 and the Ramadan id,46 the
Muharram, 47 and the Shab-i Barat,48 and observed dietary restrictions consonant
with Islam.49 He visited mosques,50 tombs of Muslim saints,51 and tombs of his
own ancestors as acts of religious and aesthetic veneration,52 and he had the
Quran translated "into plain language without ornament," saying that the new
version should be in a "simple language (lughat-i-rikhta) [done] word by word
into Persian."53 He took pains in his memoirs to note the types of Islam in
Kashmir,54 and he held assemblies for mystical dancing and singing55 as the
ultimate in Muslim religiosity.
Jahangir was most involved, however, in the friendship and patronage of
Muslim dervishes. He was fond of the company of these men and often gave
them money,56 watched them dance in ecstatic religious ceremonies,57 and con-
versed with them on theological matters. 58 His spiritual ties to them were
summed up in the following hope for transferred religious merit: "I walked
round . . . in this neighbourhood, with the idea that I might see some faqirs
from association with whom I might obtain grace."59 He sent verses he himself
composed along with some money to a dervish in Transoxiana, one Khwaja
Hashim, who had written to him reaffirming his alliance to the Mughal family,60
and he took interest in the condition of a certain "Miyan Shaikh Muhammad
Mir by name," whose spirit he finally judged to be "too high" for the gift of
money, so he left him, after an interview, with "the skin of a white antelope to
pray upon."61 Finally, Jahangir, urged on by his "truth-seeking mind," sum-
moned holy man Qazi Nasir of Burhanpur to court but finding, apparently, that
although the dervish was well-read, he preferred to be alone, "I respected his
feelings, and did not give him the trouble of serving me."62
Jahangir's personal religious feelings, however, were tied to no figure more
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 189

than to Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti, the founder of the Chishti silsila in India
and an object of veneration in the Mughal family for generations. Jahangir
opened his memoirs with a tribute to the Sufi, calling him "the fountainhead of
most of the saints of India,"53 and in late 1608 he recalled his father's pilgrimage
with Maryamuzzamani to Muinuddin's shrine in hopes of sons by making his
own pilgrimage to Akbar's tomb in Sikandra.64 Further, he supported Khwaja
Husain, a descendant of Muinuddin's, who had been persecuted by Akbar at the
instigation of his rival Abul Fazl,65 and in 1610 Jahangir gave Khwaja Husain Rs.
1,000 "as was usual for the half-year."66 Finally, in early 1611, he dedicated a
blue bull (nilgau) caught on a hunt to the soul of Khwaja Muinuddin, its flesh to
be given "to eat to poor people."67
In the fall of 1613 Jahangir moved his court from Agra to Ajmer in order better
to oversee Khurram's Mewar campaign against some local Rajput chieftains.68 He
eventually stayed in the town for three years, from November 1613 to November
1616,69 and there took advantage of being close to Muinuddin's shrine, "from the
blessing of whose illustrious soul great advantage had been derived by this digni-
fied family."70 By his own count he visited Muinuddin's mausoleum nine times
during his three-year stay in Ajmer, 71 and during that time he had a large caldron
made in Agra to be used in ritual ceremonies held at the khwaja's shrine [see
Figure 8-1]. On the first occasion of its use, Jahangir said:

On this day it was brought, and I ordered them to cook food for the poor in that
pot, and collect together the poor of Ajmir to feed them whilst I was there. Five
thousand people assembled, and all ate of this food to their fill. After the food I
gave money to each of the dervishes with my own hand. 72

One such festival during these same years, and perhaps the very one noted
above, was observed by Coryat and in his description he marveled that the
emperor performed so much of the ritual himself:

[Jahangir] went afoot to the tombe of the prophet Hod. Mundin there buried
[in Ajmer], and kindling a fire with his owne hands and his Normahal under
that immense and Heidelbergian—aequipollent brasse-pot, and made kitcherie
for five thousand poore, taking out the first platter with his owne hands and
serving one; Normahal the second; and so his ladies all the rest. 73

During the three years in Ajmer, Jahangir buried a Naqib Khan and his wife and
a Mirza Ali Beg in Muinuddin's mausoleum as these servants of his had devel-
oped a great affection for the saint. 74 In the summer of 1614, he went himself to
the shrine to pray for personal restitution from an illness that was marked by an
excessive fever and headache.75 When he recovered, he bored holes in his ears for
pearl earrings in thanksgiving to Muinuddin for his new health; this action
placed him among the saint's "ear-marked slaves" and started a custom that
would be imitated by his retainers far and wide.76 In the summer of 1615, he
went to the Ajmer shrine at night on the anniversary of Muinuddin and stayed
there until midnight with the attendants and Sufis who were in "ecstatic
FIGURE 8-1. "Jahangir Dispensing Food at Ajmer." Indian painting; Mughal, ca.
1614. Painting on paper: 31.8 x 20.8 cm. Courtesy of the Trustees of the Prince of
Wales Museum of Western India, Bombay (29.6257). Not to be reproduced without
prior permission of the Trustees.

190
 Nur Jahan and Religious Policy 191

states,"77 and in the summer of 1616 he placed a gold railing with latticework at
Muinuddin's tomb for the cost of Rs. 110,000.78 When Jahangir left Ajmer in
November of 1616 for Mandu (to be even closer to the still-advancing Mewar
campaign),79 he paid tribute to Ajmer as being of a favorable climate and "the
place of the blessed tomb of the revered Khwaja Muinu-d-din."80 After this he
did not record ever going back to Muinuddin's tomb, although he did visit the
tomb of the Chishti saint, Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya, in Delhi in 1619.81 The
year 1616, then, seems to mark the end of his direct attention to the esteemed
saint of Ajmer.
While it is possible that Jahangir did occasionally stop at Muinuddin's tomb
in later years to honor the man who for so long had been his patron saint, he left
no record of such in his own hand. Moreover, the years just after the Ajmer stay,
especially 1618 to 1619 [see Figure 8-3] appear to mark a profound change in
the religious sensibilities of Jahangir, and the veneration of Muinuddin, as an
inherited, although obviously sincere and heartfelt, practice may have fallen
away as Jahangir moved from the religious forms of his family's past generations
to ones more authentically his own.
One of the policies inherited by Jahangir from his father was that of religious
tolerance. According to Jahangir, Akbar "associated with the good of every race
and creed and persuasion, and was gracious to all in accordance with their
condition and understanding."82 Though some have said that Jahangir came to
the throne substantially more orthodox than his father and liberalized only later
on,83 Jahangir's long opening section to the Tuzuk seems clearly to lay the ground
for the continuation of his father's tolerant policies from the very beginning. Roe
noted that Jahangir wanted it said of him: "Christians, Moores, lewes, hee
meddled not with their faith: they Came all in loue and he would protect them
from wrong: they liued vnder his safety and none should oppresse them."84 And,
Terry as well found that under Jahangir "all religions are tolerated . . . [and]
that a man might be happy and safe in the profession of any religion."85 That
Jahangir was both openly tolerant in his policy toward his subjects' practice of
religion and equally open-minded in his own views on religion is clear. While
some, like Das, have questioned how deeply Jahangir reflected on universal
religious issues and how well formulated his own thinking on spiritual matters
was, there is agreement at least that while the specifics of his personal preference
in religion may have been vague, there was no "systematic hostility" toward any
tradition during his reign.86
Against the background of such a general policy of religious tolerance,
Jahangir's response to Hinduism, the religion of his mother, seven of his wives,
his subjects, and many of his courtiers, was a mix of curiosity, admiration, and
occasional vehemence. Much of the early part of his reign was taken up in
observing the Hindu tradition and patronizing its holy men. Just after his acces-
sion in 1605, for example, he argued with Hindu pandits about the relation
between a high god and the phenomenal forms through which it must be
known,87 and in 1607 he noted having walked around a worshipping place of the
yogis in the hopes of receiving grace from them.88 In 1613 he was able to give a
detailed account of the Hindu caste system,89 and in early 1617 of some of the
192 NUR JAHAN

Hindu samskaras, in particular that of initiation for young boys (upanayand).90

And he always seemed to have been charitable to the brahman priests and sadhus
he met on the road,91 and to have remembered Hindu festivals like Holi, Divali,92
Shivaratri, and the reverence of the ancestors.93 Bernier noted, finally, that it
"was on account of the scarcity of cattle that Jehan-Guyre, at the request of the
Brahmens; issued an edict to forbid the killing of beasts of pasture for a certain
number of years."94
Jahangir was not always kind to Hindu practice, however, and erupted once
unexpectedly at a temple dedicated to Vishnu. In 1614, while walking around
the temple grounds, he came upon "a form cut out of black stone, which from
the neck above was in the shape of a pig's head, and the rest of the body was like
that of a man." Disgusted by this image of Varaha, the boar incarnation of
Vishnu, Jahangir began to rile against the "worthless religion of the Hindus,"95
and like a good Muslim and consistent with his earlier discussion with the
pandits,96 he went on to denounce the religion in which "the Supreme Ruler
thought it necessary to show himself in this shape." Ever wary thus of idolatry,
Jahangir then had "that hideous form" broken up and thrown into the tank.
Seeing further that there was a white domed structure on a hill nearby where
devotees flocked to visit a resident yogi, Jahangir, unable to control his anger
when he heard that part of the worship was to put flour in the mouth and to
"imitate the cry of an animal," had the building broken down, the yogi turned
out, and the image inside destroyed.97
Oddly consistent with the aesthetic dimensions of his character, however,
Jahangir then inspected the building to confirm or deny the rumor that it had no
bottom. The building did have a bottom, however, and being Jahangir, he
measured it. 98 This incident, sadly prophetic of Shah Jahan's later destruction of
Hindu idols and temples,99 was indicative less of Jahangir's disdain for Hindu
practice—of which, in fact, there seems to have been very little—and more of
his easily offended aesthetic nature. His main criticism of Hinduism was its
idolatry,100 and his main criticism of idolatry was not a theological abhorrence of
giving the unknowable form, but a visual repulsion at the specific form this
particular phenomenalization took. Unable to bear what didn't please his eyes,
Jahangir destroyed, but in the act of this destruction, he unwittingly upheld the
iconoclasm of the faith of his forefathers.
In 1617, however, Jahangir's seemingly incompatible relationship with the
Hindu tradition changed radically, for at the beginning of that year he began a
series of interviews with a Hindu sannyasi named Gosain Jadrup that lasted over
two years and which profoundly altered his view of the religion. In these
interviews—in the winter of 1617,101 the fall of 1618,102 and the fall of 1619103—
Jahangir established an unusual rapport with the saint of whom he said, "he
spoke well, so much so as to make a great impression on me. My society also
suited him."104 Akbar himself had known of Jadrup, and it was from his father,
apparently, that Jahangir's appreciation of the sannyasi had first begun. Jahangir
didn't actually meet Jadrup, however, until 1617 and found him then having
"retired from the city of Ujjain to a corner of the desert . . . [to employ] himself
in the worship of the true God." Jahangir reported that Jadrup at that time lived
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 193

in a hole in the side of a hill whose entrance was so small that it was difficult even
for a very thin person to use. Jadrup, apparently, bathed twice a day and went
once a day into Ujjain for alms where, Jahangir said, he accepted five mouthfuls
of food which he swallowed without chewing.105
The two conversed for long periods at a time during these two years, usually
"in the retirement of his cell"106 [see Figure 8-2], and from Jadrup Jahangir
learned much of what he reported on Hindu caste, family custom, and ritual. By
Jahangir's own accounting, Jadrup had "thoroughly mastered the science of the
Vedanta" but how much of "the science of Sufism"—which Jahangir claimed
was the same as Vedanta—Jadrup knew is not clear.107 Jahangir's attraction to
Jadrup was probably not due strictly to doctrine anyway, however, but rather to
some lived spiritual ideal he perceived in the saint. Jadrup had, in 1618, been an
ascetic living "in the garment of nakedness" for thirty-eight years, after taking
this vow against external attachments when he was twenty-two.108 Jahangir
clearly admired the sannyasi's tenacity and the consistency with which he main-
tained his austerities, as well as the modesty with which he taught, and it is fair
to say that Jadrup's appeal for the emperor lay primarily in his saintly posture
more than anything else. Jahangir's last account of the sannyasi, in fact, before
he said good-bye in 1619, was of Jadrup's temperament: "[a man whose] heart
[was] free from the attachments of the world."109 The hedonistic and sensuous
emperor, then, had found a spiritual comrade in someone who had put aside all
that he himself had claimed. Again, it seems that Jahangir's choice was an
aesthetic one: of a companion and mentor whose lifestyle was so authentically
stark and uncompromised that its cleanness far outstripped the beauty Jahangir
thought he had in his own colorful yet cluttered existence.
After the interviews with Jadrup, Jahangir's approach to Hinduism was sub-
stantially more open and forgiving. In 1620, for example, on the way to Kashmir,
he came across merchants from the apple-growing village of Baramula, but even
when he learned that their district was named for the boar incarnation of
Vishnu, 110 he showed none of the vehement disgust he had earlier during the
incident of the black Varaha image in Ajmer. Moreover, he continued to take an
interest in Hindu theories of men and women as well as in that culminating act of
marital unity, the creation of the sati,ul although in late 1620 he became so over-
come by the practice of the sati and of female infanticide among the Rajaur
women, who "ally themselves with Hindus," that he prohibited any such acts of
violence against women.112 He continued to extend kindnesses to holy men113 and
to converse with learned brahmans on issues of theology and Hindu custom,114 and
at the beginning of 1622, he became so fascinated with a sannyasi's powers of
renunciation and persistence that he had the man brought to court and tested,
successfully, with a drink of double-strength spirits.115
The most significant event of this period, however, and the one that most
aptly showed the change in Jahangir's response to Hindu practice, took place
again in early 1622. Jahangir had gone to visit a temple of Durga and, although
he spent some time in the Tuzuk riling against "the desert of error"—noting as
he did that crowds were made up of as many Muslims as Hindus, two things
marked a more lenient attitude toward the idol-worshipping that he saw. First,
FIGURE 8-2. "Jahangir Converses with Gosain Jadrup." ca. 1616-20. Courtesy of the
Musee Guimet (MG 7171; 71En 1900).

194
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 195

he himself was not moved to take any retaliatory action, such as the breaking up
of images or the casting out of infidels (although he did relate that others had
done it); and second, although he noted that the "Hindus, while knowing the
truth, deceive the common people," he treated this deceit as a human trait
common to all and not one reserved exclusively for Hindus. His new nonin-
trusive stance was perhaps best shown in his own conclusion to the narrative:
"But God only knows!"116
A similar change in attitude took place in Jahangir with regard to the Jains,
perhaps the most ambiguously treated of all religious groups under his rule.
Known best by the behavior of the baniyas, a merchant caste primarily in
Gujarat adhering to the principles of Jainism, this tradition was characterized by
foreign travelers primarily as one of nonviolence. The baniyas, said Terry, "are
the most tender hearted . . . of all that people," who believe that because "they
cannot give life to the meanest of the sensible creatures . . . they may not take
the lives of any of them."117 Roe noted that the baniyas "will not kyll the
Vermyne that bytes them,"118 and Manucci said that not only do the baniyas
"hold it as a great sin to kill any animal," but they are also "very timid, and
object to carry arms."119
Jahangir's attitude toward the Jains was one of great ambiguity and seems to
have been directed to their policy of nonviolence.120 Like his father, Jahangir
maintained, on the one hand, a more or less tolerant posture toward the Jains, to
the point of making early pronouncements favorable to them prohibiting the
slaughter of animals. His eleventh regulation issued at the beginning of his reign
in 1605, for example, banned the slaughter of animals for food beginning in each
year from the day of his birth and continuing for the "number of days corre-
sponding to the years of my life," as well as on Thursdays (the day of his
accession) and Sundays (the day of his father's birth).121 Moreover, he had many
Jain monks at his court, both as teachers and as students,122 and he often granted
special favors to them by way of private audiences or privileges in the country-
side. Jahangir had himself been taught by the Jain monk Bhanucandra as a
child123 and later asked this same monk to give religious instruction to his own
youngest son, Shahryar, in return for his settling some factional disputes internal
to the Jain community.124 During his reign many Jain images were consecrated,
and "in the inscriptions of some of them the name of Patasaha Jahangira was also
engraved."125 Most important, however, were the edicts and farmans issued by
Jahangir that promoted and encouraged the practice of Jainism in the country-
side.126 For example:
1. August 14, 1601, a nishan of Prince Salim's attached to afarman of Akbar's
confirming an earlier farman which prohibited the slaughter of animals
during nearly six months of the year, and ordering that respect be shown
to Jain teachers and that their old temples and religious buildings be
repaired and rebuilt.
2. 1605, afarman of Prince Salim again confirming a farman of Akbar which
prohibited the slaughter of animals during nearly six months of the year
and making a religious spot in Una tax-free.
3. 1608, a farman of Jahangir allowing repairs and rebuilding of Jain temples
196 NUR JAHAN

and rest houses, allowing Jains to visit their Shatrumjaya tirtha tax-free,
and prohibiting animal slaughter on specified days. 127
4. 1610, a fartnan of Jahangir prohibiting animal slaughter throughout the
empire during the twelve days of the Jain Paryushana festival.
5. 1615, a farman of Jahangir permanently granting ten bighas of land in
Akbarpur near Cambay to Chandu Sanghavi, 128 a Shvetambara Jain monk,
in order to make a temple and garden dedicated to his late teacher
Vijayasena Suri.
6. July 1616, a. farman of Jahangir allowing complete freedom of worship to
monks of the Jain community throughout the empire.
7. August 1, 1618, a farman of Jahangir written as a sealed letter to
Vijayadeva Suri "in a friendly way" requesting that he pray for the perma-
nence of the empire.

Although Jahangir may well have issued these edicts for personal religious rea-
sons, he was not above tying his own religious needs to economic benefit, for
several European travelers noted that the financially endowed and notably vege-
tarian baniyas paid large sums in order to have animals saved from the slaughter.
Roe, for example, noted that the baniyas "often buy many dayes respite in
charety from kylling any flesh at all"129 and Terry that the baniyas "gave yearly
large sums of money unto the Mogul to redeem them [all living creatures] from
slaughter."130 Pelsaert reported:

They also occasionally obtain by bribery a general order from the King, or from
the Governor of a particular city, that no one shall catch any fish for several
days, or for as long a period as they can secure; and, occasionally, that for some
days no meat of any description, whether goat, sheep, or buffalo, shall be sold
in the market.

Pelsaert went on to say, however, that such edicts, while extremely inconvenient
for ordinary law-abiding people, were ignored by the wealthy who "slaughter
daily in their own houses."131 Jahangir was also effective in settling disputes
within the Jain community, such as the one he agreed to mediate in return for
the Jain monk Bhanucandra's instruction to his son, Shahryar, and the one that
broke out between monks at Burhanpur over issues of authority.132
Jahangir, however, was not a wholehearted supporter of the Jains, and in
spite of his official advocacy and personal proclivity toward the Jain tradition, he
caused them to suffer even more than he did the Hindus. While still a prince, for
instance, the administrators he had appointed in Gujarat revived animal slaugh-
ter, the jizyat tax placed on followers of religions other than Islam, and other
taxes prohibitive to the Jains, in actions that were presumably sanctioned by
Salim. When Akbar found out about these practices from a Jain monk, he
stepped in and issued the 1601 farman with an attached corroborating nishan
from Salim, renewing his pronouncements in favor of the Jains.133 Some time
during the years 1611 to 1616,134 after Jahangir had acceded to the throne,
another incident occurred that showed Jahangir's clear disdain for the ascetic
vocation of the Jains. At the court was a handsome and exceedingly well-formed
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 197

Jain monk named Siddhicandra whose beauty and good manners so struck
Jahangir (and Nur Jahan) that he requested the monk's regular company.
Siddhicandra, by his own account, was so young and appealing that Jahangir
embarked on a lengthy campaign to break him of his vows. "Your age is meant
for the soft pleasure of contact with the body of red-blooded damsels," reasoned
Jahangir, "Why, then, do you waste it upon the desert of severe austerities?"
Siddhicandra argued that the strength of religious commitment knew no age—
the young, in fact, have more energy with which to control themselves than do
the old—and as far as his handsome body was concerned, an unattached mind
was ordinarily unaffected by any worldly pleasure whether that pleasure be his
own form or someone else's. Unable to sway Siddhicandra, Jahangir became so
angry with the monk for not accepting his proffered life of a householder and the
cumbent pleasures of women that he banished Siddhicandra to the forest and
issued a farman stating that all other advanced sages should retire to the forest as
well, as it was only there that their disinterest was appropriate.135 Siddhicandra's
teacher, the Upadhyaya Bhanucandra, was kept at court by Jahangir, however,
and in time became so overcome with depression at Siddhicandra's absence that
Jahangir, out of affection for the older monk, issued a farman recalling
Siddhicandra to the court.136 Later the other banished monks were allowed, by
imperial farman, to return to their cities and villages and to practice there as they
had before.137
The incident Jahangir himself gave most attention to, however, was the recall
and death of the Shvetambara Jain monk Man Singh. Man Singh had been head
of the Kanthal (Kartal) sect of the Shvetambaras, and when Akbar died and the
newly crowned Jahangir had pursued his rebellious son, Khusrau, Man Singh
had been asked by Rai Singh Bhurtiya, zamindar of Bikaner, "what would be the
duration of my [Jahangir's] reign and the chances of my success." Man Singh,
that "black-tongued fellow, who pretended to be skilled in astrology and the
extraction of judgments," had told the zamindar that Jahangir's reign would last
only two years, withdrawing confidence thereby in the new emperor's rule. Man
Singh had in time been proved wrong, however, and developed leprosy so bad
"that death was by many degrees preferable to life." Living thus in Bikaner, he
was "remembered" by Jahangir, who was then in Gujarat, and called to court.
Man Singh became so overcome with fear at that point that he took poison on
the way "and surrendered his soul to the lords of hell."138
This event was recorded as given above in the Tuzuk in early 1618, but Jain
accounts of the incident suggested that there may be problems with Jahangir's
version. Desai notes first, for example, that Jain monks were actually prohibited
from predicting anyone's future—thus raising a question about Man Singh's
original transgression—and, second, that the story of his later leprosy may have
been only a myth. According to Jain documents, Man Singh died what we
presume was an ordinary death on December 15, 1617, leaving Desai to account
for Jahangir's outburst in his memoirs by saying it was merely "the result of a fit
of ill humour," his ears having been poisoned by courtiers "constantly telling
him evil things about Mana Simha."139
While it is not altogether clear what caused Jahangir's abrupt digression in
198 NUR JAHAN

the Tuzuk on the death of Man Singh, the written context of the outburst
indicates that it may have been a part of a larger and more general denuncia-
tion of the Jains. Having already called the Shvetambaras "a tribe of infidel
Hindus" in his narrative of Man Singh,140 Jahangir proceeded to slander the
Jains and the baniyas by charging that they maintained "houses [which] are the
headquarters of sedition." The baniyas, said Jahangir, sent their wives and
daughters to the Shvetambara monks who, with "no shame or modesty," perpe-
trated all "kinds of strife and audacity" upon the women. As a result of this,
Jahangir ordered all Shvetambara monks expelled from his realm: "I circulated
farmans to the effect that wherever there were Sewras in my empire they
should be turned out."141
Jahangir's conflation of the Man Singh death with his charges, surely false,142
of adultery and sedition on the part of Jain monks make sense only as a part of a
large-scale attack on the tradition. The death of the monk in 1617 seems to have
acted as a touchstone around which Jahangir could then weave other issues
concerning the Jains. But why he originally called Man Singh to court (assum-
ing, of course, that his account here was correct) and why his Tuzuk discussion
became so negative an attack on the Jains in general are not immediately appar-
ent. Presuming that the "remembrance" of Man Singh belonged to an older
wound of Jahangir's and that the Jains' policy of nonviolence was an inferred
critique of the emperor's own cruel and aberrant behavior in the field, Jahangir's
outburst against the Jains may well have been the result of a larger issue: the
internal preparations for a vow of nonviolence he would make later in 1618.
In the middle of 1618, Jahangir took a vow of nonviolence whereby he
renounced shooting with guns and injuring any living creature with his own
hand: "Sixteen or seventeen years ago I had vowed with my God at Allahabad
that when I reached fifty I would give up shooting with gun and bullet, and
would injure no living thing with my own hand."143 This vow brought to a
conclusion Jahangir's long-standing feelings of guilt and remorse over having
ordered the murder of his father's close friend and chronicler Abul Fazl in
August of 1602, and in general over his own rebellious and destructive conduct
toward his father during the last years of Akbar's reign when the then prince had
set up an independent court in Allahabad [see Figure 8-3]. The dynamics of the
vow, we have argued elsewhere, allowed Jahangir to identify with the nonviolent
religious persuasions of Akbar, which Jahangir had held up to now only as a
matter of policy. In fact at the time of taking the vow, Jahangir himself made the
connection to Akbar by noting his need to visit his father's tomb and "by God's
help, seek the confirmation of my resolve from my father's holy elements, and
renounce the practice (of shooting)."144
The double effect of this act—identification with the father he had earlier so
grievously wounded and espousal of a clear policy of nonviolence in the face of
his own long-term aggression—served to countermine and assuage the disrup-
tive behavior of his earlier years. And the public quality of the vow (all those at
court and beyond would be the clear beneficiaries of the official pronouncement)
would make certain that the resolving of private guilt could not be derailed by
new ambiguities or old lethargies but would rather become the overt responsibil-
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 199

ity of his entire entourage. It is a powerful confirmation of the father-son

structure of this vow of nonviolence, moreover, that Jahangir granted greater
freedom to his first son, Khusrau, in 1619, the year the vow went into effect, but
then revoked the vow in 1622 when his third son, Shah Jahan, rebelled against
him.145
The timing of the vow, however, paralleled too closely for coincidence the
tortuous patterns of Jahangir's treatment of the Jains. The Jains, who were
subjected to an ambiguous mixture of compassionate advocacy and disdainful
rejection from Jahangir's later years as a prince up until early in the imperial year
of 1618, were then forgotten by the emperor after what was apparently his last
farman concerning them in August of 1618.146 Surely there was a connection
between Jahangir's own internal conflicts between aggression and compassion
and his mixed treatment of the Jains, the very symbol of nonviolent restraint,
during those first two decades and his resolution of these conflicts through the
vow and his newly inattentive attitude toward the Jains, both of which began in
1618. We can argue, then, that the Jains, through no fault of their own, save the
very nature of their religious doctrine, got caught up in Jahangir's private strug-
gles with the memory of his father that swept through the whole range of
relations he had with religious groups in his realm and that, given Jahangir's
personality, could not help but be projected into the public arena.
Jahangir's relations with the Christians, however, was the telling example of
the way in which religious policy during his reign became a blend of personal
whim and political expediency. The mix of Christians Jahangir found around
him reflected the variety of much of Europe, the older, more long-standing
Roman tradition of the Portuguese Jesuits vying with the more recently arrived
Protestantism of the Dutch Reform merchants and the Anglican English Em-
bassy. The burden of the religious quest for converts in India was carried primar-
ily by the Portuguese Jesuits, the Dutch and the English being essentially con-
cerned with the establishment of trading contracts for their home countries.
Nevertheless, within the secular missions of the English there was certainly
some proselytizing activity, and the presence of one so conscientious as the
Reverend Edward Terry, chaplain to Sir Thomas Roe, was testimony not only to
the religious needs of his English compatriots but also to his hopes for an
increased flock.
Jesuit expectations for Jahangir had been genuinely hopeful when the em-
peror first came to the throne. His father, Akbar, had openly welcomed the
priests to the court and had toyed, at least publicly, with the possibility of
conversion for himself for many years. While still a prince, Jahangir had often
professed an attachment to the Christian faith, 147 and Payne argues persuasively
that because Salim knew "his succession to the throne was by no means a
foregone conclusion," his association with the Jesuits was based on more than
just religious affinity. Rather, the prince hoped that the Portuguese could offer
him "very valuable assistance" in the event he should need it in his struggle for
accession.148 As it turned out Jahangir managed the throne without Portuguese
help, but he continued to entertain the Jesuits courteously and encouragingly at
his court throughout his life.
200 NUR JAHAN

Father Francisco Corsi, for example, had been in Mughal country for the last
five years of Akbar's reign and continued on at Jahangir's court until he was
succeeded by Father Joseph de Castro in 1624.149 Corsi and Roe, apparently,
were on friendly terms, but the English ambassador saw right through the
emperor's attempts to conciliate the Jesuits without binding himself irrevocably
to them. Jahangir granted the Catholic Church many privileges, said Roe, and
spent "euerynight for one yeare . . . in hearing disputation" amongst Christians
and other theologians. He often cast "out doubtfull woordes of his conversion,
but to wicked Purpose," for in the end he had no serious interest in the Euro-
pean doctrine. "And, the rather to giue some hope, he deliuered many Youthes
into the hands of Francisco Corsy" for their education and religious instruc-
tion. 150 Terry noted, moreover, that in pursuit of such hopes Corsi lived at court
"as an agent for the Portuguese" and not only had free access to Jahangir but was
the recipient of gifts and great encouragement.151 The surge of Jesuit optimism
that accompanied such acts of benevolence, however, masked the real naivety
with which the Roman Church often seemed to work.
Jahangir's most active interest in Christian doctrine was in the debates held
at his court between the Jesuit fathers and Muslim mullas. In a letter sent from
Agra to the Jesuit Provincial of Goa dated September 24, 1608, Father Jerome
Xavier detailed a series of discussions that arose there out of Jahangir's viewing
of some Christian pictures. The fathers "had long been anxious for an opportu-
nity of disputing with the Moors before the King, that they might demonstrate
the truth of our faith, and the falseness of the law of Mafamede."152 The debate
that ensued covered a variety of theological issues,153 and the discussions often
became loud and abusive, with the Muslims (according to Guerreiro) at times
crying out: "It is a lie! It is a lie!"154 For his part, Jahangir got along by asking
questions of the fathers, questions that "were evidently meant to put our faith in
a favourable light" and "to bring ridicule on Mafamede, and on his Moorish
courtiers, who, during this conversation, stood grinding their teeth with rage
against the Fathers." By Guerreiro's account, Jahangir's tactics were successful
for "the Moors began to regard the Fathers with intense hatred, following them
with evil looks wheresoever they went."155 Although the Jesuits claimed great
victory from these debates, which lasted over a month during the summer, no
one (by the Jesuits' own admission) was converted, not even and especially the
king.156
Roe and Terry both mentioned at a later date some debates lasting over a year
that took place every night for two hours before Jahangir in his court. 157 Jerome
Xavier was a major participant in them, and Terry noted that these particulars
about Xavier's debates before Jahangir were given to him, the English chaplain,
by Corsi in Latin and were so confirmed "by other people professing Christian-
ity in that empire" that Terry believed they actually did occur.158 Quite possibly
Terry and Roe's accounts referred to the same 1608 Agra debates as described by
Guerreiro.
By policy and personal assent, Jahangir allowed anyone to convert to Chris-
tianity who wanted to. Said Terry:
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 201

The Jesuits in East-India . . . have liberty to convert any they can work upon,
unto Christianity, etc. the Mogul hath thus far declared, that it shall be lawful
for any one, persuaded so in conscience to become a Christian, and that he
should not by so doing lose his favour.159

The Jesuits took to heart this blanket permission to ply their trade and filled their
chronicles with case studies of individuals who had come over from Islam and
Hinduism. Conversion to Christianity had taken place on a fairly small scale
among the nobles and relatives of the Mughal court under Akbar160 and continued,
again at a slow pace, under Jahangir.161 The most famous case of conversion among
Jahangir's nobles, perhaps, was that of Muqarrab Khan. Formerly Shaikh Hasan,
son of Shaikh Baha, Muqarrab Khan received his title while Jahangir was still a
prince for service he had given the emperor since the days of his childhood. A
frequent companion of Jahangir's when he hunted, Muqarrab Khan was skilled in
the use of the bow and arrow and gun and was especially able in the practice of
surgery,162 a talent he used often in his position as personal physician to the
emperor.153 Muqarrab Khan had spent a good deal of the early part of Jahangir's
reign in Cambay overseeing Mughal trading interests there and had often brought
or sent extravagant presents to Jahangir that he had procured while on duty
there.164 He got into trouble, however, in 1610 when one of his attendants ab-
ducted a girl in the port of Cambay and was deemed responsible when she died "an
unavoidable death." The attendant was executed and Muqarrab Khan's mansab
was reduced by half.165 It was perhaps from an ensuing imprisonment that he was
saved by Father Emmanuel Pinheiro and reinstated as envoy to the Portuguese
Viceroy in Goa. When he returned to Goa from Agra in 1611, Muqarrab Khan was
reported by the Jesuits to have converted to Christianity and to have been baptised
with the name John. His relationship with Christians after this remained, as
expected, quite friendly and supportive,166 but Jahangir, though he always hon-
ored and promoted his servant167—especially to the suba of Gujarat in 1616168—did
not once mention Muqarrab Khan's Christianity.
Conversion to Christianity came closest to the Mughal throne, however, with
the baptism of several of Jahangir's nephews, three sons of his late brother,
Daniyal, on September 5, 1610, in a large public ceremony held at the Jesuit
church in Agra and later at the imperial court. 169 Finch noted that for the
baptism "Christian apparell" was made for the boys and, in a display put on with
"the whole city admiring," the boys were conducted to the church by all the
Christians in Agra. The boys each received a Christian name—Tahmuras be-
came Don Philippe, Bayasanghar, Don Carlo, and Hoshang, Don Henrico—and
were followed in their baptism by that of the grandson of Akbar's brother, Mirza
Muhammad Hakim, who became Don Duarte. 170 Jahangir himself did not men-
tion the baptism—only the earlier conveyance of Daniyal's children to him from
Burhanpur by Muqarrab Khan171— but Finch noted that the emperor had given
"daily charge to the Fathers for their [the boys'] instruction that they might
become good Christians."172 Hawkins, who was an eyewitness participant to
most of these baptismal events, argued persuasively that Jahangir urged the
202 NUR JAIIAN

conversions not "for any zeale he had to Christianitie," but because he had taken
heed of a prophecy that his own sons would be disinherited and that he would be
succeeded by the children of his brother. Therefore, in order "to make these
children hatefull to all Moores," he had them baptized as Christians, in a faith so
"odious . . . [that] they should find no subjects."173 Their father, Daniyal, had
been so loved, argued van den Broecke later, that the sons would be natural
inheritors to the throne, and yet some years after the conversions, he continued,
Jahangir brought them back into the Muslim fold,174 presumably after the threat
of succession scuffles had passed.
What, however, was Jahangir's own involvement with Christianity? Al-
though Manucci later asserted the willingness of Jahangir himself to become a
Christian,175 earlier travelers were less certain as to the emperor's final disposi-
tion. To be sure, Jahangir loved to watch the Jesuits debate the mullas,176 and he
had a fascination for Christian images of Jesus and of Mary177 that extended to
other biblical figures as well.178 Moreover, he had allowed and even patronized
the building of Christian churches and cloisters179 and had exhibited eccentrically
supportive behavior of the tradition from the very beginning. To a servant of an
Italian visitor while still a prince, for example, Salim was reported to have
responded to the servant's avowal of Christianity as follows:

"You have done well to embrace so good a law." Then, still addressing the
Italian, he added these words: "I have a very great affection for the Lord Jesus";
and to show that these were not mere words, but that he spoke from his heart,
he drew aside his robe, and showed him a cross of gold, which it was his habit to
wear suspended from his neck. 180

In spite of his attraction to the visual elements in Christianity, however, Jahangir

still had irreconcilable problems with the tradition on at least two counts: as-
pects of the life of Christ and Christian monogamy. Jahangir had watched en-
tranced once while an ape, later called the "divininge ape" had twice drawn the
name of Christ out of a pool of twelve prophets but had come up empty-handed
after the name of Christ had been removed;181 nevertheless, he remained uncon-
vinced of this "Son of God" 's absolute authority. Although Jahangir spoke
respectfully of Christ, he was continually troubled by "his parentage, his pov-
erty, and his cross,"182 so much so that Christology was a central issue in the
theological debates at the court. Jahangir was also put off, perhaps more decid-
edly, "by the severe discipline which our [Christian] law imposes" that forbade a
man from taking more than one wife. It was because of "this prohibition," said
Guerreiro, "that they find our faith so hard to accept."183 Being part of "a carnal-
minded race,"184 Guerreiro continued, Jahangir ultimately found the domestic
teachings of Christian monogamy the hardest to accept.
Jahangir's response to Christianity, then, was one of curiosity, of testing, of
admiration of its arts, but eventually of rejection of its doctrine. Perhaps the
most symbolically authentic image of Jahangir here was given by Hawkins, who
described the emperor while at prayer once in Agra: in a private room, with a
lambskin under him, fingering eight chains of luxuriously studded jewel prayer
 Nur Jahan and Religious Policy 203

beads. Graven in stone on the upper end of his black slate throne, Hawkins
reported, were "pictures of Our Lady and Christ," but the emperor's lambskin
and his face were turned westward 185 —toward Mecca. Jahangir may not have
been a Christian at heart, then, but he was certainly open to the tradition, at
least as much as his own father Akbar had been and no doubt much more than
his son Shah Jahan was ever to be.186
Like all those of his age, Jahangir had to respond to the many religions that
appeared at the crossroads of his court. As religious questions were in the air,
Jahangir was called upon to make personal and political choices that would,
particularly in his case, be marked by the eccentricities of his own personality.
He was not, by his own memoirs, an especially profound man nor was he moved
to probe for the sake of knowledge the subtleties of foreign doctrine. But he was
touched by religion and knew that it had to play some fairly central role in his
life.
Based on evidence in the Tuzuk given so far, we can now divide Jahangir's
spiritual chronology into three distinct periods [see Figure 8-3]: a pre-1618
period of adherence to religious policy brought forward as a whole from Akbar's
reign but often expressed in wildly contradictory behavior toward the religious
groups in question; a transitional two-year period marked internally by serious
introspection about the past, but externally by a vehement calling to account of
figures like the Jain monk Man Singh and the Sufi shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (see
the following), who had both questioned Jahangir's sovereign competence in
years previous; and a post-1619 period of moderation, leniency, and above all
detachment from the religious fray, marked by a sense of ease with himself and
an affirmation of the policy of pluralistic tolerance as authentically his own.
When he first came to the throne, for example, and for some years thereafter,
Jahangir's religious patterns followed by habit those of his predecessors: venera-
tion of Muinuddin Chishti at his tomb in Ajmer; uneven but usually tolerant
open-mindedness of the Hindus, Jains, and Christians he found around him;
and studied detachment from the claims of the orthodox Muslim religious on the
policies of his government. These particular postures, however, had been
adopted more or less intact from the practices of his father, who had himself
come to them after careful thought and reflection. Moreover, Jahangir's enact-
ment of these policies was often riddled by thoughtless inconsistencies and wild
swings of behavior that had every mark either of a desire to tease, flaunt, and
mock or of a simple carelessness as sovereign.
Beginning with the years of 1618 and 1619, however, Jahangir began to settle
into a more stable and moderate pose, characterized by a detached tolerance,
leniency, and general affirmation of religious pluralism that more authentically
mirrored the practices of Akbar. Sparked perhaps by his interviews with Jadrup
or by the resolution of father feelings in his own vow of nonviolence, Jahangir
moved neatly into a period of benign noninterference with the traditions around
him. Although the move had been marked as well by the abruptly painful Man
Singh and Sirhindi affairs of 1617 to 1618 and 1619, respectively, in which each
of the two was called upon to answer for unkind remarks bearing on Jahangir's
sovereignty made very much earlier, this period of transition brought with it a
204 NUR JAHAN

Chisktis Sirhindi _ Hindus _

Open support and promotions Accession of 1605: possible influ- Curious but offended by Hindu-
for the descendants of Shaikh ence of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi ism: Jahangir learned about and
Salim Chishti. and Shaikh Farid Bukhari. even engaged in "infidel" prac-
tice, but in late 1613 lashed out
Veneration of Shaikh Muinuddin 1605-19: Jahangir recorded no
at a statue of Varaha, ordering
Chishti by regular visits to and contact with Sirhindi.
it as well as a nearby yogi's
ritual practice at his tomb in
abode and the statue inside to
Ajmer.
be completely deslroyed.

November 1616: last recorded Early summer 1619: Sirhindi Interviews withjadrup: during
visit to Muinuddin's tomb. called to Jahangir's court to ac- long, private conversations held
count for teachings and activi- in winter of 1617, fall of 1618,
Early 1619: visited tomb of
ties, including a possibly sedi- fall of 1619, Jahangir learned
Shaikh Salim and recounted
tious letter written much ear- much of what he knew of Hin-
story of his death.
lier; imprisoned in Gwalior fort. duism (and, he said, of Sufism)
Fall 1619: recounted story of from a sannyasi living in a cave
Early summer 1620: released
death of Islam Khan, grandson outside of Ujjain.
from the fort and given gifts of
of Shaikh Salim, on his own
honor.
(Jahangir's) behalf.
Fall 1619: visited tomb of
Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya.
After 1619: very little reference 1620-24: Sirhindi enjoyed pleas- Tolerant restraint: after his inter-
to Chishti saints or Chishti fam- ant, if ultimately unproductive, views with Jadrup, Jahangir con-
ily members. relationship with Jahangir in- tinued to record Hindu practice
structing him in the teachings and to patronize local yogis, but
of Islam. showed remarkable restraint,
forbearance, and even objectiv-
ity in attitudes toward Varaha,
and worship at a temple of
Durga.

FIGURE 8-3, Chart: "Summary of Selected Changes in Jahangir's Religious History."

decided closure to the anxieties of the past about Jahangir's fitness to rule. Aided
no doubt by the foregathering rupture in the junta, his own declining health,
and the turning of his attention toward Kashmir, Jahangir nevertheless seems to
have come to some genuine ease with the traditions at work in his realm.
Although we have no clear idea of his personal vision of religion after the
transitional years, it was probably the same in form as it had been earlier yet was
now sincerely his own.

II

Against the vast documentation of Jahangir's habits of religion, the particular

persuasions of Nur Jahan remain almost unknown. We can be sure, with her
family's Persian origins, that her general tendency in politics and religion was
pro-Shia and anti-Sunni. What the particular manifestations of these loyalties
were, however, can only be guessed at for the elitist, secretive, and cliquish style
of Shia operatives, coupled with Nur Jahan's appearance only in others' mem-
oirs, preclude a firsthand account of almost all her religious dealings.
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 205

_ 3_&ws_ Akbar Miscellaneous

Policy swings: prohibited animal Ambivalent attitude before the ac- Sons: Khusrau rebellious, ostra-
slaughter, ordered work on tem- cession: while waiting for the cized, and blinded; vShah Jahan
ples, allowed complete freedom throne, Jahangir rebelled ascendant.
of worship, but also encouraged against his father, set up inde-
Jahangir: contradictory swings
animal sacrifice, tried to per- pendent court in Allahabad,
between acts of cruelty and dis-
suade a monk to break his vow and had Abul Fazl murdered; af-
plays of benevolence.
of asceticism, and riled against ter the accession (and after
Jain doctrine and practice. Akbar's death), he celebrated
and eulogized his father.
Late 16171 early 1618: Jahangir 1619-21: Khusrau given greater
recalled the Shvetambara Jain freedom; Shah Jahan more dis-
Man Singh to court for a sedi- tant from the throne.
tious prophecy he made much
Jahangir: increasingly declining
earlier at the accession, but the
health; ever more power handed
monk took poison and died on
over to Nur Jahan as junta be-
the way.
gan to rupture; new attention to
Vow of nonviolence: citing the Allahabad years (and presumably Kashmir.
the murder of Abul Fazl) of 1600-1604 as the origin of the vow,
Jahangir renounced shooting with a gun and injuring creatures
with his own hands in 1618; reiterated and activated the vow in
1619.
After 1618: no significant procla- Until 1622: no hunting with a 7622: vow of nonviolence re-
mations concerning the Jains. gun or injuring of living crea- scinded when Shah Jahan went
tures. into open revolt; Khusrau now
recently dead.
Jahangir: focus on greater per-
sonal pleasure (e.g., Kashmir)
and greater distance from politi-
cal realities; general tolerance
and restraint.

There are two things, however, that we may attribute unhesitatingly to the at
least formal aspect of Nur Jahan's spiritual life. First, she was, by Persian
accounts, a generous woman who gave in chanty to "all sufferers" and especially
to "helpless girls" at the time of their marriage. It is said that "thousands were
grateful for her generosity"187 and "if ever she learnt that any orphan girl was
destitute and friendless, she would bring about her marriage, and give her a
wedding portion."188 Nur Jahan's generosity stemmed, most certainly, from her
position as chief wife of the reigning emperor and from her consequent vision of
herself as the female dispenser of noblesse oblige. But it is quite likely that she
also gave out of the Muslim conviction that each member of the community was
responsible for the financial well-being of all others. Islamic obligations of char-
ity would most certainly have molded her behavior as queen, but it may also
have been an authentic religious persuasion that, happily, found extravagant
outlet in her imperial position.
Nur Jahan was also known to have participated in the celebration of the urs
festival at the tomb of Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti in Ajmer [see Figure 8-1].
Coryat recorded having seen Nur Jahan with Jahangir at Muinuddin's shrine,
sometime between July 1615 and September 1616, passing out khichri from a
206 NUR JAHAN

huge brass pot to thousands of the poor.189 Normally at the urs, held in honor of
the death anniversary of a Sufi, a rich devotee of the saint paid for the prepara-
tion of a huge mixture of grain and spices that was cooked in the caldron there
and passed out to pilgrims coming to the shrine.190 At the festival Coryat ob-
served, however, the emperor himself became that patron, and himself kindled
the fire and served the first platter with his own hands. Nur Jahan was a major
functionary at this meal, helping with the cooking fire and with the distribution
of food, and Coryat was so overcome by the immense generosity of the event she
participated in that he irreverently compared European forms to what he saw
before him: "Cracke mee this nut, all the Papall charitie vaunters."191
Aside from charity and from ceremonies in Ajmer at the tomb of Muinuddin,
Nur Jahan most surely must have taken part in the religious observances of the
harem. Like her women colleagues of the zanana, Nur Jahan would have partici-
pated regularly in the five times daily prayers and in the seasonal celebrations of
Islam that were carried out around her. Moreover, she may even have been a
welcome participant in the Hindu festivals of the Rajput wives [see Figure 5-2]
and certainly was an appreciative observer of those things of moment Jahangir
may have been involved in religiously. Whatever else she may have thought,
supported, or done, however, is absent from historical documents, and there is,
therefore, very little thai can be argued conclusively about her religious per-
suasions at the court. Nevertheless, there were four identifiable areas of religious
policy in which Nur Jahan's influence may have been felt, although the evidence
in most cases remains circumstantial: the abusive treatment given the Jains, the
summons and imprisonment of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, the decline in favor of
Shaikh Salim Chishti's family, and the weakening of Jahangir's interest in
Christianity.
Nur Jahan's contact with Jain monks at the court was surprisingly substan-
tial. Siddhicandra, chronicler of his teacher Bhanucandra's activities and himself
a Jain monk, used to visit the harem "sometimes by invitation of the Emperor
and sometimes of his own accord" to read and study great works of grammar,
poetry, logic, rhetoric, prosody, and dramaturgy.192 He had caught the eye of
Jahangir who, because of the monk's exceedingly handsome form, had asked
him to come visit every day for some short while. Jahangir used to listen to
Siddhicandra's sermons and in time vowed that he would do anything the monk
asked him to do. Once while the court was in Agra,193 Jahangir was struck by the
fact that the exceptionally comely Siddhicandra had remained unmarried be-
cause of his ascetic vows and now, as a young man of twenty-five who should be
enjoying the physical pleasures of a wife, was by choice a celibate. This observa-
tion was followed by lengthy conversations with Siddhicandra that were at times
detached and abstract and at times personal and argumentative, but that ended
with the monk's temporary banishment to the forest when he refused to take
whatever wife Jahangir might find for him.194
At one point in the argument, Nur Jahan, "the beautiful and beloved Em-
press," stepped in to join Jahangir's attempt to persuade the monk. Her argument
refined one Jahangir had suggested earlier in a more passionate and rambling
fashion, by focusing on the incompatibility of controlled firmness with youth.
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 207

"Asceticism is meant for those who have had their fill of sensual pleasures," she
argued, not for those who have not yet experienced them. The position she
presented to Siddhicandra then developed two points: first, that normally a per-
son will continue to hanker after pleasures until he has experienced them suffi-
ciently to renounce them; and, second, that Siddhicandra was rebuffing, by his
youthful vow of sustained asceticism, the Indian ashrama system, which laid out
the most psychologically appropriate chronology of a life: initial renunciation,
indulgence, and final renunciation. Siddhicandra responded to her implied intro-
duction of doctrine by introducing some of his own—the spiritual decline that
had taken place in humankind over the course of theyugas and had resulted in the
young becoming more disciplined than the old. At this point Nur Jahan ceased
raising objections, for reasons not preserved in the Jain text, and Jahangir took the
discussion to its eventually stalemated conclusion.195
Nur Jahan's contribution to the Siddhicandra debate, on the face of it, had
been to make the discussion more abstract and to legitimize it by referring to
issues of doctrine. While she was not able to dissuade Siddhicandra from his
resolve, the account of her role as depicted by the Jain document shows three
things. First, the text portrays Nur Jahan as an accomplice, and even promoter,
to Jahangir's harassment of the Jains on the grounds, we infer, that vows of
lifetime asceticism set up authority systems separate to and rivaling those of the
crown. Her influence on the development of religious policy here, then, was to
bring reason to a discussion based primarily on emotion, thereby providing
justifiable affirmation for a course Jahangir had already embarked upon. Sec-
ond, the episode, if rightly reflective of the empress's views on the subject,
reveal that her own religious persuasions were consonant with the Muslim ideals
she grew up with. Siddhicandra represented Nur Jahan as inclined against reli-
gious vocations involving celibacy, and in favor of the affirmed householder life
as the preeminent context for spiritual development. True to Islam, which un-
like most other religious traditions, eschews the virginal life for its religious, Nur
Jahan could not understand why Siddhicandra was unable to come to spiritual
maturity as an ordinary citizen. Third, the account is unabashedly admiring of
Nur Jahan as a personality, depicting her as a woman who could play a commend-
ably intelligent role in the religious debates at court. Because Siddhicandra was
not only an intimate of Jahangir's inner rooms but also of the harem as well, we
can presume that this portrayal of Nur Jahan was one drawn from actual sus-
tained and discerning conversation with her and not simply from the reified
conceptions of bazaar gossip.
Nur Jahan's influence on religious policy came next to light in the 1619
episode involving Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi. The Naqshbandi silsila had only
recently become a force in sectarian Muslim politics, achieving prominence in
the last few years of Akbar's reign. Politically and emotionally weakened by the
rebellion of his son Salim and Salim's establishment of an independent court in
Allahabad, and by Salim's murder of his friend, Abul Fazl, Akbar seemed
powerless to prevent Naqshbandi activists from gaining an ideological hold
among some of his high-ranking nobles.196 Akbar's freethinking tolerance of
many religious traditions at his court and his establishment of an emperor-based
208 NUR JAHAN

discipleship among some of his colleagues had angered many of his more ortho-
dox Muslim ministers. The Naqshbandi agenda, then, at least in terms of what
were ultimately to be minimal relations with the Mughal government of this
period, had been to try to stem the influence of the Akbarian heresy and to give
orthodox Islam more voice at the policy-making level of the administration.197
Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, like his teacher Khwaja Baqi Billah, was in the
forefront of Naqshbandi criticism and by some accounts played a considerable
role in bringing Jahangir to power in 1605 and in trying to extract a pledge from
him to adhere more closely to Islamic law during his reign.198 The exact role
played by the Naqshbandis in Jahangir's accession has been open to much
debate, but it is fair to say that after some token honors given to Naqshbandi
associates at the beginning of his reign199 and after placing Shaikh Farid Bukhari
(a close correspondee of Sirhindi's who died in 1616) at the head of the army
pursuing Khusrau in 1606,200 Jahangir paid little heed to members of the silsila
for well over a decade. His accession pledges to the Naqshbandis, then, had
either been minimal or encumbered with such little power on the religious side
that they were unenforceable. Sirhindi did, however, have an important interces-
sor at court in the figure of Shaikh Farid, who was the recipient of several letters
from Sirhindi and who, apparently, tried to promote Sirhindi's cause with
Jahangir.201 One such incident took place when the emperor asked Shaikh Farid
to recommend four ulama to be sharia advisors in his court. Sirhindi wrote to
Shaikh Farid saying that if Jahangir went ahead with these appointments the
outcome would be to employ four men who would end up quarreling with each
other, as conciliatory peace-loving ulama were not now available; one man, he
argued, would be far superior. The inference was, some presume, that Sirhindi
himself wanted to be that one man appointed to that position,202 but in the end
Jahangir's plan to appoint the ulama to the court was never carried out.
Instead, we hear that in 1619 Jahangir abruptly called Sirhindi to court to
account for his preaching activities in the countryside. Calling him "a loud
talker . . . [and] a cheat" who was responsible for spreading "the net of hypoc-
risy and deceit," Jahangir wanted to hear from Sirhindi himself what was behind
the shaikh's promotion of a worship "without spirituality" and of his false "sell-
ing of religious knowledge." Sirhindi had, by Jahangir's account, established
khalifas in "every city and country" to further his cause and had written a book
of letters (the Maktubat) full of "absurdities . . . [designed to] drag (people) into
infidelity and impiety." When asked to respond to the issues, Sirhindi "could
give no reasonable answer, and appeared to me to be extremely proud and self-
satisfied, with all his ignorance." Judging that the shaikh needed some time to
quiet "the heat of his temperament and confusion of his brain," Jahangir gave
Sirhindi over to one Ani Rai Singh Dalan to be imprisoned in the fort at
Gwalior.203 Jahangir released Sirhindi a year later and gave him a dress of honor
and Rs. 1,000 for expenses after the shaikh had made clear that he saw his
punishment as "a valuable lesson to him" and had expressed his desire "to wait
on me."204 Thereafter, Sirhindi spent considerable time at the court exegeting
Quranic verses for Jahangir and explicating the basic teachings of Islam. Al-
though Jahangir seemed to have been open-minded about these theology lessons
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 209

and was generous in his gifts to the shaikh,2(K Sirhindi apparently made little real
headway in capturing the spiritual attention of the emperor.206
At least four issues may have been involved in the sudden call to Sirhindi to
appear at Jahangir's court. Most scholars focus, first, not only upon the inflam-
matory style and widespread appeal of Sirhindi's public preaching, which
seemed to have been a main problem for Jahangir,207 but upon the content of his
past and present discourse. Sirhindi had, some time before his teacher's death in
1603, written to Khwaja Baqi Billah describing a mystical experience in which
he saw himself raised to a position above the four orthodox khalifas. The old
letter had become public and had so infuriated the ulama that they had pressed
Jahangir to take the action he did in 1619.208 Why this action, based on the
contents of so old a letter, did not occur until 1619 is usually accounted for by
the vagaries of the process it took for things to become public knowledge.209
A second element in Jahangir's unexpected summons of Sirhindi to court
was the religious transition the emperor himself was going through during the
years 1618 to 1619210 [see chart, Figure 8-3]. The Sirhindi incident, we have
argued, falls into the middle transitional period when Jahangir was most fraught
with doubt about the legitimacy of his accession to the throne and his own
abilities as a ruler to carry out the obligations of the crown. The vow of nonvio-
lence taken in 1618211 had resolved long-standing ambivalent feelings about
Akbar, but had come at the expense of frightening (to death!) in late 1617/early
1618 the Shvetambara Jain Man Singh, who at the beginning of Jahangir's reign
had committed the unfortunate mistake of prophesying a short and unaccom-
plished rule for the emperor. The fact, however, that the vow had to be reaf-
firmed in 1619212 indicates that finalizing the resolution had taken a while, and in
view of this, it was in the last phases of the middle period that Jahangir abruptly
turned to Sirhindi.
Like Man Singh, Sirhindi had a long time earlier questioned the authority of
Jahangir; his letter to Khwaja Baqi Billah, benign and otherworldly as it was,
nevertheless flaunted a second authority in the face of what Jahangir assumed
was his own absolute rule. At any other time, this may not have been so trouble-
some to the emperor but, with his own anxieties at their height, any person in
any way who doubted his competence at his job (Man Singh) or who set up
alternate authority structures (Sirhindi)—even if those actions had taken place
many years before—had to come to account for their positions before the king.
Sirhindi's appearance in court occurred about two months after Jahangir's 1619
final and activating reaffirmation of his vow and must have signaled, thus, the
emperor's last attack of worry before he settled into the relatively easy religious
stance of his later years.
Sirhindi's implied threat to Jahangir in his elevation of himself to substantial
spiritual authority was compounded, third, by his refusal to prostrate before the
emperor. From Shia followers, apparently, Jahangir had learned that Sirhindi
had done so on the grounds that it was "against the spirit of Islam." Although
Shah Jahan, a supporter of Sirhindi's, had sent books onfiqh to the shaikh telling
him that prostration before the king had been sanctioned by legal scholars,
Sirhindi remained adamant about bowing down only before Allah.213
210 NUR JAHAN

The Sirhindi incident could also be seen, finally (and to the point here), as a
result of the political maneuvers of the Shia faction at court managed, for all
intents and purposes, by Nur Jahan. Although we have no substantive evidence
that Nur Jahan was directly involved, many have suggested that both the timing
and vehemence of the Sirhindi incident indicate the presence of the empress's
heavy hand on Jahangir to respond to the anti-Shia remarks of the shaikh.214
Sirhindi had earlier, "in the pre-Sufi period of his life," written a document
highly critical of Shia doctrine and texts. He had called the Shias heretics and
infidels because of their, to him, baseless claim that Ali was the only true
successor to the prophet and their refusal to acknowledge the consensus of the
community (which had included Ali) as the authentic heritage of Islam. In their
excessive adoration of Ali, Sirhindi argued, the Shias exhibited traits similar to
the Christians in their idolatrous attitude toward Jesus. Moreover, their religious
documents were unreliable and had been corrupted with spurious passages de-
signed to promote the peculiarities of their doctrine.215 In time, however,
Sirhindi modified his rhetoric against the Shias, and the opinions expressed in
his later Maktubat were less hostile and condemnatory and more diplomatic with
regard to the role of Ali in Islamic religious history. Nevertheless, he continued
to maintain his position that orthodox Mughal officials should not enter into
relationships with any of the Shias whom they might meet at court. 216 Sirhindi's
position, then, certainly well known and publicized during Nur Jahan's time,
was less hostile in the middle of Jahangir's reign than it had been during the
Akbar years, but it continued without doubt to be anti-Shia enough to infuriate
the Persian faction at court.
Not only was the provocation sufficiently strong to elicit a response from
Nur Jahan, but the timing as well suited the pattern of her career. In 1619, Nur
Jahan was at the height of her power, having just some time before hosted the
1617 festivities honoring Shah Jahan for his victories in the Deccan.217 The junta
was as strong now as it would ever be, with the splintering effects of the mar-
riage of her daughter, Ladli, to Shahryar218 and the deaths of her parents,219 so
pivotal to whatever harmony there was in "the faction," still some time away.
Now in 1619, Nur Jahan enjoyed both the full attention and permission of
Jahangir as well as the undivided support of the Shias at court for whom she
almost assuredly acted as chief counsel and spokeswoman during the height of
the junta's power. Added to this, Shaikh Farid Bukhari, who had been such a
cultured and diplomatic bearer of Naqshbandi influence at court, had died in
1616, leaving a vacuum that drew new and differently persuasive elements to the
emperor's side. Although Nur Jahan most certainly would have seen that a
doctrine of open tolerance for all traditions was the most beneficial in the long
run to the Shia community in positions of power, she would nevertheless have
had every reason to react with anger against anyone like Sirhindi whose anti-Shia
remarks were directly insulting to her own tradition and whose proclamation of
higher authority undermined what was at least a veneer of tolerant pluralism
present in her and Jahangir's religious policy.
One could argue alternately, however, that although Nur Jahan was seem-
ingly at the height of her power in 1619, there were cracks beginning to show in
 Nurjahan and Religious Policy 211

the solidarity of the junta. Most particularly, Shah Jahan, with substantial mili-
tary victories to his credit and with an increasing irritation at his stepmother's
upper hand, could have been hinting now at his clear needs for independence.
Since Shah Jahan was an acknowledged follower of Sirhindi, Nur Jahan's provo-
cation of the summons and imprisonment of the shaikh may have arisen either
from her burgeoning efforts to consolidate power in her own right, outside of the
junta, or from her anger at her recently divisive stepson. A substantial repri-
mand to Sirhindi, we might argue, would have been a strike at Shah Jahan as
well and an attempt, before it was too late, to put the prince back in his place.
The evidence for Nur Jahan's involvement in the Sirhindi incident remains,
however, circumstantial. We know that Sirhindi had been making anti-Shia
remarks, and we know that Nur Jahan had both the power and the force of
personality to get Jahangir to take the actions that he did in 1619. Whether there
was a direct connection here or not may not ever be known, for not only is the
wide-ranging extent of her opinions and political directives masked by the impe-
rial persona of the Tuzuk, but so are the details of most of the factional disputes
at court. Aslam has convincingly shown that the Shia response to Sirhindi was
harsh and that the shaikh himself thought that the "charge was only a plot of the
Shias to entangle him."220 But since we cannot establish satisfactorily221 whether
Nur Jahan was an active participant in the Shia response or not, that she could
have moved successfully against Sirhindi remains the only certainty.
A third issue suggestive of Nur Jahan's influence in religious matters was the
decline in fortunes of Shaikh Salim Chishti's family. Because of his important
prophetic role in Jahangir's birth, Shaikh Salim and his family had enjoyed the
blessings and patronage of the Mughal court for several generations. Honors and
promotions for his descendants had been a matter of course for years in the
Mughal household, and the two families had shared nurseries and battlefields
over most of Jahangir's lifetime. Beginning about 1621, however, there was a
sharp and dramatic falling off in the appointments and recognition of Shaikh
Salim's family members, and Husain argues (with some merit) that this was due
in part to the increasing influence of Nur Jahan. 222
One of Shaikh Salim's grandsons, a son of a daughter, was Qutbuddin Khan
Koka, whose mother had been a wet-nurse to Jahangir and who had been held in
special affection by the emperor. It had been Qutbuddin's party that had con-
fronted Nur Jahan's first husband, Sher Afgan, in Barddhaman, Bengal in 1607
and that had been in the fray in which Sher Afgan had died. Although
Qutbuddin himself had also been killed, Husain suggests that Nur Jahan had
continued to harbor bad feelings for his family and was eventually successful in
preventing them from getting substantial promotions at court.223 Again, while
such influence with Jahangir is highly probable—given the timing and Nur
Jahan's motivation—there is no direct evidence of her role in the decline of
Shaikh Salim's family at court. Nevertheless, if she did in fact so despise the
family of her first husband's murderer, which is most likely given what we know
of her personality, then her marriage to Jahangir must have carried with it a
certain divisive tension: her desire to avenge Sher Afgan's murder set against
Jahangir's undeniable love for the man who was responsible.
212 NUR JAHAN

Nur Jahan, finally, was said to have played a role in Jahangir's reluctance to
embrace fully the tradition of the Christian Jesuits. In a letter of 1623, the Supe-
rior of the Jesuit Mission remarked on the kindnesses shown to the Fathers by
Jahangir. The emperor's consideration paid to the wearing of the cross and to the
making of proper references to Christ elevated Christian hopes at the time that
Jahangir might convert to the faith. But the Fathers suspected as well that for
some time there had been a powerful influence working against them. From their
intimate dealings at court, they believed that as long as the emperor's wives, and
especially Nur Jahan, were prominent in influence over Jahangir, the Fathers
would have no hope of converting him to Christianity. Their concern was ex-
pressed in the phrase averterunt mulieres cor ejus, "his wives turned away his
heart,"224 and caused them to shift their proselytizing attentions to one of
Jahangir's sons, Prince Parviz. Several years later, however, in the summer of
1627, Father Joseph de Castro, who had accompanied the emperor on his last trip
to Kashmir, remarked in some letters that Jahangir and Nur Jahan had visited the
church in Lahore and had even expressed their desire to eat and drink in it. 225 We
may assume, however, given Jahangir's lifelong teasings of the Jesuit community,
that at this late date if he hadn't already converted to Christianity he wasn't going
to. The need for political support was long gone and what remained, as the Lahore
incident above shows, was the emperor's more authentic admiration of the Chris-
tian arts. We may assume also that Nur Jahan's role was probably minimal. She
would have known that there was no chance of a conversion for Jahangir and had
no need to campaign actively against the Church. Jesuit attributions of negative
influence to Nur Jahan, then, must be seen as final and labored rationalizations of
why Jahangir continued not to come over to Christianity.
The influence of Nur Jahan on religious policy, then, is only hinted at in the
documentation of the texts. The imperial facade of court chronicles and the
inaccessibility of life behind harem walls to other, mostly foreign, diarists mask
any real knowledge of whatever involvement she did have. There is, however,
strong circumstantial evidence in these several cases to suggest that her opinions
were probably a considerable element behind much of what Jahangir did on the
religious front. And the particular tendency of her influence turned, in all
likelihood, away from seeing any religious claims as exclusive. A pluralistic
court and a tolerant government policy would have ensured the greatest opportu-
nities and the least hindrances for Nur Jahan's Shia family and colleagues. It was
in her interest, then, to promote ecumenism at the highest levels in order to
guarantee good fortune for Shia nobles throughout the empire. Although Nur
Jahan wouldn't have wanted Jahangir to convert out of Islam, neither would she
have wanted him to embrace Muslim orthodoxy. Instead, consonant with his
increasingly authentic religious leanings, her own inclinations would have been
to foster an open and tolerant interest in all traditions.226

Ill

While Nur Jahan almost certainly exercised some influence on the development
of Jahangir's religious policy, her own positions at court as the beloved of her
 Nur Jahan and Religious Policy 213

husband and the wife of this particular king may themselves have been the result
of religious ideals intimately persuasive to Jahangir and to the people he ruled.
Three structures seem especially compelling: the Islamic vision of Khadija, first
wife of Muhammad, which offered the model of an older, more mature mate as
an ideal; a possible cult of the Madonna peculiar to Jahangir himself and pre-
scriptive of his love for Nur Jahan; and the goddess imagery prevailing at large in
Hindu culture, which might have set the tone for popular adoration of the
favorite queen. In the first case, the wife of the founder of Islam, who was both
his senior in age and his patron in profession, may well have acted as a tradi-
tional, though perhaps unconscious, prototype in Jahangir's attraction to older
women who sustained and guided as well as played and seduced. In the second,
the mutual devotion of the Christian mother and son, so beautifully rendered in
the European art Jahangir saw around him and so reflective of similar themes in
Islamic culture, may have prefigured the adoring and nurturing relationship of
the emperor with his eighteenth wife. In the third, the consort image of divine
pairs in Hinduism—based on the human marriage as a necessary union of
complements each incomplete on its own—may have shaped the appeal of the
imperial couple in the eyes of their subjects and, indirectly then, the vision Nur
Jahan may have come to have of herself.
In the first case, Jahangir's marriage to a woman older than the normal bride
who quickly became his nurturing companion as well as his lover may well have
been prefigured in the marriage of Muhammad and his first wife, Khadija. Al-
though we have no remaining record of Jahangir's use of the Prophet's choice as a
rationale for his own marriage to Nur Jahan, it is quite likely that the pattern of the
religious founder's marrying his main patron, confidant, and religious backer
gave a kind of traditional, if unspoken, authority to the emperor's espousal of
1611. Not only was Khadija some years older than Muhammad, but by the time
they met, she was already an independent woman of property and the survivor of
two previous marriages. Khadija had originally employed her future husband as
an agent on her Syrian caravan, and it was when he successfully concluded the trip
that she proposed marriage to him. While there is a limit to the comparisons that
can be made, the suggestion that the Khadija pattern of close intimacy with a wise,
influential, and mature woman remains quite strong.227
The Khadija argument is supported by three patterns. First, although aber-
rant in many ways, Jahangir was still nominally a Muslim. It seems clear that it
was important for him to carry on the religious and cultural traditions of his
forefathers and that, in relation to his religious heritage, he was essentially
conservative—the veneration of Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti of Ajmer being per-
haps the best example. The Khadija image, then, may have been influential
simply because it was an Islamic one, and one that drew from the very earliest
sources of that varied all-encompassing tradition.
Second, Khadija belongs with the general Islamic focus on the mature
woman who guides and sustains a younger man, a structure normally expressed
in the relationship of mother and son. The Mughal harem had made much of
this emphasis and, as argued earlier, the older nurturing woman had many
guises for Jahangir: for example, Maryam Makani (Hamida Banu Begam), Sa-
lima Sultan Begam, Ruqayya Begam, Maryamuzzamani, Qutbuddin Khan
214 NUR JAHAN

Koka's mother, and Asmat Begam. That Jahangir did not marry again after Nur
Jahan seems to indicate that he had finally found someone who, in her
midthirties, could manage and even surpass the expectations and needs of this
demanding older woman relationship.
Third, Khadija herself was no ordinary woman. Not only did she come with
property and position, but in many ways she was much more willing, appar-
ently, than even Nur Jahan to toy with the boundaries established for regularly
accepted behavior in women. Her relationship with Muhammad, then, charted
new areas for the marriage partnership: it allowed wife and husband greater
working space in both their private and public arenas, and it recast the issue of
dominance and control as given in customary female/male roles of the time. As
inheritors of the tradition, then, Nur Jahan and Jahangir recapitulated the tone
of this early relationship.
The Christian case continues that from Islam. From an early age as a prince
Jahangir had been in contact with the paraphernalia of the Portuguese Jesuits at
his father's court. Not only had he come to know a good deal about the central
figures of Christianity, Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, but he had also devel-
oped a very positive appreciation of them as spiritual personae. Guerreiro, for
example, noted that "the King is well versed in most of the mysteries of Christ
our Lord and our Lady the Virgin, and openly prides himself on his knowl-
edge." And again, "one cannot but recognise the sincere devotion of this King to
Christ and our Lady, for whom he himself confesses his great love."228 These
affirmations of Jahangir's attachment to the central Christian figures are not just
the unrealistic dreams of Jesuit missionaries, for the Protestant chaplain Terry,
who as far as we know did not actively seek the conversion of Jahangir, said that
the emperor "would speak most respectfully of our blessed Saviour Christ"229 in
the presence of a mixed and often discordant group of courtiers.
The basis of Christianity's appeal for Jahangir were the artistic objects of
both Christ and the Virgin Mary that he had either been given by the Jesuits or
ordered from Europe through the traders at court. Jahangir had learned of such
wonders from his father and, like his father, he held these pictures in high
esteem: "The Prince showed the Fathers . . . many proofs of his devotion to our
Saviour and His holy Mother, whose images he held in the highest veneration.
Indeed, the Fathers could make him no more acceptable present than a well-
executed representation of either."230 Finch reported that, in his palaces at both
Agra and Lahore, Jahangir kept galleries in which were hung pictures of Christ
to the king's right and of the Virgin Mary to his left.231 These pictures, said
Guerreiro, "which fill the Moors with astonishment every time they look upon
them, are thus publicly displayed in this infidel King's chamber, which resem-
bles the balcony . . . of a devout Catholic King rather than of a Moor."232
Jahangir had other Christian objects around him as well. According to Haw-
kins, Jahangir often prayed on a black slate throne that had on its upper end
graven images of Christ and the Virgin Mary,233 and Du Jarric noted that while
still a prince, Jahangir had an "image of our Saviour crucified" engraved upon
an emerald the size of a man's thumb, which he carried around with him on a
gold chain.234 Guerreiro reported that all letters and orders Jahangir sent out,
 Nur Jahan and Religious Policy 215

whether they be to Muslims, Hindus, or Christians, bore on the inside the royal
stamp but on the outside were sealed with the
"effigies . . . [of] Christ and our Lady. . . . For he has an instrument like a
small forceps made of gold, on the points of which are set two emeralds, square
in shape and as large as the nail of the thumb, on which are engraved the figures
of our Lord and the Virgin, and these are impressed on the wax with which the
letters are fastened. 235

Although Jahangir was attached to likenesses of both Christ and the Virgin
Mary—indeed, one of Guerreiro's chapters focused entirely upon the king's
reverence for Jesus Christ236—he was said to have reserved a special place of
honor for the Madonna. Veneration of the Mother of Christ was common among
Jahangir's subjects, for the power of Virgin Mary images was exceptionally
strong among a Hindu populace conditioned to veneration of the creative and
destructive gifts of goddesses like Devi and Kali, and among Muslim believers
knowledgeable of their own Mariological heritage. Du Jarric noted, for example,
that when a picture of the Virgin Mary was placed in the church in Agra in 1601
to 1602, thousands and thousands flocked to the church to "see this marvel."
Guards had to be placed at the doors and, after talks had been given in the local
language explaining who the Madonna was, all "went away full of veneration for
the Virgin, and deeply impressed by her sanctity."237 Hindu petitioners "fre-
quently, and of their own accord," would come to the church in Agra to pray to
the Madonna "that, through her intercession, their prayers may be heard,"238
and the English chaplain, Terry, reported that when he went out, many begged
alms of him in the name of the Virgin Mary.239
Against such widespread effusion, it was Jahangir of all the Mughals at court
who showed the greatest attachment to the Madonna. He got very angry as a
prince once when the Fathers did not bring him "any picture of our Lady from
Goa" and charged another who was about to set off for the coast to make sure he
brought back, as a personal gift, the Madonna he desired. Jahangir then had a
Portuguese painter make "a copy of the picture of our Lady" that had been
brought back240 and took it with him into his private quarters. On tour with
Akbar once, Du Jarric noted that Salim, with his eyes closed as if in meditation,
burned candles in honor first of Christ and then of the Virgin Mary.241 When he
became sovereign, Jahangir always kept pictures of the Madonna around him
and a number of miniature paintings show a Jahangir in darbar with paintings of
the Virgin Mary placed in niches close by him.242 The presence of a Madonna
image around Jahangir had become so customary, in fact, that Delia Valle re-
ported with surprise the absence of an image of the Virgin Mary that "in one of
the Balconies [had] stood expos'd to publick view," it having been placed there
by the emperor "who, they say, was devoted to her." Presumably, the image had
been taken away by Shah Jahan who was "reported [to be] an Enemy of the
Christians and their affairs."243
The appeal of the Madonna image, which had so powerfully struck Jahangir
when young and which had continued to play a role in the visual symbols of his
later court, was probably not grounded in his simple desire to imitate his father,
216 NUR JAHAN

however, who was also an admirer of the Madonna. Although the young prince
surely wanted the approval of his father, the veneration of the Virgin Mary
seems to have been an internally authentic choice for Jahangir and in the end a
spiritual, rather than a political or psychological, force in his life. And spiritually
the great appeal of the image lay not in the isolated figures but in the relationship
between the Virgin and Christ itself, and the particular familial role this relation-
ship gave to the woman the emperor saw in the paintings.
Jahangir surely could have found solace, as millions already had, in the
veneration of any of the prevalent Hindu goddesses—for example, Devi, Kali,
Durga, Parvati, Sita, Shri, Lakshmi, but the quality of the relationship between
devotee and divine here would have been substantially different. For Hindu
goddesses, the primary relational mode was as consort, with connubial mating as
the first order of activity and the subsequent act of giving birth and/or of
mothering relegated only to secondary status. In the Hindu pantheon, for exam-
ple, there were few if any divinely idealized mother-child relationships that did
not bespeak violence, deformity, or abandonment. The Christian ideal, however,
focused on the actual act of giving birth and the subsequent bonding of mother
and child therefrom; the actual act of conception being repressed, ignored, and
even denied. The effect of the virginity of the Madonna was to place preemi-
nence not upon whatever relationship she had had with her consort, the father,
but upon the mutually devoted and nurturing relationship that she had with the
child and, importantly for Jahangir, that she had with the son.
That the Madonna image did in fact suggest to the Mughals the idealized
relationship between mother and son is clear from a passage of Gulbadan's.
Describing Maham Begam's great concern over the illness of her son Humayun,
Gulbadan said: "To her experienced eye he seemed ten times weaker and more
alarmingly ill than she had heard he was. From Mathura the two, mother and son,
like Jesus and Mary, set out for Agra."244 By Jahangir's time, then, the Madonna
image conventionally expressed the nurturing self-sacrifice of a mother's commit-
ment to her child. Jahangir's reverence of this ideal, however, in no way disclosed
a weakness in his own relationship with his birth mother; in fact, Maryamuz-
zamani seems to have found just the opposite with her son. Rather, his veneration
of the Madonna was quite likely the religious expression of the very strength of his
relationship with his mother, which was for him not only an early and formative
bond but certainly the continuing prototype for future personal ties.
It was this pattern, then, that may have been the most compelling to Jahangir
as he made his final marriage. The middle-aged Nur Jahan, beautiful and charis-
matic as she was, fit more easily into the nurturant and mothering structures
that Jahangir had long idealized and that were by now accessibly comfortable
modes in the culture. With her competent and experienced strength, she would
surely, he foresaw, safeguard and sustain as much as she would possess and
enjoy. Jahangir's so-called Madonna cult, then, was in fact nothing but a vision
that expressed in art what was already valued in the Muslim tradition. And Nur
Jahan, by right of her history, personality, and experience, became, perhaps
unknowingly, the primary legatee and beneficiary of the consequences of this
vision in Jahangir.
 Nur Jahan and Religious Policy 217

Nur Jahan may also have benefited from the final case, the prevailing images
in Hindu culture that depicted in myth the nature and relationship of divine
pairs. Just as the Hindu man was thought of as incomplete—either socially or
religiously—without a woman joined to him in marriage, so also was the male
god only partially whole without a female consort. Functioning on the divine
plane as a complete unit, then, the pair distributed between each of them all
possible combinations of opposites, sometimes as in Radha/Krishna mythology
giving the active role to the man, and sometimes as in Parvati/Shiva mythology
giving it to the woman. Although we have little information about how Nur
Jahan was received by her Hindu subjects, it is quite possible that her public
persona was empowered by, at least to outside perceptions, the currently opera-
tive models of female divinity. Roe, for example, in his despair over lack of
direct dealings with her, said that Nur Jahan was "more unaccessible than any
goddess, or mystery of heathen impiety."245 And van den Broecke noted that at
the height of her popularity she was given "marks of excessive honour and
reverence, even like a goddess."246 Playing to the Parvati/Shiva ideal, then,
Jahangir could have assumed the passive, cerebral persona of the male figure
while Nur Jahan could have become the energetic female facilitator of her con-
sort's vision, each incomplete without the other.
If this consort vision of Parvati/Shiva were to have been personally absorbed
by the king and queen at all, it is possible to imagine the following. Drawn to the
asceticism of the yogi, Jahangir would also have seen the erotic and rampant
madness implicit in the dance of creation and destruction as the obligatory comple-
ment of theyogi's abstinence and mortification. His own contradictory tendencies
of violence and nonviolence, sensualism and restraint, might have found ample
repose in the contradictory nature of Shiva, in whom those tensions rested with
equal ease and for whom resolution in favor of one or the other was unnecessary.
To Jahangir's Shiva, then, Nur Jahan may have played Parvati, stabilizing and
defusing his excesses and bringing his dysfunctional personal characteristics un-
der the control of social institutions. The structure of marriage—suspend for the
moment that Jahangir had been married much before—and of the rule of the junta
provided acceptable channels, and escapes, for his sometimes chaotic tendencies
and, as in the myth, his taming could only come at the expense of some of his
powers.
There is no way of knowing the extent to which consort imagery shaped
either the public perceptions of Nur Jahan and Jahangir or their own style of
personal interaction. Should Nur Jahan have found a place among the Hindu
divines, then the Parvati pattern of energetic partner within socially given institu-
tions would have fit much better than the pattern, say, of Kali whose unre-
strained use of sex and violence left her free, ultimately, from any point of
acceptable social reference. Nur Jahan, certainly, like any newcomer to Indian
soil, must have been reshaped in some substantial way by the many configura-
tions of the foreign culture around her. Intriguing it would be, then, if this
Muslim woman came to be queen of this Muslim king by virtue of the Christian
and Hindu ideals among which she, almost by accident, found herself.
 9

Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan

Up to now, our perception of Nur Jahan has been filtered through the eyes of
others. With her artistic achievements, however, we are able in a manner unlike
any other to touch her personality unrefined by secondary receivers. In the
architecture she designed and patronized and in the gardens she laid out, for
example, we are as near as we will ever be to her own voice and vision. Many
noblewomen of Nur Jahan's era had both the time and money to invest in the
arts, as well as the technical advice and personal authority with which to plan
and carry out their own projects. Of these women, those of the Jahangiri genera-
tion were certainly among the most prolific, and of these, it was Nur Jahan who
made the contributions best known to history.
The fine arts and architecture of the Mughal tradition had already reached a
well-cultivated stage by the time of Jahangir and Nur Jahan. The prosperity and
splendor of Jahangir's court, however, had attracted even more talented crafts-
men from the distant centers of Persia, Central Asia, and the subcontinent, who
were then given the freedom to develop objects of the very finest quality under
the watchful eyes of an inspired patron. The artistic productions of the time
came, in this way, to be infused with an elegance and sophistication that re-
flected Jahangir's own luxurious tastes and discriminating instincts. Under him
connoisseurship flourished and new elements unfolded yearly as additions to the
Mughal repertoire grew: the use of the flowering plant as a design motif on
buildings, vessels, and manuscript pages; the use of European styles of perspec-
tive, shading, and character delineation in miniature painting; the surfacing of
buildings in translucent white marble; the development of jade carving as an art
native to the court; and the appearance of costumes in ever finer cloth and ever
more elaborate design within the imperial wardrobe. 1
Although artistic innovations in these and other areas had been made under
the aegis of the emperor, many feel that it was his favorite wife whose imprint
they really carried.2 A freshly Persian perspective and a genuine gift for aesthetic
discernment together with a foreigner's newly appreciative eye for indigenous
Indian decoration combined to produce in Nur Jahan an artistic force inventive
and strong enough to influence much of the art of her husband's court. While we
218
 Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan 219

dare not speculate about the character of these arts without Nur Jahan, we do
find her considerable presence in the widespread Persianizing of ornament, in
the incorporation of more representational (Hinduized) figures, and in the gen-
eral emphasis on opulence in material and on the embellishment of surfaces so
prominent during Jahangir's reign.
While Nur Jahan may have encouraged Jahangir's penchant for the rich and
luxurious, there was an emphatically populist streak in her patronage. Both in
the designs she created and in the materials she used, Nur Jahan was careful to
bring out items that would not only have broad appeal but, in some cases, be
inexpensive enough for many to afford. Certainly most of her creations, by
reason of cost and availability, would have benefited only the wealthy classes,
but in her empathy for the common people, she did make designs for consump-
tion outside the palaces. On her Nur Mahal Sarai, for example, we find an
abundance of the realistic figures so avoided by the abstract tastes of stricter
Muslims and so popular in the iconography of local Hindus: dueling elephants,
pairs of peacocks, and three-dimensional lotus flowers. Moreover, Khafi Khan
attributed an inexpensive dress for marriage ceremonies to the empress's hand,
and it became known from that time on as the nurmahali.3 Nur Jahan's popu-
lism, seen earlier in things like her many marriage dowries to Hindu orphan girls
and confirmed in these two examples, reached as far then as her artistic develop-
ments, confirming once again the ubiquity of her touch and the realism of her
sensibilities.

By legend, Nur Jahan made contributions to almost every type of fine and
practical art. In many cases the attributions can be traced back no further than
Khafi Khan, who seems to have been in the business of re-creating Nur Jahan's
talents and accomplishments beyond all realistic possibility. While some of her
work can be documented in extant material objects and in contemporary texts
like the Tuzuk and early European memoirs, others were first recorded in popu-
lar oral tradition and, though perhaps not less authentic, are at least less verifi-
able. It is clear, however, that both popular tradition and contemporary texts
and objects preserved an image of Nur Jahan as creating anew everywhere she
turned, and she remained, in fiction if not in fact, a persona to whom new
inventions were freely attributed with each succeeding generation. This ten-
dency to ascribe cultural and artistic innovations to Nur Jahan was a reflection of
the general Indian preference for tracing a tradition back to a single charismatic
individual. We will not ever know for some items whether Nur Jahan was
actually their author or not and, while there may be forms and techniques now
lost to her canon, an overall appreciation of her work is still possible from the
uneven remains of tradition.
Indicative as much of her political power as of her appreciative eye were the
coins minted in her name. Jahangir had reworked the system of currency at the
beginning of his reign4 and, although the gold coin (muhr) of only one tola was
220 NUR JAIIAN

called a nurjahani, this bore no actual relationship to the later empress.5 (This
particular coin, however, the nurjahani muhr, was upgraded later, presumably
some time after Nur Jahan's marriage to Jahangir, to the highest value of one
hundred tolas).6 Pelsaert has told us that, like Jahangir, Nur Jahan minted coins
in both gold and silver (a rupee) and that her coins were distinctive both in the
inscription they bore and, in the case of some, in the signs of the zodiac printed
on the sides of each coin: "The inscriptions [on Jahangir's gold coins] are similar
to those of the rupees, except those which have been coined by the Queen; her
coins, both rupees and mohurs, bear the twelve signs of the Zodiac, one sign on
each coin."7 Jahangir's coins, much finer and more bold8 than those issued both
before and after him, had a variety of inscriptions stamped on them taken from
contemporary verse, sometimes written especially for the occasion. Nur Jahan's
coins, however, all contained the following:9 "By order of the King Jahangir,
gold has a hundred splendours added to it by receiving the impression of the
name of Nur Jahan, the Queen Begam."10 Her zodiac coins were not substan-
tially different from those of her husband, and, like his, the sign on each piece
corresponded to the month of issue. Jahangir claimed, however that this use of
the zodiac on tender had been an invention all his own:

Previously to this, the rule of coinage was that on one face of the metal they
stamped my name, and on the reverse the name of the place, and the month and
year of the reign. At this time it entered my mind that in place of the month
they should substitute the figure of the constellation which belonged to that
month; for instance, in the month of Farwardin the figure of a ram, and in
Urdibihisht the figure of a bull. Similarly, in each month that a coin was struck,
the figure of the constellation was to be on one face, as if the sun were emerging
from it. This usage is my own, and has never been practised until now.11

While we do not doubt that the appearance of the zodiac on Mughal coinage was
indeed new under Jahangir, two factors suggest that the instigation for this
design was as much his wife's as it was his. First, the introduction of zodiac
coins, at least according to the Tuzuk, came in the spring of 1618, well after Nur
Jahan's marriage to Jahangir and well into the period of her established power.
Second, that Nur Jahan also had zodiac coins similar in value to Jahangir's
suggests that she was at least an equal advocate if not the initial sponsor of the
new currency. Because the use of zodiacal coinage is consistent both with
Jahangir's dependence upon astrology for ordering his days and with Nur
Jahan's affinity for representational symbols, however, it may be argued that its
introduction was in full measure a joint venture.
Like Jahangir's, Nur Jahan's coins were minted at all the major points of
issue and distributed throughout the realm from cities like Agra, Ahmedabad,
and Lahore. 12 Pelsaert noted, however, that very "little trade . . . is done with
these gold coins [of the Queen's], seeing that most of them must come from the
King's treasures," and a large number of pieces came to be collected and
hoarded by nobles as an embellishment of their own personal treasuries.13 What
is significant about Nur Jahan's mintings, however, is not so much the unique-
 Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan 221

ness of their design or form (even if she was instrumental in introducing the
zodiacal coin) or the collector's status they acquired almost immediately upon
issue, but the very fact that she actually sponsored pieces and that they were of
an equal quality with the very best of her husband's exceptionally fine cur-
rency.14 The minting of coins was, along with the use of the khutba and the
issuing of farmans, the supreme symbol of sovereignty for a Mughal ruler. To
have been granted the right of two of these (the use of the khutba remained the
only power kept from Nur Jahan)15 was a mark in itself of almost total sovereign
responsibility.
If fine coins were one of Nur Jahan's most public creations, then her advance-
ments in the domestic arts were some of her most private. As part of the
assembling of feasts and festivities, Nur Jahan is reputed to have developed new
ways to prepare and serve food. Jahangir, we know, was a gourmet, loving
mangoes best of all fruits, 16 having a special predilection for the variety of fish
that could be brought him,17 and savoring especially the hearty meats taken on
his many hunts.18 These foods were shared with the women of the zanana, who
often received not only a goodly portion of whatever was brought to court but,
on regular basis, for example, the most succulent pieces of meat and the very
sweetest of the muskmelons. We know from the 1617 festival in Mandu that,
from such hoards as these, Nur Jahan made excellent preparations of meat and
fruit, and Khafi Khan has noted that she contributed liberally to the develop-
ment of new recipes of rare and distinguished taste. Culinary tradition in India
today, in fact, attributes a number of specialty dishes to Nur Jahan and her
contributions to Mughal cuisine appear on menus in the finest restaurants as
well as in standard cookbooks. There is a tradition, moreover, that the finely
carved jade and gem-studded fruit knife now in the Salar Jung Museum in
Hyderabad belonged to Nur Jahan and was used by her, if not for the prepara-
tion of fruit, at least for its presentation.19
Central to the domestic arts was the appreciation of dress and fabric.
Jahangir was, by all accounts, a lover of fashion and his costumes, turbans, and
jewelry tended on the whole to be more luxurious and elaborate than those worn
during his father's time.20 He claimed to have "adopted for myself certain special
cloths and cloth-stuffs" and apparently gave an order that "no one should wear
the same but he on whom I might bestow them." One of these was the nadiri coat
made to be worn over the qaba, a kind of outer vest. 21 It was considered so
exceptional by the emperor, in fact, that it was given out to courtiers only on
exceedingly honorable occasions. Jahangir made particular use as well of varia-
tions on the qaba: with a folded collar and embroidery on the ends of the sleeves,
with fancy borders, and of special Gujarati satin.22 Nur Jahan's hand in the
design and execution of these outfits of her husband's, while not specifically
mentioned in the Tuzuk, may have been substantial as their relationship encour-
aged the creation of a wondrous imperial image.
Women's clothing evolved as well during the Jahangiri period and the basic
Mughal contribution to women's wear in India—stitched instead of wrapped
clothing, longer skirt lengths, a type of tight trouser (paijama), and an overdress
developed from thejaguli (a long, full empire-style gown with tight sleeves and
222 NUR JAIIAN

an opening at the breasts)—were themselves influenced by the new extremes of

climate and the aesthetic qualities of available goods.23 Nur Jahan is said to have
contributed substantially to these changes by introducing a variety of new tex-
tiles, among them silver-threaded brocade (badld), silver-threaded lace (kinari),
flowered muslin (weighing just two dams, hence dudami} to be used for gowns,
and panchtoliya (a cotton cloth weighing only five tolas) to be used for veils. She
is also said to have introduced the nurmahali marriage dress, an inexpensive
costume presumably to be used for wider consumption, and new patterns for
gold ornaments. Moreover, the farsh-i chandani or sandal wood-colored carpet
belonged as well to the Nur Jahan repertoire, being among those floor coverings
famous throughout the country in her own time. 24
Some of the best evidence of Nur Jahan's interest and innovations in textiles
comes from the patterns she left to us on stone walls in her buildings. Embroi-
dery is thought to have been a main passion of the empress's, who like many
other Mughal women spent some of her free time stitching.25 Styles of embroi-
dery that were among Nur Jahan's favorites, or were even of her own invention,
can be found, for example, on the interior surfaces of her father Itimaduddaula's
tomb in Agra [see Figure 9-5].26 Evident in them is a fineness of stitch and
perfection of design that must have characterized much of her own handiwork.
Also present in the Agra tomb of Itimaduddaula is inlay work on the floor
around the cenotaphs of the minister and his wife [see Figure 9-4]. This layout
suggests the carpet designs prevalent in the early seventeenth century 27 and,
again, may have come directly from Nur Jahan's own store of patterns. The floor's
colors, moreover—hues of tans, golds, and browns—recall the sandalwood-
colored farsh-i chandani attributed above to her hand. Note here the overlaid
tendrils of different tones and the varied flower styles linking the stems one to the
other.
Finally, we have evidence of costume design in the relief of a woman on the
wall of the empress's Nur Mahal Sarai in Jalandhar [see Figure 9-1]. The
woman is shown standing on a stool by the side of a large vase filled with flowers
opposite a companion whose headdress and dagger suggest he was a palace
servant. The couple are both dressed in the trousers and the sharp-pointed
frocks that were popular among their class in Akbar's time,28 and the woman has
the commonly worn thin, diaphanous veil over her head and tasseled jewelry on
both arms. Nur Jahan's decision to depict a servant couple on the walls of her
sarai may have stemmed from the hospitality and comfort she hoped to offer
travelers in this house for the worn and weary and confirms again her openness
to popular sentiment. Whether she herself designed the clothes on these two is
not clear, but that she did not personally dress this way is evident from Figures
3-1 and 5-2 where her fancy armlets are jeweled, not tasseled, and where she is
wearing heavy ornament and a long elaborate outer sash.
More important, however, were the strictly visual arts and of these painting
had a special place at the court of Jahangir. Under his enlightened patronage,
miniature painting achieved unequaled stylistic levels of empathy, realism, and
design, and his studios produced an impressive array of portraiture, animal and
plant studies, and historical tableaus. Nur Jahan's marriage to such a connois-
FIGURE 9-1. Ornamental relief, western gateway, Nur Mahal Sarai, Jalandhar. Cour-
tesy of the Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.

223
224 NUR JAHAN

seur must have given rise to substantial mutual benefit. We can be almost certain
that while she encouraged and helped inform the work of his ateliers, he allowed
her and the other women of the zanana freedom to experiment here as they saw
fit. Although scholars like K. S. Lai state convincingly that Nur Jahan "herself
painted with some amount of excellence,"29 there are no extant paintings which
can be attributed unmistakably to her hand. Das notes that there were women
under Jahangir who did paint and that in several cases their instructor was Aqa
Riza,30 a painter trained in Iran who came to work under Jahangir while the
latter was still a prince sometime around 1588 to 1589. Aqa Riza had been
prominent in the rebel court at Allahabad, where these women painters may
have worked, and he died, it seems, around the time of Jahangir's accession in
1605.31 Whether Nur Jahan was ever a student of a master like Aqa Riza32 or
more likely of his son Abul Hasan and his colleagues is not clear, but if there
were any paintings of hers, they are not known.
Nur Jahan did, however, have other kinds of influence upon the develop-
ment of painting under Jahangir. She was no doubt the appreciative beneficiary
of many of the single images and illustrated manuscripts made in the imperial
studios. A copy of Hafiz's diwan, for example, written by Khwaja Abdus
Samad Shirinqalam during Akbar's reign and illustrated with miniatures under
Jahangir, bears the seal of Nur Jahan, indicating that it was presented to her on
some occasion by her husband. 33 Moreover, Nur Jahan may well have been
behind the presentation of two copies of the Jahangirnama (having illustrations
intended to accompany written entries in the emperor's memoirs34) to her
father and brother. Itimaduddaula and Asaf Khan were each said to have
received a copy of the album in 1619,35 a year at the height of the junta's
power, and there can be no doubt that Nur Jahan had masterminded this
appropriate deposition of valuable imperial treasures.
Beyond her role as collector and curator of some of Jahangir's pictorial
hoard, Nur Jahan may well have helped select the specific subjects of paintings
requisitioned from European merchants. In Jahangir's earlier days, the Euro-
pean paintings he preferred were religious images of the Madonna and Christ,
which he could procure most easily from the Portuguese Jesuits who traded and
proselytized on India's western shores. After 1611, however (and perhaps in
accord with the more worldly sources of the recently arrived English and
Dutch), his taste or at least his collection became more secular. Moreover, the
paintings he received had a greater variety of women subjects, many of whom
were portrayed in various states of dishabille.
While in 1610, for example, Covert could still bring Jahangir a "picture of
St. Johns head cut in amber and gold,"36 by January of 1613 Best would be
asking the East India Company to send a "good store of pictures, espetially . . .
[of] Venus and Cupids actes."37 Edwards had early on brought portraits of the
English royal family, which were much appreciated at the Mughal court for
political reasons,38 but he was still asked for more pictures and especially for
those which showed "some two faces or persons, and some three." 39 While in
general those pictures "which pleased the Mogul very much" were those that
had "fair and beautiful women pourtrayed in them,"40 the most desired women
 Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan 225

subjects, it seems, were those in mythological settings. Stories close to the

imaginative lore of home evidently were preferred, for as Keridge noted of the
requested paintings: "Black hair or brown is most esteemed here, agreeing [best]
with their [own] complexions."41 In the wake of the decline in requisitions for
Madonna and Christ images, then, mythological (and especially Venus) pictures
were highly regarded, despite the almost disastrous consequences of Jahangir's
audience with Terry and Roe before the Venus and Satyre picture in 1617, as
described in Chapter 6. 42
This shift in painting subject was due not only to the replacement of Roman
procurers by Protestant ones, but to the addition of a very powerful influence in
patronage. Nur Jahan's Persian origins and her preference for representational
imagery helped stimulate and encourage the move away from traditional Muslim
interest in pietistic Biblical subjects toward themes consonant with the more
figurative tendencies of local Hindu culture. Moreover, the English were more
likely to bring secular images that celebrated sovereignty—such as pictures of
the English Court and of Parliament43—which fit neatly with Jahangir's later
tendency to aggrandize his own political condition, however divinely inspired he
thought it to be. Such secular encouragements to rework his own presentation of
office must surely have appealed to Nur Jahan, whose place at court impelled
her to preserve her husband's often fragile mental equilibrium. Finally, the
increase in interest in the variety of female images available, whether they be of
urban matrons, Roman goddesses, or feasting courtesans, must certainly have
been at Nur Jahan's instance. Jahangir had always loved fine form in women,
but these new requisitions were surely less to satisfy his own prurient interests
than to meet the curiosity of his ever worldly queen. The woman who would
send a letter and gifts to the mother of a neighboring ruler 44 must also have
wondered about women's lives in the home countries of her commercial part-
ners, and once again circumstance, here the mercantile resources of the English,
obliged to offer Nur Jahan exactly what she wanted.
At the same time as more secular, more mythological, and more gender-
specific pictures were coming into the court from Europe, women were being
more frequently depicted in the miniatures produced at home and in ways
different from the images of the Akbari period. Because it is likely that Nur
Jahan could ask the painters in Jahangir's studios to paint any image that ap-
pealed to her, Pal has attributed the increase of women in Mughal paintings to
her hand: "It was due perhaps to the influence of Nur Jahan, the favorite queen
of Jahangir . . . that women became more popular as the subject matter of
painting."45 While this is certain to be true, it is also the case that local Indian
paintings, specifically Rajput images, were exerting more influence on the work
of contemporary Mughal artists. Mughal painters could hardly ignore the many
raginis and nayikas who were beginning to appear so abundantly in paintings
from Malwa and Mewar, much less the women depicted so elegantly in the
centuries of Hindu sculpture that had preceded their ascendance. Nur Jahan's
interests, then, would have been in complete accord with the growing presence
of the Hindu celebration of women and the human body currently taking hold at
the court.
226 NUR JAHAN

Moreover, not only were women increasingly portrayed in miniature paint-

ing, but the manner of their portrayal was changing as well. Women under
Akbar had traditionally been shown veiled or secluded behind the walls of the
zanana. As bearers of a strict moral code of behavior, women had to uphold the
honor of the family by restraining from any show of physical or emotional
pleasure. Women deviating from this code, as adultresses, for example, were
often depicted in paintings being devoured by wild animals or caught in the
ravages of the sea. Under Jahangir and the joint influence of Nur Jahan and the
increasing Hinduization of the subjects of painting, women came to be shown
with open necklines and midriffs, comfortable postures, and pursuing pleasure
in all its forms. This elegant cult of leisure that became a dominant image in the
paintings of Jahangir's years, however, did not necessarily create an image of
women's availability for the pleasure of men, but with the guiding hand of Nur
Jahan, of women newly initiated into activities of pleasure undertaken directly
for themselves.
Nur Jahan's hand in the arts extended to literature as well and, consonant
with her own family background, she is said to have composed poetry of fairly
competent quality. Nur Jahan belonged to a lineage known for its literary and
scholarly achievements, and the composition of verse had long been a favored
pastime for many of her relatives as it was for those at the royal court. Men like
her grandfather, Muhammad Sharif "Hijri"46; her great-uncles Khwajagi Razi
and Mirza Ahmad, a son of Khwajagi Razi's named Shapur; 47 her father's
brother Muhammad Tahir "Wash"48; as well as her father himself were all poets
of varying quality, much of whose work has survived. Among her poetic male
relatives as well was her brother-in-law, Qasim Khan. Married to the empress's
sister, Manija Begam, Qasim Khan was not only a poet of very high order but a
master of extempore verse. Poetry contests were popular at the Mughal court,
and it was here that recognized poets could recite verses composed on the spot
before an assembly of their peers. During these contests, Qasim Khan emerged
as Nur Jahan's favorite sparring partner, in part because he was such a good poet
and in part because, as a family member, and an exceptionally witty one at that,
he made each occasion a lively and unrestrained affair.49
Women at the court were also encouraged to compose poetry, but none have
been recognized as extensively as Nur Jahan. Like most other women of the
court, she wrote under the name ofmakkfi, "the concealed one," referring to her
life behind mahal walls, and the verses she composed were often part of a gentle
tease she made with Jahangir, the tone of which is reflected in the following set
of exchanges:50
1. Nur Jahan to Jahangir wearing a long silken coat buttoned with a ruby:
You have a ruby button on your silken robe it is the drop of my blood that
has seized you by the collar.
2. Jahangir sighting the id moon, marking the end of fasting:
The crescent of the feast is apparent at the apex of the celestial sphere.
 Arts and Architecture of Nur Jahan 227

Nur Jahan responded:

The key to the tavern was lost but is now found.
3. Jahangir seeing tears of reunion in Nur Jahan's eyes:
A pearly tear from your eye is rolling [down your cheek].
Nur Jahan:
The water I drank (the tears I choked back) without you comes forth
from my eyes.
4. Nur Jahan seeing a meteor on the horizon:
No star has ever raised its head so far; it is the celestial sphere, loins
girded in service to the king.
5. Talib Amli, a poet out of favor with Jahangir to Nur Jahan:
I was so embarrassed I turned into water, and water cannot be broken; so
I am perplexed why my honor ("face-water") has been broken.
Nur Jahan:
It [your honor] turned into ice and was shattered.
Also attributed to Nur Jahan are these lines:
6. I do not give my heart to form until the course of action is known;
I am a slave to love, and the seventy-two sects are known.
Ascetic, do not cast fear of doomsday into our hearts; we have suffered
the terrors of separation, so doomsday is already known.
7. If the rosebud can be opened by the breeze in the meadow, the key to our
heart's lock is the beloved's smile.
The heart of one held prisoner by beauty and affection knows not roses,
color, aroma, face or tress.
8. When I lift the veil from my face, a cry rises from the rose; if I put the
comb to my tress, a moan comes forth from the hyacinth.
When I pass through the garden in such beauty and perfection, a cry of
"blessed" arises from the nightingale's souls.
9. We have purchased Lahore with our soul; we have given our life and
bought another paradise.
Called "poetry of a high order," Nur Jahan's compositions gave reign to her
broad knowledge of Arabic and Persian at all levels. Her expertise, moreover,
seems to have been in extempore verse51 where her quickness, sense of humor,
and charm could be shown to their best advantage. Given the texts in which her
pieces have been preserved and the extensive involvement of so many members
of her family, past and present, in the literary arts, it can almost be certain that if
these verses were not genuine, something like them must have been. Combined
with her patronage of other poets, in particular women poets like Mehri, whose
228 NUR JAHAN

Sarapa-i Mehri still survives, Nur Jahan's own literary accomplishments suggest
a decided force in the cultural circles of her time.

II

The most permanent of all of Nur Jahan's artistic achievements, however, were
the buildings she designed and patronized, for in them she made enduring
contributions to the history of Mughal architecture. It is clear that she shared
with her immediate family a love of the arts of a settled culture, and like the
immigrant Itimaduddaula and his Persian-born son, Asaf Khan, she must have
reveled in the chance to make monuments of stability and endurance in a coun-
try so recently her own. Her father and brother had created homes of substance
and taste that had quickly become centers of imperial social life52 and, like
their's, her buildings and gardens came to reflect the epitome of Mughal style.
Although there is no direct evidence, the Shujauddins estimate that "the
talents of Noor Jahan actively worked in the planning and execution of all the
Royal buildings constructed between 1611 and 1627."53 This may well be true
given the broad extent of the powers she had and the long tradition of Mughal
women's involvement in architectural projects. 54 That her constructions were
extensive we know from Pelsaert for "she erects very expensive buildings in all
directions—sarais, or halting-places for travellers and merchants, and pleasure-
gardens and palaces such as no one has ever made before." Her intention in all
this was "to establish an enduring reputation" and solidify the advancements she
had already gained within the government. 55 Especially prominent among her
constructions were those in Agra where "very handsome gardens" were mixed
with buildings and "delightful . . . groves," many of which, noted Pelsaert,
could be attributed directly to Nur Jahan. 56 Although even in the Dutchman's
time her buildings, or any buildings for that matter, were not kept in especially
good repair,57 Nur Jahan's works were substantial enough to endure climate,
accidental abuse, and for a while, marauders. Several have survived intact;
others, however, have not withstood history.

Nur Mahal Sarai, jfalandharis

As it developed, Mughal India became laced with a network of roads that
connected one with another most of its important commercial and political
centers. Along these roads government officials and private patrons built quar-
ters for travelers (sarais") at convenient distances, and established wells and
measured markers for the comfort and convenience of whomever might pass
that way: merchant, soldier, or pilgrim. Said Jahangir in 1619:

I now ordered that from Agra to Lahore they should put up a pillar (mil) at
every koss, to be the sign of a koss, and at every three koss make a well, so that
wayfarers might travel in ease and contentment, and not endure hardships from
thirst or the heat of the sun. 59
 Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan 229

In late 1620, the vakils of Nur Jahan completed a large sarai in Jalandhar
district, twenty-five miles east southeast of Sultanpur, sixteen miles south of
Jalandhar proper, and thirteen miles west of Phalor. It was financed, no doubt,
from Nur Jahan's own private purses, and was such an important sarai that,
according to the Shujauddins, " 'Serai Noor Mahal' in local idiom meant some
spacious and important edifice."60

At this spot the Vakils of Nur Jahan Begam had built a lofty house, and made a
royal garden. It was now completed. On this account the Begam, having begged
for an entertainment, prepared a grand feast, and by way of offering, with great
pains produced all kinds of delicate and rare things.61

The sarai was built on an old site of some previous use,62 551 feet square, with
octagonal towers placed at the corners. The western gateway, alternately called
the main or the Lahore gateway, was built double-storied and clad on the outside
with red sandstone from the Fatehpur Sikri quarries. The whole of its front was
divided into panels, with many of the surfaces ornamented in sculptured relief
[see Figure 9-1]. Although Cunningham has called the workmanship on these
reliefs "coarse," the "sides of the gateway . . . [being] in much better taste,"63
the work is in fact quite delicate and remarkably well-preserved. His aversion is
due not to the quality of work, it seems, but to its content; Nur Jahan had
decorated this now most prominent facade with panels of figurative angels,
nymphs, peacocks, lions, elephants, men on horseback, birds, and a wonderful
array of stylized lotuses—all of which had appeal for the local Hindu populace.
These representational scenes were set off, moreover, by the more traditional
Mughal latticework and outlining abstract frets, treated here in a variety of
patterns and used to divide the whole into what must have seemed like a multi-
tude of borders. Cunningham's comment on the overall achievement—that "the
design is much better than the execution"64 is contentious, as Nur Jahan's at-
tempt to combine Hindu figuratives with Muslim geometries is, in fact, quite
pleasing. Over the entrance to the gateway is an inscription, flanked by scenes of
fighting animals (drawn, no doubt, from Jahangir's own such entertainments)
and sculpted lotus-mounds similar to those on Humayun's tomb in Delhi. The
inscription was written in four rhyming verses and reads as follows:

1. During the just rule of Jahangir Shah, son of Akbar Shah, whose like
neither heaven nor earth remembers.
2. The Nur Saray was founded in the district of Phalor by command of that
angel, Nur Jahan Begam.
3. The poet happily discovered the date of its foundation: this Saray was
founded by Nur Jahan Begam 1028.
4. Knowledge of the date of its completion was found in the words: "This
Saray was erected by Nur Jahan Begam" 1030.65

The courtyard inside the sarai had thirty-two rooms to a side, each measur-
ing ten feet ten inches square, "with a verandah in front. In each corner there
were three rooms, one large two small. The Emperor's apartments formed the
230 NUR JAHAN

centre block of the south side, three storeys in height."66 Jahangir's quarters,
once beautifully finished inside, were eventually covered in whitewash; his main
parlor, a long room with half-octagon recesses on two sides, was big enough to
hold about one hundred people, with room for overflow in a walled exterior
court of about 2,000 square feet. 67 On the north side of the sarai Nur Jahan built
a mosque for the use of her travelers, and in the middle of the courtyard she
established a well. She also put in a bathhouse large enough to accommodate
what must have been a substantial flow of visitors.
Jahangir was, from the text, quite pleased with the construction of the sarai
and agreed most cheerfully to an entertainment there in late 1620, after the
couple's first visit together to Kashmir, in honor of its completion.68 He was to
return to its rooms often in the future, as its location in the Punjab proved
central and its accommodations were luxurious enough to hold court. 69
There was apparently another Nur Mahal Sarai, perhaps one of many others,
associated with a garden outside of Agra that Nur Jahan had been given to
rework and build up. It was in a district known as the Nurmahal70 and the
building may well have resembled, in style and layout, Nur Jahan's more famous
sarai in Jalandhar. Mundy stopped at this sarai on August 6, 1632, and finding it
still in use, stayed over on the seventh in its gardens with several of his friends.
This sarai, he said, "is a very faire one, built by the old Queene Noore
mohol . . . for the accommodation of Travellers." It could take five hundred
horses and two to three thousand people, he estimated, and was made all "of
Stone, not one peece of Timber in it, the roomes all arched, each with severall
Copula. It stands betwene Two gardens, built also by her."71 According to Tem-
ple, Mundy's editor, the two gardens mentioned here are the Mod Bagh built by
Nur Jahan herself and, he guesses, the Nawal (or Nawab) Ganj built during the
reign of Shah Jahan. 72 Nur Jahan, of course, was still alive when Mundy made
his visit to the Agra sarai, but would have been fully retired and in exile at her
home in Lahore.

Tomb of Itimaduddaula, Agra

When Itimaduddaula died in January of 1622, a tomb fit to celebrate the magni-
tude of the late minister's service to the empire was begun. Although Jahangir
does not mention it specially, the privilege of undertaking such an elaborate
project may have been the greatest gift of all to his wife, for the tomb has been
universally attributed to the hands of Nur Jahan.73 Itimaduddaula's tomb took
six years to finish (1622—28) and was completed at an enormous cost, much of
the expense no doubt born by the empress's own treasuries.74 Pelsaert, at the
beginning of his stay in Agra, for example, estimated that the minister's "tomb
has already cost fully 350,000 rupees, and will cost 1,000,000 more before it is
finished."75 According to one of the legends surrounding the tomb, Nur Jahan
wanted to build a mausoleum of pure silver, but advisers convinced her to use
white marble instead, as it would be a more stable and durable finish in India's
notoriously damaging climate.
Itimaduddaula's tomb was built in his own garden on the eastern bank of the
 Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan 231

Yamuna River across from Agra. The garden itself is of the charbagh type,
divided into four squares and surrounded by a wall, and its gatehouse "ap-
proached by a straight drive, with orchards [planted] on either side." The
regular establishment of orchard trees here reflected the traditional practice of
using marketable produce to provide "funds for the upkeep of the garden after
the death of the owner.76 The mausoleum itself [see Figure 7-1] stands on a
simple decorated platform with edges set forth in inlay and raised walkways
leading squarely outward from the middle of each of the four sides: water was
supplied for the pools, chutes, and channels of the garden by underground
pipes. The relationship between building and grounds was designed to please,
for "the harmony between the pale colours of the tomb and the reflected light
from the broad pearly river" was achieved with a charm rare for its time.77
Moreover, the dark trees around the tomb even now "act as a foil"78 to the
structure, leading at least two scholars to conclude that as "far as colour is
concerned, this is probably the most sophisticated of all the Mughul gardens."79
The tomb itself is neither big nor massive, and given the intricate quality of
the inlay on the surface of the white marble, one's eyes are drawn more immedi-
ately to its decoration than to its form. The building is a square measuring sixty-
nine feet on each side, with four octagonal towers rising up one at each corner.
Partway above the line of the continuous eaves (chajjd) and latticed railing, each
tower becomes cylindrical and is capped by a domed kiosk whose round edges
mimic the circle of the balcony. The domed balconies themselves are reached by
stairs leading directly up from the flat roof of the building and could as easily be
function-specific as purely formal. In the center of the roof Nur Jahan placed a
square pavilion (baradan) on a platform [see Figure 9-2] bearing a deep chajja, a
low square dome, and four finials matching those on the corner turrets. 80 Three
arches open out each side of the main portion of the building [see Figure 9-3],
and they are separated one from the other by latticed lancets. Inside this lower
story is a vaulted central chamber containing the cenotaphs of Itimaduddaula
and Asmat Begam and walls decorated with paintings set in deep niches. The
upper pavilion contains a second pair of cenotaphs [see Figure 9-4] arranged in a
much more intimate space and surrounded on each side by large latticed win-
dows. Says Andrews of the view from inside: "the quality of light from . . . [this
pavilion's] lattices is enchanting."81
Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the tomb, however, is its surface decora-
tion, which is so exquisite that it appears "bejewelled . . . like a brilliant cas-
ket."82 On almost every area except the domes, the white marble surface of the
tomb has been worked with polished inlays of semiprecious stones in a tech-
nique similar to that developed in Florence in the sixteenth century. Called pietra
dura, it has been argued that both the concept and the technique of this inlay was
brought from Italy to India where it was subsequently copied by Mughal build-
ers.83 Other scholars have argued, however, that the Florentine work is more
figurative than the Indian, the former often being a direct copy of pictures made
in other media while the Indian is more decorative and a direct development
instead of earlier local patterned mosaics.84
The pietra dura of Itimaduddaula's tomb was one of the very earliest true
232 NUR JAHAN

FIGURE 9-2. Central square roof pavilion, Itimaduddaula's tomb, Agra. Courtesy of
the Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.

examples of the technique in India. 85 Workmen began by cutting geometric and

figurative cavities into the smooth surface of the white marble. Into these cavi-
ties were laid precision-fit pieces of semiprecious stone like jasper, cornelian,
topaz, and onyx, each ground to show the grain and markings of the mineral to
the greatest advantage. The inlay was so intricate and the materials so hard,
however, that the task of construction was much closer to that of a jeweler than
that of a mason.86 Geometrical designs and scrollwork predominate on the lower
exterior of the tomb, while more representational images of ewers, covered cups,
vases, cypress trees, creepers, grapes, and flowers are featured on the upper
exterior and interior surfaces of the building. The color tones of blacks, browns,
reds, golds, and tans against the white ground proved more varied and elaborate
than the earlier styles of carved relief or of marble-inlaid sandstone, and the
extensive use of stone-inlaid marble as a building clad was to become one of "the
distinguishing features of [this] the greatest period of Moghul architecture." 87
For the most part, the pietra dura work of the Itimaduddaula was designed in
 Arts and Architecture of Nur Jahan 233

FIGURE 9-3. Latticed archway, exterior lower story, Itimaduddaula's tomb, Agra.
Courtesy of the Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.

panels with an elaborate dado around the whole of the outside, and with inlaid
brackets beneath the chajjas spaced to accent the vertical framing on both sto-
ries. "An extraordinary delicacy unites it all,"88 and this along with "the chaste
quality of its decoration places it in a class by itself." Itimaduddaula's tomb, says
Marshall, truly "expresses . . . the high aesthetic ideals that prevailed among
the Moghals at that time."89
Nur Jahan's great monument to her father is important as well because it
reflected architectural transitions occurring in a number of areas that were to
achieve full flower in the tomb of Arjumand Banu. We can identify at least five
areas of the building that reflect this transition, some relating to design and some
to ornament. First, the very use of white marble as an extensive building mate-
rial was just coming into fashion, and although occasional other buildings of the
period had already been reclad in marble, the Itimaduddaula was the first to use
marble as an original outer surface. The tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti, for
example, which had been built of sandstone in 1580 to 1581, was recovered in
marble in 1605 to 1606 as a part of Jahangir's accession activities, and Hoshang
Shah's tomb (d. 1435) eventually appeared clad in marble although there is some
doubt as to when and under what circumstances this work was originally done.90
FIGURE 9-4. Floor and lattice patterns around cenotaphs of Itimaduddaula and Asmat
Begam in upper pavilion of Itimaduddaula's tomb, Agra. Courtesy of the Archaeologi-
cal Survey of India, New Delhi.

234
 Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan 235

Nur Jahan's decision to use white marble, regardless of the circumstances under
which it was made, was in complete keeping with the general opulence and
luxury of her tastes, with the goodly purse she had to hand, and with the current
refinement of the Mughal court. Moreover, against the extraordinary visual
success of Itimaduddaula's tomb, the subsequent need to use white marble was
perhaps already a foregone conclusion by the time Shah Jahan began to plan for
the Taj Mahal.
Second, in the pietra dura of this tomb marble inlay achieved its most intri-
cate and elaborate expression yet, surpassing, say some, even the later work of
the Taj. While geometric and representational designs had been worked earlier
in fired mosaics and marble set in sandstone, and while semiprecious stones had
already been set on a small scale into marble surfaces, the treatment of inlay in
the Itimaduddaula was the first time these stones had been used for ornament
over the entire surface of a building. Together with the innovative use of the
white marble ground, these new surfaces created a color scheme more brilliant
and varied than any seen before and, in its complex repeating earth tones,
perhaps more subtle and sophisticated than those to appear later in the Taj.
Moreover, the quality of the inlay was much more refined, for earlier mosaic had
simply placed one piece of stone by the side of another on a flat ground, and
earlier inlay had been used to outline areas rather than to lay forth entire panels,
tower sides, and wall lengths. The builders of Itimaduddaula's tomb took on,
says Gascoigne, "a considerably harder task, that of laying unsymmetrical and
curved pieces of stone into a marble surface to make free figures of scrolls and
flowers,"91 and did so over decidedly larger expanses of ground.
New as well to the surface treatment of the tomb, third, were some of the
figurative ornaments preferred by the queen. Daughter of an immigrant from
Persia, intent on commemorating the cultural heritage of her father, Nur Jahan
drew upon her Safavid roots both in her basic preoccupation with surface as well
as in the Persian motifs she placed throughout. M. C. Joshi has noted that in the
Bada Batashewala Mahal, an early Mughal tomb just north of the tomb of
Humayun in Delhi, Persian ornament similar to that found in the Itimaduddaula
tomb is present on a long panel above the entrance to the mortuary chamber.
Built to commemorate the remains of Mirza Muzaffar Husain, son of Ibrahim
Husain and husband of Jahangir's sister, Shahzada Khanam, who died in 1603,
the Bada Batashewala Mahal has considerable significance in the history of
Mughal architecture because, in eschewing the superimposed dome, it "is
amongst those few early Mughal . . . sepulchres . . . [which are] flat-roofed."92
Prefiguring thus the Itimaduddaula's flat roof, this mahal is also just antecedent
to the Agra tomb in its Persian-style designs: the pieces of note in the its front
panel being the cypress, the sprinkler, and the cup and saucer.93 On the surface
of the Itimaduddaula, however, Nur Jahan has given much more. Here the
cypress is now encircled by twining creepers, a Rajput element thought to
symbolize the love of Nur Jahan and Jahangir, and in addition to the perfume
sprinkler and uncovered cup and saucer, the walls carry covered scent boxes,
Chinese vases, wine cups, double-bodied planters [see Figure 9-5] and stylized
renderings of grapes and pomegranates.
FIGURE 9-5. Carved and inlaid archway, Itimaduddaula's tomb, Agra. Courtesy of the
Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.

236
 Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan 237

The Itimaduddaula also advances beyond Bada Batashewala in its carved

reliefs, which so admirably suggest the textile patterns loved by contemporary
designers. As noted earlier, the elaborately worked surfaces above arches such as
in Figure 9-5, indicate the kind of chicken-work embroidery that Nur Jahan and
her colleagues must have crafted by course as a part of zanana life, their three-
dimensional plans mimicking and relieving the framed surfaces of inlay below.
Moreover, the stylized flowers carved inside friezes suggest the traditional
sculpted surfaces of Indian carpets such as Nur Jahan herself may have designed
and give additional expression to the empress's passion for gardening so evident in
the pleasances of the hills and the plains. Joshi argues that, apart from the geomet-
ric designs, all the decorative motifs of the Itimaduddaula tomb must have been
inspired directly by Nur Jahan,94 and despite the precedent-setting patterns on the
Bada Batashewala Mahal, such a conclusion is happily inevitable. Andrews, in
fact, has described the overall surface of the Itimaduddaula as having "a
recognisably Iranian quality, here attributed to the influential taste of his daugh-
ter, the Queen Nur Jahan."95 While the cypress is indeed an old Persian symbol,
the twining creeper is decidedly Indian, and in the collective achievement of
ornament on the tomb we see not only an interweaving of these two design styles
but, perhaps more importantly, a reflection of the genuine refinement and sophis-
tication particular to life at the Jahangiri court.
The Itimaduddaula tomb is transitional, fourth, not only in its approval of
the flat roof design of the Bada Batashewala Mahal, but also in its freezing of the
portable upper awning of the earlier tomb into marble on the Agra piece. As
Andrews has pointed out, the stone constructions now remaining of the Mughal
architectural heritage "are mere skeletons, deprived of the soft furnishings
which gave them useful life."96 As a part of Mughal living chambers, awnings
and canopies would ordinarily have been stretched from rings and poles and
used thereby to define space by giving shade, protection, and privacy. Their
flexibility allowed occupants to manipulate light and air at will and their portabil-
ity gave them a usefulness unknown to more permanent structures. The flat roof
of the Bada Batashewala Mahal has the remains of twelve such masonry rings
mounted along the inner edge of the outer parapet, one at each of the four
corners and two spaced evenly on each of the four sides. Joshi argues that these
rings were used to support a central awning mounted on four poles whose top
and sides covered the platform of the upper cenotaph. This type of awning, "a
canopied structure on the roof-terrace of a tomb," was borrowed from the
pleasure pavilions used in early Mughal gardens for entertainments. Moreover,
like the Itimaduddaula, the Bada Batashewala was situated in a garden of the
usual charbagh type surrounded by a walled enclosure,97 thus enhancing the
garden origins of its rooftop awning.
In this way, the tomb of Itimaduddaula developed the second-story garden-
house structure by freezing the portable canopy known to the Bada Batashewala.
Four sided and with a deeply protruding awning-like chajja [see Figure 9-2], the
square marble pavilion on the roof of the Agra tomb is reminiscent of the Delhi
building's cloth awning even more because of the four finials that protrude like
tent poles from the top of the Itimaduddaula dome. There was thus, says Joshi
238 NUR JAHAN

of the later tomb, "a transformation of the canopied structure of cloth on Bada
Batashewala-Mahal into a permanent surmounting pavilion of more durable
material."98
Finally, we find structural transition in the development of the four attached
corner towers in the Itimaduddaula, which become in the Taj fully detached
minarets. The earlier Bada Batashewala has vaulted diagonal alleyways inside
each corner of the main level that are set against the quoins of the central mortuary
chamber. Perhaps because this arrangement lacked strength and because it "pro-
duced a complicated interior of little utilitarian value and, aesthetically, an unim-
pressive exterior," the quoins were changed in the Itimaduddaula to attached
octagonal towers," which housed in each a "regular corner-apartment"100 and
whose open upper balconies could assume the proper religious function of a
public Muslim tomb. The towers, whose upper portions have been unflatteringly
called "squat,"101 are in fact in perfect keeping by height and volume with the rest
of the building, continuing as they do the interplay between planed and curved
surfaces whose harmony contributes substantially to the tomb's visual success.
The position of the turrets here recalls the design of Akbar's tomb in Sikandra,102
but in their form they are derived from the turret atop the Hiran Minar near
Lahore, built by Jahangir in memory of his pet antelope.103
There is, as P. Brown has noted, no other building in India quite like the
tomb of Itimaduddaula. 104 As a pioneer work in surface ornament, it established
white marble cladding firmly in the repertoire of Mughal architecture and
achieved levels of inlay technique and color tone not ever equalled in subtlety or
sophistication again.105 As a transitional piece, it experimented with the flat roof,
with the fixed garden pavilion on the upper story, and with the placement and
use of attached corner towers—all of which resulted in a form as pleasing to the
eye as an exquisite "gem [set] within its casket [of a garden]."106 The overall
effect of the tomb, however, results from an interplay of all its elements: of flat
with curved, bare with decorated, airy with thick, short with tall, dark with
light, public with private. Nur Jahan created here, in her pocket-sized memorial
to her father, a piece so personal as to be free of time and place, and yet so bound
to history that, if it did not exist, it would have to be supposed.

Pattar Masjid, Srinagar

Nur Jahan's later forays into Kashmir, taken as much for pleasure as for health,
became known primarily because of the gardens they produced. They also
yielded some buildings, however, lesser known than the gardens, but neverthe-
less of some importance. Among the varied products of the Mughals' prolific
building spree in Kashmir was a mosque constructed by Nur Jahan and known
alternately as the Shahi Masjid (Royal Mosque), Nau Masjid (New Mosque),
and Pattar Masjid (Stone Mosque). Most buildings in the mountain valley were,
as had been true for some time, made of wood, but consonant with their imperial
designs and perhaps with a view toward immortality, the Mughals decided to
revive the ancient practice of building in stone, and Nur Jahan's new mosque
became as noteworthy for its building material as it was because it was hers.
 Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan 239

Made of the gray limestone that was available in Kashmir, the Pattar Masjid
has a front facade of nine arches including a central arched portico [see Figure
9-6]. Each of the side arched openings is enclosed in a "shallow decorative
cusped arch," which is in turn enclosed in a shallow rectangular frame while the
deep front central entrance hall has carved vaultings framing a scalloped door-
way. 107
Associated with the mosque is a curious story, which though surely apocry-
phal, was undoubtedly circulated to account for the later degradation of the site.
When the mosque was completed, Nur Jahan was asked how much it cost. She is
said to have pointed to her slipper and replied, "as much as that." Upon hearing
of her reply the ulama were incensed and, believing the mosque to be sullied at
the mere mention of footwear, prohibited its use for religious purposes. While
the Shujauddins have rejected the truth of this story,108 it is certainly in keeping
with at least the traditional view of Nur Jahan's wit and extended sense of
proportion, and does give some rationale, if late, for the mosque's subsequent
use as a rice granary.

Tomb of Nur Jahan, Lahore

After Jahangir's death and her own exile to Lahore in 1627, Nur Jahan's public
role and sovereign duties diminished. She is said to have spent her remaining
years in retirement attending to whatever domestic, charitable, and religious
affairs she could and to the construction of her final edifice, that to house her

FIGURE 9-6. General view, Pattar Masjid, Srinagar. Courtesy of Jeffrey Moffett.
240 NUR JAHAN

own remains. Although several have argued that Nur Jahan took some of these
last eighteen years to supervise the design and building of Jahangir's tomb, 109 it is
not likely that her involvement was extensive given her close guard by the
officers of Shah Jahan as well as the new emperor's resolve, now that Jahangir
was really dead, to build as fitting a memorial to his father and as grand a
testament to his own sovereignty as possible. However, Nur Jahan may well
have frequented the site of her husband's tomb, as the Shujauddins have sug-
gested.110 And as she watched the building go up there, and as she noted the
severely reduced quality of her own life in seclusion, she must have known that
Shah Jahan would not provide comparable sanctuary for her. Her monument,
then, she would have decided, would have to come entirely from her own hands.
Funds for the project were undoubtedly drawn from her yearly allowance (two
lakh rupees111) and from what she could requisition of her own treasuries in
Agra. She began construction of her tomb after her brother, Asaf Khan, died in
1641 and had presumably finished a good part of it by the time she herself died
in late 1645.
Nur Jahan placed her tomb in a garden of the Shahdara near Jahangir's
mausoleum [see Figure 9-7]. The Shujauddins note that the garden, formerly in
the possession of Nur Jahan, became a public garden when Jahangir was buried
there and suggest that "Noor Jahan either founded a new garden for her[self ] in
the vicinity of the mausoleum of her husband, or ... already possessed another
garden at Shahdara" among the many Mughal sites along the banks of the river

FIGURE 9-7. General view, Nur Jahan's tomb, Shahdara, Lahore. Courtesy of James
L. Wescoat, Jr.
 Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan 241

Ravi.112 Like the tomb of Itimaduddaula, Nur Jahan's tomb was set on a square
plinth in a walled area of the charbagh type, with water channels dividing the
charbagh from pools that had been set in each side of the platform. The original
garden, none of which now survives, was said to have been four hundred yards
square, containing within its boundaries the house where Nur Jahan was left to
live.113 The Shujauddins note that cypress, tulips, roses, and jasmine were origi-
nally planted alongside the brick pathways, canals, waterfalls, tanks, and foun-
tains that laid out the garden, and that fruit trees, especially date palms, pro-
vided marketable produce.
Judging from the tomb as it stands today in restored form, Nur Jahan's
mausoleum was a square construction, probably of one permanent story, with
seven arches like those of the Itimaduddaula, opening out the corridors on each
of the four sides. Covering the central arch of each side was a protruding exterior
archway, and at each of the four corners were octagonal towers, reminiscent of
those attached to the Itimaduddaula—their height now, however, rising no
further than the level of the roof of the building. The Shujauddins hypothesize
that "there must have been either towers or minarets on the four corners"114
topped by balconies and domed and finialed kiosks following the pattern of the
tombs of Itimaduddaula and Jahangir, and perhaps a pavilion (baradari) on the
roof like her father's. This is likely in at least the first case, though not certain,
given the low profile that Nur Jahan had to maintain while her tomb was being
constructed.
There is no doubt, however, that the design of the three tombs is of one
mind.115 Each is one main story with a flat roof, each has four attached octagonal
corner towers, and the sides of each are perforated by arches: Itimaduddaula's
by three, Jahangir's by eleven, and Nur Jahan's by seven. Moreover, the roofs of
the first two tombs are surrounded by a short and latticed railing, a feature that
may well have been found on Nur Jahan's also. There are two features, however,
which Nur Jahan's tomb may have held in common with her husband's but not
with her father's: an absence of latticing in the outside arches and an absence of
the upper pavilion mounted permanently on the roof. Unlike on the Agra tomb,
the side arches are closely spaced on Jahangir's tomb and open directly into the
interior corridor; moreover, there is no permanently enclosed structure on the
roof. Despite the hypothesis of the Shujauddins on this latter,116 Nur Jahan's
tomb was more likely to have copied the bare-roofed plan of Jahangir's as they
were husband and wife and their tombs were to share space in Shahdara. Struc-
turally, then, her tomb may have been a smaller version of his. Such a conclusion
would suggest that even if not directly involved in the design of her husband's
tomb, Nur Jahan was at least in close contact with its construction.
The interior of Nur Jahan's tomb is arranged in a series of three arched and
columned galleries. In the center is a square room with a central platform on
which are mounted cenotaphs for Nur Jahan and her daughter Ladli [see Figure
9-8]. The arched walls of this inner room together with arches of the three outer
galleries allow a substantial amount of light to enter the central chamber, but if
there ever were any latticework in the arches, the effect early on would have
been much more subdued. This series of galleries around the central chamber
242 NUR JAHAN

FIGURE 9-8. Cenotaphs of Nur Jahan and Ladli Begam, Nur Jahan's tomb, Shahdara,
Lahore. Courtesy of James L. Wescoat, Jr..

served both to filter light coming in and to remove its inhabitants from the
outside world, thus giving the effect of secluding its women within a reduced
form of the zanana.
The surface decoration on the outside of the tomb has been recently restored
with red sandstone inlaid with marble. The sarcophagi, the Shujauddins believe,
were once covered with pietra dura work executed in either multicolored stone
on white or black on white, and it "is certain that her sarcophagus was adorned
with the attributes of God and appropriate verses from the Holy Book."117 Their
conclusions are drawn from the existing work found in the tombs of
Itimaduddaula, Jahangir, and Asaf Khan, but do not take into account that Nur
Jahan had a limited purse, and was laboring as well under a hostile regime. Old
remnants of interior surface decoration are still to be found in Nur Jahan's tomb,
however, but they are of a painted design rather than of inlaid stone. On several
of the interior walls and ceilings are "very nicely executed panels of fine floral
work and geometrical designs," one of these latter pieces being a gulkari on part
of the ceiling of the second gallery.118 But since so much of the ornament is now
gone119 and since it may be that the tomb was not ever completely finished,120 we
cannot tell the full scope of this last of Nur Jahan's personal quarters.
Nur Jahan's tomb remains a mystery. We do not know if it had corner towers
above the first story roofline or how high, if present, they might have been. We
do not know if she had a central upper pavilion to cover the rooftop cenotaphs,
or what kind of cladding covered the brick and mortar on the outside of the
 Arts and Architecture ofNurJahan 243

whole. We do not know if she used much inlay and if so what type or color it
was. We do not know how much of the interior was painted, and how much and
what kind of latticework was used on the windows. We do know, however, that
the tomb fell decidedly within the tradition of her father's and husband's, but
that unlike theirs, hers was not protected by imperial immunity from the on-
slaught of marauding bands.
 10

In the Gardens of
Eternal Spring
For places of pleasure they have curious gardens, planted with fruitfull trees
and delightfull flowers, to which Nature daily lends such a supply as that
they seerne never to fade. In these places they have pleasant fountaynes to
bathe in and other delights by sundrie conveyances of water, whose silent
murmure helps to lay their senses with the bonds of slecpe in the hot seasons
of the day.
Edward Terry, Early Travels in India, edited by William Foster

Kashmir is a garden of eternal spring, or an iron fort to a palace of kings—a

delightful flower-bed, and a heart-expanding heritage for dervishes.
The Tuzuk-i-Jahangin, translated by A. Rogers and edited by Henry Bevcridge

The most alluring and influential of all the arts of Nur Jahan, however, was the
most ephemeral, that of gardening. Villiers Stuart has ranked Nur Jahan along
with Babur as the best and most prolific of all those who inspired and designed
Mughal gardens' and even goes so far as to call Nur Jahan herself "the greatest
garden lover of them all."
Nur Jahan's entrance into the landscape arts as Jahangir's chief agent in the
field did not necessarily break new ground for women, for Mughal women had
been laying out gardens for years. In 1607, for example, Jahangir recorded having
walked through several of the better-known gardens of Kabul, among them
gardens constructed previously by Bika Begam, his great-grandmother; Maryam
Makani, his grandmother; and Shahr Banu Begam, an ancestral aunt. 2 Again, in
early 1613, Jahangir recorded the death of Salima Sultan Begam, widow first of
Bairam Khan and then of Akbar, and his order to Itimaduddaula to bury her in the
Mandakar garden, "which she herself had made"3 sometime earlier. Later, at the
beginning of 1619, Jahangir stopped at a garden near Bayana southwest of Agra
set out previously (in 1613) by his mother, Maryamuzzamani, and remarked at
this time that the building she constructed within the grounds was impressive and
exceedingly well made. 4
244
 In the Gardens of Eternal Spring 245

It was Nur Jahan, however, who made possible the elevation of what had
been merely a minor personal pastime to a major imperial pursuit. Drawing
initially upon the natural conjunction between the private focus of Persian gar-
dens and the secluded life of the harem, Nur Jahan broadened the concept of the
garden, giving it an official sovereign function and then opening it up, at least in
part, for popular use. In this way, gardens proliferated throughout the empire
under her patronage and were designed and executed with increasing refinement
and elegance. Moreover, the imperial couple used their gardens not only for the
private pleasures of parties, family celebrations, art displays, and meditations,
but increasingly for diplomatic and political functions as well: Jahangir brought
rebellious sons to task there, he met with groups of religious there, and he held
open court with foreigners there. This bursting forth of gardens and the ex-
panded repertoire of their use could only have happened, however, in conjunc-
tion with another change Nur Jahan was encouraging at the time: the reorienta-
tion of travel by women primarily for the sake of leisure.
Before Jahangir, special travel time for leisure was allocated only to men in
order that they might pursue such amusements as the hunt or polo. Women
traveled as well but only, for example, to make a pilgrimage, accompany military
and diplomatic campaigns, visit family, or escape the dangers of an approaching
enemy. Women went with men when they went out for fun, to be sure, but only
as part of the household accoutrements, to add to the pleasure and well-being of
the male principal or to be protected from a greedy neighbor made bold by an
absent lord. Women could and did make short excursions by themselves for
picnics and tours of local sights, but these were rare and seem to have been
reserved for exceptional occasions.5 With Nur Jahan, however, such confining
circumstances for women began to fall away. As the prevailing Hindu ethic of
kama for the householder became not only tolerated but affirmed as an official
Mughal norm, women who had previously symbolized tightly controlled family
honor and the closure of dynastic morality now became the vehicles for an open
ethic of courtly pleasure. We have seen that a comparison of paintings from the
Akbar era with those commissioned under Jahangir shows women in the earlier
period depicted either as veiled and secluded matrons or, individually, as adulter-
ous or profligate deviants to this model. In the later period, however, women
became confident sensualists whose open attire and epicurean habits were fully
accepted in the growing cult of material luxury at court. It was this code of
pleasure, presided over and inspirited by Nur Jahan, that opened the way for
greater travel by women for the sake of leisure.
As women now went out more often for their own amusement—whether it
was to see a local waterfall, taste the melons of the region, or simply get some
fresher air—rest stations and gardens began to proliferate to the far reaches of
the Mughal countryside in order to accommodate the expanding needs of the
harem. Organized and orderly travel had been a mainstay of Akbar's journeys,
to be sure, but now under Jahangir it became a matter of course. On the road
between Delhi and Agra, for example, Jahangir had a double row of trees
planted6 for the pleasure of travelers in a symbolic linking of two main Mughal
capitals. He ordered special buildings set up on the hillside for the journey out of
246 NUR JAHAN

Kashmir in order that he and his women would not have to stay in tents during
the cold weather. 7 And one of Nur Jahan's most memorable buildings was her
Nur Mahal Sarai in Jalandhar built for the accommodation of travelers moving
through the region. Travel, then, which had formerly been a leisure pursuit only
for men, now became an accepted and even preferred mode of pleasure for
women, and gardens, whether as way stations or as journey's end, now became
the symbol of women's more sensual lifestyle as encouraged under Jahangir.

The gardens of Mughal India took their pattern from centuries-old Persian
antecedents. The standard form of the paradise garden used idealized treatments
of irrigated water as the symbols for the spiritual and physical source of life and
exceptional species of living things to mark out space along perfected lines. In its
most basic form, the Persian garden had four water channels, each crossing into
the center of the garden and creating four orderly quadrants (hence the name
charbagK). These channels were ordinarily placed above the level of the surround-
ing grounds so that their waters might feed the lines of trees planted along their
banks as well as the fruits and flowers growing out within the quadrants and
beyond. A wall was built around the entire garden to keep the dust at bay and to
ensure privacy and protection for those within, and in the center, at the meeting
of the four channels, a baradari was often constructed to provide shade and rest
amidst the cooling waters. 8
The Mughals adopted this basic plan of the Persian garden, changing it as
needed to fit the vagaries of the Indian plains and of the mountainside sites of
Kashmir, and in doing so, they played increasingly with the intricate geometric
possibilities of the given prototype. By combining the shape of the square (repre-
senting material life) with that of the circle (representing eternal spiritual life),
the Mughals developed the octagon as a symbolic pattern reconciling the two
spheres; and by dividing the garden into eight parts, they could represent the
eight divisions of the Quran. Moreover, the ten-by-ten cubit water tank so often
referred to by Mughal builders was carried over from the ablution tank used in
Persian gardens for ritual washing by the pious before their worship.9 Finally,
the outside wall around the garden became, in Mughal hands, a highly embel-
lished rampart, often with serrated battlements and parapets and imposing en-
trances opening up each of the four sides with large and ornate gateways.10
Added to the widened water channels, the enlargened tanks, and the water-set
pavilions, these exaggerated enclosures became a standard mark of the Mughal
style in India.
Essential to the garden always was water, and despite the proliferation of
gorgeous plants and exquisite buildings, water flowing or at rest was the heart of
what was seen, heard, and felt. The two main functions of water, to irrigate the
plants and to cool the air, were addressed primarily by stone and brick canals,
which ran through the garden and around its edges. Large receptacle tanks
(hauz) were placed strategically at different levels to retain sizeable loads and
 In the Gardens of Eternal Spring 247

often to change or stem the water's movement. These large tanks often housed
elaborate display fountains, water plants, and fish and, with the canals, were
connected by concealed irrigation pipes to all the areas needing infusion. Mov-
ing water often fell down water chutes (chadar) whose surface was carved in
intricate patterns designed to play with the streams moving over it. Pavilions
were usually placed on or by the water and were coolest when set at the conflu-
ence of canals or just opposite a large chadar. The water chilled the stone floors,
walls, and roofs, and if the building were open enough, the wind could move
calming, scent-laden breezes through all the rooms.
The variety of plants found in Mughal gardens was great and, by some
accounts, there were so many different types that the gardens could be kept in
continuous bloom all year. The "fruitfull trees and delightfull flowers," said
Terry, "seeme never to fade."11 This variety became even greater after Nur Jahan
began going to Kashmir, for upon her return she quickly introduced types
known only to the hills into the plains. Many of these new varieties, such as the
blue Kashmir iris, have been immortalized in the inlaid panels of the Taj Mahal,
where Shah Jahan followed Akbar's portraits of men and Jahangir's portraits of
animals with his own portraits of flowers. Popular trees in the full-blown
Mughal garden included the chenar or plane tree, the willow, and the cypress, as
well as a great variety of fruit trees the sale of whose produce helped to pay
expenses incurred in maintaining the gardens. By Peter Mundy's account of
1632, the fruit trees included "Apple trees (those scarse), Orenge Trees,
Mulberrie trees, etts. Mango trees, Caco [cocoanut] trees, Figg trees, (and)
Plantan trees,"12 as well as cherry, apricot, pomegranate, and guava. In Kashmir,
the usual orange and citron trees were replaced by the hardier apple and plum.
Flowers, however, were the ultimate ornament and Mundy began the list with
the following: "Roses . . . French Mariegolds aboundance; Poppeas redd, carna-
tion and white; and divers other sortes of faire flowers which wee knowe not in
our parts, many groweinge on prettie trees, all watered by hand in tyme of
drought, which is 9 monethes in the Yeare."13 Other flowers used in turn in-
cluded the narcissus, lily, crocus, iris, tulip, dahlia, jasmine, and lilac—many
found in such abundance in Kashmir that Jahangir had a series of paintings of
Kashmiri wildflowers commissioned by the artist Mansur. The flowers of Kash-
mir so struck Nur Jahan and Jahangir that, upon their return from their first
joint trip there in 1620, not only were new varieties introduced into the gardens
of the plains, but the flower—rendered individually and in loving detail—
became an important design motif in art as well. Said Jahangir prophetically in
1605: "From the excellencies of its sweet-scented flowers one may prefer the
fragrances of India to those of the flowers of the whole world."14

II

Some claim that all gardens established by Jahangir after 1611 were in fact laid
out jointly by the imperial couple.15 This may well be true given the speed with
which Nur Jahan took power and the affinity she so clearly had for growing
248 NUR JAHAN

things. We do know that the gardens of the plains were among the first designed
by or belonging to Nur Jahan and that it was in Agra where many of the best of
these were located. Pelsaert, for example, noted late in Jahangir's reign that in
Agra there were "many very handsome gardens, with buildings as delightful as
the groves, among them those of ... Nurjahan Begam."16 The principal
Mughal gardens of Agra, that "grand old" city "of Hindustan," 17 were set along
the banks of the Yamuna within the habitable part of the city, with most of the
sites extending along the river's eastern curve.

Nur Afshan Garden (Ram Bagh), Agra

Some time after their marriage, Jahangir gave Nur Jahan an old garden of
Babur's for her own. Babur had not liked the site originally—thinking it ugly
and unpleasant because it was flat, irregular, and at times quite swampy—but he
needed a resting post outside of Agra and there was no better place than this spot
on the eastern bank of the Yamuna now known as Ram Bagh (Aram Bagh or
"Garden of Repose"), a name given to it some say by the Marathas in the
eighteenth century.18 After fortifying the bank with stone and earth there, Babur
built a large well to supply water for his hot bath, various tanks for public and
private use, and houses for himself and his entourage. Although Babur did not
ultimately take to India, the garden he created there with its local resources
proved a delightful and much-used place. Even though it was on what Jahangir
called "improved land," few places were its "equal in beauty"19 and Gul Afshan
("Flower Scattering"), the name by which it was known to Babur's immediate
descendants, endured as a tribute to the master's lasting hand at the land. In
Jahangir's 1605 description of it, Gul Afshan sported a small building cut of red
stone and a mosque on one of its sides but lacked the lofty building on its other
side that Babur had always planned to erect but never did. At this time, just after
Jahangir's accession, Gul Afshan was especially known for its excellent fruit
trees and vines, among them melons, grapes, tamarinds, mangoes, and pineap-
ples, and Jahangir's early court often enjoyed its produce.20
Just when Nur Jahan was given the garden—or when she appropriated it as
her own—we do not know, but we do know that by early 1621, it had already
become an established spot for the couple and had acquired the name of Nur
Afshan ("Light Scattering"). Since Jahangir was still calling the garden Gul
Afshan when he visited it in 1619 and rewarded its keeper Khwaja Jahan (an
honorary title for Dust Muhammad, the engineer responsible for laying out
Jahangir's gardens in Agra and the fort in Lahore) for his fine care of the fruit
and flowers there,21 Nur Jahan must not have taken over patronage and direction
of the garden until some time shortly after that. The first mention made of the
garden as Nur Afshan in the Tuzuk is following Nur Jahan's 1620 trip to Kash-
mir when she and the emperor halted there for three days before marching on
into Agra at an auspiciously appointed hour.22 Two weeks later Nur Jahan and
Jahangir held an entertainment in the Nur Afshan during which they passed out
gifts of honor to attendants, 23 and in March of 1621, as part of the New Year's
festivities, Jahangir retired to the Nur Afshan by boat with his ladies for a rest. 24
 In the Gardens of Eternal Spring 249

The stay was not long for Jahangir seems to have returned almost immediately to
his palace in Agra proper, but the women of the harem went back to the garden
later that year.25
The Nur Afshan, or Ram Bagh, has the distinction of being one of the oldest
recognizable Mughal gardens in India.26 Many alterations have been made to it
over the years, and it is not clear which of these can be attributed to Nur Jahan.
The original orderly and geometric patterns of the site remain, as do many of the
water channels, the well, the platforms, and the pavilions.27 It is possible that
Nur Jahan ordered some new building at the site, but it is much more probable
that most of her innovations lay in the types of flowers and trees that grew inside
the grounds, influenced as she was by seeing so much in Kashmir.

Nur Manzil Garden (Zahara Bagh), Agra

About the time Jahangir began to mention the Nur Afshan in the Tuzuk, he also
began to make reference to the garden of Nur Manzil (Abode of Light), likewise
in the vicinity of Agra and likewise, we presume, under the purview of Nur
Jahan. H. Beveridge notes that the Nur Manzil was the same garden as Dahra
Bagh,28 the garden Jahangir often stayed in when he left Agra to go on hunting
expeditions or diplomatic missions as he did in 1613 and 1614.29 This Dahra
Bagh is almost certainly the same garden with pavilion built by Babar for a
daughter of his named Zahra, which is known today as the Zahara Bagh and is
located just south of the Ram Bagh.30 If this attribution is correct, then the Nur
Manzil of the Tuzuk lay just below the Nur Afshan, on an adjacent plot along the
eastern bank of the Yamuna. Although Jahangir never actually said that the Nur
Manzil belonged to or was patronized by Nur Jahan, we can assume from its new
name and from the time of its ascendance that it was, in good measure, one of
the main projects of the queen.
The garden of Nur Manzil, and its newly erected buildings, first appear in
the Tuzuk in the spring of 1619. Having heard much praise of the recently begun
work there, Jahangir decided to visit and found a substantial wall of brick and
cement surrounding a large building and a "highly decorated" residence. Reser-
voir tanks had already been made and thirty-two pairs of bullocks continually
drew water from a large well just outside the gate. Other wells and numerous
canals passed water into the garden plots and "all kinds of fountains and cas-
cades" allowed water collected from rain in the middle tank, or from wellwaters,
to cool the air for visitors. Although Rs. 150,000 had already been spent by the
time of Jahangir's first visit, the garden was not yet finished, and he noted at
that time that canals and walls needed to be strengthened, avenues laid out, and
plants set in—a task that would raise the total cost of the project to about Rs.
200,000.31
The great pleasure Jahangir took in this garden must have increased substan-
tially the next few times he visited when more of the site was finished. Returning
to the Nur Manzil later in 1619, Jahangir said, "I passed the time in enjoyment
in that rose-garden of delight,"32 and in early 1621 he noted an entertainment put
on there about the same time as he first mentioned the Nur Afshan. The narra-
250 NUR JAHAN

tive of the Tuzuk, then, places the Nur Manzil and the Nur Afshan in close
physical, as well as temporal, proximity, and it would make sense to assume that
Nur Jahan appropriated both these old and adjacent gardens and reworked them
as her own.

Moti Bagh, or Moti Mahal, Agra

Two European travelers have attributed another garden around Agra to Nur
Jahan based on information they were privy to in their journeys. In the latter
half of Jahangir's reign, the Dutch merchant Pelsaert noted that among the
many fort-like gardens on the eastern bank of the Yamuna "with handsome walls
and great gateways" were two that belonged to the king (that is, Jahangir): "one
named Charbagh, the other Moti Mahal."33 Although Pelsaert said nothing more
about it, this Moti Mahal must certainly be the Moti Bagh ("Pearl Garden")
mentioned by the English traveler Mundy, who in late 1632 noted the many
gardens he saw in and around Agra. Of these, he found, there were three that
were great: "Darree ca baug (Dehra Bagh) and King Ecbars (Akbar's) on this
side the river and Mootee ca baag on the other side, the latter built by Noore
mohol."34
Earlier, in August of 1632, Mundy had also noted two gardens on the eastern
bank of the Yamuna and had said they had between them a sarai built by Nur
Jahan: "I departed from . . . Agra . . . and crossing over the river, I came to
Noore mohol ca Sara . . . built by the old Queene Noore mohol [Nur Mahal] for
the accomodation of Travellers. . . . It stands betwene Two gardens, built also
by her."35 In his note to this passage Temple identifies these two gardens as the
Moti Bagh and, perhaps, the "Nawal (or Nawab) Ganj, erected in Shah Jahan's
reign."36 This information corroborates what Pelsaert had told us about the Moti
Mahal/Bagh being among the gardens on the eastern bank of the Yamuna,37 and
part of what the later Mundy passage noted about the location of gardens: that,
from Agra, "Mootee ca baag [was] on the other side" of the river. The rest of this
passage, however, is problematic for it places on the western bank both "Darree
ca baug (Dehra Bagh) and King Ecbars (Akbar's)." Temple notes that by
"Akbar's Garden Mundy apparently means the garden attached to the Em-
peror's tomb at Sikandra,"38 a fair identification as it leaves the Moti Bagh on the
eastern bank, but does not solve the question of the Zahara (Dahra) Bagh, which
we know is also on the eastern bank. The only possible explanation is that
Mundy made a mistake at some point in his geography.
Another recasting of the Moti Bagh is possible as well. In Agra Fort there is a
Moti Masjid built, according to the inscription, by Shah Jahan in 1654. An
alternate view of Mundy's late 1632 passage might locate Zahara Bagh where we
know it to be on the eastern bank, Akbar's garden as any of the other gardens
located nearby, and Moti Bagh as a garden associated with an earlier layout on or
near the grounds of the Moti Masjid across the river. These identifications,
however, seem unlikely, and we leave Nur Jahan's Moti Bagh where modern
scholars place it: among her other gardens on the eastern bank.
Mundy's description of the Moti Bagh added some other unusual elements.
 In the Gardens of Eternal Spring 251

After detailing an architecture typical to this period and some parterre layouts of
sumptuous fruits and flowers, he then noted several specific things unique to the
Moti Bagh: that marigolds were scarce there, and that in "Mootee ca baag were
many roomes painted, which wee might perceive to bee drawne from Europe
prints (of which they make accompt heere). Alsoe there was the picture of Sir
Thomas Roe, late Ambassadour heere, as it was told us."39 Temple presumes
that this picture of Thomas Roe is "a fresco on the wall of the garden palace."40
Whether painted by English agents in residence (Roe was never actually in Agra
himself, skirting the city instead as he followed the court between Ajmer,
Mandu, and Ahmedabad), or more likely by Indian painters privy to the com-
pany of Roe's embassy, the painting serves, fairly acceptably, to date the palace
to the middle of Jahangir's reign.

Itimaduddaula Garden, Agra

The garden of the Itimaduddaula, which along with the tomb was almost cer-
tainly the primary responsibility of Nur Jahan from 1622 on, is a classic small-
scaled example of the old Persian plan. Set right up next to the edge of the
Yamuna, the Itimaduddaula garden has false gateways in the middle of three
sides of the surrounding wall with a waterfront pavilion to the outside of the
structure on the river side. The main gatehouse is opposite the river wall and is
at the end of a straight drive with orchards once planted regularly on either side.
The garden itself is in the traditional charbagh form, with water channels divid-
ing the square into four equal quadrants and the mausoleum placed in the center
at the confluence of the streams. There are four small tanks on each side of the
central platform, each of which contains a single fountain, and there are angular
channels that carry water to all four corners of the small enclosure. Originally
Nur Jahan would have made great use of the pale colors of the tomb and the
reflections of light off the river in designing the overall scheme of plantings in
the garden, using dark cypresses, for example, to provide contrast and rose
bushes to soften the harshness of the geometric forms.

Garden of Jahangir's Tomb, Shahdara, Lahore

In addition to lining the road between Agra and Delhi with trees, Jahangir also
planted trees along the roadways that led up from Agra to Lahore. This he did,
said Mundy, "for the ease of Travellers and for shade in hott weather," and chose
for this purpose trees that "continue all waies greene."41 The city that lay at the
end of the road was a favorite spot of Nur Jahan's, being closer than any other
imperial capital to the lands of her origin, and it was here where she laid out
numerous gardens along the river Ravi and here where she and Jahangir were
eventually buried.
The garden of Jahangir's tomb at Shahdara lies on the right bank of the Ravi,
five miles north of Lahore. It was once an old pleasure garden of Nur Jahan's
and was used frequently by her and Jahangir during the emperor's lifetime.
When he died near the hill station of Rajauri on the way down from Kashmir in
252 NUR JAIIAN

1627, Jahangir was not taken back to the garden at Vernag to be buried in the
mountains, as was by legend his wish, but instead to the Shahdara garden where
the new emperor, Shah Jahan, could more easily oversee the building of the
tomb and the activities of the now-dethroned, but still powerful, queen. How
much of the new workings of the garden and of the mausoleum itself actually
came under the direct purview of Nur Jahan is not clear—her immediate incar-
ceration and her limited purse and movement suggest minimal firsthand
involvement—but the fact that the design of Jahangir's tomb itself was taken
from that of the Itimaduddaula in Agra indicates strong, if indirect, Nur Jahani
influence.
The outer courtyard of Jahangir's tomb garden at Shahdara is a sarai, having
a series of arched alcoves around the walls where travelers, pilgrims, guards, and
servants would have been able to rest overnight. Inside, in the center of a second
enclosure and reached by a tall gateway, is the tomb itself built on an enlarged
scale after the tomb of Jahangir's Persian father-in-law. The large garden that
surrounds the tomb recalls the plan of the garden at Sikandra and has regular
fountain tanks around the mausoleum. The canals are wider here than at the
Sikandra site and the causeways are done in the large brickwork patterns tradi-
tional to Lahore.42 Villiers Stuart notes that often in extended charbaghs there is
the danger of monotony and that frequently, as would have been the case at
Shahdara, each of the four divisions was laid in different designs or was planted
with its own broad mass of single flowers: tulips, roses, or violets, for example.43
Such may have been true originally of the tomb garden, either during Jahangir's
lifetime or after, where gardens dedicated to only one flower probably rivaled
each other for the patron's attention.

Ill

Despite the beauty of the plains, it was Kashmir that drew the royal couple as no
other place ever had. Although Jahangir had been going to the Himalayan
valleys since his boyhood with Akbar, it was only under the influence of Nur
Jahan that their immense appeal became realized.
Kashmir was an ideal spot for gardens. The abundance of water there could
take on many forms and lent itself easily to the show and refinement of a man-
made garden. In addition, the natural diversity of the terrain allowed for the
combination and recombination of features in an unending variety. Gardens
here, the Mughals discovered, no longer had to be flat, but could be terraced
and layered in any number of ways to suit a hillside site; and the abundance and
versatility of the many natural bodies of water were infinitely superior to the
artificial tanks and canals of the plains. Jahangir and Nur Jahan thus found in
Kashmir a natural paradise, a landscape needing nothing more than what it
offered to be an ideal refuge. But they also found a countryside that could be
shaped and changed and made even more beautiful as suited their own particular
needs and forms of patronage. Moreover, in making what came to be a yearly
pilgrimage to Kashmir from the time of the middle reign on, Nur Jahan and
 In the Gardens of Eternal Spring 253

Jahangir established a precedent that would render the valley a holiday refuge
for their countrymen for centuries to come.
Jahangir did much to establish Kashmir as a center of Mughal culture. By his
own account, he went there twice with Akbar and even then was fascinated with
the natural life he found around the spring at Vernag.44 Although all of his later
accounts of Kashmir in the Tuzuk are highly romanticized, it is the very first
narratives which indicate just how idealized he found life in the Himalayas. In
1607, for example, Jahangir noted the great purity of the water at Vernag, the
extraordinary abundance of saffron at the nearby village of Pampur, and the
immunity of Kashmiri workmen to headaches derived from the scent of the
saffron flower.45 Although he was to mention Kashmir subsequently in the early
Tuzuk ,46 it would be his memories of his youthful visits that would provide the
vision for his later preoccupation. In all, Jahangir would go to Kashmir six more
times—for the springs and summers of 1620, 1622, 1624, 1625, 1626, and
1627—and each time the adventurous spirit of Nur Jahan would lead the royal
entourage deeper and deeper into the secluded and enchanting recesses of the
valley.
By the time the trips had become regularized, Jahangir was leaving Lahore in
March or April and reaching Kashmir in May.47 Jahangir's early trips with his
father had always been in the fall—"I witnessed the Autumn season [there], and
it appeared to me to be better than what I had heard of it"—but he had never
seen Kashmir in the spring. "I have never seen Spring in that province," he said
in 1607, "but hope to do so some day."48 Thus, when he began to go with Nur
Jahan, he was determined to go in the spring, and so loved that season there that
his schedule remained the same to the end. The journey was tedious, risky, and
very expensive, however, and the preparations so prolonged that in these later
years the court was either in Kashmir, in transit to or from Kashmir, or packing
or unpacking from the trip. Although horses and elephants would certainly have
been used to cross the melting snows, sometimes, as Pelsaert noted, "pack-
animals cannot cross the mountains, and practically everything must be carried
on men's heads." The Kashmir trips, then, were for many a hardship, "but
apparently," continued Pelsaert, "the King prefers his own comfort or pleasure
to the welfare of his people."49
Aside from the beauty and sensual delights that drew the court to Kashmir,
Jahangir made the trip for two reasons: to escape the heat of lower India and to
improve his health. The scorching summer heat of the plains was usually moder-
ated by changes in clothing, diet, and activity level and was further alleviated by
the cooling courtyards and alleyways built into traditional homes. For the
Mughal court, however, with the luxury of a large treasury and a willing and
supportive staff, a retreat to the snow-cooled mountains was the ultimate anti-
dote to plains life during an Indian summer.50 Jahangir, however, also had prob-
lems with his health that were increasingly compounded by the effects of alcohol
and opium. Fever, asthma, and general lethargy were increasingly reason
enough for him and his doctors to see a move northward for a change of air as
beneficial. With trips to Kashmir, the hot and stagnant air of the plains (Gujarat
and Agra were especially noteworthy here)51 could be replaced by the cleaner and
254 NUR JAHAN

cooler air of the hills, and the bland sameness of the flatlands by a variety of
splendiferous surroundings.
The specific attractions of Kashmir were many. The most immediate, and
ultimately the most enduring, were the flowers: "The flowers of Kashmir are
beyond counting and calculation," Jahangir said, "Which shall I write of? And
how many can I describe?"52 Many of the flowers he knew of already, such as the
varieties of lilies, tulips, narcissus, violets, roses, irises, and jasmines, and many
others he had to learn or invent names for. Fields of single blossoms stretched
out before him and Nur Jahan as they made their way over passes and by
meadows, and side excursions revealed heady sweet smells unknown to the
plains. The "place most worth seeing in Kashmir," according to Jahangir, was
Kurimarg53 where as "far as the eye could reach flowers of various hue were
blooming, and in the midst of the flowers and verdure beautiful streams of water
were flowing: one might say it was a page that the painter of destiny had drawn
with the pencil of creation."54 The violet-colored saffron flower was among the
most amazing to the couple, for it grew in field after field around the village of
Pampur. "I do not know if there is so much saffron in any other place in the
world,"55 noted Jahangir, and in "the whole country of Kashmir there is saffron
only in this place." The smell of the saffron flower was especially fragrant—
"The breeze in that place scented one's brain"—and both Jahangir and his
attendant's got headaches from the sharp scent after picking the stems.56
Nur Jahan and Jahangir delighted in other things as well. The dramatic
landscapes of lakes,57 waterfalls,58 and deep valleys59 soothed and inspired them
and fed the emperor's love of excess and natural detail. Fruit grew abundantly in
Kashmir and, although many of the varieties were "inferior to those of Persia or
Kabul,"60 their freshness and diversity were nevertheless a great luxury to the
court: apples, pears, melons, peaches, apricots, cherries, guavas, grapes, pome-
granates, mulberries, walnuts, and almonds,61 as well as some with unfamiliar
names. It was perhaps because of the fruit that the ever-disparaging Pelsaert
noted that "foreigners usually suffer from the flux, and many die of it."62
The fish of the region were also of interest, particularly those kept in garden
tanks. In 1607, for example, Jahangir noted that he had seen many fish through
the clear water in the tank of the spring at Vernag.63 These fish became a
preoccupation of Nur Jahan's some fifteen years later, and Bernier, during the
reign of Aurangzeb, remarked on them when he visited Vernag: "One of its
ponds contains fish so tame that they approach upon being called, or when
pieces of bread are thrown into the water. The largest have gold rings, with
inscriptions, through the gills, placed there, it is said, by the celebrated Nour-
Mehalle."64 Again, at the spring at Andha Nag (or Anantnag, "Place of Countless
Springs"), there were fish known by the Mughals to be blind. Jahangir and his
entourage stopped there one day and threw in a net and drew out twelve. After
examining them, he determined that of the dozen fish only three were blind and
that the blindness was, perhaps, the result of something in the water.65
Nur Jahan and Jahangir were not just passive receivers of Kashmiri bounty,
however, but gave in return many times over. Their contributions to the valley
included palaces, mosques, bridges, and aqueducts,66 and with these they helped
 In the Gardens of Eternal Spring 255

turn local construction temporarily away from wood to stone.67 Their greatest
contribution, however, was the network of gardens laid out near main thorough-
fares and around Dal Lake, which forever changed the way plains India would
look at this northern province.

Darogha Bagh (Lalla Rookh's Garden), Manasbal Lake

Among the many mountain gardens of the Mughals is one by Manasbal Lake
called Darogha Bagh ("Lalla Rookh's Garden") containing a palace that, some
say, was originally built for Nur Jahan. Set on terraced walls and planted with
poplar trees, Darogha Bagh juts out into the clear calm water "like some great
high-decked galleon"68 as a hedge against the ravaging floods that often course
through the region.69

Bagh-i Bahar Am, Dal Lake

On the western arm of the Dal Lake at Sadurkhun was a now-vanished garden
said to have been laid out by Nur Jahan in 1623. The Bagh-i Bahar Ara had two
terraces, one approaching the lake and the other on a higher level, both with
excellent views of the water. Each of these terraces was prepared in the famous
chahar chanar pattern70 with four chenar trees distributed evenly over a square
plot in order to provide shade the whole day long.71 A stone pavilion was built in
the center, and water to irrigate the plants on all levels came from the Sind
Canal.72

The Nur Afza Garden, Hari Parbat Fort, Dal Lake

Inside the palace-fort built by Akbar on the small Hari Parbat hill to the west of
Dal Lake is a little garden "with a small building in it in which my revered father
used constantly to sit." When Nur Jahan and Jahangir went to Kashmir for the
first time together in 1620, they noticed that it was in ruins. Much disturbed by
this "neglected state," Jahangir had Mutamid Khan "make every effort to put
the little garden in order and repair the buildings," and in a short time the
garden had acquired a "new beauty." Mutamid Khan added a terrace thirty-two
yards square, in three divisions, and restored the building so that it could be
hung "with pictures by masterhands, and so [be] . . . the envy of the picture
gallery of China." Jahangir declared as well that the garden was now to be called
the Nur Afza ("Light Increasing"),73 probably because Nur Jahan had had a
good hand in its restoration and was from this time on to be its main patron.
During their stay that first year, Jahangir observed that there were four
cherry trees growing in the Nur Afza, planted presumably by Nur Jahan. These
trees proved to be so productive, that Jahangir "ordered the officials of Kashmir
to plant shah-alu (cherry) trees in all the gardens."74 Later, at the end of the 1622
trip, Jahangir (or Nur Jahan) had a canal built into the Nur Afza to bring in extra
water to irrigate the plants there. Haidar Malik was sent to Srinagar to cut a
canal from the valley of Lar into the garden and was given Rs. 30,000 for the
256 NUR JAHAN

materials and labor to do it. 75 Malik, who had written a history of Kashmir and
was ostensibly the one who protected Nur Jahan immediately after the death of
Sher Afgan in 1607, was originally from the village of Chardara, and it was his
request in 1620 that his native village be renamed Nurpur, the City of Light. 76
The relationship between Malik and the queen must have been one of deep
affection, and we can only presume that her initial interest in Kashmir was
encouraged by the strengths of this early and enduring friendship.

Shalamar Bagh, Dal Lake

The most famous and secluded of all the Jahangiri gardens on Dal Lake is the
original Shalamar, built on the old Hindu grounds of Pravarsena II. We presume
the Jahangiri garden was first struck in 1620, just after the refurbishing of the
Nur Afza, for it was then that the emperor recorded the following:

In these two or three days I frequently embarked in a boat, and was delighted to
go round and look at the flowers of Phak and Shalamar. Phak is the name of a
pargana situated on the other side of the lake. Shalamar is near the lake. It has a
pleasant stream, which comes down from the hills, and flows into the Dal Lake.
I bade my son Khurram dam it up and make a waterfall, which it would be a
pleasure to behold. This place is one of the sights of Kashmir.77

Just how much was done on the site each year that the couple visited is not
clear, for Jahangir does not make any more mention of Shalamar in the Tuzuk
after 1620. The best contemporary description of the garden is given by Bernier,
who went to Kashmir with the court of Aurangzeb and who found it to be the
"most beautiful of all these gardens" he saw. The site is approached by an
entrance canal off the northeast corner of Dal Lake, which was, in Bernier's
time, bordered by grass and rows of poplar trees and led to a large baradari,
which had been placed in the middle of the garden. A second canal connected
this building to another pavilion at the end of the site and was set with fountains,
as were the large reservoirs off to the sides. The two pavilions in the midst of the
canals were built in the form of domes with galleries open on all four sides, large
central rooms, and smaller apartments in each corner. The interiors were
painted and gilded, with Persian calligraphy on the walls, and surrounded by
magnificent stone pillars and doors, some of which had been taken by Shah
Jahan from the Hindu temples he had had destroyed.78
When Jahangir first laid out the Shalamar garden, he almost certainly had
the help of Nur Jahan,79 and although Shah Jahan was responsible for the famous
black marble work done in the pavilions, the overall design reflects the tastes
and innovations of his father's queen. Shalamar is divided into three main areas:
an outer or public garden, which contains the grand canal leading from the lake
and ending with the first large pavilion, the diwan-i am (for public audience),
which contains a small black marble throne; the emperor's garden, stretching
from the first pavilion past the diwan-i khas (for private audience) and the royal
bathhouses (hammam} to an upper wall with small guardrooms at each end; and,
 In the Gardens of Eternal Spring 257

finally, the zanana garden for the women of the harem, containing the large
black marble pavilion and the elaborate waterworks set in a cross around it. A
traditional charbagh, the zanana garden was the climax of Shalamar and, when
its many fountains and watery arcades were lit up at night with lanterns, the
spectacle would surely have been overwhelming.80
Nur Jahan's hand in this design is seen most clearly in the functional divi-
sions of the individual terraces. No longer just a place of private pleasure, the
Mughal garden had newly imperial duties as well and, in providing the public
and other higher petitioners official access to the emperor, Nur Jahan was extend-
ing the symbols of state Jahangir laid down at the beginning of his rule into areas
formerly reserved for intimacy. The just, divinely connected king was now, even
in leisure, available to mediate issues of local concern and to stand as visual
center of an effective empire. Moreover, exemplary of her opening up of travel to
women for leisure's sake, Nur Jahan's zanana garden at Shalamar stood as
perhaps the greatest symbol of all of women's transformation: here women were
no longer veiled bearers of morality but visible paradigms of the affirmation of
the body and its sensual attributes. To be sure, Shah Jahan, who had had some
hand in the garden as a prince,81 would have agreed to both the development of
imperial Mughal symbols and the introduction of sensuality and romantic love
in the context of women. Nevertheless, the original inspiration for these, at
Shalamar and in the empire at large, was Nur Jahan, whose vision and energy
had already redirected the aesthetic efforts of imperial taste.

Achabal, southeast of Srinagar

Close to the old direct road from Jammu to Srinagar on the southerly side of the
city is one of the two most favorite gardens of Jahangir and Nur Jahan. At the
point where the valley of Kashmir abruptly ends and the great hills begin to
descend, lies the garden of Achabal. Says Villiers Stuart: "It is an ideal site. If I
were asked where the most perfect modern garden on a medium scale could be
devised, I should answer without hesitation, Achibal."82 Built around a powerful
mountain spring that rises out of the Sosanwar hill, Achabal had earlier marked
an ancient Hindu site of worship named Akshavala. Known to Akbar as both a
delightful place to visit and a source of religious refuge, Achabal drew the early
Mughals because of the stupendous fountain of water springing up from the
limestone earth and the beautiful yellow spotted fish that appeared in the foun-
tain's natural reservoir.83 Jahangir and Nur Jahan visited Achabal often —
captivated by the "fine waterfall," the "lofty plane-trees and graceful white
poplars," and the beautiful jafari flowers in bloom—and were at one with
Jahangir's sentiment that "it was a piece of Paradise."84
As usual, the best contemporary description of the garden was given by
Bernier, who singled out the fountain, "whose waters disperse themselves into a
hundred canals round the house . . . and throughout the gardens," as the obvi-
ous attraction of the site. "The spring gushes out of the earth with violence, as if
it issued from the bottom of some well, and the water is so abundant that it
ought rather to be called a river than a fountain."85 The water from the spring,
258 NUR JAHAN

he reported, was "excellent . . . and cold as ice," and was harnessed by various
man-made jets, tanks, and cascades into a wonderful sight. The main fall took
"the form and colour of a large sheet, thirty or forty paces in length, producing
the finest effect imaginable," especially at night when clay lamps with oil and a
wick were placed in parts of the wall close by. Bernier also found the regular
walkways of the garden very handsome, and in his day the garden plots were laid
out, in part, with a variety of fruit trees: apple, pear, plum, apricot, and cherry.86
Today, Achabal is smaller than it was originally when Jahangir and Nur
Jahan designed it, as the road northward has destroyed the lowest of the ter-
races. What remains are the two upper levels corresponding to the emperor's
garden and the zanana garden, this latter having the spring and waterfall at one
end and a bathing tank for women in the center. Many of the Mughal structures
are now nothing but stone foundations with Kashmiri pavilions of wood and
plaster built on top, but the play of light and dark in the pavilions, through the
trees, and on the water remains much the same.87 Ancient chenar trees still
provide shade at Achabal, and it is said that Jahangir brought the chenar from
Iran to Kashmir in order to please Nur Jahan.88 Although the legend has no
historical foundation (Jahangir himself reported the existence of plane trees in
Kashmir in 160789), it does seem to underscore Nur Jahan's legendary influence
on horticulture. At one time actually called Begamabad after Nur Jahan,
Achabal now stands as a reminder not only of her initial insight into the many
possibilities of place, but of what she could do with a site once found.

Vernag, further southeast of Srinagar (Shahabad)

The garden most beloved of Nur Jahan and Jahangir, however, was the simple
and immensely appealing site at Vernag farther down the Jammu road from
Srinagar. Perhaps the most dramatic example of a natural feature tamed for use
in a Mughal garden, the deep blue spring at Vernag was thought to be the
fountainhead of the Bihat or Jhelum River.90 For centuries prior to Jahangir, it
was a religious retreat for Hindus, and in 1607 the emperor noted there "the
remains of a place of worship for recluses; cells cut out of rock and numerous
caves." The name vimag means snake, indicating that perhaps a large snake had
once inhabited the site of the spring91 and had been worshipped there92 or that
the Jhelum River was itself in origin a "snake recoiled." In any case, Vernag had
always been the centerpiece of Jahangir's Kashmir vision and remained, at least
by legend, the place he wanted to be buried.93
Jahangir had gone to Vernag twice during Akbar's lifetime and soon after his
accession in 1607 had ordered stones to be built up on the sides of the spring and
a garden made around it with a canal. At this early time as well, Jahangir had
halls and houses built and a place made "such that travellers over the world can
point out few like it."94 The octagonal reservoir he had had constructed to
contain the pool from the spring95 formed the center of the palace buildings, and
the twenty-four arched recesses built around it had stairways that led up to
rooms on the second floor. Rushing out from the chief palace facade, the stream
from the spring entered a long canal, which ran the length of the garden. Twelve
 In the Gardens of Eternal Spring 259

feet wide, this grand canal was cut across just below the building by another
waterway that ran from side to side.96
The pool held water that was exceedingly clear and, by Jahangir's account,
"a grain of poppy-seed is visible until it touches the bottom,"97 or alternately, "if
a pea had fallen into it, it could have been seen."98 Fish had lived there for some
long time before Jahangir, and he remarked several times on their great number.
Bernier, of course, preserved a famous account of the tameness of these fish and
that the largest of them had gold rings through their noses with inscriptions on
them, put there "by the celebrated Nour-Mehalle."99
In Jahangir's day, trees grew in abundance in the garden, and he remarked
that on the hill rising behind Vernag, none of the fertile soil could be seen
because there was so much greenery. The greenery on the hill, in fact, was so
strong that its reflection in the water gave the surface "a hue of verdure,"100
which was amplified by the herbs and flowers growing in profusion along the
canal and by the side of the reservoir. Among these plants must have been the
plane trees Jahangir had ordered to be set bordering the canal in 1620.101
Here in Vernag, the "most delightful pleasure-resort . . . in the whole of
India,"102 Jahangir and Nur Jahan could have it all. Half enclosed by mountains,
half open to the sky, Vernag was both private and secluded and stately and
imperial, and no divisions broke the garden into discrete functions as was the
case in many of the other gardens. Arriving at Vernag before reaching Srinagar
gave the garden an uncanny connection to the plains below, and yet clearly the
spot was in Kashmir and, in "short, in the whole of Kashmir there is no sight of
such beauty and enchanting character" as Vernag.103 The power of the experience
must have been overwhelming to Jahangir and Nur Jahan: the extraordinary
greenness, the dramatically simple great canal, and the betwixt-and-between-
ness of the valley and the mountain behind. No wonder, then, that Jahangir
would have wanted to rest here in eternity.
Jahangir had been taken in by Vernag long before he knew Nur Jahan. And
long before Nur Jahan as well, he had had the garden site built up and culti-
vated. No doubt, however, she shared in the depth of his attraction to the place
and in the experience of expansive freedom and quite calm it afforded. Surely
she was involved in the decisions about the plantings there, and surely she knew
that it was her friend Haidar Malik who had brought the masonry work to
completion there some time around 1616.104 Vernag, then, was as much Nur
Jahan's as Jahangir's—if not through history then certainly through affection.
And it was this affection that made it the last garden of the mountains either one
of them was ever to see.
 11

The Rebellion of
Mahabat Khan
Apprehension and fear for his life so distracted the traitor, that his deeds and
words were not at all sensible. He neither knew what he said nor what he
did, nor what was to be done. Every minute some design or some anxiety
entered his mind, and caused regret. His Majesty made no opposition to any
of his proposals.
Ikbal-nama-ijahangiri of Mutamad Khan,
translated and edited by H. M. Elliot and John Dowson

As Jahangir's reign came to a close, one last upheaval broke out in the calm
before the confusion of the succession days. Mahabat Khan, an old and trusted
friend of Jahangir's, pushed beyond restraint by the courtly infighting around
him, rebelled against the emperor and held out in a "reign of a hundred days."1
The rebellion of Mahabat Khan is significant not only because the story is a
contained and vibrant one about an old allegiance gone awry, but because one of
the principal actors was Nur Jahan. For most of her public life, Nur Jahan had
maneuvered events from behind the walls of seclusion, giving directives and
shaping opinion from the palaces reserved only for women. In this rebellion,
however, the last of the principal events of her husband's reign, Nur Jahan was
herself a real and active participant, providing not only the motive and impetus
behind major narrative turns but the visual performance so central to the story
as well.
The action took place in the months roughly from March to September 1626,
on the banks of the Jhelum River, on the way to Kabul, in Kabul itself, and then
on the way from Kabul to Lahore. The main sources of the story are an eyewit-
ness account by Mutamid Khan in the Iqbalnama and a contemporary (1627) but
secondhand account in van den Broecke (with its later transposition in De Laet).
These two descriptions, plus the derivative and extended one of Dow's, provide
somewhat conflicting sequences of narrative and motive, but are clearly in agree-
ment that with this event, Mahabat Khan, who had been waiting in the back-
ground for some long time, now moved quickly into prominence.
260
 The Rebellion of Mahabat Khan 261

Mahabat Khan, or Zamana Beg, came from a family in Kabul and had
served Jahangir onward from the prince's childhood [see Figure 11-1]. At an
early point, he had joined the ranks of the Ahadis2 from which he had risen to a
high place on the personal staff of Salim. He had endeared himself to the prince
as a devoted, honest, and forthright friend who spoke freely, fought bravely, and
displayed excellent talents in organization and service to the empire. He was,
said the decidedly partisan van den Broecke, a "praiseworthy" man "whose
brave deeds surpass those of all heroes of our time . . . [and were done] because
of his love for the King and his Empire."3 When Jahangir took the throne in
1605, he gave Zamana Beg the title of Mahabat Khan, raised his rank to 1,500,
and made him bakhshi of his private establishment.4 From then on the minister
regularly received promotions5 and was often sent by Jahangir to do various
kinds of dirty work, 6 the most despicable perhaps being the reputed blinding of
the emperor's eldest son, Khusrau. 7 Mahabat Khan became most famous, how-
ever, for his role in Shah Jahan's rebellion when in early 1623s he was assigned
chief command of Parviz's eventually successful campaign to root out and "over-
throw Bi-daulat."9 Throughout all of this, the emperor noted, Mahabat Khan
was "the pillar of the State,"10 the conciliatory leader who controlled and orga-
nized his men with integrity and forbearance.
Mahabat Khan's alliance with Parviz, however, may have ultimately been his
undoing. Though by 1623 he had been recognized repeatedly for his substantial
contributions to the empire, the trusted minister had never achieved the spot-
light his long-suffering allegiance seemed to have warranted. After the battle of
Baluchpur in late March of 1623, when Shah Jahan retreated to Mandu and
eventually to the Deccan, a tired and weary Jahangir decided to pass the reins of
pursuit over to his eldest surviving son, Parviz. Parviz, though himself an
insignificant prince and in no way a real contender for the throne, was neverthe-
less decidedly superior to Shahryar for the job and had by birth a better claim to
the throne.11 But because Parviz was an ineffective commander, Jahangir chose
the only possible candidate to be his chief advisor: proven after years of service,
Mahabat Khan was militarily skillful and historically loyal to the crown. 12 The
alliance, then, had meant to combine the weight of the crown with known
success and, in the process, with the choice of these two particular principals, to
ease the emperor's mind about any further rebellion. For his part, Mahabat
Khan must have been delighted to be entrusted with so important a task and, if
we believe the accounts, to have again a significant chance to serve the empire.13
How he felt about going against Shah Jahan, however, is not altogether clear.14
If the choice of Mahabat Khan to run Parviz's campaign against Shah Jahan
was an astute one tactically for Jahangir, then the results of the campaign were
disastrous for Mahabat Khan. Though he was eminently successful in pursuing
and disabling the rebellious third son, his good show only provoked envy and
disdain at the court. Especially concerned was Nur Jahan. She had first brought
Mahabat Khan in to crush Shah Jahan's rebellion,15 but now grew wary and
suspicious of the minister's ensuing power and prestige.16 In spite of the fact that
his recent conduct had "raised sentiments of gratitude in the breast of Jehangire,"
these sentiments could not overpower the envy of his "great many enemies,"17 and
FIGURE 11-1. "Portrait of Zamana Beg, Mahabat Khan." Indian painting; Mughal,
ca. 1605-28; attr. to Manohar. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pur-
chase, Rogers Fund and The Kevorkian Foundation Gift, 1955 (55.121.10.3).

262
 The Rebellion of Mahabat Khan 263

in particular of Nur Jahan. She and her brother, Asaf Khan, says Dow, "had
been long the enemies of Mohabet"18 and she now resolved to undermine his new
and enhanced power. Nur Jahan was especially fearful, apparently, of the minis-
ter's alliance with Parviz, who, with the notoriety of his recent military success,
now became a more serious contender for the throne. Hearing "that Mohabet
was forming designs to raise Purvez to the throne,"19 then, Nur Jahan had to
move quickly to protect the goal that, with Shah Jahan's recent disenfranchise-
ment, she was so close to reaching.
Mahabat Khan, of course, had not himself been neutral toward Nur Jahan.
According to the Intikhab-i Jahangir-Shahi, Mahabat Khan had for some years
chided Jahangir about entrusting so much power to a woman. Always beginning
his remarks by reminding the emperor that he (Mahabat Khan) cared for no one
else but the emperor, "he now begs truly and faithfully to represent what he
thinks proper, instigated by his loyalty, and for the sake of His Majesty's good
name." Never, he would continue, has there been a "king so subject to the will
of his wife. The whole world is surprised that such a wise and sensible Emperor
as Jahangir should permit a woman to have so great an influence over him."
Such remarks, apparently, would be repeated regularly,20 and whatever Nur
Jahan's feelings for Mahabat Khan, his for her only became more entrenched in
their hostility as her power grew.
There was also animosity between Mahabat Khan and the queen's brother,
Asaf Khan. As early as September 5, 1616, Roe noted that Mahabat Khan had
revealed to him "in great frendship that Asaph chan was our enemy, or at beste a
false frend: that hee had faltered with mee in my busines with the king."21
Although on Roe's part he continued to deal with Nur Jahan's brother, not
knowing how trustworthy Mahabat Khan was, there was no further indication
in the English document what the source of the hostility between the two men
might have been. From their recent past, however, Asaf Khan had excellent
cause for wanting to ruin Mahabat Khan: Jahangir's longtime comrade had led
the forces that had overpowered Asaf Khan's own protege and had virtually
exiled this prince to the Deccan. If it were only this, many argue, Mahabat
Khan's role in suppressing Shah Jahan's rebellion was reason enough for Asaf
Khan to harbor perhaps not so secret desires to move against the emperor's
faithful retainer.22
For these various reasons, then, both Nur Jahan and Asaf Khan with the
help of others sought to poison Jahangir against the minister. Unbeknownst to
Mahabat Khan, "as soon as the King was rocked to sleep, the . . . dissemblers
began to work, and . . . they were determined to poison the King's mind by
bringing false charges against him.23 At the instigation of his close advisers,
Jahangir became "much vexed and thought that Mahabat Khan was plotting
some evil in spite of his great and faithful service."24 As Jahangir became more
and more convinced of Mahabat Khan's ill intentions, Nur Jahan and her
brother formed a plan by which to separate the minister from his charge, Parviz,
thereby undermining the chances of this son for the throne.
It happened that Mahabat Khan, having left Burhanpur, had been staying in
his castle of Ranthambhor near Agra with his Rajput forces and with Prince
264 NUK JAHAN

Parviz.25 According to the story, a royal farman now arrived from the emperor via
his imperial messenger, Fidai Khan, 26 ordering Mahabat Khan "to proceed to
Bengal [as governor] and to hand over the fort to Baqir Khan." 27 This order,
according to De Laet, came directly from Nur Jahan.28 Khan Jahan Lodi who
was at that time in Ahmedabad was instructed to proceed to Parviz and join the
prince as his vakil in the place of Mahabat Khan. 29 Parviz and his minister were
not fooled by the request, however, and became convinced that Mahabat Khan's
transfer "was owing to the instigation of Asaf Khan, whose object was to bring
him to disgrace, and to deprive him of honour, property, and life."30 Parviz
refused to give Mahabat Khan up and, when Fidai Khan communicated this
rejection of the farman to the imperial court, Nur Jahan and Asaf Khan issued a
new farman strongly discouraging Parviz from uncooperative conduct and de-
manding that Mahabat Khan, if he refused to go to Bengal, must come immedi-
ately to Jahangir's court. Parviz, seeing that Khan Jahan Lodi was already on his
way to take up his new post with him and being hesitant to share the fate of his
rebellious brother Shah Jahan, gave in. 31
For his part, Mahabat Khan was anxious to answer the charges of his accus-
ers and was therefore happy to proceed and appear before Jahangir.32 They were
reminiscent of those once brought against Itimaduddaula and came in the be-
nign form of a request to send back the elephants and to account for the money
he had obtained during the period of Shah Jahan's rebellion.33 These requests,
however, amounted to accusations of embezzlement and had been made by Nur
Jahan and Asaf Khan in order to undermine Mahabat Khan's great fame for
honesty. By questioning his integrity in this way, these two had hoped to provide
moral grounds to shift imperial and popular support away from the minister
and, by implication, away from Parviz.
Mahabat Khan's response was to write Jahangir a letter announcing his
desire to appear before him and redeem his honor. All he had ever wanted, he
argued, was Jahangir's favor,34 and it appears at this point in the narrative that
Mahabat Khan had no conscious intention of going into revolt. He proceeded
from Ranthambhor, then, with an army of 4,000 or 5,000 Rajputs and marched
on to Lahore with the purpose of seeing Jahangir.35 Jahangir, meanwhile, had left
Lahore in March of 1626 and was on his way to Kabul when he reached the
Jhelum River and made camp on the near shore. Hearing the news of Mahabat
Khan's impending arrival, "Nur Jahan Begam and Asaf Khan urged the King to
order that since Mahabat Khan was bringing with him his army and about 200
elephants" in defiance of Jahangir's orders, he should leave his army behind and
wait until summoned to appear before the king, sending on ahead only his
elephants and a few attendants. 36
Mahabat Khan complied and, on March 17, 1626, sent his son-in-law on
ahead with the elephants and a letter to Jahangir asking why he was now in such
disfavor, much regretting "that the king distrusted his old servant." He was
ready, apparently, "to hand over his wives and children as a pledge: but . . .
could not permit himself to be dragged into the royal presence like a guilty
criminal."37 It happened that this particular son-in-law, Khwaja Barkhurdar, the
eldest son of Khwaja Umar Naqshbandi, had married Mahabat Khan's daughter
 The Rebellion ofMahabat Khan 265

but that the "marriage had been contracted without the royal consent."38
Jahangir had been much offended by this breach of the rules of royal permis-
sion,39 and when the young man arrived at court with his father-in-law's ele-
phants, the emperor had the young Khwaja's hands tied to his neck and taken
directly to prison. Jahangir then ordered Fidai Khan to seize all that had come
from Mahabat Khan as dowry to Barkhurdar and to put it in the imperial
treasury.40
It was this brutal handling of his son-in-law and the wanton confiscation of the
youth's personal property that finally provoked Mahabat Khan into action. He
now saw that his honor and his life were in danger and, having no well-placed
spokesman for his cause near the emperor, he decided to make his case in the only
way possible. Jahangir was camped on the near shore of the Jhelum by the bridge
passing over to the high road to Kabul and had with him Nur Jahan and a few
attendants, one of whom was Mutamid Khan, the author of the Iqbalnama. Asaf
Khan, in what turned out to be the great blunder of the coup—"notwithstanding
the presence of such a brave and daring enemy . . . [and] so heedless of his
master's safety"41 —had already crossed over the bridge to the other side of the
river and taken with him the women and children, the attendants and officers, as
well as all the baggage, all the weapons, and the imperial treasury. Finding this
situation to be most advantageous, Mahabat Khan went to the head of the bridge
and left 2,000 men there to guard it with instructions to burn the bridge should
anyone try to cross back over.42 He then proceeded to Jahangir's quarters.
As Mahabat Khan approached, a cry went out and Mutamad Khan went to
meet him as he came to the door of the private quarters. After inquiring for the
emperor, Mahabat Khan rode through to Jahangir's rooms and, refusing to
honor the normal courtesies offered by Mutamad Khan and tearing off some of
the boards protecting the emperor's chambers, Mahabat Khan finally forced
himself into Jahangir's presence43 and placed his case before the king:

I have assured myself that escape from the malice and implacable hatred of Asaf
Khan is impossible, and that I shall be put to death in shame and ignominy. I
have therefore boldly and presumptuously thrown myself upon Your Majesty's
protection. If I deserve death or punishment, give the order that I may suffer it

As he spoke, Mahabat Khan's Rajput soldiers surrounded and filled the royal
apartments quickly outnumbering all of Jahangir's attendants. Eventually he
suggested that the imperial group make ready to go out hunting with Jahangir's
"slave" (for example, Mahabat Khan) in attendance so that "it may appear that
this bold step has been taken by Your Majesty's order."45 After a brief scuffle
over which horse to ride, Jahangir was given an elephant to mount, and went out
guarded in the hauda by Rajputs in front and behind. Arrayed thus, Mahabat
Khan took his imperial group back to his own camp.46 According to Manucci,
however, the way out was posted with "armed horsemen sent to slay Mahabat
Khan; but no one attempted to use force for fear the Rajput might decapitate the
king."47
266 NUR JAHAN

It occurred to Mahabat Khan at this time that in all the confusion of getting
Jahangir securely within his grasp, he had forgotten Nur Jahan. In order to
"make himself safe on that side also," he had the emperor remount and turned
the party around to go back to the imperial camp. Arriving there, Mahabat
Khan and his men searched everywhere for Nur Jahan but discovered that she
had already gone. Now very nervous about the security of his plan, Mahabat
Khan "bitterly repented of the blunder he had made in not securing her."48 He
next remembered Shahryar and went to his house, but found that he, too, was
missing, presumably now in flight.
Nur Jahan, in the meantime, had been busy. After Jahangir had left in the
custody of Mahabat Khan, she had crossed over the bridge to Asaf Khan's camp
on the other side. She went either to make a simple visit to her brother, thinking
Jahangir to be out on a hunt and her now with some free time,49 or more likely,
knowing what had happened, to consult with her brother about strategy.50 It is
probable that she went to the camp in disguise, but how she got over the bridge
with the Rajput army under orders to let no one across is not altogether clear.
Whatever the case, Nur Jahan reached Asaf Khan's house late that afternoon
and convened a meeting of all the nobles. She reproached them severely, espe-
cially her brother, for being so lazy and inattentive and to the whole assembly
said:

This . . . has all happened through your neglect and stupid arrangements.
What never entered into the imagination of any one has come to pass, and now
you stand stricken with shame for your conduct before God and man. You must
do your best to repair this evil, and advise what course to pursue. 51

Scolded for their fault in the emperor's abduction and fearful that his life might
be in danger,52 the nobles together agreed with Nur Jahan that they would cross
back over the river the next day and lay seige to Mahabat Khan's camp and
rescue Jahangir. When the emperor heard news during the night of this "unwise
resolution," he sent successive messengers over to Asaf Khan and the nobles to
warn them against any action that would be "productive of nothing but evil and
repentence."53 To insure the sincerity of these warnings Jahangir also sent over
his own signet ring with Mir Mansur, but because Asaf Khan suspected that all
the messages were a ruse instigated by Mahabat Khan, he ignored them.54 The
honor of the imperial forces was at stake and there was no other way to redeem
their fault than to do battle with the abductors.
It was also during that night that Fidai Khan, who had already crossed over
to the far shore, took a horse and went down to the river hoping to cross back
over to the emperor. By this time, however, the Rajputs had burned the bridge
and Fidai Khan found he had no alternative but to swim. Six of his men
drowned in the river on the way over, and others who were too cold to go on
turned back, but Fidai Khan himself made it to the near shore. There four more
of his few remaining men were killed by Mahabat Khan's soldiers and Fidai
Khan's party, now very severely reduced, could not reach Jahangir, ensconced
for the night in the home of Shahryar. Tired and disappointed, the loyal servant
 The Rebellion of Mahabat Khan 267

swam back across the Jhelum to Asaf Khan's camp, there to wait until morn-
ing.55
The next day, March 18, 1626, Nur Jahan, Asaf Khan and the other nobles,
"being resolved upon giving battle,"56 began their march "with day."57 Searching
for an appropriate ford in the river by which to cross, Ghazi the boat commander
found one he thought suitable. It happened, however, that this ford was one of
the worst in the river with several large pits filled deep with water. As the
imperial party began to cross over "all order was lost,"58 and as chaos descended
on the army many men fell to the river or were scattered. Mahabat Khan's
Rajputs were still on the other side of the Jhelum, but had gathered seven or
eight hundred strong "with a number of war-elephants in their front" and stood
"in firm array" on the bank. 59 As the enemy held the bank in many places, Asaf
Khan's forces began to look for other places by which to make their crossing
and, in the middle of all the turmoil, several new fords downstream were found
allowing, "each party . . . [to get] over as best it could."60 When some of the
enemy began to advance, Asaf Khan's men recoiled61 and whatever organization
and discipline they had left quickly disappeared: "everyone who was in front fell
back, and those who went on together fell. The officers, in a panic, rushed off in
disorder, not knowing whither they went, or where they led their men."62
From the very start of the assault, Nur Jahan had been in the middle of battle
alongside her brother and all of the nobles. Not "a tame spectator on the occa-
sion, . . . [she had] mounted on an elephant . . . [and] plunged into the stream
with her daughter by her side."63 It was she, it seems, who was the real com-
mander of the forces,64 and when she noticed that Mutamid Khan and Khwaja
Abul Hasan had crossed over one branch of the river and now stood on the brink
of crossing the second, she sent her eunuch Nadim to urge the two on into the
fray. "The Begam wants to know if this is the time for delay and irresolution,"
he said, "strike boldly forward, so that by your advance the enemy may be
repulsed, and take to flight."65 They jumped in immediately and were among
those men who successfully met the enemy's swords at the near shore. Nur
Jahan's party, however, was not so fortunate. She had gone into battle "on
account of her great bitterness [and] she [had] wanted to show her woman's
courage to Mahabat Khan."66 Riding with her in her hauda were her daughter
Ladli, her granddaughter (the child of Ladli and Shahryar), and the child's
nurse,67 who happened to be the wife of Abu Talib Shayista Khan, son of Asaf
Khan, and the granddaughter of the old Khankhanan, Mirza Abdur Rahim,
through his son, Shahnawaz Khan. During the struggle, the nurse received an
arrow in the arm, but Nur Jahan "herself pulled it out, staining her garments
with blood."68 The empress in return then "emptied four quivers of arrows on
the enemy," but when the Rajputs "pressed into the stream to seize her," she
turned her party away.69 The elephant on which they were all riding received
substantial wounds from Mahabat Khan's soldiers, and when its drivers took it
into deep water, the accompanying horsemen turned back for fear of being
drowned. The elephant, however, was able to swim to shore on its own, and Nur
Jahan, on reaching dry land, proceeded to her own royal quarters.70
The battle, continued for several hours and eventually left Mahabat Khan
268 NUR JAHAN

victorious. Although the imperial army had outnumbered the Rajputs by 50,000
to 5,000, the Rajput army was a seasoned force emboldened in battle by the
regular use of opium; moreover, Mahabat Khan's name had apparently sent fear
into the hearts of everyone. Van den Broecke estimated that about 2,000 of the
imperial forces were killed by the Rajputs and another 2,000 drowned in the
river, now covered with elephants and horses.71 Nur Jahan's men had met strong
opposition and in their great panic had separated into small, isolated groups and
become by consequence paralyzed. Now, in the wake of the battle, the army was
demoralized and many men fled.
During the battle there had been an attempt to rescue Jahangir. Fidai Khan,
by all accounts one of the most impressive personalities in Nur Jahan's camp,
had taken some of the emperor's attendants and had successfully crossed the
river. Once on the other side, he had proceeded to attack the Rajput forces who
opposed him. Having bravely driven back the enemy, he reached Jahangir at
Shahryar's house and, stopping outside, sent arrows into the courtyard. When
in the skirmishes that followed, however, a number of his men were killed, Fidai
Khan realized he could not rescue Jahangir and the next day went up the river to
his sons at Rohtas. 72
Van den Broecke's account of the battle sequences differed somewhat from
that of the Iqbalnama. According to the Dutch version, when Mahabat Khan
arrived at Jahangir's camp, he offered to send his women and children ahead to
Nur Jahan as a pledge of good faith. Because of the hatred that Nur Jahan and
her brother had developed for Mahabat Khan, 73 however, they refused to see
him and decided instead to attack his army in the hopes of killing him or
bringing him back to Jahangir as a criminal. The battle ensued and Mahabat
Khan won. The victorious minister then crossed the river, and when he made
his way to Jahangir's tents, found the emperor sleeping. Taking him by surprise,
Mahabat Khan had Jahangir get dressed as if for hunting and brought him out in
haste to his own camp. His Rajput men then searched for Nur Jahan and,
finding her, surrounded her tents and kept her there in confinement. 74
Meanwhile, according to both accounts, Asaf Khan had vanished during the
course of the battle. The Iqbalnama stated that Nur Jahan's brother, "who was
the cause of this disaster, and whose folly and rashness had brought matters to
this pass," had panicked when he realized he could not offer substantial resis-
tance to Mahabat Khan. Afraid for his own life, and thoughtless about his
responsibility for what he was leaving behind, Asaf Khan fled the battle scene
with his son, Abu Talib Shayista Khan, taking with him two or three hundred
soldiers. He went to the fort of Attock, which was in one of his ownjagirs, and in
his great cowardice closed up the fort around him, leaving Nur Jahan and the
other imperial nobles to deal with the Rajput army on their own.75 His flight
from battle came just at the end of the encounter, for Mutamid Khan reported
seeing him just before Khwaja Abul Hasan left for Nur Jahan's quarters: "Asaf
Khan now came in sight; his companions were scattered, and his plan had failed,
so he departed."76
For her part, Nur Jahan had successfully reached her camp on the near
shore. When she saw that so many of her men had been killed, however, and
 The Rebellion of Mahabat Khan 269

that Asaf Khan had taken flight, she decided to surrender to Mahabat Khan.
Mutamid Khan, author of the Iqbalnama, had himself already gone over and
Nur Jahan's capitulation, given the situation, was now nothing more than a
cosmetic gesture. It did complete, however, Mahabat Khan's ascendancy and,
having the government under his sole command, he proceeded to make firm his
position. After the "shouting and shrieking . . . [which] filled the heaven and
earth" had died down, Mahabat Khan had his Rajputs plunder all the gold,
silver, and jewels in the camp, taking anything that was of any value. He placed
into heavily guarded custody all the members of the royal family, including
Jahangir, Nur Jahan, Shahryar, Prince Bulaqi (son of Khusrau), and a son of
Daniyal.77 Of Nur Jahan's confinement, van den Broecke now said:

When formerly Nur Jahan Begam used to ride out, with people playing and
singing before her, she was received by every one with marks of excessive
honour and reverence, even like a goddess. This was forbidden by Mahabat
Khan, saying that honour was due not to her but to the King.78

Thus restrained, Nur Jahan was subject to all the bitter feelings Mahabat
Khan had harbored for years and especially those injuries he had received most
recently. Dow preserves a story of this confinement that, though believable, is
certainly not authentic. Mahabat Khan's bitterness was so great, Dow relates,
that he decided to publicly accuse Nur Jahan of treason. She had, he said,
estranged the emperor from "the hearts of his subjects;" she had authorized by
"her capricious orders . . . the most cruel and unwarrantable actions . . . in
every corner of the empire;" she had made many "public calamities" by "her
haughtiness" and ruined many individuals by "her malignity;" and, finally, she
had sought to undermine the whole empire "by favouring the succession of
Shariar to the throne."79 Because of her wickedness, then, Nur Jahan must be
made a public example of and, knowing Jahangir's legendary passion for justice,
Mahabat Khan had the emperor sign a warrant for her death. "Being excluded
from his presence, her charms had lost their irresistible influence over him; and
when his passions did not thwart the natural bias of his mind, he was always
just." 80 In her quarters, Nur Jahan herself heard the sentence without emotion,
but asked for permission to see the emperor one last time so "to bathe with my
tears the hand that has fixed the seal to the warrant of death." She was allowed to
come to Jahangir, but only in the presence of Mahabat Khan, and when the
emperor saw her beauty, which "shone with additional lustre through her sor-
row," he begged his captor for his wife's release. Mahabat Khan, his dishonor
now assuaged and looking perhaps for a way out, replied that any emperor of the
Mughals "should never ask [a thing] in vain" and released Nur Jahan with the
wave of a hand.81
Having consolidated his power on all but one front, Mahabat Khan now
proceeded to Attock to root out Asaf Khan. He sent on ahead of him some of his
Ahadi guards, some of his own followers, and some landlords (zamindars) under
the command of his son Bihroz and a Rajput, to capture Asaf Khan and to bring
him out alive. Attock Fort was "reduced," and seeing that he could not escape,
270 NUR JAHAN

"Asaf Khan bowed to Fate"82 and gave himself up—but only "on receiving the
promise that his life would be spared."83 When the imperial party under
Mahabat Khan arrived, Asaf Khan and his son, Abu Talib, were brought before
Jahangir and given "into the charge of ... [their] own adherents."84 Under his
amnesty agreement with Mahabat Khan, however, Asaf Khan could not be
executed for his cowardice, but Jahangir could and did have him "thrown into
chains" and placed in Mahabat Khan's prison.85 Several of Asaf Khan's followers
were then put to death.
With this the imperial retinue, under the sovereignty of Mahabat Khan,
resumed their erstwhile march to Kabul. Under the control now of the old
minister, the whole household of Jahangir arrived in the northern post without
further incident in May of 1626. Once there, Mahabat Khan allowed his detain-
ees some freedom, and Jahangir, upon arriving, was able to visit the tomb of his
ancestors86 and, with Nur Jahan, to make a visit to Shah Ismail of Persia.87
During what came to be a fairly peaceful interlude, an issue arose that concerned
one of Nur Jahan's sisters, Manija Begam, wife of Qasim Khan.88 Jahangir had
appointed Muzaffar Khan to be governor of Agra in the place of Qasim Khan.
The reason for this change in personnel is not altogether clear, and De Laet
himself could not decide whether Qasim Khan resigned or whether he had been
deprived of his post.89 Manija, in any case, "was not willing to leave Agra" and so
went to her sister in the north in order to persuade her to allow the family to
remain there in the city as before. Seeing that Nur Jahan "now possessed very
little authority," however, Manija had to go on to Mahabat Khan with her
request; he granted her desire and issued a farman confirming Qasim Khan as
governor of Agra.90 "Poor Muzaffar Khan," said van den Broecke, he "was in
office for only three days"!91
The imperial camp in Kabul now received news of three events. The first
was the death of Malik Ambar in his eightieth year, news received by Jahangir in
the middle of May 1626. Ambar had been an Abyssinian slave and had made
himself Jahangir's most feared enemy as a military spokesman for the powerful
forces in the Deccan. He had no equal, said Mutamid Khan, in "warfare, in
command, in sound judgment, and in administration," and history "records no
other instance of an Abyssinian slave arriving at such eminence."92 The second
news to come was of Shah Jahan's movements. Having "supposed [that] he was
as good as dead and buried,"93 the imperial court had not paid attention to the
prince's whereabouts, but it now became clear that he had left the Deccan and
had proceeded to Ajmer. From there he had gone by way of Jaisalmer to Tatta
and was looting and laying seige to what he could find.94 The court, though not
now in the most opportune position to head Shah Jahan off, did, however, start
from Kabul toward Hindustan in August of 1626,95 presumably in response to
the Shah Jahan issue. The third news to arrive was of Parviz's illness. Languish-
ing in Burhanpur, he had been attacked by colic and, after becoming insensible,
had fallen into "a heavy sleep." He had been cauterized by the doctors in five
places on the head, but apparently to no avail. "His illness was attributed to
excessive drinking; the same malady of which his uncles . . . had died."96
Although Jahangir "in his good nature and gentleness" had now become, at
 The Rebellion ofMahabat Khan 271

least on the surface, reconciled to the situation with Mahabat Khan,97 he and his
wife laid plans for escape. "At the instigation of Nur Jahan Begum and with the
permission of the King,"98 the Ahadis while still in Kabul picked a fight with the
Rajputs of Mahabat Khan. The minister lost "some of his best men" in the
violent fray that ensued,99 some having been "slaughtered . . . like sheep" and
others sold "like dogs" to traders in Kabul,100 and he was justifiably mad. He
complained to Jahangir, who handed over two of the perpetrators for imprison-
ment, but it was clear that the minister was not going to get any more satisfac-
tion from the affair than that. 101 Because of his arrogance and general unpopular-
ity among members of the imperial party, Mahabat Khan had been having
trouble effecting peace with those in his camps. Jahangir and Nur Jahan became
more courageous now with the Ahadi victory, and as the peace efforts faulted,
they pushed actively to set up a mechanism for freedom.
The first part of the plan was for Jahangir to get Mahabat Khan into his
complete confidence. Pretending to be fully open with his captor "so that
Mahabat felt quite secure on that side,"102 Jahangir said he would to hand over all
the information he received to the general. "Whatever Nur Jahan Begam said to
the Emperor in private, he unreservedly repeated to Mahabat Khan, and he
bade him beware, for the Begam had a design against him."103 He also let on to
Mahabat Khan that Asaf Khan's daughter-in-law, the daughter of Shahnawaz
Khan married to Abu Talib Shayista Khan and a nurse to Nur Jahan's grand-
daughter, planned to assassinate him whenever she got a chance. "By these
means he set Mahabat's heart at rest, and removed that doubt and suspicion
with which Mahabat had at first regarded him."104 As a result, Mahabat Khan
relaxed his defenses, becoming less careful about security measures around the
palace and loosening the control he had exercised over the activities at court.
As Jahangir lulled the suspicions of Mahabat Khan and convinced him that
he was actually pleased with the arrangements,105 Nur Jahan set about her plan
"to revenge herself."106 The number of bodyguards around the palace had been
greatly reduced, and with Mahabat Khan now off his guard, Nur Jahan was able
to bring together an army of substantial proportion. She began every day by
"conferring with [the] secret enemies of Mahabat Khan"107 and by buying their
loyalty with money and promises.108 She wrote to her eunuch, Hoshiyar Khan,
the faujdar of the Bajwaral and Dasuha districts, "to secretly recruit on her
account 5,000 Pathan, Sayyid or Shaikh-Zadas horse and to hold them with her
other old soldiers in readiness to join her when she should have passed
Attock."109 This he did, paid them in advance, and proceeded on to meet her.110
Nur Jahan also secured soldiers from Lahore, paid for from her own money, as
well as the "secret enemies ofMahabat Khan [who] had now begun to throw off
the veil and openly join her."111
Confident now that their own forces were strong enough to make a play for
the liberation of the imperial court, Nur Jahan and Jahangir took action. The
court had already left Kabul for Lahore and was one day's march from Rohtas.
Jahangir, no longer needing to act tactfully, sent a message to Mahabat Khan
asking him to postpone his usual parade as he, the emperor, was going to make a
review of Nur Jahan's cavalry. Khwaja Abul Hasan went personally to the
272 NUR JAHAN

minister to reinforce the request and, directing Mahabat Khan to go ahead so

that the two parties would not clash, went on to join Jahangir. Although
Mahabat Khan was "aware of what was passing, his mind had been so shaken by
the fight with the ahadis, that he did as he was ordered, and marched for-
wards."112 Unrestrained by the now outwitted and demoralized Mahabat Khan,
Jahangir and his party proceeded on to Rohtas "where he found a Court ready to
receive him."113 Thus, having crossed over the Jhelum, "the emperor regained
his liberty on the bank of the river where he had lost it a few months before."114
From Rohtas, Jahangir sent orders to Mahabat Khan to follow Shah Jahan to
Tatta and assist in matters there, and to send Asaf Khan, his son, Abu Talib, and
the sons of the late Prince Daniyal, Tahmuras and Hoshang, to court. 115
If Mahabat Khan were to delay at all in sending Asaf Khan, said Jahangir, an
army would be sent after him. The general complied in returning the sons of
Daniyal but decided to keep Asaf Khan because, without him as hostage, "he
was not safe as regarded Nur Jahan."116 His plan, Mahabat Khan said, was to
hold the queen's brother until he had safely passed Lahore, at which point he
would set him free. Nur Jahan was furious, her honor now more than ever at
stake, and she sent a report back to Mahabat Khan demanding without delay,
and with full threat of retaliation, the return of Asaf Khan. Mahabat Khan
finally agreed, but did not release Asaf Khan until the prisoner had sworn an
oath of loyalty to him.

[Mahabat Khan asked Asaf KhanJ to swear on the Book (the Quran) that he
would always be as a brother to him, since he was setting him at liberty, and had
spared his life. "For" he said, "it was in my power to kill you," and in support
of this, he showed to him several letters of the King, making it clear that he was
commanded ten times to kill Asaf Khan and not to spare his life. . . . Asaf
Khan promised on oath that henceforth Mahabat Khan would be much more to
him than his own natural brother.117

Having released Asaf Khan on oath of extreme obligation to him, Mahabat Khan
kept the minister's son, Abu Talib, for some days. Then, releasing the son after
his men crossed the Chenab, Mahabat Khan marched off as if his intention were
to proceed to Tatta on the business of Shah Jahan as ordered by Jahangir.
Now free, the court went on to Lahore where, in late October of 1626, its
members began to reassemble the machinery of the government. There, ever
forgiving, Jahangir received Asaf Khan, and as the emperor "sympathised with
him in his misfortunes and the great hardships that he had endured,"118 he
honored his wife's brother with the subadari of the Punjab and the office of
vakil. He also ordered him "to preside permanently over the administration of
all affairs, revenue and political."119 Her brother's safe return did not assuage
Nur Jahan, however, for she was still angry that she had not been able to avenge
herself completely against Mahabat Khan. She scolded Asaf Khan for not hav-
ing had more patience for, if he had only waited, she said, "she would have
fought and rescued him by force, made Mahabat Khan like dust of the earth and
punished him in a manner so as to make him an object-lesson for the whole
 The Rebellion of Mahabat Khan 273

world."120 Asaf Khan appeased her by saying that he was lucky to be alive, but
when Jahangir asked him if he realized how obligated he now was to Mahabat
Khan, Asaf Khan duplicitously replied that he would forget what he owed or
repay it benignly.121
Nur Jahan was still not satisfied, however—raging as she was "with a fruit-
less passion for revenge122—and when she got word that a convoy with twenty-
two lakh rupees was coming to Mahabat Khan from Bengal and was now near
Delhi, she sent out a confiscation party. When the men in charge of the convoy
discovered the impending attack, 123 they barricaded themselves in a sarai near
Shahabad and held out for some time against the imperial forces. Nur Jahan's
army prevailed, however, and, setting fire to the sarai, retrieved the treasure
when the men fled.124 The queen then bribed the old Khankhanan, Abdur
Rahim, with a large reward to go in pursuit of Mahabat Khan. The minister
had, she argued, put to death the Khankhanan's son and nephew "without any
order from the King."125 When the Khankhanan protested that he was now too
old and enfeebled for the trials of war, Nur Jahan insisted and, in the end, the
Khankhanan had no choice but to take up Mahabat Khan's pursuit. 126 Abdur
Rahim died in Delhi, however, in the winter of 1627 before he could seriously
attend to the issue.
Although Mahabat Khan had been given a nominal "severance pay" of a
dress of honor, some elephants, and some horses by Jahangir,127 he was now for
all intents and purposes a fugitive. Knowing that he was still the object of
revenge by Nur Jahan and that his only "friend" at court Asaf Khan could do
nothing to help him as his "power depended upon his sister,"128 Mahabat Khan
at first took the route toward Tatta, but before he got there went off into
Hindustan. There he "concealed himself for some time in the hills of the Rana's
country,"129 waiting apparently for the final events of Jahangir's reign to unfold.
Mahabat Khan remains even now an appealing character. Although he did,
without doubt, act seditiously toward Jahangir and his court, it seems clear that
he was badgered and harassed into treason. One could argue, as van den Broecke
did, that all of Mahabat Khan's actions were instigated by his enemies, who for
the sake of their own interest, were "trying to bring about the fall of his power
and his death."130 His only mistake was that, believing too much in the imperial
office, he was overly merciful and "did not act with that severity which was
necessary in view of their offence." Nur Jahan was made his most implacable
enemy, who saw in him not only a major threat to her imperial designs for her
daughter, but a living symbol of rebuff to her own honor: the queen "wished to
conquer him, who had conquered her, and who smarted because she had not
been able to do with him as she liked, to cool her lust with him."131 Nevertheless,
Mahabat Khan did act inopportunely, even if it were for reasons of his injured
reputation. And although Jahangir was known to value old friendships, he had
to let this one fall given the pressing circumstances of his marriage and the
empire.
For Nur Jahan's part, however, we find that she exhibited here as always a
finely honed instinct for survival that allowed her to meet the occasion with
whatever resources she found at hand. The rebellion did serve an interesting
274 NUR JAIIAN

function, however, for in one strike it crystallized the loyalties of Asaf Khan,
Mahabat Khan, and Shah Jahan away from the camp of the queen and ulti-
mately toward one another. Ironically, had not Mahabat Khan been forced at the
beginning to account for himself before Jahangir by the queen, Nur Jahan may
have been in a better position one year hence to oversee the wars of succession in
which her people, as it turned out, fared so very poorly.
 12

Death ofjahangir and

Retirement to Lahore
Nothing can be stated with certainty as the issue still belongs to the future.
We may, however, discuss the question as to whose chances (of succession)
are the greatest. In regard to the choice of a new king the nobles may be
divided into three groups accordingly as they are inclined in favour of Sultan
Bulaqi, Sultan Shahr Yar or the eldest Sultan Khurram.
A Contemporary Dutch Chronicle of Mughal India by Pieter van den Broecke,
translated and edited by Brij Narain and Sri Ram Sharma
On the grave of this poor stranger, let there be neither lamp nor rose. Let
neither butterfly's wing burn nor nightingale sing.
epitaph on Nur Jahan's tomb, translated by Wheeler Thackston

Nur Jahan's heroic role in the rebellion of Mahabat Khan was short-lived.
Having come out of seclusion for the climactic episode of her political life and
having maneuvered her husband out from the hands of his abductor, she had
proven herself capable of an exquisitely executed victory. She had not become
victorious, however, by fighting in battle but by the means she had always used
best: strategy measured out from behind the palace walls. Her skills at duplicity,
her easy use of charm at all levels of government, and most of all her tenacious
powers of endurance had proved their mettle. But with the close of the rebellion
of Mahabat Khan, Nur Jahan's role as manager of political events came to an
end. She would now be forced, most reluctantly, to pass the brokering of power
over to her brother, Asaf Khan, and, more particularly, to his protege the future
king, Shah Jahan.
Shah Jahan had not been well-off in the last two years of Jahangir's reign.
Back in the Deccan after his unsuccessful revolt against his father, he had fallen
ill1 and had found few followers for support or security. Hearing the news of
Mahabat Khan's coup, however, Shah Jahan left Ahmadnagar on June 7, 1626,
and marched north through the pass of Nasik Trimbak. Although Kamgar Khan
stated that Shah Jahan "resolved that he would hasten immediately to the Em-
275
276 NUR JAHAN

peror his father"2 in order to save him from his abductor, most believe that the
prince wanted to gain whatever advantage he could for himself out of the unset-
tled situation. 3
Although Shah Jahan had not yet chosen sides, it would eventually become
clear to him that his best chances lay in an alliance with Mahabat Khan. The two
were not friends—in fact, they had most recently been on either ends of a
pursuit that had veered all over India—but Mahabat Khan was now a fugitive
and his natural animosity toward the imperial court would be an especially
beneficial factor to the exiled prince. Eventually, Shah Jahan would see such an
alliance as eminently agreeable to both the failed minister and to himself:
Mahabat Khan was an excellent soldier and an experienced courtier who, only
because of circumstances, had been unable recently to exhibit the loyal qualities
for which he was best known.
On the way north, Shah Jahan found it difficult to get troops together. Both
Khan Jahan and Raja Nar Singh Deo made excuses when asked to join the
prince and after reaching Ajmer, where Raja Kishan Singh died, Shah Jahan saw
that his men had dwindled to only about four or five hundred in number.
Because "it was impossible for him to carry out his design of going to the
Emperor" with so small an army,4 Shah Jahan resolved to go to Tatta, where he
would "wait patiently for a while"5 in the hopes of recruiting more troops. But
the route was unusually dry and barren and "his journey was attended with great
hardship,"6 and when he reached Tatta in October of 1626, he found that patient
waiting was impossible. Under Sharifulmulk, the governor of the district and a
devoted supporter of Shahryar's through Nur Jahan, three to four thousand
cavalry and ten thousand infantry stopped Shah Jahan's progress at the gate.
Though overpowering, Shahryar's forces were afraid to strike and retreated to
within the city, thus encouraging some of Shah Jahan's men to attack anyway
despite their prince's insistent instructions not to. 7 Many men died in the attack,
and although he knew beforehand that it was a futile seige, Shah Jahan was
nevertheless "greatly affected by his ill-success."8
Spurned at Tatta, Shah Jahan now thought to enlist the aid of his old friend,
Shah Abbas of Persia. He wrote several letters to the shah, but none of them
received a promising response; the second of the replies, in fact, made quite
clear to Shah Jahan that Abbas thought the prince should lay low and submit to
his father.9 With Persia no longer an obvious source of support, then, and still so
weak and ill that "he was obliged to travel in a palki,"10 Shah Jahan now turned
around and went back through Gujarat to the Deccan.11 There he was warmly
greeted by the son of Malik Ambar, who had taken over the government after his
father died. The new ruler "received Khurram with honor and helped him with
whatever he required,"12 and in the time that followed, Shah Jahan was able to
strengthen further his alliances with the noble families of the Deccan. 13
On his way back to the Deccan, Shah Jahan received the news that his older
brother Parviz had died. Suffering from intemperance, the family affliction,
Parviz had succumbed "after a long illness"14 on October 28, 1626, at the age of
thirty-eight.15 Jahangir's grief had been "immeasurable," for he loved deeply this
son, who "was more gentle and obedient than the other sons . . . [and who had]
 Death of Jahangir and Retirement to Lahore 277

always submissively obeyed the King's commands."16 Rumors persisted that

Shah Jahan had had a hand in his brother's death, that "he [had] caused his
second brother, Sultan Parveen, to be poisoned,"17 but such stories by all ac-
counts were illfounded. Parviz's body was taken back to Agra, where it was
eventually entombed in his own garden. 18
Parviz's death raised new questions about the future of the crown, and Nur
Jahan watched as Jahangir grew increasingly "anxious as to who should succeed to
the throne after his death."19 Shah Jahan was heartened by the news of Parviz,
however, for it reduced his competition by one and left him with only Shahryar
and Dawar Bakhsh, a son of Khusrau nicknamed Bulaqi, with whom to contend.20
About this time, as Shah Jahan proceeded toward the Deccan, Mahabat
Khan began to make overtures of alliance to him. 21 Mahabat Khan had been
forced into hiding by Nur Jahan's seizure of his Bengal treasure outside of
Delhi,22 and, as a result, had taken refuge in the forests of Mewar23 and had
sought asylum, said De Laet, with the Rana of Udaipur.24 Exceedingly depressed
over the death of his protege Parviz,25 however, and having been in the Rana's
district for a while, Mahabat Khan now sought to reverse the infamy by which
"his very name . . . seemed to have ceased to exist."26
Furious that Nur Jahan was still harassing his nobles and taking money from
them,27 and knowing that her pursuit of him would not abate quickly, Mahabat
Khan came out of hiding and approached Shah Jahan. 28 Sending messengers to
the prince "to express his contrition," Mahabat Khan's gamble was successful;
the "Prince received his apologies kindly, called him to his presence, and treated
him with great favour and kindness."29 After submitting to Shah Jahan—all
"that I have, my treasure and my person, till I die, will be employed in your
service"30— Mahabat Khan was pardoned and the alliance between the two
confirmed.31 Gifts were exchanged, and both men vowed to work companion-
ably together from this point on to secure Shah Jahan's accession. Said Mundy:
Mahabat Khan "never left him [Shah Jahan] till hee brought him to Agra where
hee became King by Asaph Ckauns and this mans helpe."32
Jahangir and Nur Jahan, meanwhile, had been keeping court in Lahore. Safe
for the time from abductors and rebellious children, they had resumed the
ordinary trappings of imperial life, receiving gifts from visitors33 and effecting
the usual promotions and demotions necessary to hold the continued interest of
the court. Fidai Khan, "who had for a long time been in refuge in the territory of
Bharat Singh"34 after the initial Mahabat Khan abduction, came out of hiding
now and made his way to Nur Jahan and Jahangir in Lahore. There he was
elevated in rank by the queen and made governor of Bengal.35 Nur Jahan also
ordered at this time "a great gathering" to be held in Shahryar's garden in honor
of her son-in-law's appointment as commander of 40,000 suwar. There "all the
nobles who were present in the palace or the camp made obeisance (Salam) to
him, which signified that he was to succeed to the Kingdom"36—a gesture that
seems, by later events, to have held little legal or moral force.
Jahangir, however, was not doing well. The seasonal heat of Lahore had
exacerbated his sickness, and unable to bear the approaching summer, he left
with the court for Kashmir in March of 1627. Included in his retinue, besides
278 NUR JAHAN

the queen, were Asaf Khan, Shahryar, and Bulaqi. In Kashmir, however, his
declining health got even worse. Each day "his illness increased," and as he "was
unable to ride on horseback . . . [he had to be] carried about in a palki." "He
lost all appetite for food, and rejected opium, which had been his companion for
forty years. He took nothing but a few cups of wine of the grape."37 Suffering
from asthma, Jahangir found that the air of "the elevated country," against
expectation, was not good for him.
As Jahangir's health got worse and his asthma became progressively debilitat-
ing, another member of the imperial retinue got desperately ill. Shahryar, the
youngest son and at least in Nur Jahan's view the heir apparent, came down with
a kind of leprosy known as Fox's Disease. His hair, whiskers, eyebrows, and
eyelashes fell out, leaving him pale and denuded to the end. The doctors were
unable to prescribe any medicine that would help, and thus thoroughly shamed,
Shahryar decided to return to Lahore where the warmer climate might prove
more beneficial.38 Although it was planned that Shahryar would proceed to
Lahore first so that he could make immediate arrangements for his treatment, 39
the whole imperial retinue, including Jahangir, was to leave Kashmir quickly
thereafter. Some suggest that Jahangir needed to go back for reasons of his own
health,40 but by now Nur Jahan had become obsessed with the imminent issue of
succession. It is quite probable, then, others would argue, that Jahangir had
been persuaded to leave not because of his health but because his wife wanted to
be near her son-in-law when Jahangir died. Proximity to Shahryar would mean
that Nur Jahan could ensure his accession to the throne as soon as the occasion
demanded.
On Jahangir's way back to Lahore from Kashmir, a tragic hunting accident
occurred. As the emperor's party reached Bairam Kala—the place where "one
enters India"41—Jahangir decided to hunt. The local people drove the deer up to
the area where the emperor was sitting, and Jahangir raised his gun, shot a deer,
and watched as the wounded animal scurried off to its females and fell. One of
Jahangir's men ran after the stricken deer but lost his balance and fell over the
cliff to his death. "The fate of the poor man greatly affected the Emperor. It
seemed as though he had thus seen the angel of death. From that time he had no
rest or ease, and his state was entirely changed."42 Although Jahangir must have
known, given the desiccated state of his body, that he did not have long to live,
the death of a servant for no reason but his own imperial whim struck him as
frighteningly ominous. His own death now seemed very close, and for a man
who had so feared the morbid throughout his life,43 the actuality was horrifying.
Some preparation for death had already taken place, for earlier in 1620 while in
Kashmir, Jahangir experienced difficulty in breathing and mused, "I hope that
in the end, please God, it may all go well."44 Now that it was upon him, however,
the terror was great.
As it turned out the waiting was not long, for shortly after the accident, on
October 28, 1627, Jahangir died—exactly a year to the day after the death of his
second son Parviz.45 The imperial entourage had just left Rajauri for the next
stage, Chingaz Hatli near Bhimbar, the day before. On the way, Jahangir had
called for a glass of wine but could not swallow it. As the night wore on, he grew
 Death ofjahangir and Retirement to Lahore 279

worse and early the next morning he died. Nuruddin Jahangir Padshah was
fifty-eight and had just completed the twenty-second year of his reign.46
Despite his public waverings in favor of the weak Shahryar and, we would
like to believe, his private hopes for the better suited Shah Jahan, Jahangir had
not officially appointed an heir to his throne. His death, then, set in motion a
struggle for succession that lasted over three months and cost the imperial line
almost all of its possible legatees. The struggle began in earnest on the day of
Jahangir's death when Nur Jahan, still with the imperial party outside of
Rajauri, called all the nobles to her side for a conference. According to the anti-
Nur Jahan Padshahnama of Lahori: "Nur Mahal, who had been the cause of
much strife and contention, now clung to the vain idea of retaining the reins of
government in her grasp, as she had held them during the reign of the late
Emperor."47 The conference never materialized, however, having been foiled by
Asaf Khan, who managed to evade his sister's brief play for power on one
pretext or another. Said the Iqbalnama, "he made excuses, and did not go."48
Clear that his sister would make a strong bid to control the succession, Asaf
Khan, with the support of all the nobles and after years of secret duplicity, now
came out in the open against her. In order to prevent Nur Jahan from putting
Shahryar on the throne, Asaf Khan "put the queen under arrest,"49 confined
"her to her tent; and gave strict orders that none should be admitted into her
presence."50 In this way, with Nur Jahan under watchful guard, Asaf Khan could
not only check his sister's movements but also lay plans for his own security.
Asaf Khan began by sending the Hindu runner Banarasi from Chingaz Hatli
to Shah Jahan "with intelligence of the death ofjahangir." 51 Shah Jahan had by
now returned to the Deccan after his unsuccessful campaign to Tatta and was "at
a distance of three months' journey from the place where the Emperor Jahangir
had died."52 Because there was no time to write the prince, Asaf Khan sent his
own signet ring with Banarasi "as a guarantee" that the news from the north was
authentic.53 Even at that moment, as his father-in-law was making plans for his
succession, Shah Jahan was being urged by his supporters in the Deccan "to
make a bid for the Empire"54—a bid, as history proved, it was unnecessary to
make.
Asaf Khan and the mir bakhshi, Iradat Khan, then saw that they had to stall
for time in the interval before Shah Jahan's arrival. Because it was "well known
to politicians that the throne of royalty cannot remain vacant for a moment,"55
they decided to bring Dawar Bakhsh, son of Khusrau and otherwise known as
Bulaqi, "out of confinement" and place him on the throne.56 The move was
never thought to be more than a stratagem, a way of gaining time and of holding
off bids by other claimants.57 But it had the appearance of a real accession and
Dawar Bakhsh himself eventually came to believe in the sincerity of his promot-
ers. On October 29, 1627, then, "the khutba was read in Dawar Bakhsh's name
near Bhimbar."58
To onlookers at the time, the outcome of the struggle was still unclear. Van
den Broecke, writing in the midst of the succession days, assessed the candidates
as frankly as he could and drew conclusions as wavering as the situation they
described. Dawar Bakhsh, he said, had been named successor to Jahangir by the
280 NUR JAHAN

emperor himself on his deathbed 59 —a claim repeated by Mundy,60 Manucci,61

and at great length by Tavernier, who argued that Jahangir had from the time of
the blinding of Khusrau thought Bulaqi should succeed him through the aus-
pices of primogeniture. Although Nur Jahan also had promised, van den
Broecke continued, "to follow the King's wishes in the matter" and although
Bulaqi was loved "for his father's [Khusrau's] sake," he was young and had very
little following of his own.62 Moreover, Nur Jahan (never a favorite of the Dutch-
man's) was not to be trusted, and Jahangir, not discovering "even till the end the
cunning nature of his wife . . . died like a blind man"63; "can it be believed that
that vicious woman, who is filled with cunning up to the throat, will be deterred
from her purpose on account of a simple word of promise?"64 Van den Broecke
concluded, then, "that there is very little hope or chance for Bulaqi,"55 given his
scanty resources and the active opposition of the lately widowed queen.
Shahryar, he thought at first, had a greater chance of winning the throne.
His primary asset, of course, was "his cunning mother-in-law, who has both the
Kingdom and the treasure in her power."66 Enjoying at this time an income of
40,000 suwar, Shahryar could also count on the financial resources of Qasim
Khan, Nur Jahan's sister's husband, who was governor of Agra. In the imperial
treasury there lay most of the estate left by Akbar, whose gold had been little
touched. Kept there also was the treasury of Jahangir and of Nur Jahan, the
latter described by van den Broecke as "the very great amount of wealth which
the Queen has amassed during 15 years, which is more than that left by the
King."67 Moreover, Nur Jahan had recently acquired new followers among the
nobles, who were beholden to her for their rank and wealth and who would
certainly back the candidacy of Shahryar.68 For these reasons, then, van den
Broecke predicted that Nur Jahan's quest on behalf of her son-in-law "may now
be realised."69
Van den Broecke's predictions on Shah Jahan's chances were more ambigu-
ous. The third son was now in exile in the Deccan, and although he had many
friends, they had been "compelled to leave him in the course of his flight on
account of his terrible distress and adversity."70 Van den Broecke's initial assess-
ment was suitably pessimistic: "how else could one talk about Khurram except as
a rebel and a traitor who deserved to die. He was suspect and his fortunes were
uncertain."71 He knew, however, that many were urging Shah Jahan on to the
throne and that there were networks of alliances all over the country this prince
could activate when appropriate. Although van den Broecke seemed unaware of
the effort on Shah Jahan's part being made by Asaf Khan, he was writing in late
1627 from an underlying assumption that Shah Jahan would ultimately accede to
the throne. At the end of his account, in fact, he noted that Mahabat Khan and the
other nobles "will prepare the way for Khurram" 72 —an admirable prophecy given
the current great "confusion in the Empire of Hindustan." 73
The deciding factor for van den Broecke was the future success or failure of
Nur Jahan. The Dutchman's account is unusually eerie in this regard, for not
only, in the vacuum following Jahangir's death, was he unable to pick clearly
who the successor would be, but he seemed singularly unaware of the doings of
Asaf Khan either for Shah Jahan or against Nur Jahan. Ordinarily very detailed
 Death ofjahangir and Retirement to Lahore 281

and in touch with activities at the imperial court, van den Broecke here, perhaps
because bazaar gossip to him was slow, had lost his usual familiarity with the
ruling clique. Against hindsight knowledge, then, his worries about Nur Jahan
seem odd. Van den Broecke was most concerned that the queen and her family
would grab for power and send the empire into chaos. Although they could not
"divide the Empire among themselves" without thought for the legitimate rules
of sovereignty, they could be, he feared, oblivious to the need for order. "In view
of the existing circumstances," he mused, "no improvement can be expected,
unless fickle fortune smiled upon Khurram and he became King."74
The civil war van den Broecke feared might happen did not materialize, for
Nur Jahan was immediately rendered powerless by her imprisonment. After
placing Dawar Bakhsh at the head of the government on October 29, Asaf Khan
proceeded to fix her isolation by taking the three sons of Shah Jahan out of Nur
Jahan's apartments. Dara Shikoh, Shah Shuja, and Aurangzeb, who had been in
the care of the empress since Shah Jahan's revolt, were now considered not "safe
with Nur Mahal" and were removed from her charge and kept for the moment
with Asaf Khan and Iradat Khan. Then, to assuage a hesitant supporter of the
great trust the nobles had in him, the three sons were placed under the watchful
care of Sadiq Khan. 75
Formal funeral ceremonies for Jahangir had been performed the day after his
death, when the royal retinue had come "down from the mountains to
Bhimbar,"76 which was on the plains. Dawar Bakhsh, apparently, could not have
the khutba read in his name until after the preceding emperor's reign was offi-
cially over, so closing rites needed to be performed immediately. Jahangir's body
was then "sent on under escort to Lahore, where it was interred in a garden
which Nur Jahan had made."77 Asaf Khan sent the corpse to Lahore for burial
under the supervision of Maqsud Khan and other nobles,78 with strict instruc-
tions that Nur Jahan was to accompany her dead husband at every stage through
to the very end. The long royal procession then left Bhimbar for Lahore in two
stages. Asaf Khan and Iradat Khan, having "placed Bulaki on horseback, and,
with a party of men in whom they had full confidence, . . . commenced their
march, taking care to keep one day ahead of Nur Mahal."79 Nur Jahan, with the
body of Jahangir, then followed a day behind as they made their way to his final
resting place in Shahdara.
Nur Jahan had not been idle, however. In spite of the fact that Asaf Khan,
who "was not at ease in respect of Nur Jahan," had "kept watch over her, and
would allow no communication with her,"80 the queen had managed to send a
message to Shahryar in Lahore. Because she had long hoped to raise Shahryar to
the throne when Jahangir died and in spite of her promise to her dead husband
to support Dawar Bakhsh,81 Nur Jahan now urged her son-in-law in Lahore to
collect soldiers and bring them quickly to her: "She wrote to Na-shudani
["Good-for-Nothing," for example, Shahryar], advising him to collect as many
men as he could, and hasten to her."82 This message from the camp at Bhimbar
to Shahryar to mobilize troops was to be her last known political act. Asaf Khan,
in his apprehension, had isolated her, and apparently her sister Khadija, 83 so
thoroughly that her political and military choices now became very few. More-
282 NUR JAHAN

over, sentiment against her was running high, and if van den Broecke's mali-
cious vision of her at this time was widespread (as it must have been given his
sources among the people), then she would have had trouble commanding any
kind of popular support. Nur Jahan, finally, was Jahangir's wife and her need to
go quietly with his body in its final public hours carried substantial political and
personal weight.
Shahryar, meanwhile, was in Lahore when he heard of the emperor's death.
Urged on "by his intriguing wife,"84 "the poor bald Shahriyar"85 proclaimed
himself emperor there with all the incumbent rights and privileges. In spite of
the fact that his erstwhile connections, and the potential revenue they could call
up, might have given him a real chance for the throne,86 Shahryar did not have
the character, experience, or stamina for the job. The proclamation, then, al-
most from the beginning, was a futile act and only a few nobles recognized the
accession as genuine. Shahryar, however, was serious. He proceeded to seize
"the royal treasure and everything belonging to the State which was in Lahore."
In order to guarantee his place as the head of the government and of the troops,
he distributed the treasury to would-be supporters, giving "to every one what he
asked for."87 In the course of a week, said the Iqbalnama, "he distributed seventy
lacs of rupees among the old and new nobles, in the hope of securing his
position."88 Mirza Bayasanghar, son of Daniyal, late brother of Jahangir, had fled
to Lahore when the emperor died and now joined Shahryar. Taking command of
the forces, Bayasanghar brought the troops over the river and stood with
Shahryar against the royal claims of others.89
Asaf Khan and Dawar Bakhsh had, by now, advanced considerably from
Bhimbar. Keeping one day ahead of Nur Jahan's army, they had moved quickly
to Lahore and were within three miles from the city when they met Shahryar's
forces. The opposing armies gave battle but at "the first attack Shahriyar's
mercenaries, unable to face the old and loyal servants of the State, broke, and
fled."90 Shahryar himself had stayed back in Lahore with two or three thousand
cavalry "awaiting the course of events." When a Turki slave brought him the
news of his troops' defeat, he panicked. "Unable to understand his position and
danger," Shahryar turned back and entered the fort, "thus placing his own foot
in the trap."91
When, on the next day, Asaf Khan's men arrived at the fort, some of
Shahryar's followers "had an interview with Asaf Khan, and made terms." One
of the vakil's men, Azam Khan,92 had posed as Shahryar's friend and had de-
tained the prince as he waited for news from Bayasanghar at the front. When
news of Bayasanghar's defeat outside of Lahore arrived, Shahryar locked him-
self in the fort,93 and Azam Khan moved quickly to let in Asaf Khan's men.94
Searching for Shahryar, Iradat Khan and Abu Talib Shayista Khan found that
he had "fled for refuge into the female apartments of the late Emperor." From
there, he was brought out and led, in chains, into the presence of Dawar
Bakhsh. "After making the regular bows and homage, he was placed in confine-
ment, and two or three days afterward he was blinded."95
So ended the brief and blighted reign of Shahryar. With his troops gone and
his eyesight compromised, there was no hope for any return to power. If one
 Death ofjahangir and Retirement to Lahore 283

wonders why Nur Jahan was not able to do more, why she could not mobilize
more troops on his behalf or why there was not a greater outpouring of support
as her son-in-law proclaimed himself emperor, one need only look at the circum-
stances of Shahyar's rise. Clearly, events happened so quickly in the end that a
large mobilization effort was out of the question. But, whatever his mother-in-
law could or couldn't do, Shahryar's defeat was due more to the astuteness and
force of his enemies, namely Asaf Khan, and to his own lack of imperial cha-
risma than to the military exigencies of the time. Says Prasad: "If Nur Jahan had
been free to act, she might have prolonged the affair, but even she could hardly
have succeeded in the end."96
Meanwhile, the runner Banarasi, who had left Chingaz Hatli with the signet
ring, arrived in Junnair in the north Deccan after twenty days on November 18,
1627. He made his way to the house of Mahabat Khan, "who had just before
been received by Shah Jahan." "Mahabat Khan sent word into the private
apartments of the Prince, who came out and received from the runner the signet
ring of Asaf Khan."97 The content of Banarasi's message was that Shah Jahan
"must leave his place of refuge by whatever method he could devise . . . [and]
come to court [in Agra where] he should [be] made king, . . . [as] everything
was in readiness."98 At the news of his father's death, Shah Jahan observed "the
proper rites and term of mourning," and abandoning plans to march to Bengal
with Mahabat Khan,99 he proceeded northward by way of Gujarat.
Although the first intelligence from Banarasi could not have carried with it
the report of Asaf Khan's victory in Lahore, Shah Jahan did come to know of it
along the way, after he had crossed the Narmada, and his "march to the north
was like a triumphal procession" with drums "beaten to celebrate the victory."100
Not all saw Shah Jahan's march northward as reason to cheer, however, for van
den Broecke, whose account ends just as the prince had reached the fort at
Surat, was consistently unsure just how many districts would fall in with him as
he proceeded toward Agra. The Dutchman said with characteristic vagueness,
for example, it "is more or less a fact that every one is more or less afraid of him,
and no one follows him seriously except Mahabat Khan."101 Nevertheless, once
he had heard the news of Shahryar's defeat, Shah Jahan began to feel and act
more and more as if he were the emperor-designate.
What he did next, however, was an unnecessary act of desperation, which
changed the rules of all successions to come. Certain now that his benefactor
Asaf Khan was ascendant, Shah Jahan sent orders from Gujarat to Asaf Khan to
execute Shahryar, Dawar Bakhsh, and two of the sons of Daniyal, Tahmuras and
Hoshang.102 "Shah Jahan sent a farman to Yaminu-d daula Asaf Khan, to the
effect that it would be well if Dawar Bakhsh the son, and (Shahriyar) the useless
brother, of Khusru, and the sons of Prince Daniyal, were all sent out of the
world."103 With this, he was convinced, all possible competition for the throne
would be gone.104
Matters now moved quickly. On January 19, 1628, as Shah Jahan was still
proceeding toward Agra, he was "proclaimed [emperor] at Lahore . . . by gen-
eral consent." Dawar Bakhsh was thrown into prison and, with the concurrence
of all the nobles, Asaf Khan had the khutba read in Shah Jahan's name.105 On
284 NUR JAHAN

January 21, Asaf Khan received thefarman ordering the execution of the remain-
ing contenders for the crown. On January 23, he carried it out: "Dawar, his
brother Garshasp, Shahriyar, and Tahmuras and Hoshang, sons of the deceased
Prince Daniyal, were all put to death."106 Surprisingly, De Laet suggested that
the princes were strangled by the very assassin who was said to have strangled
Khusrau in 1621, Raza Bahadur: "In accordance with these instructions [of
Shah Jahan] Bahador reached Lahor in eight days by means of the post- horses.
Assoffghan handed over to him the princes, whom he cruelly strangled at night,
and then buried by the side of the dead king in a garden."107 It is not clear how
true De Laet's account of the strangling of the princes may have been, but with
their execution, Shah Jahan's hold on the throne was certain. Saksena suggests,
with reason, that the five princes died unnecessarily and that Shah Jahan was
assured of a secure throne even without their elimination. Whatever the course
of history might have been had they lived, however, Shah Jahan was to see these
events repeated when, at the end of his own life, "he had to witness the execu-
tion of two of his sons, and the disappearance of a third."108
On January 24, 1628, Shah Jahan entered Agra. He had celebrated his thirty-
eighth birthday on the way north with Raja Karan and in Ajmer, "according to
the practice of his great ancestor, [he had] paid a visit on foot to the tombs of the
saints."109 Now having come "with a powerful army via Gujarat and Ajmir, . . .
[he] soon arrived in Agra, which was the seat of his and his forefathers' govern-
ment."110 On January 23, he camped outside the city in the recently refurbished
Nur Manzil gardens111—much to the great fury, we imagine, of the former queen
who, discovered that his host there was none other than her brother-in-law and
former poetry partner, Qasim Khan—and the next day "he entered the city, and
was universally recognized as King."112 After waiting twelve days for an auspi-
cious time fixed by the astrologers, Shah Jahan was crowned emperor on Febru-
ary 4, 1628, ll3 and "distributed largesses and rewards among his subjects."114
Finally, on February 26, the agent of all these events, Asaf Khan, arrived in
Agra and was met by his own daughter, the new queen, and by Jahanara, the
favorite daughter of Shah Jahan. Asaf Khan was honored with great fanfare, and
with these festivities, the official coronation celebrations of Shah Jahan came to
an end.
Meanwhile, Jahangir's body was buried in state. A false grave had been
constructed initially at Chingaz Sarai near a Mughal mosque, where the em-
peror's entrails had been interred. 115 But his official resting place was in Lahore,
the city that during his reign "had been considered as the capital of the em-
pire."116 Jahangir had been fond of Lahore, calling it "one of the greatest places
in Hindustan"117 and had often held his court and entertainments there.118 Finch
had reported that Lahore was "one of the greatest cities of the East,"119 and
Monserrate had calculated that it was "second to none, either in Asia or in
Europe, with regard to size, population and wealth."120 Early speculation had
been that Jahangir would be buried near Agra in his father Akbar's tomb.
Hawkins said, for example, in 1613 "there came into my memory another feast,
solemnized at his [Jahangir's] fathers funerall, which is kept at his sepulchre,
where likewise himselfe, with all his posterity, meane to be buried." 121 There was
 Death ofjahangir and Retirement to Lahore 285

also a tradition that he wanted to be buried in his garden at Vernag in Kashmir,122

his last and perhaps most beautiful obsession. Shah Jahan's desire to have a
grand and centrally accessible public monument that would ultimately affirm his
own right to rule, however, overrode any other claims, and it was there in
Lahore, at Shahdara on the old bank of the Ravi river in the Dilkusha garden,
where Jahangir was finally buried. The garden belonged to Jahangir's "lovely
and accomplished wife, Nur Jahan," and with his interment inside its bounds he
was "thus paying . . . [his wife] the last tribute of affection."123
Local tradition says that the design and construction of Jahangir's tomb were
in Nur Jahan's hands. A number of later scholars such as Havell,124 Fergusson,125 P.
Brown,126 Prasad,127 Haywood,128 and Gascoigne129 follow this tradition, all stating
that Nur Jahan spent the early years of her retirement actively overseeing the
tomb's construction. Latif, however, following Muhammad Salih's Shahjahan-
nama, attributes the tomb primarily to Shah Jahan who, three years later in 1631,
would be building a contemporaneous monument for his wife Arjumand Banu
Begam. The Shujauddins, uncharacteristically, support this view, arguing that
because Nur Jahan was in strict confinement by now and had a very limited purse,
she could play no major role in the building process. Rather than neglect his
father's memory, they argue, Shah Jahan glorified it, for the "mausoleum of
Jahangir was constructed as a State building under royal orders.""0 Nur Jahan
most certainly watched, but the final decisions of design, layout, and decoration
may, in all probability, not have been hers alone to make.
Jahangir's widow had no recourse now but exile. Although De Laet sug-
gested that Nur Jahan actually accompanied her brother Asaf Khan to Agra and
personally handed over the royal treasure to Shah Jahan,131 there is no other
contemporary evidence for this. She would certainly have wanted to stay at court
as was the normal practice for imperial widows, but her most influential relative,
Asaf Khan, had no intention of sharing power with her again, and without a
consort or offspring on the throne, any claim she had to authority was minimal.
From the meager accounts of Nur Jahan for the period after Jahangir's death, we
know that having been made a prisoner by her brother Asaf Khan, she was
brought to Lahore under strict guard.132 Giving up the body of her husband to be
buried in state by his son, Nur Jahan retired there on a fixed annual pension
from Shah Jahan of two lakh rupees,133 or as Dow notes twenty-five thousand
pounds.134 Ironically, the man she had promoted for so long to such good fortune
and then worked almost equally long to defeat now had almost total control over
the means of her livelihood.
We know little of Nur Jahan's life in Lahore. All accounts indicated that for
the next eighteen years, until her death in 1645, she spent her time in relative
seclusion in her own personal house in the city.135 According to tradition, after
Jahangir's death Nur Jahan "never went to parties of amusement of her own
accord, but lived in private and in sorrow."136 The woman who had "obtained
such an ascendency over, . . . [Jahangir,] and exercised such absolute control
over civil and revenue matters,"137 was now without any authority at all as "her
power [had] ceased with the death of her consort."138 Being "too proud even to
speak of public affairs, . . . she, therefore, gave up her mind to study, retire-
286 NUR JAHAN

ment, and ease."139 The Shujauddins have suggested that Nur Jahan, whose
daughter Ladli (also now a widow) was living with her, was frustrated by her
limited state of affairs but, whatever complaints she may have had about her
now severely curtailed powers, she had no alternative but to accept her fate. 140 As
Gascoigne notes, Nur Jahan was "too positive a character to quibble when her
defeat was plain."141
What Nur Jahan did with her time can only be a matter of speculation. Some
have suggested that she spent many of her hours in charitable giving. We know
that in addition to the two lakh rupees granted her by Shah Jahan, Nur Jahan
also had money of her own. In the treasury at Agra, for example, Nur Jahan had
a "very great amount of wealth . . . amassed during 15 years, which is more
than that left by the King."142 Depending upon how much of this fortune from
her reign Shah Jahan allowed her to keep or to use, Nur Jahan would certainly
have had some monies with which to spend philanthropically.143 That she would
turn to charity was well within the bounds of her character, for the Iqbalnama
noted of her time as empress that:

Whoever threw himself upon her protection was preserved from tyranny and
oppression; and if ever she learnt that any orphan girl was destitute and friend-
less, she would bring about her marriage, and give her a wedding portion. It is
probable that during her reign no less than 500 orphan girls were thus married
and portioned.144

Through giving, then, Nur Jahan may have been able to exercise the patronage
she was used to and to maintain a benevolent contact with the people of her
erstwhile reign.
It may also be that a widow in Nur Jahan's circumstances would have turned
increasingly to religious activities. As is often the case, lay religious in India were
frequently women, and often women of means. The early seventeenth century
was no exception and we know of many women active in religious work then
who supported, with all they had, the traditions of Jainism,145 Hinduism, and
Islam. Nur Jahan was still, we presume, a piously devout Shia, practicing the
religion brought by her family when they emigrated from Persia. Although
Lahore had originally been Hindu, its recent history had been primarily Mus-
lim. Under the Mughals spacious mosques had been built, minarets had been
erected, and Islamic poets and scholars had gathered in numbers, making it a
seat of great learning. To what extent Nur Jahan participated in this religious life
is not known. She would certainly have carried out the appropriate domestic
rites and prayers as befitted a woman of her station, but any odd conversations
with religious scholars, any regular commitments to textual study, or any patron-
age of religious buildings or vocations there are now lost to history.
The "old Queene Noore mohol,"146 as Mundy so aptly called her in 1632,
lived eighteen years as a widow. During that time, she saw her niece Arjumand
Banu Begam (Mumtaz Mahal) die in 1631 and most of the Taj Mahal completed
as her tomb (1632-48). She lived through the completion of her husband's tomb
in 1637 and the death of her brother Asaf Khan, Shah Jahan's chief minister, in
 Death ofjahangir and Retirement to Lahore 287

1641. Saksena indicates that Nur Jahan, throughout all this time, remained
faithful to the memory of her dead husband,147 and the Shujauddins suggest that
she "was often seen visiting the grave of her beloved husband accompanied by
her slave-girls and attendants."148 No doubt Nur Jahan spent much of her time at
Jahangir's tomb, as it was a custom then for a widow to keep physical proximity
to her husband's remains as a way of honoring the couple's marriage vows. Of
Akbar's widows, for example, Finch said:

Alongst the way side is a spacious moholl for his fathers women (as is said) to
remayne and end their dayes in deploring their deceased lord, each enjoying the
lands they before had in the Kings time, . . . so that this should be to them a
perpetuall nunnery, never to marry againe.149

Nur Jahan would certainly have felt the weight of social custom in her regular
visits to Shahdara, but her own feelings as she went there were no doubt of real
affection and substantial personal loss.
Against the prevailing tradition of keeping widowed queens at court, Nur
Jahan's isolation in Lahore was virtually complete. The Shujauddins note that
"Shah Jahan and Asaf Khan came to Lahore many a time during this interval
but they did not appear to have met Noor Jahan."150 The rivalry between brother
and sister not only survived Jahangir's death,151 but so colored Asaf Khan's
behavior that to safeguard his current success he could not bring himself to have
any further contact with his sister. Moreover, through his court chroniclers,
painters, and artisans, Shah Jahan worked hard to sully the memory of his once-
powerful stepmother, with the result that almost all of the historical works from
his reign were explicitly critical of Nur Jahan and blamed her for much of Shah
Jahan's early misfortune. 152 This invidious spirit was so contagious that Euro-
pean writers of the early Shah Jahan years were infected and the opinions of
valuable historians like van den Broecke and Pelsaert, for example, became
hostile whenever they turned to Nur Jahan. Shah Jahan did not stop with
defamation, however, but launched a contemporaneous campaign "to wipe out
all memory of her erstwhile sway."153 As if to erase her presence from history, he
withdrew from circulation all coins stamped with her name, contravening cur-
rent practice of keeping coins issued by predecessors in circulation,154 and he
cleansed his administration however else he could of her ubiquitous hand.
Nur Jahan died in Lahore on December 18, 1645, over halfway through
Shah Jahan's reign. There had been rumors current in the country that she had
been secretly murdered,155 but they appear to have been the benign creation of
the ever working Indian imagination. Local custom and religious law forbade
the murder of a woman in any case, and Lahori's Padshahnama gave a clear and
explicit notice of her death by natural causes.156 Her funeral was, says Prasad, "a
modest one,"157 and she was buried in a tomb near Jahangir she had constructed
for herself. Her marble sarcophagus was "of most chaste workmanship" and her
daughter Ladli Begam lies likewise by her side. Today her restored tomb reflects
only a moment of the brilliant flora and geometric design she once preferred.
 Appendix I
Selected Members ofjahangir's Family
 Appendix II
Selected Members ofNurJahan's Family
 Appendix III
Brief Chronology of the Jahangir Era
(dates are approximate)

August 31, 1569 Birth of Jahangir near Sikri, one of the villages of Agra
1577 Birth of Mihrunnisa in Kandahar; beginning of Mirxa
Ghiyas Beg's career in India
1594 Marriage of Mihrunnisa to Ali Quli Beg Istajlu
1599 Ali Quli given title of Sher Afgan
August 12, 1602 Murder of Abul Fa/1 by Bir Singh Deo, on the orders of
Salim, who had set up an independent court in Allahabad
May 6, 1605 Suicide of Man Bai, mother of the Khusrau
October 24, 1605 Jahangir accedes to the Mughal throne in Agra
Late 1605 Mir/a Ghiyas Beg given title of Itimaduddaula
Late 1605 Sher Afgan given jagir in Barddhaman, Bengal
April 1606 Khusrau's revolt against Jahangir, vicinity of Lahore
Winter, 1607 Betrothal of Arjumand Banu and Khurram
May 30, 1607 Deaths of Sher Afgan and Qutbuddin Khan Koka; Jahangir
receives news in Kabul
March 1608- Jahangir in and around Agra
November 1613
May 25, 1611 Marriage of Mihrunnisa and Jahangir; Mihrunnisa given
title of Nur Mahal
Spring, 1612 Marriage of Arjumand Banu and Khurram
November 1613- Jahangir in Ajmer
November 1616
March 24, 1614 Abul Hasan given title of Asaf Khan (IV)
July 1614 First mention of Nur Jahan in the Tnzuk
January 12, 1616 Sir Thomas Roe first arrives at Jahangir's court
March 29, 1616 Mihrunnisa to be called Nur Jahan

290
 Appendix III: Brief Chronology of the Jahangir Era 291

March- Jahangir in Mandu; Khurram given title of Shah Jahan for

October 1617 victories in the Deccan
January- Jahangir in Ahrnedabad
February 1618
Early 1620 Beginning of regular trips to Kashmir
April 1621 Marriage of Ladli Begam and Shahryar in Agra
October 10, 1621 Death of Asmat Begam, mother of Nur Jahan
End of Jan. 1622 Death of Itimaduddaula near Kangra
Jan. 29, 1622 Jahangir hears news of Khusrau's death, occurring as early
as August 1621
March 29, 1623 Battle between forces of Jahangir and Shah Jahan near
Baluchpur
Early summer, 1623 Death of Maryamuzzamani, mother of Jahangir, in Agra
September 4, 1623 Daughter born to Ladli Begam and Shahryar
March 1626 Shah Jahan surrenders to Jahangir
March- Rebellion of Mahabat Khan
September 1626
October 28, 1626 Death of Parviz in Burhanpur
October 28, 1627 Death of Jahangir in Chingaz Hatli, near Bhimbar
January 1628 Deaths of Shahryar, Dawar Bakhsh, Garshasp, Tahmuras,
and Hoshang
February 4, 1628 Shah Jahan accedes to the Mughal throne in Agra
November 10, 1641 Death of Asaf Khan
December 18, 1645 Death of Nur Jahan in Lahore
 Notes

Prologue: Standing in the Legend

1. All Sardar Jafri, May 9, 1985, Bombay.

2. Saksena, p. xx.
3. Van den Broecke, p. 97.

Chapter 1. The Immigrant Persians

1. See Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.572.

2. See C. Pant, pp. 19ff; Blochmann's note, Ain-i Akbari 1.572; Ikbal-nama-i
Jahangm E&D 6.403.
3. C. Pant, p. 19.
4. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangm E&D 6.403; C. Pant, pp. 19-22; Blochmann, Ain-i
Akbari 1.572; Prasad, p. 158; Shujauddins, p. 1.
5. A comet was seen in India in 1577. According to the opinion of Mughal astrolo-
gers, "the effects would not be felt in Hindustan, but probably in Khurasan and Irak.
Shortly afterward, Shah Ismail, son of Shah Tahmasp Safawi, departed this life, and great
troubles arose in Persia" (Tabakat-i Akbari E&D 5.407).
6. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.403; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.572.
7. Manucci 1.171.
8. C. Pant's sources (p. 26) and the Ikbal-nama-i Jahangm (E&D 6.403) noted that
Ghiyas Beg and his wife at this time, that is, prior to the birth of Mihrunnisa, had two
sons and only one daughter. Blochmann (Ain-i Akban 1.576), however, gives a genealogi-
cal table for the family in which Mihrunnisa had two older sisters, Manija and Khadija.
Van den Broecke (p. 93), who was writing around 1627, went on to record that ultimately
Nur Jahan had four sisters and two brothers, the latter number reflecting the addition of
a younger brother, Itiqad Khan Mirxa Shapur, and the execution of an elder one (Muham-
mad Sharif) in 1607 for his role in the Khusrau rebellion, and the former number the
result either of later births to the family after arriving in India or of inflationary reports
from the bazaar. C. Pant (p. 55) discusses the careers of three son-in-laws to Ghiyas Beg
(excluding those married to Mihrunnisa) indicating that there were at least that many
sisters to the future empress: Manija married to Qasim Khan, Khadija married Hakim
Beg, and an unknown sister married to Sadiq Khan.
9. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 1.403-4; C. Pant, pp. 25-26; Blochmann, Ain-i
Akbari 1.572. According to Dow's sources (p. 22), the young girl did not receive the
name Mihrunnisa until the family reached Lahore.
10. Cf. Manucci 1.159; see also C. Pant, pp. 26-27. Most if not all stories about
Mihrunnisa's birth seems to be apocryphal and narrated in such a way by later chroni-

292
 Notes 293

clers so as to reflect, for good or ill, upon Nur Jahan's later career. For an evaluation of
this Khan Khan material, see C. Pant, p. 27n.
11. Dow 3.20-21.
12. Blochmann, Ain-i Akban 1.572; C. Pant, p. 27; Prasad, pp. 159-60. Delia Valle
(1.53) said Mihrunnisa "was born . . . the Daughter of a Persian, who [was] coming as
many do into India, to the service of the Moghol."
13. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.404.
14. Terry, p. 65.
15. Pelsaert, p. 1. Finch (in Foster, Early Travels, p. 182) noted early in Jahangir's
reign that "Agra hath not been in fame above fiftie yeeres, being before Acabars time a
village."
16. Monserrate, pp. 35-36.
17. Said Bernier (pp. 284-85):
For not having been constructed after any settled design, it wants the uniform and
wide steets that so eminently distinguish Dehli . . . the consequence is that when
the court is at Agra there is often a strange confusion.
18. Mundy2.207.
19. Pelsaert, p. 1.
20. Mundy2.207.
21. Withington in Foster, Early Travels, p. 227.
22. Tuzuk 1.3.
23. Bernier, p. 284.
24. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 6.
25. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 1.
26. Gascoigne, p. 15.
27. Bernier, p. 3.
28. Monserrate, p. 196.
29. Monserrate, pp. 196-97.
30. Du Jarric, pp. 8-9.
31. For details, see C. Pant, pp. 29-32.
32. C. Pant, pp. 32, 163; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.572. The mansab system was a
system of rank based on the number of infantry (zaf) and cavalry (smvar) a given noble
was assigned. Said Roc (1.110):
The great men about him are not borne Noble, but lauourites raised. . . . They
are reckoned by Horses; that is to say; Coronels of twelue thousand Horses, which
is the greatest . . . so descending to twentie Horses. . . . The King assigneth
them so much land as is bound to maintaine so many Horses as a rent, each horse
at flue and twentie pounds sterling by the yeere.
33. Terry, p. 75.
34. C. Pant, pp. 32, 163; see Tuzuk 1.45.
35. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.404.
36. Guerreiro, p. 139. This remark, like those of the Iqbalnama, most certainly
reflected Ghiyas Beg's later position as projected back onto his place at Akbar's court.
Although Guerreiro was reporting information from Benedict Goes collected in 1604,
long before Ghiyas Beg's daughter would have made permanent inroads into the Mughal
dynasty, the remark could easily have been of the self-inflationary style used by Persians,
in this case by a Ghiyas Beg who clearly here had messengerial status.
37. Prasad, p. 160.
38. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.404.
39. Van den Broecke, preface, p. 1.
294 Notes

40. Brij Narain and Sri Ram Sharma note misguidedly that among "contemporary
accounts the Ballad of Pholodi reproduced by Tessitori in his Bardic and Historical
Survey of Rajputana (in J.R.A.S.B.) corroborates Palsaert's (sic) account of Jahangir's
earlier love for Mehr-un-Nasa" (Van den Broecke, p. 101, n. 83).
41. Van den Broecke, p. 42. Joannes Do Laet (p. 181), who based his 1631 account
on Pelsaert and van den Broecke, noted that Salim "had been in love with her when she
was still a maiden, during the lifetime of his father Achabar."
42. As paraphrased in the Shujauddins, pp. 5-6. Khafi Khan's story came from
Muhammad Sadiq Tabrizi, who was in the service of Prince Shuja. Because it dated then
from Shah Jahan's reign, the Shujauddins (p. 5n) speculate that it "means that the germs
of the romance, as it is described now, had begun to sprout as early as the reign of Shah
Jahan, either due to anti-Noor Jahan bias of the age or the extreme attachment between
the two led people to speculate in this way."
43. Dow 3.22.
44. From Maulana Muhammad Husain Azad's (d. 1910) Darbar-i Akbari, as re-
corded in the Shujauddins, pp. 8-9. The Shujauddins (pp. 4-18) also record other late
histories carrying apocryphal stories of Nur Jahan.
45. Sources that were silent about any acquaintance between Mihrunnisa and Salim
prior to their meeting in March of 1611 at the New Year's bazaar and their subsequent
marriage in May of that year are many, e.g.,Akbamama, Ain-i Akbari, Tusuk-ijahangiri,
Iqbalnama-i Jahangiri, Maasir-i Jahangiri, William Hawkins (in Foster, Early Travels),
John Jourdain, Thomas Roe, Edward Terry, Francisco Pelsaert, Joannes De Laet, Pietro
Delia Valle, Peter Mundy, and others. We must be persuaded, then, that all stories
depicting any aspect of an earlier romance foiled by Akbar or by other circumstance were
apocryphal and have their base not in historical fact but in courtly rumor or bazaar
gossip.
46. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.402. It has been suggested that safarchi refers
instead to a protocol officer, someone who makes arrangements for travel and social
occasions on behalf of the ruler.
47. Abdur Rahim Khankhanan was the son of Bairam Khan, early regent to Akbar,
and was at one time a tutor to the prince Salim. Tuzuk 1.21. On the Tatta campaign, see
van den Broecke, p. 23; De Laet, p. 159.
48. Tuzuk 1.113; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.402, see p. 397; C. Pant, p. 42;
Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.591.
49. Tuzuk 1.113.
50. Van den Broecke, p. 42.
51. As given in the Shujauddins, p. 6. See Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.591.
52. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.591-92.
53. Van den Broecke, p. 42.
54. Dow 3.23.
55. Manucci 1.157.
56. Jahangir was called king and there was no mention of an interfering father.
57. See the discussion in C. Pant, pp. 156-57.
58. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.402. Delia Valle (1.53) was also quite clear that
Sher Afgan (AH Quli) had been in the service of Jahangir.
59. Exactly when he received the title is not known. The Iqbalnama placed it some-
times before and sometimes after Jahangir's accession to power in 1605 but other sources
placed it, as is more likely, before. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.402, 404; Tuzuk 1.113-
14; Prasad, p. 161; C. Pant, p. 42; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.592.
60. Jafa, pp. 44-45.
 Notes 295

61. Or alternately: "In battle she is a man-smiter and a tiger-slayer." Tuzuk 1.375.
See Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.592.
62. Van den Broecke and De Laet indicated that there may also have been a son who,
at the time of Sher Afgan's death, was handed over into the custody of the amirs in Agra
together with Sher Afgan's brother. No other sources confirm this. Van den Broecke, pp.
39, 41; De Laet, p. 180. The name of the daughter of Mihrunnisa and Ali Quli has been
given variously as Mihrunnisa (again), Banu Begam, and Bahu Begam, but following
Prasad (pp. 162, 297), we use the name Ladli Begam.
63. Van den Broecke (pp. 41-42) said that the child was five or six when her mother
and Jahangir met in 1611, and De Laet (p. 181) that she was six or seven, putting her
birth roughly in the year 1605.
64. See Delia Valle 1.55.

Chapter 2. Death of Sher Afgan and Marriage to Jahangir

1. See van den Broecke, pp. 24-25. Abul Fazl, Akbar's trusted "head chancellor
and former tutor of Shah Murad" had been sent to wean him from drink but was too late.
De Laet, pp. 161-62; Akbar-nama E&D 6.97; Tuzuk 1.34.
2. See van den Broecke, pp. 29-30; De Laet, p. 168; Takmila-i Akbar-nama E&D
6.114; Tuzuk 1.34-35.
3. Badauni(2.390) noted:
In this year the Emperor's constitution became a little deranged and he suffered
from stomachache and colic, which could by no means be removed. In this
conscious state he uttered some words which arose from suspicions of his eldest
son, and accused him of giving him poison.
4. Van den Broecke, p. 27; Akbar-nama E&D 6.99; Du Jarric, p. 182.
5. De Laet, pp. 164-65; Akbar-nama E&D 6.98-99. Later Jahangir would say:
Short-sighted men in Allahabad had urged me also to rebel against my father.
Their words were extremely unacceptable and disapproved by me. I know what
sort of endurance a Kingdom would have, the foundations of which were laid on
hostility to a father, and was not moved by the evil counsels of such worthless
men, but acting according to the dictates of reason and knowledge.
Tuzuk 1.65. Other sources as well would re-envision the Allahabad days as the work of
bad advisors. Note this account of Kamgar Khan in the Ma-asir-i Jahangiri (E&D 6.442):
A body of seditious and turbulent people . . . were in the habit of spreading false
reports openly and clandestinely against that ornament of the crown the Prince
Salim. Sometimes they represented that he had conferred upon his servants the
titles of Khan and Sultan, and at other times they said that he had ordered coins to
be struck in his name. By such misrepresentations they every day attempted to
excite the alarm of the Emperor, who, being endowed with a very enlightened and
noble mind, was but little affected by their insinuations. In truth, in the relation
of father and son, there were those ties of love and affection between the Emperor
and the Prince which existed between Jacob and his son Joseph.
6. See Temple in Mundy 2.229n; Latif, Agra, pp. 165-66.
7. For an account of this attempt on Agra, see Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p.
107.
8. See Beach, Grand Mogul, pp. 33-41.
9. The coins, inscriptions, andfarmans (royal orders) of this period are detailed in
Jalaluddin, pp. 121-25. On thejagir system, see Bernier, p. 5.
296 Notes

10. Van den Broccke, pp. 28-29; De Laet, pp. 166-67.

11. Ma-asir-i Jahangiri E&D 6.442.
12. In his memoirs Jahangir said: "[Abul Fa/d's] feelings towards me were not hon-
est, [and] he both publicly and privately spoke against me . . . if he obtained the honour
of waiting on him (Akbar) it ... would preclude me from the favour of union with him
(my father)" (Tuzuk 1.24-25). Said van den Broecke (p. 29):
Prince Shah Salim came to know what Abul Fazl had written to the king, and that
he was actually on his way. This alarmed him greatly, for he thought "Abul Fazl is
my old enemy. If he sees my father, my ruin is certain. I must consider what is to
be done about it."
De Laet, p. 167; Takmila-i Akbar-nama E&D 6.106-107. See also Latif, Agra, p. 262.
13. Van den Broecke, p. 29; De Laet, p. 167; Takmila-i Akbar-nama E&D 6.107;
Beach, Imperial Image, p. 83.
14. Ma-asir-i Jahangiri E&D 6.443.
15. Van den Broecke, p. 29; De Laet, p. 167; Latif, Agra, p. 262.
16. Rizvi, p. 489; Tuzuk 1.13.
17. Van den Broecke, p. 29; see De Laet, pp. 167-68. Said Asad Beg (Wikaya-i Asad
Beg E&D 6.155), that "day and night he neither shaved, as usual, nor took opium, but
spent his time in weeping and lamenting." See Tuzuk 1.25; Ma-asir-i Jahangiri E&D
6.444.
18. Takmila-i Akbar-nama E&D 6.107,108, 113. Said Du Jarric (p. 183): "[the murder
of Abul Fazl] greatly enraged the King, and filled the whole court with consternation."
19. There is no doubt, however, that Jahangir harbored some remorse over the deed
particularly with respect to his father. See the discussion in Findly, "Vow of Non-
violence," pp. 248-52. Perhaps as part of this, Jahangir raised Abul Fazl's son, Abdur
Rahman, to the rank of 2,000 zat and 1,500 suwar a year or so after his accession. Tuzuk
1.105.
20. Takmila-i Akbar-nama E&D 6.108-9. Salima Sultan Begam was the widow of
Bairam Khan, regent of the young Akbar, who after her husband's death married Akbar
himself. Tuzuk 1.232.
21. Takmila-i Akbar-nama E&D 6.108-9; van den Broecke, p. 26; Mundy 2.102. It
was probably at this time that the black slate throne was inscribed for Jahangir (1603), for
this "was two years before the death of his father, Akbar, and he was then only Prince
Salim. The throne was therefore, probably made to commemorate the recognition by
Akbar of his son's title to the succession" (Havell, Agra, p. 56).
22. Du Jarric, p. 188.
23. Prasad, p. 53.
24. Tuzuk 1.114. C. Pant, p. 42.
25. Pelsaert, p. 71; Terry, p. 411; Maclagan, p. 68. Said Delia Valle (1.55):
"[Khusrau] was a Prince of much expectation, well-belov'd, and, as they say, a friend in
particular of the Christians."
26. Tuzuk 1.55-56. The Takmila-i Akbar-nama (E&D 6.112), alternately, said that
Khusrau's mother, reportedly an ambitious and difficult woman, took her life in a fit of
anger over harem politics. Finch reported (in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 178-79) seeing "a
sumptuous tombe" for Khusrau's mother "who upon the newes of her sonnes revolt
poysoned her selfe." See also Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 164; Beach, Grand Mogul,
pp. 33, 93; A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 50.
27. Said Hawkins (in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 107-8): Salim's "father dispossessed
him and proclaimed heire apparant his eldest sonne Cossero, being eldest sonne to
Selimsha;" Finch (in Foster, Early Travels, p. 159): "Sha Selim, upon some disgust, tooke
 Notes 297

armes in his fathers lifetime . . . whereupon Acubar gave the crowne to Sultan Cusse-
room his sonne." And Terry (p. 408): "Achabar-Sha . . . resolved to break that ancient
custom [of succession by a son]; and . . . protested, that not he [Salim], but his grand-
child Sultan Coobsurroo, whom he always kept in his court, should succeed him in that
empire."
28. See the excellent discussion in A. Husain, pp. 61-69.
29. Jahangir (Tuzuk 1.138) would later call Raja Man Singh "one of the hypocrites
and old wolves of this State." See Mundy 2.103.
30. A. Husain, pp. 62-63.
31. Du Jarric, p. 204.
32. Guerreiro, p. 3.
33. Nizami, "Naqshbandi," p. 47. The tradition is that, having extracted a promise
from Salim earlier, Shaikh Farid raced to Salim's side as Akbar was dying to congratulate
him on his accession in the hopes of beating out the pro-Khusrau forces. On the future
Jahangir's relations with the Sufis, see Findly, "Jahangir and the Sufis."
34. Du Jarric, p. 63.
35. Guerreiro, p. 3.
36. A final plot to arrest Salim while he was visiting his father was disclosed prema-
turely by Ziyaulmulk Qazwini. Another move to rally open support for Khusrau was
opposed by the Barha Sayyids, who felt skipping a generation in the succession was a
violation of Chaghatai law. Wikaya-i Asad Beg E&D 6.169-71; Prasad, pp. 65-67.
37. Van den Broecke, p. 30; De Laet, p. 168; Takmila-i Akbar-nama E&D 6.113.
38. Van den Broecke, p. 30; De Laet, p. 168.
39. Van den Broecke, pp. 30-31; see De Laet, p. 169.
40. On the number of days in confinement and on Salim's consumption of opium
during that time, see Prasad, p. 63.
41. There was a tradition that even until the very last Salim "was suspected" of trying
to poison Akbar, although if true may have been a ruse by supporters of Khusrau. Said
Du Jarric (p. 204): "Up to this time [just before Akbar's death in October of 1605], the
Prince had not ventured to appear before his father. Some said that this was because his
father suspected him of having given him the poison." Said De Laet (p. 170): "The
members of the royal household had filled the suspicious mind of the old king with the
fear that his son was plotting to kill him, and hence Xa Selim was in future admitted to
his father's presence [only when] accompanied by four companions."
Others, however, reported that Akbar did die of poison but by accident and by his
own hand. It was the custom, apparently, for the emperor to give secretly poisoned pills
to nobles who had displeased him and whom he wanted to eliminate. On one such
occasion, having two pills in his hand, Akbar "by a mistake took the poisoned pill
himself . . . [and fell] immediately into a mortal flux of blood" and died a few days later
(Terry, pp. 408-9; see also Mundy 2.103). Manucci (1.146) elaborated this story by
saying that the emperor often honored people by personally presenting betel made from
the contents of a box: in the first part the leaves, in the second restorative pills, and in the
third poisonous pills.
It happened one day that the king wished to kill one of the grandees, and took by
oversight one of the poisoned pills and ate it, taking it for one of the restoratives,
with the object of giving confidence to the other man. After a little time he
recognised the mistake he had made; but there was no remedy, and thus, through
his own death, was disclosed the way that he had killed others.
Prasad (p. 68n) argues that both stories are questionable: that, in the first case, Salim
would have had "little opportunity and little motive" to hasten Akbar's demise, and that,
298 Notes

in the second, the intended "grandee" was given variously, and therefore suspiciously, as
Raja Man Singh (for attempting "to disturb the line of succession") or Mirza Gha/d of
Tatta. The second group of stories, he argues further, were probably invented when the
actuality of the first group was perceived as impossible.
42. Wikaya-i AsadBeg E&D 6.168-69. Asad Beg calls Khusrau's elephant Chanchal
instead of Apurva. See also Mundy 2.102.
43. Wikaya-i Asad Beg E&D 6.169.
44. Van den Broecke, p. 32; De Laet, p. 170; Wikaya-i Asad Beg E&D 6.171; Du
Jarric, p. 205. Mundy (2.103) maintains that Akbar, to the end, wanted Khusrau on the
throne.
45. According to Payne (in Du Jarric, p. 278, note 2), the usual date given for
Akbar's death, October 17, 1605 (see Prasad, p. 68), is based on the old reckoning in
place in Great Britain until 1752. According to the new reckoning, based on the reformed
calendar in use in Roman Catholic countries by 1582, the death date was October 27.
Akbar was buried in Sikandra, a village three miles northwest of Agra, in a mausoleum
begun by him and finished by Jahangir. See, e.g., Terry, pp. 291-92.
46. Jahangir's penchant for political hyperbole was evident from the beginning. His
new name, Jahangir, "World Conqueror," and new title, Nuruddin, "Light of the Faith,"
marked the beginning of an increasingly idealized and, by any account, highly unrealistic
vision of his political abilities as a ruler. Tuzuk 1.3; van den Broecke, pp. 32-33; De Laet,
p. 172; Wikaya-i Asad Beg E&D 6.173. Padshah, usually "Emperor," signifies "headship
of the house of Timur and . . . independent sovereignty" (A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan,
PP. 1-2).
47. Tuzuk 1.7ff.; see E&D 6.284-87; Wakaya-i Asad Beg E&D 6.173-74; van den
Broecke, p. 33; De Laet, p. 172.
48. Ikbal-nama-ijahangiri E&D 6.402; Tuzuk 1.22, see also 1.45; c. Pant, pp. 34-35.
49. Tuzuk 1.13.
50. Tuzuk 1.24.
51. Tuzuk 1.24.
52. Tuzuk 1.114.
53. Particularly on the part of Afghan discontents. It is no coincidence, then, that
Dow opens volume three of his The History of Hindostan with a long dissertation on the
origins of despotism in India and the particular problems of Bengal. See 3.vii-cliv.
54. C. Pant, p. 42.
55. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.345-46.
56. Tuzuk 1.15-16, 75; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.362-63.
57. Tuzuk 1.78, see also 1.75, 77. Expressing sentiment common toward elder
women in the "family," Jahangir said of his former wet-nurse that he loved Qutbuddin's
mother more than his own and that her children were to him like his own brothers.
Qutbuddin, in fact, was "the foster brother . . . most fit for fosterage." Qutbuddin's
mother died in early 1607, just a short time before the governor himself was assassinated.
Whether there were any lasting strains from this that might have agitated him unnaturally
during his confrontation with Sher Afgan later, we can only guess. Tuzuk 1.84-85.
58. See Prasad, pp. 65-66; Wikaya-i Asad Beg E&D 6.169-73; van den Broecke, p.
32; DC Laet, p. 171.
59. Guerreiro, p. 4.
60. For a good discussion, see D'Silva, pp. 267-81.
61. Tuzuk 1.52; see also van den Broecke, p. 33; De Laet, p. 173.
62. Tuzuk 1.52-53. Van den Broecke (p. 36) stated that Khusrau heard "that his
father was not well-disposed towards him, and wanted to have him watched. Khusrau
 Notes 299

was frightened and resolved to fly and get away from his father." He also stated that
Khusrau, on his flight, actually did go to the grave of his grandfather, Akbar, and there
offered a prayer. See also De Laet, pp. 173-74; Delia Valle 1.55-56.
63. Tuzuk 1.62-63. Van den Broecke, pp. 36-37; De Laet, pp. 173-75; Guerreiro,
pp. 4-5; Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 159.
64. Itimaduddaula was shortly recalled from Agra, however, to be at Jahangir's side
in the Punjab. Tuzuk 1.57; C. Pant, pp. 35-36.
65. Tuzuk 1.57ff. Van den Broecke, pp. 36-37; De Laet, pp. 174-75.
66. The Sayyids of Barha were a family, said Jahangir (Tuzuk 2.269), belonging to the
twelve (bara) villages near each other in the region of Muzaffarnagar, north of Delhi.
They were known for their great bravery and as being "the averters of calamity," "for
there has never been a battle in this region in which they have not been conspicuous, and
in which some have not been killed." See Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.424-27.
67. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 279.
68. Tuzuk 1.52.
69. Payne in Guerreiro, p. 9In.
70. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 159.
71. Tuzuk 1.53-68. Van den Broecke, p. 38; De Laet, pp. 175-76; Finch in Foster,
Early Travels, pp. 159-60; Guerreiro, pp. 5-7.
72. Tuzuk 1.68-69. See also van den Broecke, p. 39. The Tabakat-i Akban (E&D
5.359) noted an earlier version of this punishment in which prisoners had "cow-hides
placed on their necks in a strange fashion."
73. Guerreiro's story (p. 10) behind the freeing of Abdur Rahim was as follows: "In
the end, however, he was set free; for a courtier who was desirous of marrying his daugh-
ter interceded for him to such good purpose that he obtained his pardon; but for this he
had to pay His Majesty something over a hundred thousand crowns." Jahangir may also
have noted that Abdur Rahim's association with Khusrau had been last minute and was
only because he was too "lethargic and timid" to do otherwise (Tuzuk 1.59). In general, it
seems, Jahangir was not well-disposed to the Khankhanan and tended at times to "belit-
tle ... his services" (H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 1.88n). However, as the son of Akbar's
former regent, Bairam Khan, Abdur Rahim had sentimental sway at court (having been a
former tutor of Jahangir himself) and went on after this affair to become known as a
significant patron of poetry and the arts.
74. Tuzuk 1.69; Mundy 2.104; van den Broecke, pp. 38-39; De Laet, pp. 176-77;
Delia Valle 1.56; Guerreiro, pp. 8-10; Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 279.
75. Jahangir himself did not mention Khusrau's elephant ride down this road. Ac-
cording to Terry (p. 410): "His father immediately after caused to be impaled, or put
upon stakes (that most cruel and tormenting death) eight hundred in two several ranks in
one day, without the city Lahore, and then carried his son most disgracefully through
them, bidding him to behold the men in whom he trusted." See van den Broecke, pp.
38-39; De Laet, pp. 176-77; Delia Valle 1.56; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.401;
Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 279.
76. Van den Broecke, pp. 38-39. See also Guerreiro, pp. 10-11.
77. Guerreiro, p. 11.
78. Tuzuk 1.72-73; Guerreiro, p. 12. Guru Arjun was buried in Lahore.
79. Tuzuk 1.69ff; see also 1.324, 325.
80. Tuzuk 1.70.
81. Tuzuk 1.78.
82. Tuzuk 1.114; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.402.
83. According to the Iqbalnama (E&D 6.402): "It was . . . reported that he was
300 Notes

insurbordinate, and disposed to be rebellious," and was in general exhibiting disloyal

behavior. The extent of Sher Afgan's involvement in pro-Khusrau activity is unclear, but
many secondary sources assume that Jahangir suspected the soldier of complicity in the
1606 revolt as well as of continued seditious activity on his son's behalf. Prasad, p. 161;
Shujauddins, p. 22; C. Pant, p. 43. The discussion of rewards bestowed upon Qutbuddin
just after the capture of Khusrau certainly implied that Qutbuddin had exhibited anti-
Khusrau loyalties, in contrast presumably to Sher Afgan. Tuzuk 1.75ff.
84. Note that Jahangir made it very clear, at least in hindsight, that he did not issue
orders for Sher Afgan's death.
85. Tuzuk 1.114; see also 1.75, 208.
86. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.402; C. Pant, p. 43. According to the Iqbalnama
(E&D 6.402), Qutbuddin first summoned Sher Afgan to him but was given "unreason-
able excuses" for not coming; then, so concerned was he about the "evil designs" that
Sher Afgan may have been harboring, that Qutbuddin finally went to him.
87. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.402-403. Mutamid Khan called the Kashmiri
avenger Pir Khan instead of Amba Khan. Note that Jahangir, unlike Mutamid Khan,
called Mihrunnisa's husband Ali Quli, regressing to the time before he had conferred
upon him the title of Sher Afgan. Tuzuk 1.114.
88. Van den Broecke (p. 39) stated that it was "the brother (sister's son), of Qutb-
ud-Din named Shaikh Ghias-ud-Din and the son of Qutb-ud-Din named Kishwar
Khan . . . [who] cut to pieces with arrows and their swords the traitor Sher Afghan, and
sent his head to the King."
89. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.403. Sher Afgan was buried in a tomb in
Barddhaman, Bengal. See Blochmann, Ain-iAkbari 1.592; Wali, pp. 184-86. Contrary to
local tradition that he was buried next to Sher Afgan in Barddhaman (H. Beveridge in
Tuzuk 2.73n), Qutbuddin Khan Koka, as the son of the daughter of Shaikh Salim
Chishti, was buried by the tomb of the shaikh at Fatehpur Sikri. Tuzuk 2.73; Blochmann,
Ain-iAkbari 1.557.
90. C. Pant, pp. 43-44. While many of these details may be accurate, Haidar
Malik's description of his own initial acts of heroism are absent from other sources.
91. Van den Broecke, p. 39.
92. Tuzuk 1.115; see also 75, 77, 78, 84-85.
93. Tuzuk 1.113, 115.
94. Tuzuk 1.115.
95. Tuzuk 1.208.
96. Khulasat ul-tawarikh, as quoted in Shujauddins, p. 4.
97. Khafi Khan, as recapitulated in Shujauddins, pp. 5-6. See also C. Pant, pp. 44,
156-57.
98. Manucci 1.157.
99. Dow 3.27.
100. Dow 3.23-30.
101. Van den Broecke, p. 42.
102. DeLaet, p. 181.
103. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 94, 101.
104. E.g., Roe 1.118.
105. E.g., Terry, p. 406.
106. Delia Valle 1.53-55.
107. Mundy 2.205-206.
108. See Prasad, pp. 163-68; Shujauddins, pp. 12-16; C. Pant, pp. 44-45, 156-57.
109. See Prasad, pp. 163-68; Shujauddins, pp. 4-6; C. Pant, pp. 44-45, 156-57.
 Notes 301

110. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.404.

111. Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangin E&D 6.398.
112. Khafi Khan as reported by the Shujauddins, pp. 5-6.
113. Mundy 2.205-6.
114. See the Tarikh-i Kashmir account in C. Pant, pp. 44-45. Haidar Malik's protec-
tion of Mihrunnisa after Sher Afgan's death (see H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.154n) most
certainly afforded him special status with the future empress in years to come. We know
for sure that his efforts were central in the planning and execution of many of her gardens
and that their friendship may have been in part responsible for her attraction to Kashmir,
his native region. If there were any other aspects to their relationship besides the long-
term affection and loyalty so understandable given the circumstances, they are now lost to
history.
115. Van den Broecke, p. 41; De Laet, p. 180.
116. Prasad (p. 162) wrongly follows the Maasir-i Jahangin and Khafi Khan and
states that Mihrunnisa was placed in the care of Salima Sultan Begam. Most other sources
state that it was Ruqayya Sultan Begam who was Mihrunnisa's sponsor and protector at
court. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.404; van den Broecke, p. 41; De Laet, p. 180;
Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.398.
117. Oddly, C. Pant (p. 45) says "no motives can be attached for royal orders calling
Mehrunnisa to Agra by the Emperor." She goes on to say, however, citing an example
from the Humayunnama, that after a death like this royal instructions are needed before
the family can move.
118. C. Pant, p. 45. Or, one might argue, placing Mihrunnisa in the service of
Ruqayya Begam was the only way to secure the court against the mischievous designs of a
traitorous woman.
119. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.321, 573; Tuzuk 1.48. Could this early association
between Mihrunnisa and Khurram under the care of Ruqayya Sultan Begam have laid the
foundation for their work together in the junta?
120. Van den Broecke, p. 41; see De Laet, p. 180. Mihrunnisa was about thirty when
she first became lady-in-waiting to Ruqayya Begam. There would have been a span of at
least a full generation between them and there is every indication that the elder treated
the younger much like a daughter.
121. Van den Broeck, p. 39; De Laet, p. 178. Itimaduddaula's greed was perceived
to have been one of his few faults. Muhammad Hadi said: "Mirza Ghiyas Beg was so
charitably disposed, that no one ever left his door dissatisfied; but in the taking of bribes
he certainly was most uncompromising and fearless." Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D
6.397.
122. The plot was made known to Jahangir by Khurram, who heard about it from his
diwan, Khwaja Waisi. Tuzuk 1.122.
123. Tuzuk 1.122. According to van den Broecke's account, the men had planned to
attack Jahangir on his way through the Khyber Pass to Kabul, but were unsuccessful,
and Jahangir arrived safely. Van den Broecke, p. 39.
124. Van den Broecke, pp. 39-40; De Laet, pp. 178-79. Jahangir himself did not
mention this offense of Itimaduddaula's, but there was much that Jahangir did not
mention. The emperor did apparently demote the minister: in 1605 (Tuzuk 1.22) Jahangir
gave him the title of Itimaduddaula and the rank of 1,500, while in 1608 (Tuzuk 1.140) he
promoted him to the rank of 1,000 zat and 250 suwar, indicating that in between these
years the minister somehow lost rank and had to be upgraded again. By the time of
Mihrunnisa's meeting of Jahangir, Itimaduddaula was again at the rank of 1,500 (Tuzuk
1.197), suggesting that between 1608 and 1611 he had been promoted again. Van den
302 Notes

Broeckc (p. 42), however, did make a great deal of the embezzling charge, suggesting it
later as a reason Jahangir's ministers were opposed to the emperor's marriage to
Mihrunnisa. He was one of the very few chroniclers, though, to pursue the matter.
125. Van den Broecke, p. 40; De Laet, p. 179. Jahangir mentioned that he ordered
capital punishment for the leaders of the plot, but he did not give names, perhaps out of
deference to Itimaduddaula. Tuzuk 1.123.
126. Said Jahangir (Tuzuk 1.122): "Although Khusrau had repeatedly done evil ac-
tions and deserved a thousand kinds of punishment, my fatherly affection did not permit
me to take his life. ... I averted my eyes from his faults, and kept him in excessive
comfort and ease."
127. Set Tuzuk 1.122.
128. SeeGulbadan, pp. 114, 201.
129. He did preserve, however, the story of a later incident in which someone pre-
tended to be Khusrau and had, as a part of his disguise, placed recognizable scars around
his eyes presumably to be from an earlier blinding. Tuzuk 1.173-74.
130. See, e.g., H. Beveridge's discussion in Tuzuk 1.174n; Foster's discussion of
Finch's evidence in Foster, Early Travels, p. 160n; and the Shujauddins, p. 31.
131. Payne in Guerreiro, p. xiii. Payne (in Guerreiro, pp. 102n-3n) argues that
this must be regarded as the most authentic account we possess of the blinding of
Prince Khusru; for, though Father Xavier [whose account, in a very abridged
form, Guerreiro preserved] may not have been in Jahangir's camp at the time the
punishment was inflicted, he must have reached it a few days afterwards, and
must have heard a great deal about it. He states in his letter that the juice of the
"leiteira" was applied to the victim's eyes. . . . We are also told that after the
blinding Khusru was taken about with a bandage over his eyes, from which
Xavier inferred that he was not totally bereft of sight.
132. Guerreiro, pp. 47-48.
133. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 160; see Mundy 2.103-4.
134. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 108.
135. Terry, p. 410.
136. Delia Valle 1.56.
137. Van den Broecke, pp. 36, 40: "They took leaves called Acch and pressed out
their juice. This was rubbed into his eyes as the result of which one eye completely lost
the power of vision and the other retained only a little of it."
138. Tavernier, p. 268.
139. Intikhab-i Jahangir-Shahi E&D 6.448; see also 6.452.
140. Roe 2.378, 404.
141. Intikhab-i Jahangir-Shahi E&D 6.448-49, 452.
142. Prasad, p. 152; Shujauddins, p. 31. See also the discussions by H. Beveridge in
Tuzuk 1.174n and Foster in Early Travels, p. 160n.
143. The story was told as if it were shortly after Mihrunnisa's arrival in Agra but
Delia Valle, in fact, said simply "after her Husband's death" and, in the abbreviated
chronology of his account, this could mean "four years after," that is, in 1611 when she
actually met and married Jahangir. Delia Valle 1.53.
144. Delia Valle 1.53-54. See also Villiers Stuart, p. 128.
145. Van den Broecke, pp. 41-42; De Laet, p. 181.
146. Van den Broecke, p. 42; De Laet, p. 181. These Dutch renditions of the early
meetings of Mihrunnisa and Jahangir were the product of many stories conflated together
to form a somewhat contradictory narrative with at least two problems. First, both van den
Broecke and De Laet suggested that it was during the couple's two encounters at the New
 Notes 303

Year's festival (in 1611), a few days apart, that they actually met and first fell in love. But
both sources went on to report that the love that arose at this time was actually the revival of
an old love from the days of Akbar—neither account, however, ever attempting to explain
the inconsistency. Second, both sources stated just earlier that Mihrunnisa was in the
charge of Ruqayya Begam and presumably lived in her compound. Why then did Jahangir
have to travel to the house of Itimaduddaula to see his love? We know that Ruqayya Begam
and Itimaduddaula lived close, if not next, to each other in Agra (see Pelsaert, pp. 2-3), but
if secret meetings were actually being arranged, away from Mihrunnisa's place of resi-
dence, they certainly would not be held at the home of her father!
147. Roe 1.142.
148. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.192-93,286.
149. Tuzuk 1.48-49.
150. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 117.
151. Roe (1.143) noted, e.g., in 1616, pictures of "the King of England, the Queene,
my lady Elizabeth, the Countesse[s] of Sommersett and Salisbury, and of a Cittizens wife
of London; below them another of Sir Thomas Smyth, gouernor of the East India
company."
152. Hawkins (in Foster, Early Travels, p. 118) noted that Jahangir would not accept
the gifts as presents, but insisted on paying "what his praysers valew them to bee worth;
which are valewed at halfe the price."
153. E.g., Tuzuk 1.49.
154. Roe 1.142-44; Terry, pp. 375-76; Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 117-
19; De Laet, pp. 99-101.
155. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.286-87; Tod 1.274.
156. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 118.
157. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 278.
158. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 278. Coryat (pp. 278-79) also noted that any
item of phallic shape, such as a radish, was in such demand at the festival that it was "cut
and jagged for feare of converting the same to same unnaturall abuse."
159. Tod 1.274.
160. See Bernier's (pp. 272-73) description of the Khushruz fairs at Shah Jahan's
court.
161. Tuzuk 1.192.
162. Ikbal-nama-ijahangiri E&D 6.404-5; Tatimma-i-Wakiat-iJahangiri E&D 6.398;
van den Broecke, p. 42; De Laet, p. 181.
163. Shujauddins, p. 132. This description is according to "almost all the chroni-
clers," but they remain unnamed in the Shujauddins's text. Latif (Agra, p. 95) also sees
Nur Jahan as "independent . . . handsome . . . a figure tall and graceful."
164. Dow 3.22.
165. Shujauddins, p. 53.
166. Pelsaert, p. 83.
167. Van den Broecke, p. 42; De Laet, pp. 181-82. Both sources describe opposition
to the marriage from nobles at court.
168. Terry, p. 285; Pelsaert, pp. 81-84.
169. Terry (p. 406) noted, however, that Jahangir was not as interested in using
marriage to solidify political alliances as his father Akbar had been. He said:
The Mogul, in the choice of his wives and women, . . . was guided more by his
eye and fancy, than by any respect . . . to his honour, for he took not the daugh-
ters of neighboring princes, but of his own subjects, and there preferred that
which he looked upon as beauty, before anything else.
304 Notes

170. Note his 1608 marriage to the granddaughter of Raja Man Singh. Tuzuk 1.144;
sec also 1.138.
171. Dow 3. xxviii-xxix.
172. His promotion to the rank of 1,500 in 1605, which came with his title, had
apparently been taken away from him as a result of the events of 1607 and in increments
been fully reinstated by March of 1611. Tuzuk 1.22, 140, 197.
173. Tuzuk 1.197, 199. Van den Broecke (p. 42) gave the figure at 5,000 suwar. C.
Pant (pp. 162-93) has excellent tabulations for all the promotions in Nur Jahan's family.
174. Tuzuk 1.202-3.
175. Tuzuk 1.260. Crowe et al. (p. 92) even make the suggestion that Mihrunnisa was
married to Jahangir "through the intervention of her brother, Asaf Khan," presumably to
reap rewards such as these.
176. Tuzuk 1.266.
177. Tuzuk 1.319.
178. Tuzuk 1.15, 19, 144, 145, 160.
179. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 3.
180. C. Pant, p. 45.
181. M. M. A. Husain, pp. 3, 17; see also Havell, Agra, p. 51. Sec also Tavernier, p.
89; Latif, Agra, p. 79.
182. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 94.
183. In a footnote H. Beveridge notes that the Iqbalnama said Jahangir first saw
Mihrunnisa on New Year's Day (see E&D 6.404) and that Jahangir himself noted that he
married Mihrunnisa on the fourteenth of Khurdad, or the end of May 1611. Tuzuk
1.192n.
184. This was actually a small promotion given that Itimaduddaula was already
ranked at 1,500. It could have been a betrothal present, the rest to come when the
marriage was finalized, or it could have been increased later when Jahangir was certain
the marriage would go through, or when he began to realize just what a gem his new wife
was.
185. The information on which this argument is based is in H. Beveridge's notes,
Tuzuk 1.224n-225n. See Shahjahan Nama, pp. 5, 6, 70-71, 74.
186. Delia Valle 1.53-54.
187. E.g., Tuzuk 1.319; Ikbal-nama-iJahangiriE&D 6.405; Delia Valle 1.54-55; Roe
1.118, 156; 2.281, 293; Terry, pp. 406-7; Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 101.
188. Tuzuk 1.319; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.405; van den Broecke, p. 42; De
Laet, p. 182.
189. Blochmann, Ain-i Akban 1.170-76.
190. As quoted in Rizvi, p. 388.
191. Rizvi, p. 389.
192. Tuzuk 1.3.
193. Tuzuk 1.10-11.
194. Tuzuk 1.11-12.
195. Tuzuk 2.198.
196. Tuzuk 1.46-47.
197. Tuzuk 2.79.
198. Tuzuk 2.75-76, 197.
199. Tuzuk 2.192, 220; Mundy 2.78-79.
200. Tuzuk2.\97, 199-200.
201. Tuzuk 1.141.
 Notes 305

Chapter 3. Rise of the Junta (1611-1620)

1. "There is no clique so close and so odious as a family clique—it is nature's own

clique" (Prasad, p. 179).
2. Dow 3.34.
3. C. Pant, p. 50; Dow 3.35; A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, pp. 110, 111;
Shujauddins, p. 27; Gascoigne, p. 136. A good discussion of all the family fortunes can be
found in I. Habib, pp. 74-95.
4. Hasan, pp. 324-35.
5. Her book, in fact, is designed to dispel "the commonly prevalent myth . . . that
during the reign of Emperor Jahangir the reins of power were wielded wholly and solely
by Nur Jahan who exercised this power for the upliftment of her family members" (C.
Pant, pp. 5, 50-52). Misra (p. 34) charges, somewhat out of hand, that the existence of a
junta "is not fully supported by contemporary or other reliable documents" and that the
theory is "based on speculation and not corroborated by facts." Her dismissal of non-
Indian documents as "often based on gossips and . . . not very reliable" (p. 35) is overly
hasty, as the charge could be made of all the texts and artifacts used for information here.
Moreover, her assessment of Nur Jahan (p. 35) is simply not born out by the material:
"Whatever influence Nurjahan exercised over Jahangir was of a purely personal nature,
based possibly on her emotions and her devotion to him. It will be unfair to attribute
purely political ambition to her acts of interference or her active participation in political
matters." A similar plea for a nonpolitical, altruistically minded Nur Jahan can be found
in Lai (pp. 79-82) and, as follows, in Varadarajan (p. 411): "The descriptions given by
Jahangir show that the ascendancy achieved by Nur Jahan over him was based on her
submission to him, rather than on the force of her dominant personality. This submission
constituted the essence of her feminine magnetism which so allured the Emperor."
6. C. Pant, pp. 29-30.
7. Ikbal-nama-ijahangin E&D 6.403; C. Pant, pp. 30-32.
8. Tuzuk 1.16.
9. Tuzuk 1.103.
10. Tuzuk 1.58,74.
11. As narrated in Guerreiro, p. 139. Although we have noted in Chapter 1, note 36,
that this remark may be a slight overstatement, there is no doubt that Ghiyas Beg had by
this time already made a place for himself.
12. Ikbal-nama-ijahangm E&D 6.404.
13. Tuzuk 1.22.
14. Tuzuk 1.140, 197, 199, 200, 217, 218, 260, 280, 320, 351, 384; 2.82. See C. Pant,
pp. 52-54, 163-64.
15. Tuzuk 1.202, 203.
16. Tuzuk 1.217, 260, 281, 317, 381; 2.1, 90, 175, 230, 261. See C. Pant, pp. 54,
167-68.
17. Tuzuk 1.218, 283-84, 320; 2.2, 7, 159, 215, 238. C. Pant, pp. 54-55, 166.
18. Tuzuk 1.260, 281, 286, 287. See C. Pant, pp. 56, 165, and van den Broecke,
p. 51.
19. Tuzuk 2.2, 82, 88, 177, 228, 230, 281; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.559-60, 576;
C. Pant, pp. 55, 170.
20. Tuzuk 2.5. The year was 1618. See also Tuzuk 2.88, and C. Pant, p. 55.
21. C. Pant, pp. 55, 173.
22. Based on data collected in I. Habib, pp. 74-95.
306 Notes

23. Van den Broecke, p. 39; De Laet, p. 178.

24. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travel, p. 94.
25. Pelsaert (p. 50), e.g., said that
Jahangir, disregarding his own person and position, has surrendered himself to a
crafty wife of humble lineage, as the result either of her arts or of her persuasive
tongue. She has taken, and still continues increasingly to take, such advantage of
this opportunity, that she has gradually enriched herself with super-abundant
treasures, and has secured a more than royal position.
See also Delia Valle 2.53; Dow 3.35.
26. Dow 3.184.
27. The best list is in the Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.405, reproduced almost
intact in the Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jakangin E&D 6.398-99.
28. Pelsaert, p. 50; Dow 3.56.
29. Pelsaert, p. 50. And again (p. 56): "It is the practice of the King, or rather of his
wife, to give rapid advancement and promotion to any soldier, however low his rank, who
has carried out orders with credit, or has displayed courage in the field."
Said Delia Valle (1.54): "having also in the court made many alterations by deposing,
and displacing almost all the old Captains and Officers, and by advancing to dignities
other new ones of her own creatures, and particularly those of her blood and alliance."
Said van den Broecke (p. 93): "[People] with gifts and presents to the Queen easily get
themselves transferred from one province to another."
30. The Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.405, of all the sources, showed special inter-
est in Nur Jahan's promotion of other women.
31. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.405.
32. Of these coins Pelsaert (p. 29) said: "Very little trade, however, is done with these
gold coins, seeing that most of them must come from the King's treasures, and further
the great men hoard them, and search for them for their khazana [treasuries]." Manucci
(p. 157), however, said that "in her time these [zodiac coins] were current money." See
also Dow 3.53.
33. Pelsaert, p. 4.
34. Letter from John Browne to the East India Company, February 10, 1617, and
from James Bickford to Sir Thomas Smythc, March 4, 1617, East India Company Letters
5(1617).80, 133.
35. Roe 1.109.
36. Jahangir recorded the mutual exchange of letters and rare gifts between Nur
Jahan and the mother of Imam Quli Khan, the ruler of Turan. Tuzuk 2.205.
37. Pelsaert, p. 50. For details, see chaps. 9 and 10.
38. Dow 3.53.
39. Prasad, p. 169; Tuzuk 1.232, C. Pant, p. 5.
40. Van den Broecke, p. 77.
41. Pelsaert, p. 50.
42. Tatimma-t Wakiat-i Jahangin E&D 6.398.
43. Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.398; Shujauddins, p. 99.
44. Gulbadan,p. 161. The striking of coins and the reading of the khutba seem to have
gone hand in hand as new acts of sovereignty (Tabakat-i Akbari E&D 5.245, 359), and the
fact that Nur Jahan's ascendancy was marked by one of them is remarkable indeed.
45. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.405.
46. Letter to Sir Thomas Smythe, January 16, 1617, East India Company Letters
5(1617).329.
47. Bernier, pp. 5, 275.
 Notes 307

48. Manucci 1.157.

49. E&D 6.451-52.
50. Manucci 1.165.
51. Pelsaert, p. 50.
52. Pelsaert, pp. 50-51.
53. Tuzuk 1.20.
54. Delia Valle 1.55. See also Srivastava, pp. 479-92.
55. Terry, p. 407.
56. Tuzuk 1.51-52.
57. Dow 3.61.
58. Tuzuk 1.12,51-52,54, 122.
59. Tuzuk 1.51.
60. Tuzuk 1.55.
61. Tuzuk 1.54.
62. Tuzuk 1.134.
63. Tuzuk 1.122,294,338.
64. Guerreiro (p. 11) contended that in the wake of the 1606 rebellion, Jahangir
"deprived him of his titles and his right to succeed to the throne, transferring these to his
second son," or rather, to his third. The Jesuits were quite sympathetic to Khusrau, as he
was known to be open to Christianity. Du Jarric, pp. 62-63.
65. Pelsaert, p. 38.
66. Roe 1.90-93. See also 1.192-93.
67. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 117.
68. Intikhab-i Jahangir-Shahi E&D 6.450.
69. Prasad, p. 296.
70. Jahangir (Tuzuk 1.306), ironically, given his own drinking habits, urged contin-
ued restraint saying, "Thou must observe the path of moderation, for wise men do not
consider it right to drink to such an extent as to destroy the understanding."
71. "With much trouble wine was given to him" (Tuzuk 1.307). See Shah Jahan
Nama, pp. 6, 9.
72. Saksena, pp. 18, 27
73. Manrique 2.219-20.
74. E.g., Tuzuk 1.288.
75. Saksena, pp. 15-31.
76. Tuzuk 1.20; see also 1.322.
77. Tuzuk 2.27. Said Roe (1.109): "Prince Sultan Coronne [was] his third sonne by
byrth but first in fauour."
78. Tuzuk 1.20. At the beginning of the new year, in March of 1619, Jahangir (Tuzuk
2.78). called Khurrarn "my prosperous son . . . who is the star of the forehead of accom-
plished desires, and the brilliancy of the brow of prosperity."
79. E.g., Tuzuk 1.282, 325, 329, 377, 380, 387.
80. Tuzuk 1.338,395.
81. Letter to Sir Thomas Smythe, January 16, 1617, East India Company Letters
5(1617).332.
82. Tuzuk 1.277.
83. Tuzuk 1.277-78. See Shah Jahan Nama, p. 6.
84. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 115.
85. 1.388. See also Shah Jahan Nama, pp. 5, 6, for alternate calculations.
86. H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 1.224n-25n. Saksena (p. 8) gives the date as March 21,
1607.
308 Notes

87. In 1609 Khurram married the daughter of Mirza Muxaffar Husain (Tuzuk
1.159), a cousin of his through Jahangir's sister. In the absence of a reasonable explana-
tion given the groom's long-standing betrothal to Arjumand Banu, Saksena (pp. 11-12)
speculates that Jahangir had already seen and fallen in love with Mihrunnisa and, in order
to press her into marriage with him, was making things difficult for her niece.
88. Badshah-nama E&D 7.27; Manucci 1.176; Saksena, p. 310. In spite of his love
for Nur Jahan's niece, however, Shah Jahan developed a reputation for being a ladies'
man after her death with occasional histories of abuse. See, e.g., Manucci 1.186-90; Dow
3.141, 147.
89. Delia Valle 1.56.
90. Delia Valle 1.56:
His Wife on the contrary, who lov'd him as well as he lov'd her, obtain'd to be the
person allotted to serve him in the prison, and accordingly went thither, and liv'd
with him so long as he was there, never ceasing to persuade him to marry
Nurmahal's Daughter, that so he might be deliver'd from those troubles; that for
her part she was content to live with him as a slave, provided she saw him free and
in a good condition; but he could never be prevailed with.
91. Delia Valle 1.56. Foster (Early Travels, p. 277n) went so far as to claim that
Khusrau's scornful rejection of the marriage proposal "cost him his chance of the succes-
sion and consequently his life." See also Foster in Roe 2.404n-5n.
92. Tuzuk 1.395. See Shah Jahan Nama, p. 7.
93. Tuzuk 1.397.
94. Tuzuk 1.401.
95. Roe 2.329.
96. E.g., Tuzuk 1.277, 278; 2.190. Mundy (2.106), however, reported a tradition of
their intimacy that apparently lasted into Shah Jahan's reign: "For the king [Jahangir]
being incensed against him [Khurram] on some occasions (and as they say, for haveinge
too secrett familiaritie with Nooremoholl)." Temple's note here (2.106n) says: "Mundy
seems to be confusing Prince Khurram with his father, Jahangir, and is repeating a story
current in Finch's time."
97. Ikbal-nama-ijahangiri E&D 6.404. See also Sarkar, pp. 154-64.
98. Tuzuk 1.278.
99. Tuzuk 2.&Q.
100. Tuzuk 2.222.
101. E.g., Tuzuk 1.235,280.
102. Tuzuk 2.2, 120, 153, 286. Said Hawkins (in Foster, Early Travels, p. 94): "[He
was] a man that in outward shew made much of me and was alwayes willing to pleasure
me when I had occasion to use him." Roe (2.453), however, noted that Itimaduddaula
was "always indifferent," perhaps because he was less involved in and less sure of the
wisdom of opening up trade with the west.
103. Tuzuk 1.373.
104. Tuzuk 2.194.
105. Guerreiro, p. 139.
106. Tuzuk 1.249; 2.201.
107. Tuzuk 2.73.
108. Tuzuk 2.&0.
109. Tuzuk 1.281.
110. Tuzuk 1.351; Dow 3.53.
111. Tuzuk 1.378.
112. Tuzuk 1.384.
 Notes 309

113. Tuzuk 2.26-27, 37.

114. E&D6.397.
115. Van den Broecke, pp. 39-40.
116. DeLaet, pp. 178-79.
117. Dow 3.55.
118. Tuzuk 1.202.
119. Tuzuk 1.260.
120. Tuzuk 2.37.
121. Tuzuk 2.81.
122. Tuzuk 2.168.
123. Dow 3.172.
124. Tuzuk 2.24, 81,200, 211.
125. Although a letter of February 1618 from Roe to Thomas Kerridge indicated that
on at least one occasion Asaf Khan was supported in his deals by the work of his father
Itimadduddaula. English Factories (1618-21), pp. 4-5.
126. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 94.
127. See Terry, p. 195.
128. Terry, pp. 395, 406-07. Foster, in fact, calls him "avaricious, crafty, and unscru-
pulous" (Roe l.xlv). See also Dow 3.56.
129. Letters from John Browne to the Company, February 10, 1618, and William
Biddulph et al., to the Council at Surat, November 23, 1621, English Factories (1618-21),
pp. 9, 335.
130. Terry, pp. 364-65.
131. This dislike of Nur Jahan was especially prominent during the height of the
Khusrau affair. See Roe 2.293-94.
132. For a popular account, see Srivastava, pp. 479-92.
133. Referred to during this period as "the unhappy affair of Khusrau." E.g., Tuzuk
1.251.
134. Tuzuk 1.261.
135. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 277.
136. Tuzuk 1.336. See Intikhab-i Jahangir-Shahi E&D 6.452.
137. Roe 2.281.
138. Roe 2.281.
139. Roe 2.282.
140. Roe 2.299.
141. Tuzuk 1.336.
142. Roe 2.324; see also 2.379.
143. Roe 2.404.
144. Roe 2.407.
145. Tuzuk 2.107.
146. In December of 1616, Roe (2.363) noted: "Ther is now a great whisper at court
about a new affmitye of Sultan Corsoronne and Asaph chan, and great hope of his
liberty."
147. Tuzuk 1.380.
148. Roe 1.267.
149. Tuzuk 1.385.
150. It is not clear here from Roe's description whether Asaf Khan or Shah Jahan was
the dominant member of their relationship: Asaf Khan was the father of the beloved wife
of Shah Jahan, but Shah Jahan was still the prince.
151. Roe 1.118.
310 Notes

152. Roe 2.281.

153. Roe 2.293.
154. Roc 2.281.
155. Roe 2.294, 293.
156. See, for example, Roe's description (2.376-77) of being brought to Jahangir's
side to speak intimately in broken Persian.
157. Roe 1.109. Nur Jahan may well have expressed doubts as to whether Roe was a
properly accredited ambassador, or whether like his predecessors only an emissary of the
merchants.
158. Roe 2.444; 1.111. See also Roe 1.249.
159. Roe 2.363-64.
160. Roe 2.453. Roe went on to imply that whatever relationship he had with
Itimaduddaula was because his son Asaf Khan had openly facilitated it.
161. Roe 1.249.
162. Roe 1.262.
163. Best, p. 253.
164. See Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 94.
165. E.g., Roc 2.458. He complained, in fact, in a letter dated January 25, 1616, that
"they did expect ten times as much from me as from Mr. Edwards, and spake it openly:
that now an ambassador was come, a great man, they should receive proportionable gifts"
(East India Company Letters 4[ 1616]. 13).
166. Roe 2.498. In writing to Kcrridgc once, Roc (2.290n) urged haste in sending
presents for he sensed that he had neglected Nur Jahan that year and "I haue felt [it]
heauely."
167. Roe 1.119.
168. Roe 1.169-170.
169. Roe 1.174.
170. Roe 1.174-75, 176. In summing up the gifts given to him by the king a month
later, Roe (1.176n) included "hoggs flesh, deare, a theefe and a whore."
171. Roe 2.295.
172. Pelsaert, p. 50.
173. See Foster in Roe l.xxxvii.

Chapter 4. "The World Conqueror"

1. Terry, p. 386.
2. Roe l.xlv.
3. Dow 3.xxv-xxvi.
4. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 8.
5. "I made holes in my ears and drew into each a shining pearl" (Tuzuk 1.267).
6. Tuzuk 1.143.
7. Tuzuk 1.5, 116, 119.
8. Tuzuk 1.5-6.
9. Tuzuk 2.292-93.
10. Many of Jahangir's wine cups have survived. See, e.g., the collection in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
11. Tuzuk 1.384.
12. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, pp. 10-11.
13. Terry, pp. 400-401.
 Notes 311

14. Roe 1.112.

15. In spite of the Jains' perspective as captured in the Sribhanucandraganicarita (p.
47):
Jahangir enjoyed and amused himself as Indra does in heaven—sometimes resid-
ing in wonderful rest-houses, sometimes on the banks of the Indus, sometimes on
pleasure-mounts, sometimes in mansions of variegated colours, sometimes revel-
ling in the exquisite performance of the best female dancers, sometimes listening
to the soft music of beautiful damsels, and sometimes attending to dramatic
performances.
16. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. xxi.
17. Roe 1.120.
18. Terry, p. 373.
19. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 106.
20. Withington in Foster, Early Travels, p. 225.
21. Gascoigne, p. 134.
22. A. K. Das, Splendour, p. 1.
23. H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.vi. Hawkins (ca. 1612) said: "In such sort that what this
mans father, called Ecber Padasha, got of the Decans, this king, Selim Sha, beginneth to
loose." In Foster, Early Travels, pp. 106-7. And Manucci (1.153) began his discussion of
Jahangir by saying: "It is a truth tested by experience that sons dissipate what their
fathers gained in the sweat of their brow."
24. H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.vi. Beveridge (Tuzuk 2.v) compares Jahangir to the
Emperor Claudius, for both were "weak men . . . in their wrong places as rulers . . .
[and had] Jahangir been head of a Natural History Museum, . . . [he] would have been
[a] better and happier" man.
25. Tuzuk 1.1-2; see Tabakat-i Akbari E&D 5.332-34; A. K. Das, Mughal Painting,
p. 3.
26. See Findly, "Visionary Paintings."
27. Tuzuk 2.210, 211.
28. E.g., Tuzuk 1.168, 435; Roe 2.498.
29. See, e.g., Roe 2.416.
30. There are oblique references, however, to "those who travel round the world"
and to various aspects of trade with Europeans, especially the English. Tuzuk 1.269, 274-
75,338,416-17.
31. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 3. See Tuzuk 1.191ff where mention of the
marriage should appear. He did, however, mention marriages to other wives, e.g., to the
daughter of Jagat Singh, eldest son of Raja Man Singh (1608), to the daughter of Ram
Chand Bundela (1609), and to the daughter of Kalyan of Jaisalmer (as a prince), as well as
the deaths of two of his wives, Jodh Bai, daughter of the Mota, or "Fat," Raja (Udai
Singh) (1619), and the Padshah Begam, Saliha Banu Begam (1620) (Tuzuk 1.144, 160,
326-27; 2.84, 159), so it is even more significant that his marriage to Nur Jahan went
unnoted.
32. Tuzuk 1.24-25. Note that he did, however, promote Abul Fazl's son Abdur
Rahman to the rank of 2,000 zat and 1,500 suwar a year or so after his accession. Tuzuk
1.105.
33. Tuzuk, 1.33-34,37-45.
34. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, pp. xxi, 5; Gascoigne, p. 131.
35. Roe 1.112, 124,363,364.
36. Van den Broecke, p. 91.
37. Gascoigne, p. 131.
312 Notes

38. Tuzuk 1.432;

39. Terry, p. 387; Roe 1.215.
40. The eunuch was trampled to death by an elephant (or alternately cut into pieces)
before her as she stood in the pit—an event that took place close to the houses of Terry
and Roe. Trampling to death by an elephant was a common form of execution at both the
Mughal and Rajput courts (Roc 1.123; Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 108) and, of
this kind of punishment, Roe (1.108) said, "And some tymes [he] sees with too much
delight in blood the execution done by his Eliphants."
41. Terry, p. 388; Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 109-10.
42. Guerreiro, pp. 34-35.
43. Tuzuk 1.254-55; see 2.226.
44. Manucci 1.155.
45. Terry, p. 362.
46. Tuzuk 1.365-67.
47. Terry, pp. 362-63.
48. See Findly, "Vow of Non-Violence," pp. 245-56, where there is discussion of
Jahangir's strong ambivalence on crimes committed against one's family.
49. Although Shahryar had been born not to a legal wife of Jahangir but to one of his
concubines, this would not in and of itself account for the emperor's behavior here. Tuzuk
1.20.
50. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 117. Roe (1.198-99) told another story of
Jahangir's baiting of Shahryar: the emperor had wanted one of his nephews who had
become a Christian (probably a son of Daniyal's) to lose favor with the people and
accordingly asked the boy to strike a lion on the head. When the boy refused, Jahangir
asked Shahryar to do it, which he "did so without any harme" (the lion apparently being
tame). The emperor then sent his nephew to prison "where hee is neuer like to see day
light."
51. Tuzuk 1.294. Later he was to discover through an ambassador of Shah Abbas that
this eldest son, Safi Mirza, if not executed, "would certainly have attempted the Shah's
life. As this intention became manifest from his behavior," his father had had him killed
(Tuzuk 1.338).
52. Tuzuk 1.122; see also 1.111.
53. Tuzuk 1.432.
54. Prasad, p. 152.
55. Tuzuk 2.28.
56. Tuzuk 2.211-12.
57. Terry, pp. 388-89.
58. Gascoigne, p. 135.
59. Note, however, his abrupt and severely retributive treatment of the Portuguese
when they captured the Rahimi, his mother's trading ship, in 1613. Foster, Early Travels,
pp. 191-92, 203; East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).213; East India Company Letters
3 (1615).4. For a discussion, see Findly, "Maryamuzzamani," pp. 227-38.
60. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 108.
61. Withington in Foster, Early Travels, p. 225.
62. Terry, p. 389.
63. Van den Broecke, p. 91.
64. Tuzuk 1.13.
65. See, for example, Moreland, pp. 32-35.
66. Tuzuk 1.10.
67. Tuzuk 1.7-10.
 Notes 313

68. Tuzuk 1.7.

69. Tuzuk 1.7. H. Beveridge notes that Du Jarric, using missionary reports, implied
that the chain was silver and that Jahangir "was following the idea of an old Persian
king." Note here Guerreiro's report (p. 13) that Jahangir
displayed so great a love for justice that, calling to mind what one of the ancient
kings of Persia had done, he gave orders that a silver bell with a chain twenty
cubits long should be suspended close to his own apartments, so that all who felt
that they had grievances and were unable to obtain redress at the hands of the law
or the officers of the State, might pull this chain, when the King would immedi-
ately come forth and deliver justice verbally.
70. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 113.
71. A custom apparently taken up by lesser rulers in imitation. Tuzuk 1.204-5.
72. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 115; Terry, pp. 370-71, 383. Tavernier (pp.
260-61), during Shah Jahan's reign, recorded the custom as requiring "these Kings to
show themselves in public three times every week, or, at the very least, every fifteen
days." According to Hawkins' account, when in Agra Jahangir's first two showings were
presumably from the same window and a third (from three until five) with nobles in open
audience. According to Terry, however, in the morning Jahangir appeared at a window on
the east, at noon on the south, and in the evening on the west. But, continued Terry, "as
soon as the sun forsakes the hemisphere, he leaves his people, ushered in and out with
drums and wind instruments and the people's acclamations."
73. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 247. Coryat oddly noted that Jahangir's audi-
ence here was nobles, although we know from other sources that a main concern were the
grievances of the public. See Tuzuk 1.10, 266; 2.14.
74. Tuzuk 2.13.
75. Roe 1.108.
76. Terry, pp. 353-54.
77. Said Roe (2.314): "[Many people] will not eate till they haue saluted him in the
morning, for which Purpose hee Comes at the Sunnes rising to a wyndow open to a great
Playne before his house, where Multitudes attend him."
78. Tuzuk 1.172.
79. Dow 3.105-7. This particular relative, says Dow, was the son of a man named
Ibrahim who at one time had held the suba of Bengal. This would have made the father
Ibrahim Khan, a brother of Asmat Begam's and an uncle of Nur Jahan's. The boy, then,
would have been Nur Jahan's first cousin not her nephew. Dow narrates that just before
the boy finally paid for his crime, the driver of the elephant used to execute him "passed
over him several times, without giving the elephant the necessary directions," because he
was greatly "afraid of the resentment of the Sultana."
80. Manucci 1.169.
81. From Maulana Shibli Numani's Jahangiri Justice, translated here courtesy of
Syed N. Haq of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The story is also depicted in such modern
Indian films as Pukar (Minerva Movietone, 1939), staring Naseem Banu as Nur Jahan
and Chandra Mohan as Jahangir, and produced and directed by Sohrab Modi.
The dirham is a silver coin of varying weight whose usage goes back to the time of
Umar. Am-i Akban 1.36-38.
82. Tuzuk 2.211.
83. Tuzuk 1.420-21.
84. Roe 2.413-14. Said Roe:
I had nothing to giue, nor might fitly goe with nothing, nor stay at home without
discourtesie; which made mee venture vpon a faire Booke well bound, filleted and
314 Notes

gilt, Mercators last Edition of the Maps of the world, which I presented with an
excuse that I had nothing worthy, but to a great King I offered the World, in
which he had so great and rich a part.
85. Terry, p. 351; see also Roe 2.416-17. The situation was not as Jahangir imag-
ined internally either for, said Pelsaert (pp. 58-59):
The whole country is enclosed and broken up by many mountains, and the people
who live in, on, or beyond, the mountains know nothing of any King, or of
Jahangir, . . . Jahangir, whose name implies that he grasps the whole world, must
therefore be regarded as ruling no more than half the dominions which he claims.
86. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. xxii; Das, Splendour, p. 1.
87. From the Kevorkian Album, inscr. to Abul Hasan, ca. 1650, Freer Gallery of
Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (48.28b), based presumably on a proto-
type by Abul Hasan, ca. 1623.
88. From the Kevorkian Album, inscr. to Abul Hasan, early 19th c., Freer Gallery of
Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (48.19); based on a prototype fr. the
Minto Album, inscr. to Abul Hasan, ca. 1615-20, A. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (ms.
7, no. 15).
89. From the Leningrad Album, inscr. to Abul Hasan, ca. 1618-22, Freer Gallery of
Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (45.9).
90. From the Leningrad Album, inscr. to Bichitr, ca. 1615-18, Freer Gallery of Art,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (45.15).
91. See Ettinghausen, pp. 98-120.
92. One could argue as well that Nur Jahan and the junta encouraged such paintings
and such views in order to further distance Jahangir from real sovereignty, thereby
making their own control that much more complete.
93. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 17. P. Brown (Painting, pp. 173-74) argues that
Jahangir "fully believed in the divinity of kings; and symbolized his semi-sanctified state
by means of the nimbus in all portraits of himself." The use of the nimbus in this way,
Brown continues, "was entirely Jahangir's."
94. Tuzuk 1.141.
95. Terry, pp. 347, 349.
96. See Roe 2.314; Latif, Lahore, pp. 120-21.
97. Varadarajan, p. 412.
98. Tuzuk 1.410.
99. Manucci 1.160.
100. Tuzuk 1.90-91.
101. E.g., Tuzuk 1.215-17, 143; 2.88-89. Note the large number of "animal por-
traits" painted for him by his artists, especially Mansur, and his habit of taking painters
with him on hunts, precisely for the purpose of capturing the likeness of whatever
creature befell his fancy. See Alvi and Rahman.
102. Tuzuk2.2Q\.
103. Tuzuk 1.139-40.
104. 7uzw£2.16-18, 23ff.,39, 42.
105. Tuzuk 1.242-43.
106. E.g., Tuzuk 1.83, 120, 121, 129, 136, 163, 166-67, 185-88, 204, 255, 264, 268,
286-87, 341, 362-63, 375, 444; 2.40-41, 181-82, 231, 269, 285.
107. Tuzuk 2.43-44.
108. Tuzuk 2.119-20.
109. Tuzuk 1.118-19.
110. Tuzuk 2.125.
 Notes 315

111. Tuzuk 2.20-21.

112. On Jahangir's physical appearance, see Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 245;
Maclagan, p. 76.
113. See A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 29, and Gulbadan, pp. 99, 131, 189.
114. Murad had died at age thirty while in the Deccan, and Daniyal at age thirty-
three while in Burhanpur. Daniyal, though a regular abuser of alcohol, died most immedi-
ately of drinking wine from a rusty, powdery gun barrel. Tuzuk 1.34-35. See also van den
Broecke, pp. 24-25, 29-30.
115. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 5.
116. In his own history of his drinking he said fifteen, but according to two other
manuscripts and to H. Beveridge's calculations, Jahangir did not begin wine drinking
until he was seventeen and a half years old, that is, in his eighteenth year. Says H.
Beveridge (Tuzuk 1.307n): "It seems to follow that the MSS. are right, and that we should
read 18." Jahangir himself stated earlier, in his opening remarks to his memoirs, that he
did not begin drinking until he was eighteen. Tuzuk 1.8.
117. Tuzuk 1.307.
118. Tuzuk 1.307-8. Araq, though prepared in a variety of ways, was most commonly
made with a distillation of unrefined sugar mixed with the bark of the babul tree. "This
was the most common and cheapest drink of Rajasthan" (Agre, p. 268).
119. Tuzuk 1.308.
120. Hakim Humam, brother of Hakim Abul Path, came in fact at Salim's request,
for the young drunkard seemed to be most aware of his deteriorating condition. Tuzuk
1.308.
121. See Jahangir's alternate account at the beginning of his reign. Tuzuk 1.8.
122. H. Beveridge's note suggests that filuniya may be opium (Tuzuk 1.308n), but
Jahangir himself noted later that eventually, in the place of filuniya, he substituted
opium. Tuzuk 1.310. A traditional term for opium was afim, and poppies for the crop
were grown in many areas of Rajasthan. Agre, pp. 269-70.
123. The exception was that on Thursday he drank during the day rather than at
night, his usual drinking time, because Thursday had been the day of his accession and
Thursday night was the eve of the Muslim holy day. We may assume that he also did not
drink on Friday when "there should be an omission . . . to return thanks to the True
Benefactor" (Tuzuk 1.309). Earlier in his memoirs (Tuzuk 1.20) he said: "A year before I
became King I had determined that I would drink no wine on Friday eve, and I hope at
the throne of God that He will keep me firm in this resolve as long as I live."
124. Tuzuk 1.310.
125. Tuzuk 1.267.
126. Tuzuk l.\\-\2.
127. Tuzuk2.l\-\3.
128. Tuzuk 2.35.
129. E.g., Tuzuk 2.128, 180. In one story early in his memoirs (1607) (Tuzuk 1.105-
6), he boastfully noted that while drinking kept many of his courtiers from successfully
jumping over a stream, he—aged forty and full of wine—was able to make it, although
not "with the activity that I had shown . . . when I was 30."
130. E.g., Tuzuk 1.226,266.
131. Tuzuk 1.8.
132. Tuzuk 2.41.
133. Tuzuk 1.8.
134. Tuzuk 2.87; see also 1.134-35, 377.
135. Tuzuk 2.165.
316 Notes

136. Roe 2.304; Terry, pp. 387-88; see A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 6.
137. E.g., Tuzuk 1.370.
138. Jahangir's reputation for being a drunkard, for example, was carried abroad by
travelers who took with them eyewitness accounts. Note, for example, Thomas Keridge's
letter from Agra to Thomas Aldworth in Surat, September 7, 1613: "The king [is] a
drunkard so given to vice that the chief captains care not for him, and willingly would
never come near him" (East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).281). Said Roe (1.119):
"Ther is nothing more welcome here, nor euer saw I man soe enamord of drincke as both
the King and Prince [Shah Jahan] are of redd wyne . . . . I thinck 4 or 5 handsome cases
of that wyne wilbe more welcome than the richest lewell in Cheapesyde." See also Roe
2.303.
139. Tuzuk 1.306. A weighing ceremony like this one is depicted in "Emperor
Jahangir Weighs Prince Khurram," attributed to Manohar, ca. 1610-15, British Museum
(1948.10-9069). See Shah Jahan Nama, pp. 6, 9.
140. Tuzuk 1.115; 2.14.
141. Said Jahangir (Tuzuk 1.307): "With much trouble wine was given to him."
142. Tuzuk 1.20.
143. Terry, p. 387.
144. Tuzuk 1.1-2; 2.70.
145. Pelsaert, p. 77.
146. Tuzuk 2.6-7. Said Jahangir: "This usage is my own, and has never been
practised until now."
147. Tuzuk 1.183.
148. Tuzuk 2.6. Jahangir was kept back from the trip by knowledge "which had
thrown its rays on my mind through Divine inspiration."
149. Tuzuk 2.25, 65.
150. Tuzuk 2.70-71.
151. Tuzuk 2.151-53.
152. Tuzuk 2.159-60.
153. Again, a prophecy based on Jahangir's horoscope. Tuzuk 2.203.
154. Tuzuk 2.235.
155. Tuzuk 2.291.
156. Tuzuk 2.74.
157. Van den Broecke, p. 56.
158. Pelsaert, p. 3.
159. As noted in C. Pant, pp. 109-11.
160. Terry, p. 406.
161. Van den Broecke, p. 5.
162. Van den Broecke, pp. 91-92.
163. Delia Valle 1.53.
164. E.g., H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.vi; Das, p. 8; Gascoigne, p. 172. See also Dow's
rendition (3.35) of his sources: "The charms of the Sultana estranged the mind of
Jehangire from all public affairs. Easy in his temper, and naturally voluptuous, the
powers of his soul were locked up in a pleasing enthusiasm of love, by the engaging
conversation and extraordinary beauty of Noor-Mahil."
165. Shujauddins, p. 29.
166. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 8; see also C. Pant, pp. 109-11.
167. Tuzuk 2.53.
168. Tuzuk 2.192; see also 2.215.
169. Tuzuk 2.222.
 Notes 317

170. Tuzuk 2.223.

171. Tuzuk 2.228. See van den Broecke, p. 53.
172. Tuzuk2.2l4.
173. Tuzuk 1.266.
174. 7uzuk2.2\3.
175. Tuzuk 2.214.
176. Pelsaert, p. 53; van den Broecke, pp. 91-92.
177. Manucci 1.168.
178. Manucci 1.155-56.
179. Manucci 1.157-58.
180. Van den Broecke, p. 92.
181. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.404, 405; Sribhanucandraganicarita 259-68.
182. Jahangir, (Tuzuk 1.358) in fact, described this doctrine: "It is a maxim of the
Hindus that no good deed can be thoroughly performed by men in the social state without
the partnership of ... a wife, whom they have styled the half of a man."
183. Tuzuk 2AS.
184. Tuzuk 2.64.
185. Tuzuk 1.77-78, 145-46, 148, 154-55, 230, 239, 248; 2.98.
186. Tuzuk 1.81, 145.
187. Tuzuk 1.76.
188. Terry, p. 389. 189. Tuzuk 1.84-85.
190. Tuzuk 2.216.
191. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 278.
192. Du Jarric, p. 190.
193. Maclagan, pp. 70, 93.
194. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 115.
195. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 163, 184.
196. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 232.
197. Oddly enough, the Jesuit fathers believed up to the time of Jahangir's death that
the only thing keeping the emperor from converting to Christianity was Nur Jahan's
antipathy to the religion. Maclagan, p. 90.
198. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.405.
199. Tuzuk 2.277.
200. Sribhanucandraganicarita 269-79.

Chapter 5. Life in the Women's Palaces

1. Said Manucci (2.319): [For] "all Mahomedans are very fond of women, who are
their principal relaxation and almost their only pleasure."
2. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 28.
3. Roe 2.458.
4. Tuzuk 1.57. See also Tuzuk 1.62 where Jahangir quoted Khusrau: "I will give
orders to plunder the city for seven days and to make captive the women and children."
5. Dow (S.xix) reports, e.g.:
When the governor of a province falls under the suspicion of disaffection for his
prince, the first step taken against him, is an order issued lor sending his women
to court. Even one of his wives, and she too not the best beloved, will bind him to
his allegiance. His obedience to this mandate is the true test of his designs.
6. Dow 3.xix.
318 Notes

7. This accounts in part for the practice of killing women of the mahal whenever
they were in danger of being captured by an enemy. See, e.g.,Badshah-nama E&D 7.49.
8. See the account in the Tuzuk (1.366) where Jahangir noted, with contempt, the
practice of Nasiruddin: "They say that he had collected 15,000 women in his harem. He
had a whole city of them, and had made it up of all castes, kinds, and descriptions—
artificers, magistrates, qazis, kotwals, and whatever else is necessary for the administra-
tion of a town."
9. Altekar, pp. 166-79.
10. Roe 1.21.
11. Terry, p. 203.
12. Roe 1.32; 2.457.
13. Terry, p. 180.
14. Terry, pp. 283-84.
15. Terry, p. 283.
16. Tuzuk 1.351.
17. Dow 3.xix.
18. Misra, pp. 71-75; A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 46.
19. Tuzuk 1.73.
20. Said Gulbadan (p. 98), Babur "commanded buildings to be put up in Agra on the
other side of the river, and a stone palace to be built for himself between the haram and
the garden." Later she said (p. 103) of Babur, the "emperor gave houses to all the
begams."
21. Pelsaert, pp. 2-3; see also Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 148-49.
22. Pelsaert, pp. 3-4; see De Laet, pp. 38-39.
23. Pelsaert, p. 4.
24. Pelsaert, p. 64. Sec also, e.g., Gulbadan, p. 101.
25. Terry, p. 187; Pelsaert, p. 66.
26. Both Terry (pp. 187-88) and Pelsaert (p. 66) described waterworks found in
establishments of a great variety of classes.
27. Pelsaert, p. 66; Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 178. According to Bernier (p.
267):
They inform me that the seraglio contains beautiful apartments, separated and
more or less spacious and splendid according to the rank and income of females.
Nearly every chamber has its reservoir of running water at the door, on every side
are gardens, delightful alleys, shady retreats, streams, fountains, grottoes, deep
excavations that afford shelter from the Sun by day, lofty divans and terraces, on
which to sleep coolly at night.
28. Terry, p. 188.
29. Pelsaert, p. 67.
30. Roe 1.145.
31. Pelsaert, p. 64.
32. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 163-64.
33. Terry, p. 283.
34. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 163.
35. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 164.
36. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 164.
37. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 163.
38. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 101.
39. Terry, p. 406.
 Notes 319

40. Tuzuk 1.366. Manucci (2.308, see also 320), however, noted that Aurangzeb's
royal household included "two thousand women of different races."
41. Manucci 2.308.
42. On spies in the harem, see Manucci 2.311-12.
43. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 75; see also Du Jarric, pp. 42-43.
44. Misra, pp. 11-12, 156-57.
45. Maclagan, pp. 72, 74.
46. See Manucci 2.310-11. He said (2.315) that the "kings are very choice about
giving names to suit the persons receiving them."
47. Tuzuk 1.319. These are the official dates, of course; it seems, however, that the
name Nur Mahal was used of her throughout her career especially by European travelers
and was perhaps contemporaneous with the name Nur Jahan, which may have been a
private title from the very beginning of her time on the throne. The title Nur Mahal also
belonged to the first wife of Dara Shikoh, who was much beloved by him and took her life
by poison when she saw that her husband would eventually come to his end through the
treachery of his brother Aurangzeb. Manucci 1.330-32, 342, 343.
48. Terry, p. 406.
49. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.49n.
50. See Tuzuk 1.76.
51. As reported in Misra, p. 59.
52. She was also called Queen Aliya Begam. Badshah-nama E&D 7.27.
53. As reported in Misra, p. 60.
54. Manucci 2.311. Khanam, on the other hand, signified that the woman was "of
the royal household."
55. E.g., A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 62.
56. Lall, p. 32.
57. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 37.
58. Dow B.xiv.
59. Dow 3.xiv. See Manucci 2.319.
60. Pelsaert, pp. 64-65.
61. Pelsaert, p. 65.
62. Dow S.xviii.
63. See Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.343-47. In spite of Aziz Koka's offenses, Akbar
was attached to him his whole life long, for between "me and Aziz is a river of milk which
I cannot cross."
64. Tuzuk 1.84-85.
65. Ain-i Akbari 1.46; see also Manucci 2.308, 312.
66. Manucci 2.309; Ain-i Akbari 1.46.
67. Misra, p. 78.
68. Misra, pp. 78, 78n-79n.
69. Tuzuk 2.110. Likewise, Muhammad Hadi reported that an old servant named
Dila Rani took over from Haji Koka as superintendent of the women servants in the
palace about the time of Nur Jahan's second marriage and that without her seal stipends
could not be paid. Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.398. Said Blochmann (Ain-i
Akbari 1.574): "[Nur Jahan] provided for all her relations; even hur nurse, Da,i Dilaram,
enjoyed much influence, and held the post of "Sadr of the Women" (sadr-i anas), and
when she conferred lands as suyurghah the grants were confirmed and sealed by the Sadr
of the empire."
70. Ain-i Akbari I AT.
320 Notes

71. Manucci2.328.
72. Ain-iAkban 1.46-47; Manucci 2.308-9, 326-28.
73. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 40.
74. As reported by Foster in Roe 1.253n.
75. Eunuchs were responsible for preventing all illicit foods, beverages, and drugs
from coming into the harem. Manucci 2.328.
76. Ain-iAkbari 1.46-47; Manucci 1.288.
77. Manucci 2.328, 309.
78. Ain-iAkbari 1.47; Manucci 2.328.
79. Pelsaert said (p. 64) of Jahangir's harem that each wife "has a regular monthly
allowance for her gastos," gastos referring to housekeeping or traveling expenses (p. 64n).
See also Manucci 2.308, 310, 319. The highest allowance on record is 10 lakh rupees per
year given to Arjumand Banu Begam under Shah Jahan. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari
1.574n.
80. Ain-iAkbari 1.46.
81. Manucci 2.315-16.
82. Tuzuk 1.10.
83. Manucci 2.328.
84. Tuzuk 2.192.
85. Pelsaert, p. 64.
86. Lall, p. 32.
87. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 67.
88. Gulbadan, pp. 118-23.
89. See Terry, p. 376.
90. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 10.
91. Gulbadan, pp. 116-17. A. S. Beveridge says (p. 9): "In some cases which are
mentioned by Babur, adoptions were made by a childless wife of high degree from a slave
or servant, but no such reason seems behind those from Dil-dar."
92. Tuzuk 1.75, 130.
93. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.404.
94. Blochmann, Ain-iAkbari 1.321.
95. Saksena, p. 15.
96. Tuzuk 2.45. Shah Shuja, apparently, was quite prone to accident and illness (at
least if the Tuzuk accounts were representative) and had to be followed very closely by
attendants and astrologers. Tuzuk 1.45, 151-52, 203.
97. See Manucci 2.74-75.
98. Pelsaert, p. 65; Manucci 2.326-28. Their responsibility to the emperor was,
said Fitch (in Foster, Early Travels, p. 18), to "keepe his women."
99. Terry, p. 284.
100. Manucci 2.72.
101. Tuzuk 1.168. Said Jahangir earlier (Tuzuk 1.150-51):
At this time [late 1608] I issued an order that hereafter no one should follow this
abominable custom, and that the traffic in young eunuchs should be completely
done away with. . . . In a short time this objectionable practice will be completely
done away with, and the traffic in eunuchs being forbidden, no one shall venture
on this unpleasant and unprofitable proceeding.
102. In both life and death for, as Tavernier (1.91) noted, a eunuch with command
over two thousand men guarded the tomb of Arjumand Banu Begam. See also Manucci
1.176.
 Notes 321

103. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 163.

104. Manucci 2.74, 309, 328; Bernier, p. 374; Monserrate, p. 79.
105. Pelsaert, p. 66; Manucci 2.326-27.
106. Peslaert, p. 65. The good will of the male principal was exceedingly important
for the eunuch, and he went out of his way to curry favor with his employer. See Manucci
1.277; 2.31, 50-51, 177.
107. Manucci 1.212.
108. Pelsaert, p. 66.
109. Terry, p. 89.
110. Bernier, p. 131.
111. Roe 1.215.
112. The two stories differ somewhat. Roe (1.215) said that her head and both arms
were exposed to the sun and that the eunuch was condemned to the elephants, while
Terry (p. 387) said that only her head was above ground and that the eunuch was "cut all
into pieces."
113. Dow 3.xix-xx.
114. Said van den Broecke (p. 51), e.g.: "Shaikh Qasim put to death all his mahel or
women, so as not to be hampered by them (in his fight) or prevent their falling into the
hands of his enemy."
115. Manucci 1.144; 2.175-77; see also Mundy (2.202-3): "[The] Great Mogolls or
kings daughters are never suffered to marrie (as I am informed), being an auntient
Custom."
116. Bernier, p. 12.
117. Tuzuk 1.81. Since Parviz was already a contender for the throne, however, no
new threat to Jahangir was posed by this marriage.
118. Tuzuk 2.91.
119. Manucci 2.175-77. Aurangzeb was quite open to marriage for princesses, and
Bernier (pp. 126-27) preserved a story of a daughter of Dara Shikoh, whom the emperor
tried to marry to his third son and intended successor, Sultan Akbar. The princess
refused, however, making known the "utmost repugnance to the marriage" and declaring
that she would rather "die by her own hand . . . than be united to the son of him who
murdered her father."
120. Tavernier 1.313.
121. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.45.
122. Terry, p. 406.
123. Pelsaert, p. 66.
124. Tavernier 1.300.
125. As Tavernier noted (1.313), the custom was that the firstborn (except the son of
a slave) succeeded to the throne, so "when the Princesses in the imperial harem become
aware that there is one among them with child, they immediately use all conceivable
methods to cause a miscarriage." He reported further that when he was in Patna in 1666
Shayista Khan's surgeon told him that Shayista Khan's wife had "in one month . . .
caused miscarriages to eight women of his harem, as she would not permit any children
but her own to survive." Again, note the reverse in Gulbadan (pp. 112-13), who de-
scribed a woman recently taken into Humayun's harem who was so desirous of giving
him a son that she kept up the fraud of a pregnancy for over eleven months.
126. Terry, p. 387.
127. Terry, p. 405.
128. Said Manucci (2.329): "Thus the women, being shut up with this closeness and
322 Notes

constantly watched, and having neither liberty nor occupation, think of nothing but
adorning themselves, and their minds dwell on nothing but malice and lewdness. Confes-
sion of this was made to me once by one of these ladies herself."
129. Pelsaert, p. 66.
130. Pelsaert, p. 68.
131. Terry, p. 284. Note the often-illustrated Punjabi folk tale of Sohni and
Mahinval, lovers of different castes, who had to meet at night in secret. When brothers of
the high-born Sohni discovered her liaison, they substituted an unbaked pot of clay for
the baked one she had been using to cross the river, causing her thus to drown.
132. Tavernier 1.300. Manucci (1.210) preserved stories of Jahanara's many lovers,
one of whom was her music teacher, "the son of the chief dancer in her employ." He was
brought into the harem when he was very young and given the title "Born in the
House"—like an adoptive son of the women there. "Under the cover of this title these
princesses and many great ladies gratify their desires." Another story in Manucci (1.209)
told of a lover of Jahanara who had to jump into a stove when he heard Shah Jahan
coming. The emperor, however, "caused it to be lighted, and thus secured his death." An
alternate version of this story can be found in Bernier (pp. 12-13) in which the unfortu-
nate lover had no place to hide except "in the capacious cauldron used for the baths."
Sensing its new contents Shah Jahan suggested that Jahanara heat water and take a bath
and did not himself "retire until they [the eunuchs] gave him to understand that his
wretched victim was no more."
133. Bernier, pp. 132-33.
134. Said Manucci (1.212): "[the] wife of Jafar Khan, being mistress of Shahjahan,
moves about with the same dignity" as other women of rank in the mahal. And again
(Manucci 1.186): "[the] chief of these women [whom Shahjahan had intrigues with], one
that he thought a great deal of, was the wife of Jafarcan (Jafar Khan), and from the love
he bore her he wished to take her husband's life." In general (Manucci 2.16), Aurangxeb
accused his father "of being a corrupter of others' wives."
135. Terry, p. 383.
136. Terry, p. 406.
137. Sribhanucandraganicarita 4.221-40; Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita (pp. 52-
53): "O Lord! your form is stately enough to make you a king. You have youth hotly in
your veins. Your age is meant for the soft pleasure of contact with the body of red-
blooded damsels. Why, then ; do you waste it upon the desert of severe austerities?"
138. We cannot discount either the possibility that these boys might simply have
been court or harem gofers, around to perform the odd task or errand too menial for
someone else.
139. Tavernier 1.275. See Shahjahan Nama, pp. 309-10.
140. Tavernier 1.295.
141. Said Mundy (2.203), i.e.: "This Shaw Jehan [Shah Jahan], amonge the rest,
hath one named Chiminy Beagum, a verie beautifull Creature by report, with whome (it
was openly bruited and talked of in Agra) hee committed incest, being verie familiar with
him many tymes in boyes apparrell, in great favour and as great meanes allowed her."
142. Bernier, pp. 11.
143. Manucci 1.208-9.
144. Coryat in Foster Early Travels, pp. 278-79.
145. Manucci 2.328.
146. Gascoigne, p. 162.
147. SeeAin-iAkban 1.47.
148. Said Manucci (2.328): "What forces the eunuchs to such strict measures is the
 Notes 323

continual fear in which they exist that some young man in disguise might enter in female
dress."
149. E.g., Manucci 1.192.
150. Tuzuk 1.351.
151. Sribhanucandraganicarita 4.87-92, and DesaiinSribhanucandraganicarita, p. 41.
152. See Misra, pp. 90-91.
153. Manucci 2.328.
154. Purchas, as reported by Foster in Roe 2.500n-501n. Purchas went on to say that
the eunuch once put a thinner cloth over Steele's head purposely so that he might actually
see the women he passed by, "there being of them some hundreds."
155. Tuzuk 2.278-79; H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.279n.
156. Manucci 1.295.
157. Bernier, pp. 404-5.
158. Manucci 2.319, 351.
159. Tuzuk 2.53. Jahangir said: "Nur-Jahan Begam had been ill for some time, and
the physicians who had the good fortune to be chosen to attend on her, Musalmans and
Hindus, perceived no gain from all the medicines they gave her, and confessed their
helplessness in treating her."
160. Tuzuk 2.66.
161. Manucci 2.328-29. Said Bernier (p. 267):
I have sometimes gone into it [the zanana} . . . [as] in the case of a great lady so
extremely ill that she could not be moved to the outward gate, according to the
customs observed upon similar occasions; but a Kachemire shawl covered my
head, hanging like a large scarf down to my feet, and an eunuch led me by the
hand, as if I had been a blind man.
162. Tavernier 1.241.
163. Tavernier 1.242.
164. Tavernier 1.242.
165. Manucci 2.329; see also 2.328, 331.
166. Tavernier 1.279. See Bernier, p. 90.
167. Tuzuk 1.110.
168. Tuzuk 1.241.
169. Tuzuk 1.129, 130,361,390.
170. Tuzuk 1.131.
171. Roe 1.247.
172. E.g., Roe 2.324.
173. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, pp. 70-71; Tabakat-i Akbari E&D 5.457. 465.
Manucci (2.69), however, said that "although the princesses and ladies start last, they
always arrive the first, having taken some other shorter route. Ordinarily the women start
after the baggage and move quickly."
174. See A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 20.
175. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 95n.
176. Bernier, p. 361.
177. Ain-i Akbari 1.47.
178. "On account of the crowding of camp-followers, and the number of the troops
themselves, it would take a soldier days to find his tent" (Ain-i Akbari 1.49).
179. Ain-i Akbari 1.49-50.
180. See Roe 2.324-26.
181. For another description of the modes of travel, see Misra, pp. 105-8.
182. Said Terry (pp. 143-44): "The men of the inferior sort go all on foot, their
324 Notes

women that cannot so travel ride on little oxen, inured to carry burdens, or on asses,
which carry their little children with them; the women like the men astride."
183. Tavernier 1.37-38; Bernier, p. 372.
184. Manucci 1.212.
185. Bernier, p. 372.
186. Bernier (pp. 372-73) gave an excellent and very elaborate description of one
of the processions of Raushanara and her many attendants saying of the women's sec-
tion of the entourage: "There is something very impressive of state and royalty in the
march of these sixty or more elephants; in their solemn and, as it were, measured steps;
in the splendour of the Mikdembers, and the brilliant and innumerable followers in
attendance."
187. Manucci 1.212.
188. Bernier, p. 373.
189. Bernier, p. 372. Abul Fazl (Ain-iAkbari 1.123-39) spent some time describing
this "wonderful animal" (1.123) and, although he did not say how many elephants Akbar
had in all his stables, the emperor did keep one hundred and one for his own use (1.137).
Tavernier noted that "the Great Mogul keeps 3,000 or 4,000 elephants" with about five
hundred reserved for household usage (1.223-24). Roe noted (2.321) of one trip that
Jahangir had fifty elephants in use for his women. See also Manucci 2.340.
190. Roe 2.321, 324. Said Terry (p. 405), the haudas were "pretty receptacles, sur-
rounded with curtains, which stand up like low and little turrets upon their [the ele-
phants'] backs." See also Manucci 2.66-67, 330-31.
191. Tuzuk2.79.
192. Monserrate, p. 79. See also Bernier, p. 372.
193. Terry, pp. 144-45.
194. Terry, p. 404. Delia Valle (1.44) described these as "close Coaches."
195. Roe 2.324; see also Roe 1.118-19.
196. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 45.
197. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 20; Gulbadan, p. 169. Delia Valle 1.44.
198. Gulbadan, p. 169.
199. Terry, p. 405.
200. Tavernier 1.117.
201. Roe 2.274.
202. Tuzuk 1.401.
203. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 20; Gulbadan, p. 100.
204. Tuzuk 2.123.
205. Gascoigne, pp. 160-61.
206. Note the complaint by Bega Begam to Humayun in Gulbadan (p. 130):
She began a complaint, and said to him: "For several days now you have been
paying visits in this garden, and on no one day have you been to our house.
Thorns have not been planted in the way to it. We hope you will deign to visit our
quarters also, and to have a party and a sociable gathering there, too. How long
will you think it right to show all these disfavours to us helpless ones? We too have
hearts. Three times you have honoured other places by visits, and you have run
day and night into one in amusement and conversation."
207. Shujauddins, p. 97.
208. Ain-i Akbari 1.59. See Manucci 2.309-10.
209. Pelsaert, pp. 64-65.
210. As reported in Misra, p. 93.
211. Pelsaert, p. 66. The best of all the foods apparently went into the mahal, and
 Notes 325

Jahangir told (Tuzuk 1.435), e.g., of receiving a present of 1,500 melons and of sending a
full 500 into the harem.
212. Pelsaert, p. 67.
213. Pelsaert, pp. 67-68. See Roe (1.241-42) for a description of a meal he had at the
house of Mir Jamaluddin Husain.
214. Ain-iAkbari 1.59-64.
215. Pelsaert, p. 68.
216. For a full description, see Findly, "Maryamuzzamani," pp. 227-38. See also
Misra, pp. 60-64.
217. Tuzuk 1.46; Manucci 2.319. See Shahjahan Nama, pp. 447-48.
218. Tuzuk 1.146, 239; Manucci 1.206; see Foster, Early Travels, p. lOln; Gulbadan,
pp. 94-95.
219. Tuzuk 1.401.
220. Tusuk2.8Q.
221. Tuzuk 2.228. The rule of escheat, by which all lands and monies reverted to the
ruler upon the death of the noble and were then distributed around as the ruler saw fit,
was the norm during Mughal times in spite of the following pronouncement at the
beginning of Jahangir's reign (Tuzuk 1.8): "In my dominions if anyone, whether unbe-
liever or Musalman, should die, his property and effects should be left for his heirs, and
no one should interfere with them."
222. Pelsaert, p. 4.
223. Said Tavernier (1.310):
This wife of Jafar Khan is the most magnificent and the most liberal woman in the
whole of India, and she alone expends more than all the wives and daughters of
the Emperor put together; it is on this account that her family is always in debt,
although her husband is practically master of the whole Empire.
224. Khafi Khan as paraphrased in the Shujauddins, p. 133.
225. See Tuzuk 1.397.
226. Tuzuk 2.237.
227. Tuzuk 2.260.
228. SeeTavernier 1.301-2.
229. See Misra, pp. 116-18. Note the large ruby Maryam Makani gave to Akbar on
the occasion of the birth of Salim (Tuzuk 1.409) and the "large store of wealth" she left
behind with instructions that it be distributed "amongst her sons and grandsons" (Du
Jarric, p. 188).
230. Tavernier 1.240.
231. See Latif (Lahore, pp. 131-32) on the mosque of Maryamuzzamani.
232. Pelsaert, p. 5.
233. Manucci 1.212-13.
234. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, pp. 76-77; Manucci 1.209; Misra, pp. 109-10.
235. See Findly, "Maryamuzzamani," pp. 232-34.
236. Pelsaert, p. 4.
237. Manucci 2.350-51.
238. See Misra, p. 61.
239. Gulbadan, pp. 89, 111.
240. Misra, pp. 60-62; see Tuzuk 1.46.
241. Tuzuk 1.380.
242. Tuzuk 2.235-36.
243. He noted, e.g., an especially lavish feast and entertainment held in Nur Jahan's
jagir of Ramsar. Tuzuk 1.342.
326 Notes

244. Pelsaert, p. 66. See Shahjahan Nama, pp. 309-10.

245. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 162. The extravagance of Finch's statement is
offset by Manucci's observation (2.317, 318) that the princesses changed their clothes at
least once a day, if not several times a day, and that the used garments were not worn
again but given away to their servants.
246. Pelsaert, p. 64.
247. Delia Valle 1.44-45, 46.
248. Terry, p. 204.
249. On clothes, see Ghurye. See Manucci 2.318; Misra, pp. 119-28. On muslin, see
Tavernier 1.46-47.
250. Manucci 2.317. "This mirror they use to look at themselves, an act of which
they are very fond, at any and every moment." On jewelry, see Manucci 2.316-17.
251. Terry, p. 204. Said Delia Valle (1.45):
Those that have them adorn themselves with many gold-works, and jewels, espe-
cially their ears with pendants sufficiently enormous, wearing a circle of Gold or
Silver at their ears, the diametre whereof is often times above half a span and 'tis
made of a plate two fingers broad, and engraven with sundry works, which is a
very disproportionate thing.
And De Laet (p. 81): "Some pierce one of the nostrils in order to be able to wear a gold
nose-ring ornamented with gems when they so desire." See also Terry in Foster, Early
Travels, p. 309.
252. Manucci 2.317.
253. Manucci 2.318.
254. Terry, p. 204.
255. Manucci 2.318.
256. See Altekar, pp. 300-301.
257. See Altekar, pp. 300-301.
258. Manucci 2.316, 318.
259. Said Fitch (in Foster, Early Travels, p. 22): "They are marked with a great spot
of red in their foreheads and a stroke of red up to the crownc."
260. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 79. Sec Manucci 2.323.
261. See Misra, p. 89, and on the whole subject, pp. 87-92.
262. Sribhanucandraganicarita 4.87-92, and Desai, in Sribhanucandraganicarita,
p. 41.
263. Copies of this manuscript can be found in the Bombay University Library and at
the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin.
264. Ain-iAkban 1.309; Misra pp. 88-89.
265. See Misra, p. 91.
266. See A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 58.
267. Ain-i Akbari 1.166. In later times Aurangzeb would move to ban music and to
have all instruments broken if they were heard being played but, as Manucci (2.6) noted,
in "spite of this, the nobles did not cease to listen to songs in secret."
268. Gulbadan, p. 95.
269. Gulbadan, p. 178.
270. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 183. Said Withington (in Foster, Early Travels,
pp. 208-9): "At our beeing here, the women of the towne came into our caravan and
daunced, everye man givinge them somethinge; and afterwards they asked openly: Whoe
wants a bedfellow? Soe shamelesse they were."
271. Manucci 1.211.
272. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 46; Misra, p. 94n.
 Notes 327

273. Manucci 2.308, 313-14.

274. Roe 1.119, 171, 254; 2.386; 488, Foster in Roe 2.352n.
275. E.g., Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 163-64.
276. She was buried in the building in the Mandakar Garden, which she herself had
made. Tuzuk 1.232-33.
277. See Chapter 9.
278. Sarkar 1.70; 3.62.
279. SeeMisra, pp. 110-12.
280. Manucci 1.213.
281. Tuzuk 1.106
282. Tuzuk 2.64.
283. Tuzuk 2.75-76.
284. Tuzuk 2.192.
285. Tuzuk 2.110-11.
286. Pelsaert, p. 65 and 65n.
287. Ain-iAkban 1.72-78.
288. Ain-iAkbari 1.78.
289. Ain-iAkbari 1.80-87.
290. A popular fragrance in Akbar's time. Ain-i Akbari 1.79, 80. Manucci (2.316)
noted that women in the harem were "fond of, scents and flowers, [and that] they
disburse a great deal for essences of many kinds, for rosewater, and for scented oils
distilled from different flowers."
291. Tuzuk 1.270-71; 2.115.
292. Manucci 1.158-59.
293. Manucci (2.4-5), e.g., noted that so "accustomed are the Mahomedans to
intoxication that the poor people, who have not enough funds to procure spirits, invented
another beverage, called in the language of the country bang (bhang}." The orthodox
Aurangzeb then, he continued, banned the intoxicant when he took office and not "a day
passed that on rising in the morning we did not hear the breaking by blows and strokes of
the pots and pans in which these beverages are prepared."
294. See Bernier (pp. 39-40) for a description of the effects of opium on Rajput
warriors.
295. Tuzuk 1.19, 55-56.
296. Pelsaert, p. 65.
297. Manucci 1.211. He also reported on (2.99-100) a wife of Aurangzeb from
Georgia who loved drinking so much that the emperor would find her "all in disorder, her
hair flying loose and her head full of drink," on (2.139-40) Jahanara's gift of wine to the
wives of the qazi and other learned men when they visited her, and on (2.328) the
unsuccessful attempts of the eunuchs to "search everything with great care to stop the
entry of bhang, wine, ophion (opium), nutmegs (noix muscades), or other drugs which
could intoxicate" into the harem.
298. Note here Agre, pp. 263-71.
299. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 40. Said Roe (1.106): "His [Jahangir's]
weomen watch within, and guard him with manly weapons."
300. Gulbadan, pp. 120-21.
301. Gulbadan, pp. 170, 197.
302. Tuzuk 1.348.
303. Tuzuk 1.375.
304. See Findly, "Vow of Non-Violence," pp. 245-56.
305. Tuzuk 2.104-5.
328 Notes

306. Tuzuk 1.363; 402-3; 2.40, 105, 133.

307. Tuzuk 2. W5.
308. Muntakhab ul-Lubab as paraphrased in the Shujauddins, p. 94.
309. Gulbadan, pp. 120-21.
310. SeeMisra, p. 85.
311. Manucci2.318.
312. As quoted by Blochmann in Ain-i Akbari 1.211.
313. Shujauddins, p. 97.
314. A. S. Bevcridgc in Gulbadan, p. 75.
315. Note, however, Roe's 1616 comment (2.293) about Khusrau's women in the
event that the prince was murdered by the junta: "If hee dye ther will 100 of his kindred
burne for him in memorye of the kinges bloudines to his woorthyest sonne."
316. Withington in Foster, Early Travels, p. 219.
317. Badauni as quoted by Blochmann in Ain-i Akbari 1.215, 216.
318. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 119.
319. Withington in Foster, Early Travels, p. 219.
320. Terry, pp. 303-7.
321. Delia Valle 1.83-85.
322. Mundy 2.34-36 (with illustration), 179.
323. Bernier's account (pp. 306-14) included many detailed examples of the sati and
of his own involvement in several cases:
But not to tire you with the history of every woman whom I have seen perish on
the funeral pile, I shall advert to only two or three of those shocking spectacles at
which I have been present; and first I shall give you some details concerning a
female to whom I was sent for the purpose of diverting her from persevering in
her dreadful intention.
324. Tavernier 1.175.
325. Tuzuk 1.150.
326. Tuzuk 1.358; see also Manusmriti 9.45, 46.
327. Tuzuk 2.181.
328. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, pp. 68-69.
329. Or, alternately, as A.K. Das (Mughal Painting, p. 000) suggests:
The picture of Jahangir's celebration of the "holi" festival in the company of Nur
Jahan and the members of the zanana . . . may depict the celebration of the "feast
of Basant-bari" described in the Tuzuk. It was the day when a valuable pearl and a
ruby lost by Nur Jahan while hunting were found, the news of the defeat of Suraj
Mai was received, and the emperor's lunar weighing was held.
330. Tuzuk 2.70-71. Although it remains a possibility, there is no clear evidence that
the sorceress was trying to get back at the shaikh for some reason.
331. Tuzuk 2.2^.
332. Misra, p. 83.
333. See Pelsaert's (pp. 73-75) description of the Ramadan id and of the commemora-
tion of the Ali family. Sec also Misra, p. 13.
334. Lall, p. 74. 335. Ain-i Akbari 3.317-21.
336. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, pp. 76-77'. See also Gulbadan, p. 111.
337. Ikbal-nama-ijahangiri E&D 6.405E; sec also Tatimma-i Wakiat-ijahangiri E&D
6.399.
338. Ain-i Akbari 3.282-84; see also Misra, pp. 109-10.
339. See A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 49.
340. Du Jarric, p. 60.
 Notes 329

341. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, pp. 69-75; Tabakat-i Akban E&D 5.391.

342. Roe 2.418.
343. Tavernier 1.171.
344. Tuzuk 1.110; see also Jahangir's visit to Akbar's tomb, Tuzuk 2.101.
345. Tuzuk 2. W9.
346. See the list of Hindu pilgrimage sites in Ain-i Akbari 3.303-7.
347. Pelsaert, p. 72.
348. E.g., Tuzuk 1.418.
349. Roe 2.321.
350. As reported in Misra, pp. 32-33. See also Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.345, and
Gascoigne, p. 165.
351. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 38.
352. Prasad, pp. 50-51. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan (p. 76) notes her author's
involvement in this affair as well.
353. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, pp. 47-48.
354. Tuzuk 2.2Q5.
355. Roe 2.293.
356. Roe 2.299-300.
357. See Misra, pp. 68-71.
358. See Misra, pp. 149-51.
359. Ikbal-nama~i Jahangiri E&D 6.405.
360. See Misra, pp. 154, 67, and A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, pp. 237-41.
361. Tirmizi, pp. 124-25. See Misra, pp. 155, 67.
362. Tirmizi, pp. 103, 111, 117, 128, 129, 133,134, 135. See Misra, pp. 152, see also
p. 67.
363. See Misra, pp. 153, see also p. 67.
364. Misra, p. 67.
365. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.405.
366. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 166. It was Foster who, in his note (p. 166n),
interpreted Finch as saying Anarkali was Daniyal's mother, a story for which there "is no
corroboration." Jahangir noted at the beginning of the Tuzuk (1.34) that Daniyal "was
born to one of the [Akbar's] concubines." 367. Terry, p. 408.
368. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 166.
369. Latif, Lahore, p. 186. Later tradition said that Anarkali was Akbar's lover not
his wife, as Finch would have it, and it may well be that (whether the legend is true or
not) a relationship between Salim and one of his "mothers" was simply intolerable for the
collective memory of the time. If Finch's version is true, however, it would give a good
reason for the vehemence of Akbar's response. Robert Skelton has further suggested that
Nadira Begam (also known as Anarkali) supported Salim during his Allahabad revolt and
that, perhaps because of this, there were political reasons as well for Akbar's displeasure
with her. She may also have been a painter of miniatures.
370. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 166.
371. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 166.
372. Latif, Lahore, pp. 186-87; see Shujauddins, pp. 95-96.
373. The list is based in part on the tabulations of the Shujauddins (pp. 93-98),
Prasad (pp. 26-29), and Blochmann in Ain-i Akbari 1.323.
374. Tuzuk 1.56; Tabakat-i Akban E&D 5.447. See Moreland (pp. 245-46) for a
discussion of this dowry. If Man Bai and Raja Man Singh (sister and brother) were, as
Jahangir stated (Tuzuk 1.15-16), both children of Raja Bhagwan Das and had as their
grandfather Raja Bihari Mai, then Man Bai, Jahangir's first wife, was also his first cousin,
330 Notes

for Jahangir was a grandchild of Raja Bihari Mai as well, through his mother Maryamuz-
zamani, sister of Raja Bhagwan Das.
375. Tuzuk 1.15.
376. Tabakat-i Akbari E&D 5.456; Tuzuk 1.15; Firishtah 2.161.
377. Tuzuk 1.56.
378. Tuzuk 1.15-55.
379. Tuzuk 1.55-56.
380. Tuzuk 1.56.
381. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 178. The whole reference (pp. 178-79) is: "[I
saw] a sumptuous tombe for this kings first wife, mother to Sultan Cusseroon and sister
to Raja Manisengo, who upon the newes of her sonnes revolt poysoned her selfe."
382. See van den Broecke, p. 54; Pelsaert, p. 71; Mundy 2.100.
383. Tuzuk 1.19; see 1.128; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.323.
384. H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.84n.
385. Tuzuk 1.19-20.
386. Shujauddins, p. 95.
387. Tuzuk 2.84. See Shahjahan Nama, p. 8.
388. Tuzuk 1.18-19; H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 1.19n; Haig in Badauni 3.327n; Haw-
kins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 101; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.323, 533n.
389. Shujauddins, pp. 95-96.
390. Tuzuk 1.325-26; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.533n.
391. Tuzuk 1.326.
392. Blochmann, Ain-i Akban 1.533n; Shujauddins, p. 96.
393. H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.86n, 159n; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.401, 533n.
394. Tuzuk 2.86. Of her brother Jahangir said: "He was not devoid of sluggishness
and self-indulgence, and was a young man fond of pleasure. He wished to pass his whole
life at ease, and was devoted to Hindu music and did not understand it badly. He was a
man void of evil."
395. Tuzuk 2.159; H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.159n. Prasad (p. 169) says the title was
given to Nur Jahan in 1613 when Salima Sultan Begam died.
396. H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.86n.
397. Tuzuk 2.160.
398. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 101.
399. Tuzuk 1.19; H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 1.19n; Blochmann, Ain-i Akb an 1.323.
400. Tuzuk 1.19; H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 1.19n.
401. On Ali Rai, see Tuzuk 2.288; Blochmann, Ain-i Akban 1.323.
402. H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.288n.
403. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.686. The Chak family were the former rulers of
Kashmir.
404. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.686.
405. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.533n.
406. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.533n.
407. Blochmann, Ain-i Akban 1.533n.
408. Blochmann, Ain-i Akban 1.323; Firishta 2.160.
409. H. Beveridge suggests that this was Salim's third marriage. Blochmann, Ain-i
Akbari l.533n.
410. Tuzuk 1.144, 145; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.323. That this marriage was in
1608 supports the argument that Jahangir did not know Nur Jahan in 1607 or earlier, but
only met her in 1611. Charismatic as she apparently was, if he had met Nur Jahan in 1607
or before, not only would he have married her immediately but he also would not have
married anyone else afterward.
 Notes 331

411. Tuzuk 1.160; Blochmann, Ain-i Akban 1.533n

412. Said Roe (2.293): "The king giues fayre woordes, protesteth no intent of ill
toward the Prince, and promiseth his deliuery and sendes Narmahall to appease these
enraged ladyes, but they Curse, threaten, and refuse to see her."
413. See the Shujauddins, pp. 94-95.
414. Delia Valle 1.54.

Chapter 6. The English Embassy

1. Moreland, pp. 132-33.

2. Badauni (2.203) as quoted in Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.181. See also Mujeeb,
pp. 240, 240n, and Simkin, pp. 174-75.
3. See Fitch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 35.
4. Roe 1.228; see also Tuzuk 1.417.
5. Terry, p. 130
6. Roe 2.482; Terry, pp. 117-18.
7. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 62; Mundy 2.29; Tuzuk 1.415-17.
8. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 63.
9. Roe 1.112; Copland in Best, p. 208.
10. Pelsaert, p. 41.
11. Mundy2.28n.
12. See Findly, "Maryamuzzamani," pp. 227-38.
13. English Factories (1618-21), p. 81; Roe 2.440, 467. See also Simkin, pp. 176-77,
179, 181; Mukerjee, p. 102.
14. Badauni (2.203) as quoted in Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.181.
15. Withington in Foster, Early Travels, p. 203; see letter of Thomas Aldworthe and
William Biddulph to the East India Company, August 19, 1614, East India Company
Letters 2 (1613-15).96. Note that the names Aldworth/Aldworthe, Keridge/Kerridge,
Smith/Smythe, etc., are here spelled as they appear in each text and so will differ.
16. Danvers suggests that the capture of the Queen Mother's ship marked Portu-
guese "displeasure at the favourable reception accorded to the English," a view accepted
on strong circumstantial evidence by most historians. East India Company Letters 2
(1613-15).xvii. See Foster in Roe 1.x.
17. Withington in Foster, Early Travels, p. 203.
18. Foster, Early Travels, pp. 191-92.
19. East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).96. In a letter of September 20, 1614,
Thomas Keridge noted "The king here hath caused the Jesuits' churches to be shut up,
debarring them from public exercise of their religion and hath taken their allowances
from them, yet their goods untouched, the merchants and their goods embargoed, the
ports shut up and no passage by sea." East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15). 107. In a
letter of February 25, 1615, Thomas Elkington noted that:
the Great Mogul had debarred the Portingall from trade in any of his dominions,
by reason of a ship they took at the bar's foot of Surrat of very great value
pertaining to his subjects, as also had besieged a town possessed by them some
twelve leagues to the southward of Surrat called Damon, which siege as yet
continueth, though with little hope of prevailing.
East India Company Letters 3 (1615).4.
20. Letter of William Edwards to the East India Company, received December 2,
1615, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15). 149.
21. East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15). 150.
332 Notes

22. Letter of Thomas Mitford to Sir Thomas Smith, Governor, and the Committees
of the East India Company, December 26, 1614, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-
15).236. The articles of the treaty of peace that concluded this war are reproduced in
Tirmizi, pp. 97-98.
23. Letter of John Sandcrofte to the East India Company, November 29, 1614, East
India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).213.
24. East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).229.
25. Foster in East India Company Letters 3 (1615).xxxvii-xxxviii.
26. See Maclagan, pp. 79-80.
27. Tuzuk 1.274.
28. Roe 2.512.
29. Moreland and Geyl in Pelsaert, p. x.
30. Pelsaert, pp. 21-23.
31. Moreland and Geyl in Pelsaert, p. x; Foster in English Factories (1618-1621), p.
xxxvi; Danvers in East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).xxii.
32. Moreland and Geyl in Pelsaert, pp. x-xi; Foster in English Factories (1618-1621),
pp. xxxvi-xxxviii. This trade remained hampered, however, by the imports of the En-
glish and Portuguese. See Pelsaert, p. 28; Bernier, pp. 292-93.
33. Despite comments like Roe's (2.490-91), which foreshadow attitudes of the later
British Empire: "Pray for vs, that God wilbe Pleased to keepe vs, that among heathens
wee may bee as light in darknes."
34. Roe 1.120; see Roe 2.286-87, 467.
35. Foster, Early Travels, p. 188.
36. Note William Edwards' comment in a letter of February 26, 1615: "One princi-
pal cause of this hopeful entrance [at court] and more than ordinary entertainment hath
been a late fight between the Portingalls and our ships" (East India Company Letters
3[1615].15).
37. East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).236.
38. Foster in Roe l.xlv.
39. Danvers in East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).xxii-xxviii; Foster in Best,
pp. ix-x.
40. Danvers in East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).xxviii-xxx.
41. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 81. Some of the other Englishmen who
passed through the court at this time also knew one of the locally spoken languages.
Thomas Coryat, for example, knew Persian and preserved for us a copy of the speech he
gave Jahangir in that language, as well as his translation of it. Coryat in Foster, Early
Travels, pp. 263-65.
42. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 83.
43. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 95.
44. Foster in Best, p. xi.
45. Foster, Early Travels, p. 188.
46. Foster, Early Travels, p. 188; Foster in Best, pp. xxii-xxxiv; Best, pp. 142-43,
233.
47. Foster in Roe l.iii. Best had listed earlier (pp. 31-33) the terms he had agreed
upon with "the Governor of Amadevar, the Governor of Suratt, and 4 principall mer-
chants," but did not note whether these are the terms agreed to by Jahangir.
48. Best, pp. 34, 114; Roe 1.66; Foster, Early Travels, pp. 189-90; letters of Thomas
Keridge to Thomas Aldworth, September 7, 1613, and of Ralph Willsonn to the East
India Company, September 11, 1613, East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).282-86,
300.
 Notes 333

49. M. Brown, p. 28.

50. M. Brown, p. 29.
51. Best, p. 32.
52. East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).307; Foster in East India Company Let-
ters 3 (1615).xxxix.
53. Foster in Roe l.iv.
54. Terry, p. 54.
55. Foster in Roe l.iv-vi.
56. Foster in Roe l.vi.
57. Foster in Roe 1.254n-255n.
58. Roe 1.254-56.
59. Roe 2.484.
60. Foster in Roe 1.255n.
61. Roe 1.119.
62. Roe 1.98; Foster in Roe 1.98n.
63. Foster, Early Travels, p. 192; Danvers, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-
15).xix.
64. Roe 1.45.
65. Roe 1.47.
66. Roe 1.45.
67. Roe 1.98.
68. Roe 1.119. Roe, in fact, noted several times that Spain would not send an
ambassador to India precisely because of the poor reception he would receive: "The King
of Spayne would neuer send any Ambassadour hither, out of greatnes, knoweing they are
not receiued with proportionable honour" (2.310); and Jahangir "hath often demanded
an Ambassador from Spayne but could neuer obteyne it, for two reasons: first, because
they would not giue Presentes vnwoorthy their kinges greatnes; Next, they knew his
reception should not answere his qualety" (2.351).
69. Roe 2.351.
70. Roe 1.245.
71. As quoted in Foster in Roe 1.246n.
72. Roe 1.76-77.
73. Foster in Roe l.xx.
74. Foster in Roe l.xx-xxi; Roe 1.152-56.
75. Terry, p. 378; see p. 411.
76. Roe 2.547.
77. Letter of Roe to Shah Jahan, May 1, 1616, East India Company Letters 4
(1616).101.
78. Foster in Roe l.xliv.
79. Roe 1.42.
80. Roe 1.61.
81. Roe 1.43-86.
82. Roe 1.90-93.
83. Roe 1.106.
84. Roe 1.109.
85. Roe 1.114-15.
86. Roe 1.118.
87. E.g., Roe 1.142, 145; 2.413, 415.
88. Roe 1.150.
89. Roe 2.392-93.
334 Notes

90. Roe 2.439, 453, 454.

91. Roe 2.451.
92. Roe 2.469.
93. Roe 2.479.
94. Foster in Roe l.xlii.
95. E.g., Roe 1.111.
96. Moreland in Floris, p. xxv.
97. Roe 1.111.
98. Van den Broecke, pp. 33-35.
99. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 99, 101-3, 112.
100. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 246.
101. Roe 1.120.
102. Roe 1.252; see also 2.322.
103. Roe 1.228; Letter of Roe to the East India Company, January 25, 1616, East
India Company Letters 4 (1616). 13.
104. Moreland, pp. 186-89.
105. Pelsaert, p. 77.
106. Roc 2.310.
107. Roe 1.42.
108. Roe l.xxix, xxxvi.
109. Roe 1.109; see also 1.165.
110. Roe 2.317.
111. Letter of Joseph Salbank to the East India Company, November 1616, East
India Company Letters 4 (1616).234.
112. Danvers in East India Company Letters 3 (1615).xl, and in East India Company
Letters 4 (1616).xxxi.
113. Roe 2.283.
114. Letter of Roe to East India Company, January 25, 1616, East India Company
Le«m4(1616).ll.
115. In a September 17, 1619, letter from Surat to William Biddulph in Agra,
Thomas Kerridge and Thomas Rastell noted: "Itt is rumorde heare thatt the Prince
C[horoo]m is disgraced by his father; which were much to be desired, for so longe as the
master is not our favorer, his servantes will little befrind us" (English Factories [1618-
1621], p. 122).
116. Roe 1.188-89.
117. English Factories (1618-1621), p. 38.
118. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 94.
119. See the letter of Edwards to the East India Company, February 26, 1615, and of
Keridge, March 20, 1615, in East India Company Letters 3 (1615). 14, 63.
120. Foster, Early Travels, p. 67.
121. Said Roe (1.138): "The Jesuite had much Poysoned Asaph Chan, in whom was
the fault, and I resolued to startle him."
122. Roe 1.171.
123. Roe 1.127, 125.
124. Roc 1.171.
125. Roe (1.202) was fully aware of the difficult position he was in with regard to
Asaf Khan. His demands were irremovably in the minister's hands, and to cross Asaf
Khan would be to ruin any chance he had of finalizing the agreement. His only course
was to remain neutral and not take any sides whatsoever, and to that end had to pledge
 Notes 335

diplomatic troth to both Asaf Khan and Shah Jahan. "But," he said, "really I trusted
neither."
126. Roc 2.435.
127. Roe 2.452.
128. Foster, Early Travels, p. 63.
129. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 71.
130. Letter of Thomas Mitford to Sir Thomas Smith, Governor, and the East India
Company, December 26, 1614, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).237.
131. See Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 75.
132. Best, pp. 27, 233; letter of Keridge at Agra to Thomas Aldworth and Council at
Surat, September 7, 1613, East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).278, 280, 284, 286; of
Aldworthe to Keridge, October 22, 1614, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15). 138.
133. E.g., Roe 2.457.
134. Letter of Keridge at Agra to Thomas Aldworth and Council at Surat, Septem-
ber 7, 1613, East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).284-85.
135. Letter of Roe to the factors at Surat, October 15, 1616, East India Company
Letters 4 (1616).204.
136. Terry, p. 112.
137. Terry, p. 112; Floris, p. 115.
138. Terry, p. 112; Pelsaert, p. 7; see Bernier, p. 203, however.
139. Terry, p. 112.
140. Terry, p. 112.
141. Terry, p. 112.
142. Terry, pp. 373-74; see Tuzuk 1.314-16.
143. Terry, p. 109. See Roe 1.134; Fitch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 47.
144. Pelsaert, pp. 44-45.
145. Pelsaert, p. 45.
146. Pelsaert, p. 46; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.58.
147. Fitch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 34.
148. Fitch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 46.
149. Fitch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 46; letter of Aldworthe and Biddulph to the
East India Company, August 19, 1614, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).100.
150. Pelsaert, p. 35.
151. Moreland and Geyl in Pelsaert, p. xi. See the list of spices and other com-
modoties (with prices) sold in Patna. Mundy 2.153-56.
152. Letter of Aldworthe and Biddulph to the East India Company, August 19, 1614,
East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).99.
153. Terry, p. 109; although see Roe 1.134.
154. Terry, p. 111.
155. Terry, p. 111.
156. Letter of Edwards to Sir Thomas Smith, Governor of the East India Company,
December 26, 1614, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).246.
157. Roe 1.134; see Roe 2.346.
158. Roe 1.134; Terry, p. 111.
159. Pelsaert, p. 9.
160. Floris, pp. 115, 127, 137; Letter of Aldworthe and Biddulph to the East India
Company, August 19, 1614, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).99; Terry, p. 105;
Roe 2.345, 478.
161. Pelsaert, p. 13.
336 Notes

162. Pelsaert, pp. 10-11; Terry, pp. 107-8; letter of Francis Fettiplace to the East
India Company, September 1 and November 26, 1616, East India Company Letters 4
(1616).241.
163. Pelsaert, p. 13.
164. Pelsaert, pp. 10-11.
165. Roe 1.227; Roe 2.273, 283; Roe to the East India Company, January 25, 1616,
East India Company Letters 4 (1616). 18.
166. Roe 2.336-37. The price of indigo is said to have gone down "by reason of the
wars between the Portingals and the Moors." Letter of Aldworthc to the East India
Company, December 27, 1614, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-1615).247.
167. Pelsaert, p. 30.
168. Letter of Richard Cocks to the Governor of the East India Company, November
30, 1613, East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).317.
169. Roe 1.120.
170. Said Terry (p. 105): "Of that [cotton] wool they make divers sorts of callico,
which had that name (as I suppose) from Calicute, not far from Goa, where that kind of
cloth was first bought by Portuguese." See Best, p. 235.
171. Terry, pp. 108-9. Said Fitch (in Foster, Early Travels, p. 34): "They [the Indian
ships] bring thither also much cotton yarne red coloured with a root . . . which will never
lose his colour; it is very wcl solde here, and very much of it commeth yerely to Pegu."
172. Temple in Mundy 2.362.
173. Letter of Roe to the East India Company, December 1, 1616, East India Com-
pany Letters 4 (1616).250.
174. Terry, p. 111.
175. Terry, p. 110.
176. Pelsaert, p. 8.
177. Moreland, pp. 167, 171-72, 273.
178. Roe 2.480.
179. Foster, Early Travels, p. 67n.
180. Tuzuk 1.338; Roe 1.66, 67, 112, 118-19; 2.324, 329, 347; Terry, pp. 367-68.
181. Best, p. 244; Terry, p. 368.
182. Best, pp. 235, 245; Terry, p. 368. Ultimately swords and knives did not fare well
as presents being of "little estimation" among the Mughals. Roe 2.167, 165. Said
Keridge: "Your sword-blades now brought hither are not such as are in request, neither
in goodness or fashion. They desire not swords out of want, but because they cannot
temper their metal as well as in Christendom" (letter to the East India Company, March
20, 1615, East India Company Letters 3 [1615].67).
183. Best, p. 244; Roe 1.93, 119, 159, 169, 172, 208; Terry, p. 188. Said Roe: "I
think four or five handsome cases of that wine will be more welcome than the richest
jewel in Cheapside" (letter to the East India Company, January 25, 1616, East India
Company Letters 4[1616].ll).
184. Said Roe (2.498): "The King . . . reguardes no trade but what feedes his
vnsatiable appetite after stones." Again: "Fair pearls, ballast rubies and emeralds of
extraordinary great sizes surely would vend here to the King in infinite quantities" (letter
of Francis Fettiplace to the East India Company, September 1 and November 26, 1616,
East India Company Letters 4 [1616J.243).
185. Roe 1.182; 2.288, 385, 388; Terry, p. 140.
186. Roe 1.147; 2.288, 387; letter of Edwards to the East India Company, received
December 2, 1615, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15). 152; Bernier, p. 203.
187. Roe 2.288.
 Notes 337

188. Foster in Roe 2.352n.

189. Terry, p. 202; Bernier, p. 203. The list of luxury items desired by Muqarrab
Khan in 1614 included armor, swords, knives, satins, velvets, broadcloths, pictures (only
on cloth, not on wood), leathers, mirrors, cabinets, dogs, and parchments. Compiled by
Nicholas Downton, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15). 173-74.
190. Roe 1.143.
191. Roe 1.119; see 1.150, 171, 182.
192. Terry, p. 368; letters of Thomas Keridge to the East India Company, March 20,
1615, and Thomas Mitford to the East India Company, March 25, 1615, East India
Company Letters 3 (1615).67, 88; Pelsaert, p. 26.
193. Roe 2.386-87.
194. Roe 2.478.
195. Terry, pp. 128, 129.
196. Letter of Edwards to Smith, December 26, 1614, East India Company Letters 2
(1613-15).246.
197. Letter of Keridge to the East India Company, March 20, 1614, East India
Company Letters 3 (1615).67.
198. Best, p. 235; Bernier, p. 203.
199. Best, p. 245.
200. Roe 2.418.
201. Roe 1.165.
202. Terry, pp. 397, 161. He said (p. 144): "These coaches are covered for men of
quality, with something that is costly; much of our English broad-cloth, that is dyed red,
is there bought from us, and employed for that use."
203. Letter of Aldworthe and Biddulph to the East India Company, August 19, 1614,
East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).97.
204. Letter of Edwards to the East India Company, December 2, 1615, East India
Company Letters 2 (1613-15). 154.
205. Letter of Keridge to the East India Company, March 20, 1615, East India
Company Letters 3 (1615).65, 66.
206. Letter of Joseph Salbancke to the East India Company, November 1616, East
India Company Letters 4 (1616).232.
207. Letters of Aldworthe and Biddulph to the East India Company, August 19,
1614, of Edwards to the East India Company, December 2, 1615, of Keridge to Captain
Downton, November 22, 1614, of Aldworthe to the East India Company, December 27,
1614, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).100, 151, 181, 248; of Thomas Elkington
to the East India Company, February 25, 1615, of Keridge to the East India Company,
March 20, 1615, East India Company Letters 3 (1615).8, 9, 10, 66; of Joseph Salbank to
the East India Company, November 1616, of Francis Fettiplace to the East India Com-
pany, November 26, 1616, of the factors at Surat to the East India Company, March 10,
1616, of the factors at Surat to Sir Thomas Roe, July 23 and 26, 1616, East India
Company Letters 4 (1616).232, 243, 296, 324. Among the things Bernier (pp. 203-4)
listed as important imports for India from all over Europe, Asia, and Africa were copper,
cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, elephants, broadcloth, horses, fresh and dried fruits of all
kinds, scashells, ambergris, ivory, musk, porcelain, and pearls.
208. Terry, pp. 112-13; Foster in Roe 1.164n. Said Bernier (p. 202): "It should not
escape notice that gold and silver, after circulating in every other quarter of the globe,
come at length to be swallowed up, lost in some measure, in Hindoustan."
209. Roe 1.165.
210. Roe 1.165.
338 Notes

211. Fitch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 34-35.

212. Best, p. 158.
213. Floris, p. 145.
214. Fitch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 35.
215. Letter of Edwards to the East India Company, December 2, 1615, East India
Company Letters 2 (1613-15). 152.
216. Roe 1.119.
217. East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15). 108.
218. East India Company Letters 3 (1615).68.
219. Roe 2.386.
220. Pelsaert, pp. 7, 19.
221. Letter of John Sandcrofte to the East India Company, November 29, 1614, East
India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).213.
222. East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).163, 167, 178, 179, 183, 184.
223. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 129-30.
224. East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13). 188, 187. The rates set down were so
that "every ship should be taxed to pay for her freedom," and the Rahimi was used as a
standard, apparently, because she was so large. Her tax was set at fifteen thousand rials
(1.186).
225. Letter of Richard Cocks to the Governor and Committees of the East India
Company, November 30, 1613, East India Company Letters 1 (1602-13).317; Foster,
Early Travels, p. 123.
226. See Withington in Foster, Early Travels, p. 203.
227. Letter of Thomas Elkington to John Oxwicke and Christopher Farewell, De-
cember 16, 1614, East India Company Letters 2 (1613-15).229.
228. Pelsaert, pp. 4-5.
229. Roe 2.436-37.
230. Roe 2.444.
231. East India Company Letters 5 (1617).80.
232. Roe (2.421) mentioned "the Queen Mothers ship" on October 5, 1617, but since
the Rahimi was burned in 1614, this is either another one of Maryamuzzamani's ships or
one belonging to her daughter-in-law, Roe making a mistake here in ownership. The next
day Roe (2.425) referred to a ship, presumably the same one, as "the Queenes ship," and
since he always referred to Nur Jahan as "the Queene" (2.281) or "Normahall" and
Maryamuzzamani as "the Queene mother" or "the Kings Mother" (2.299, 420), the
owner of the vessel in question seems clearly to be the current queen.
233. Note the references of 1617 (Tuzuk 1.401) and early 1619 (Tuzuk 2.66).
234. East India Company Letters 5 (1617). 133.
235. English Factories (1618-1621), p. 335.
236. Letter of Kerridge, Biddulph, Thomas Rastell, and Giles James at Surat, En-
glish Factories (1618-1621), p. 81.
237. English Factories (1622-1623), p. 204.
238. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 89.
239. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 119.
240. Terry, pp. 378-79.
241. Roe 1.115.
242. Roe 1.114.
243. Roe 1.119.
244. Roe 2.498.
245. Roe 1.171.
 Notes 339

246. Roe 2.487.

247. Tuzuk 1.167, 168, 192, 206-7, 236, 260, 281, 371, 388, 435; Tuzuk 2.81, 95,
211.
248. Roe 1.167, 171, 183.
249. Letter of Roe to the factors at Surat, March 10, 1617, East India Company
Letters 5 (1617).338. Said Keridge earlier: "Those Jesuits do so bewitch the king etc. with
daily presents"; and Biddulph: "These lying Jesuits feeding the king daily with presents
and strange toys so that what they desire is granted" (letters to Thomas Aldworth,
September 7, 1613, and Sir Thomas Smith, October 28, 1613, East India Company Letters
1 [1602-13].282, 300).
250. Roe 2.487.
251. Roe 1.121.
252. Roe 2.326.
253. Roe 2.487.
254. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 94. In a letter of March 20, 1615, to the
East India Company, Thomas Keridge noted that "Mr. Edwards presented . . . unto the
favoured queen . . . a perfumed bag embroidered, a cabinet with a looking-glass and
some other toys" (East India Company Letters 3 [1615].64).
255. Roe 1.119.
256. Roe 2.384-86.
257. Roe 2.427.
258. Roe 2.458.
259. Letter of Roe to the East India Company, January 25, 1616, East India Company
Letters 4 (1616). 13.
260. Letter of Roe to the factors at Surat, October 15, 1616, East India Company
Letters 4 (1616).207.
261. Letter from the factors at Surat to Roe at Ajmer, May 26, 1616, East India
Company Letters 4 (1616)310.
262. Roe 1.159, 171, 215; Roe 2.391, 393.
263. Roe 1.150, 174-78; Roe 2.305.
264. E.g., Roe 1.170, 172.
265. Roe 2.416.
266. Roe 1.137.
267. Roe 2.284, 416.
268. Roe 2.390.
269. Terry, p. 378; see also Terry p. 41.
270. Roe 2.498.
271. Roe 1.47-50.
272. Roe 1.73-74.
273. Roe 1.56.
274. Roe 2.460.
275. Roe 1.120.
276. Roe 2.310.
277. Delia Valle 2.418-19.
278. Letter of Roe to the East India Company, January 25, 1616, East India Company
Letters 4 (1616).15.
279. Terry, pp. 114-20.
280. Roe 1.93.
281. Roe 1.134.
282. Roe 1.113.
340 Notes

283. Roe 1.114.

284. Roe 1.68.
285. Roe 2.351.
286. Terry, p. 511.
287. See Roe 2.456.
288. E.g., Roe 1.147-48.
289. Roe 1.112.
290. Roe 1.165.
291. Roe 2.310.
292. Letter of Roe to the East India Company, January 25, 1616, East India Company
Letters 4 (1616). 13-14.
293. Letter of Roe to Sir Thomas Smythe, January 16, 1617, East India Company
Letters 5 (1617)329.
294. M. Brown, p. 60; see also M. Brown, p. 70.
295. Roe 1.167, 171, 183.
296. Roe 1.230, 232; Roe 2.459.
297. Roe 2.325.
298. Roe 2.390-91.
299. See Best, p. 245; Terry, p. 397.
300. Roe 1.136-37.
301. M. Brown, p. 66.
302. Although he did mention the January 1615 battle between English and Portu-
guese ships (Tuzuk 1.274-75), and the English coach (Tuzuk 1.338), though this last
reference was to Jahangir's copy and not the original.
303. E.g., Roe 2.557-60.
304. M. Brown, p. 96.
305. Roe 2.469.
306. Roe 2.498.
307. Pelsaert, p. 25.

Chapter 7. Breakup of the Junta (1620-1627)

1. Prasad, p. 270.
2. Tuzuk 2.65; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.405-6. See also Commissariat, pp.
139-52.
3. Terry, p. 393.
4. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.406.
5. Terry, p. 393; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.407.
6. Terry, pp. 393-94; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.407.
7. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.407.
8. Roe 2.436. The English would again make early reference to the rift between
emperor and prince as in this passage from a letter from Thomas Kerridge and Thomas
Rastell to William Biddulph, written September 17, 1619: "Itt is rumorde heare [in
Surat] thatt the Prince C[horoo]m is disgraced by his father; which were much to be
desired, for so longe as the master is not our favorer, his servantes will little befrind us."
9. Tuzuk 1.19. See also Blochmann, Ain-i Akban 1.323.
10. Tuzuk 2.84. See Shahjahan Nama, p. 8.
11. Tuzuk 2.84. See also Shujauddins, p. 57.
12. Tuzuk 2.176.
 Notes 341

13. Tuzuk 2.212.

14. Tuzuk 2.213. Hakim Sadra, after this terrible breach of professionalism and good
manners, had the nerve to ask Jahangir later for leave to go on pilgrimage. Jahangir gave
him permission (Tuzuk 2.217) "with an open brow."
15. Tuzuk 2.213.
16. Tuzuk 2.213.
17. Tuzuk 2.213-14.
18. E.g., Tuzuk2.2l7.
19. Tuzuk 2.246.
20. His other wives included a descendant of Shah Ismail of Persia (the daughter of
Mirza Muzaffar Husain, his cousin) and a granddaughter of Abdur Rahim, the Khan-
khanan, by his eldest son Shahnawaz Khan. Tuzuk 1.159, 180; Lall, p. 101.
21. Delia Valle 1.56-57.
22. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 277. See also Delia Valle 1.57.
23. Roe 2.407; see also 2.404, Foster in Roe 2.404n-405n.
24. Prasad, p. 296. See also Amar, pp. 437-55, esp. p. 437.
25. Van den Broecke, p. 84.
26. Badshah-nama E&D 7.5.
27. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 117.
28. Tuzuk 2.187-88.
29. Tuzuk 2.202-3. See also Pelsaert, p. 34; Delia Valle 1.55.
30. Prasad, p. 298.
31. Tuzuk2.2l6.
32. Tuzuk 2.216.
33. Tuzuk 2.2\6.
34. Tuzuk 2.222.
35. Tuzuk 2.222.
36. Pelsaert, p. 5; van den Broecke, p. 53. On Itimaduddaula's career, see Sarkar,
pp. 154-64.
37. Tuzuk 1.303.
38. Tuzuk 1.336.
39. Tuzuk 1.373.
40. C. Pant, p. 59.
41. Tusuk 2.222; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.404.
42. Said Roe (1.110): "He is euery mans heire when he dyeth, which maketh him
rich, and the Countrey so euill builded." Manucci (1.198) stated "that the Mogul kings
were the heirs of the men in their service, taking all the wealth left at their death," and
Tavernier (p. 15; see p. 44) that "when a great noble dies the Emperor inherits his
property, his wife remaining only mistress of her jewels."
43. Tuzuk 1.321; Tuzuk 2.18, 161. At the beginning of his reign (Tuzuk 1.8), he had
ruled against the process of escheat even though he seems to have followed it most of the
time: "In my dominions if anyone, whether unbeliever or Musalman, should die, his
property and effects should be left for his heirs, and no one should interfere with them."
Said Hawkins (in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 104-5):
The custome of this Mogoll Emperour is to take possession of his noblemens
treasure when they dye, and to bestow on his [their] children what he pleaseth;
but commonly he dealeth well with them, possessing them with their fathers land,
dividing it amongst them; and unto the eldest sonne he hath a very great respect,
who in time receiveth the full title of his father.
See also Pelsaert, pp. 54-55.
342 Notes

44. Tuzuk 2.228. See also van den Broecke, p. 53.

45. Said Pelsaert (pp. 54-55):
Immediately on the death of a lord who has enjoyed the King's jagir, be he great
or small, without any exception—even before the breath is out of his body—the
King's officers are ready on the spot, and make an inventory of the entire estate,
recording everything down to the value of a single pice, even to the dresses and
jewels of the ladies, provided they have not concealed them. The King takes back
the whole estate absolutely for himself, except in a case where the deceased has
done good service in his lifetime, when the women and children are given enough
to live on, but no more.
46. Tuzuk 2.228. See also van den Broecke, p. 53. Blochmann (Ain-i Akbari 1.575)
notes, however, that by the time of his own death in 1641, Asaf Khan had amassed
property "said to have been more than double that of his father."
47. According to Roe, Jahangir distrusted Shah Jahan's powers as early as 1617.
48. Van den Broecke, pp. 52-53.
49. Shujauddins, pp. 46-47.
50. Dow 3.60.
51. Dow 3.60. Tavernier (p. 268), perhaps more accurately, reported that Shah
Jahan's argument was twofold: the accompaniment of Khusrau would (1) remove a
"distressing . . . object" from the emperor, and (2) provide the elder son a "life with
greater comfort in the Deccan." Moreover, Jahangir did "not penetrat[e] the designs of
Khurram, [and] consented without difficulty."
52. Terry, p. 394. See also Delia Valle 1.58.
53. Roe 2.281-83. See Dow 3.53.
54. Delia Valle 1.57.
55. Van den Broecke, p. 52.
56. Delia Valle 1.57-58. Terry (p. 412) also noted that Shah Jahan promised good
care for his brother, for he "told his father that he would have both his eyes upon him,
and further so provide, that he should never have cause to fear him any more."
57. Tuzuk 2.190, 243; van den Broecke, p. 52.
58. They say: "It was a good game to do away with one claimant to the throne
through the other. The end of Khusrau under Khurram's charge was bound to make him
unpopular among the admirers of the former" (Shujauddins, p. 58).
59. C. Pant, p. 57n.
60. E.g., Delia Valle 1.57; Dow 3.53.
61. Dow 3.61.
62. Tuzuk 2.206-8; van den Broecke, pp. 52-53.
63. Tuzuk 2.196, 202, 208.
64. Van den Broecke, p. 53.
65. Tuzuk 2.201.
66. Tuzuk 2.228. See Shah Jahan Nama, p. 10.
67. Van den Broecke, p. 54; De Laet, p. 199.
68. Terry, p. 412.
69. Pelsaert, p. 71; van den Broecke (p. 54) has Riza Gholam; De Laet (pp. 198-99)
has Reza; and Peter Mundy (2.105) has Raza Bahadur.
70. Van den Broecke, pp. 54, 57; Pelsaert, pp. 70-71; De Laet, pp. 198-99.
71. Delia Valle 1.58. Delia Valle also offered the story that Shah Jahan himself killed
his brother publicly and "with his own hand."
72. Mundy 2.104-5. Again, according to Tavernier (p. 269):
 Notes 343

[Shah Jahan] had this poor prince in his power . . . [and] knew how to rid himself
of him by the most secret means, and used the most plausible pretexts to conceal
his crime from the view of men, not considering that he was unable to conceal it
from the eyes of God.
73. Dow 3.62-63.
74. See Khafi Khan as noted in Shujauddins, p. 49.
75. As noted in Shujauddins, p. 49. On the charges of murder, see Srivastava, pp.
479-92.
76. See H. Beveridge "Sultan Khusrau," pp. 599-601.
77. Foster, English Factories, 1622-1623, p. xxv.
78. See Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 277.
79. Guerreiro in Payne, p. 38.
80. Van den Broecke, p. 54; De Laet, p. 199. Says Dow (3.63): "She ran about
distracted, and called down the vengeance of God upon the murderers."
81. Van den Broecke, p. 54.
82. Dow 3.63.
83. Van den Broecke, pp. 54-55.
84. Van den Broecke, p. 54; Pelsaert, p. 71; Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 178-
79. This is an ironic end to what must have been a sorrow-filled relationship between
mother and son: this was the mother who committed suicide by an opium overdose on
May 6, 1605, when her son seemed destined to rebel openly against his father.
85. Terry, p. 412. Even though Terry left India with Roe in 1619, he did not present
his chronicles to the English king until 1622, having written them "shortly after my
return from East-India." This means information about Khusrau's death in 1621 and
Shah Jahan's complicity in it could have reached him via secondhand sources, probably
late-arriving merchants, after he had returned to England. Terry, p. iv. Moreover, at least
once Terry (p. 425) refers to Jahangir as the "late Mogul," indicating that some editing of
the text did not take place until after Jahangir's death in 1627. De Laet (p. 199) also said,
"the king mourned deeply for the death of his son."
86. Tuzuk 2.228. On this see Varadarajan, pp. 403-18, esp. 410.
87. See H. Beveridge's note, Tuzuk 2.228n. Pelsaert (p. 71) erroneously stated that
the death took place in February of 1621 (see the note of Moreland and Geyl in Pelsaert,
p. 7In). The death could have been as early as August 1621, when Shah Jahan heard of
Jahangir's declining health and decided to do something to secure his own future. Tuzuk
2.212-14. For a full discussion, see Prasad, pp. 308n-311n.
88. De Laet, p. 199; van den Broecke, p. 54.
89. De Laet, p. 199. See Shah Jahan Nama, p. 10.
90. Van den Broecke, p. 54; De Laet, p. 199.
91. Delia Valle 1.58-59. Delia Valle (1.59) was of the opinion that this action indi-
cated there was "some conspiracy ofAsafChan, and Nurmahal" with Shah Jahan, begin-
ning with the Khusrau death, and that the King of Persia, who at this moment moved
against Kandahar, was also in league with all of them against Jahangir.
92. Tuzuk 2.230, 233; van den Broecke, p. 55.
93. Tuzuk 2.233. See Shah Jahan Nama, p. 10.
94. Van den Broecke, p. 55.
95. Van den Broecke, p. 55.
96. Van den Broecke, p. 55.
97. Tuzuk 2.234.
98. Van den Broecke, p. 55.
344 Notes

99. Tuzuk 2.234. See the farman in Tirmizi (p. 122) urging Shah Jahan on against
Shah Abbas.
100. C. Pant, p. 61n.
101. Tuzuk 2.234. An account of the beginnings of Shah Jahan's rebellion can also be
found in Amar, pp. 437-55.
102. Tuzuk 2.234-35.
103. Tuzuk 2.235; Dow 3.66. Dholpur contained an old garden belonging to Babur,
the Lotus Garden, which was now in the hands of Nur Jahan and therefore much beloved
by her. See Moynihan, pp. 103-9.
104. Tuzuk 2.23,6.
105. Tuzuk 2.236. For the large properties and extent of powers of Shah Jahan, see
van den Broecke, pp. 56-57.
106. Tuzuk 2.237, 245. Nur Jahan's pleasure at this appointment was shown in her
presentation, immediately thereafter, of two large pearls she bought from a merchant for
Rs. 60,000 to her obviously flattered husband. Tuzuk 2.237.
107. Tuzuk 2.239.
108. Tuzuk 2.239.
109. Van den Broecke, p. 56.
110. Van den Broecke, pp. 55-56.
111. Tuzuk 2.245; van den Broecke, p. 56; Delia Valle 1.47, 59.
112. Van den Broecke, pp. 55-56.
113. Delia Valle 1.47. Prasad (p. 327) entertains a third possibility: that Nur Jahan
had asked Mahabat Khan to come from Afghanistan to help out in the Kandahar affair
and, when he refused because he thought the summons was a ruse by his enemy Asaf
Khan to get him into his power, Nur Jahan tried to regain Mahabat Khan's faith by
sending her brother away to Agra, presumably on the makeshift errand of retrieving the
treasury.
114. Tuzuk 2.243,.
115. Tuzuk 2.246ff. Note an early use of the term for a denuded mountain in Tuzuk
1.103.
116. Tuzuk 2.246.
117. Tuzuk2.248.
118. Van den Broecke, p. 56; see Delia Valle 1.59 and C. Pant, p. 64.
119. Tusuk2.247.
120. Tuzuk 2.247-48.
121. Van den Broecke, p. 57.
122. Tuzuk 2.249-50; van den Broecke, pp. 57-58.
123. Van den Broecke, p. 58.
124. Tuzuk 2.251.
125. Van den Broecke, p. 58.
126. Tuzuk 2.253-54.
127. Tuzuk 2.254-55.
128. Van den Broecke, p. 59.
129. Tuzuk 2.255-56; Dow 3.68-70.
130. Tuzuk 2.256.
131. Tuzuk 2.256ff. See C. Pant, p. 65.
132. Tuzuk 2.257-60; van den Broecke, p. 65; Dow 3.70. Prasad (p. 333) suggests
that Parviz, despite his father's repeated requests to come and help stop his brother's
rebellion, had been playing a waiting game—perhaps to avoid taking sides, which was
now, obviously, out of the question.
 Notes 345

133. Tuzuk 2.260-61; Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.346.

134. Tuzuk 2.261.
135. Prasad, p. 334.
136. See Findly, "Maryamuzzamani," pp. 227-38
137. Tuzuk 2.261.
138. Tuzuk 2.276. See Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.324.
139. Tuzuk 2.262; van den Broecke, p. 65.
140. Tuzuk 2.27Iff. See C. Pant (pp. 66-67) for the various family connections at
stake here.
141. Tuzuk 2.277.
142. Tuzuk 2.277'-78.
143. Tuzuk 2.278. Shah Jahan was married to the daughter of the eldest son of Abdur
Rahim in an alliance that seems to have been primarily political. Prasad (p. 340) suggests
that this Khankhanan gambit was only a way of toying with Shah Jahan, that Parviz and
Mahabat Khan had no intention of granting any peaceful terms to the prince at all. And
van den Broecke (p. 65) suggested that the whole thing was the Khankhanan's idea, "that
he might be sent to Purwez as he was certain of being able to arrange peace between the
two." For another account of this Khankhanan episode, see Amar, pp. 437-55.
144. Tuzuk 2.279. Shah Jahan had imprisoned the Khankhanan because of a secret
letter he had written to Mahabat Khan. Blochmann, Ain-i Akbari 1.358-59. Van den
Broecke (p. 66) characterized the Khankhanan as a traitor in league with Bairam Beg and
noted that several of Shah Jahan's aids warned him about the treachery involved in
sending the Khankhanan over to Parviz.
145. Tuzuk 2.279; Dow 3.72-73.
146. Tuzuk 2.281.
147. Tuzuk 2.281-82; van den Broecke, p. 67.
148. Tuzuk 2.282; see also C. Pant, p. 65.
149. Tuzuk 2.289; van den Broecke, p. 67; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.407-408.
150. Tuzuk 2.289-90.
151. Tuzuk 2.297-98; van den Broecke, p. 67. See Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D
6.408; Dow 3.73.
152. Tuzuk 2.298-99; van den Broecke, p. 67; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.408;
Tavernier, p. 102. See also C. Pant, pp. 68-69.
153. Van den Broecke, p. 67.
154. Van den Broecke, pp. 67-68; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.408-10; Dow 3.73.
155. Van den Broecke, pp. 68-71; Dow 3.74-77; Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D
6.393-94; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.408-11.
156. Prasad, p. 360. See Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.413-18; Dow 3.78.
157. Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.396.
158. Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.396E; Dow 3.78-79.
159. Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.396; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.419;
van den Broecke, pp. 72-73.
160. E.g., van den Broecke, p. 52; Delia Valle 1.57.
161. Dow 3.66-67.
162. Van den Broecke, p. 56.
163. Dow 3.66.
164. See Prasad, p. 362.
165. Dow 3.79.
166. Van den Broecke, p. 52, Delia Valle 1.57, 59.
167. Van den Broecke, p. 56; Delia Valle 1.59.
346 Notes

168. Tuzuk 2.282.

169. Delia Valle 1.59.
170. C. Pant, p. 7.
171. Tuzuk 2.23Q.
172. Tuzuk 2.247.
173. Tuzuk 2.250.
174. Van den Broecke, p. 56.
175. Prasad, p. 179.
176. Dow 3.184.

Chapter 8. Nur Jahan and Religious Policy

1. Roe l.l42;Ain-iAkbari 1.286-87.

2. Tuzuk 1.365.
3. Tuzuk 2.72, see 71-73.
4. Guerreiro, p. 49.
5. Tuzuk 1.34.
6. Tuzuk 1.33; a few pages later (Tuzuk 1.37-45), however, Jahangir gave an ex-
tended account of his father's character and achievements.
7. Nizami, "Naqshbandi," pp. 46. See the letter written by Sirhindi to Shaikh Farid
urging the return to Islamic tradition, as reproduced in Mujeeb, pp. 269-70.
8. Mentioned by Jahangir (Tuzuk 1.22) only as follows:
Whilst I was prince and before my revered father's illness, and during that time,
when the ministers (pillars of the State) and the high nobles had become agitated,
and each had conceived some idea of gain for himself and wished to become the
originator of some act which could only bring ruin on the State.
9. Tuzuk 1.13, 20, 30, 53. For an excellent account of Shaikh Farid Bukhari, see
Mujeeb, pp. 264-70.
10. Tuzuk 1.21.
11. Tuzuk 1.21.
12. Tuzuk 1.27.
13. Tuzuk 1.30-31.
14. H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 1.31n; Tuzuk 1.71-72. See Friedmann, pp. 79-80;
Nizami, "Naqshbandi," pp. 46-50.
15. Du Jarric, p. 204.
16. Guerreiro, p. 3.
17. We know this to be true of at least Mirza Aziz Koka and Khwaja Abdullah.
18. Du Jarric, pp. 62-63.
19. Blochmann in Ain-i Akbari 1.343-47.
20. Tuzuk 1.59,68,69.
21. Tuzuk 1.53,57,64,69.
22. Nizami, "Naqshbandi," p. 47; and see Ahmad, "Sirhindi," pp. 259-71. Presum-
ably following Nurul Haqq's Zubdatut Tawarikh, Mujeeb's (p. 266) scenario of the acces-
sion is as follows: Raja Man Singh and Mirza Aziz Koka had been maneuvering to put
Khusrau on the throne while Akbar lay dying. Shaikh Farid, who "did not belong to any
party" and who had no particular allegiance to Salim, nevertheless decided to bring about
a peaceful accession to the throne and went to Salim's house and congratulated him on
becoming emperor. "This bold move decided the course of events" and the other nobles
soon fell in line, making it easier for Salim to go to Akbar and receive his final blessings.
 Notes 347

Rizvi's excellent discussion of the evidence (pp. 298n-299n), however, argues instead
that the Naqshbandis, and especially Sirhindi, were in fact fairly neutral players in
Jahangir's succession and that arguments like Nizami's for a strong connection are based
on thin material.
23. A. S. Beveridge in Gulbadan, p. 75.
24. Tuzuk 1.2; Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 148-50, 171; Pelsaert, p. 70;
Mundy 2.226, 243-44. See also Tabakat-i Akban E&D 5.328, 371.
25. Tuzuk 2.72-73; Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 150.
26. Tuzuk 2.70-71.
27. See A. Husain, pp. 61-69.
28. Blochmann in Ain-i Akbari 1.530; A. Husain, p. 62.
29. Blochmann in Ain-i Akban 1.552-53.
30. Tuzuk 1.32,79.
31. Tuzuk 1.29; A. Husain, pp. 62, 65.
32. Tuzuk 1.31-32.
33. A. Husain, p. 65; Blochmann in Ain-i Akbari 1.556ff.
34. Tuzuk 1.78.
35. Tuzuk 1.75,77,78.
36. Tuzuk 1.113-15.
37. A. Husain, pp. 63-64.
38. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 14.
39. Sharma, p. 88.
40. Sharma, p. 72.
41. Tuzuk 1.205.
42. The list is almost inexhaustible. E.g., Tuzuk 1.27, 28, 29, 30-31, 60, 71-72, 135.
43. Tuzuk 1.77.
44. Tuzuk 2.91-93,.
45. Tuzuk 1.157, 182.
46. Tuzuk 1.45-46.
47. Pelsaert, pp. 74-75.
48. Tuzuk 2.94-95. See also A. K. Das' comments on Figure 5-2 (Chapter 5).
49. Such as the refusal to eat fish without scales as practiced by the Shias (Tuzuk
1.188) and the use of a "khichri of bajra (a mixture of split peas and millet boiled
together") as a vegetarian alternative to dishes made with animal flesh (Tuzuk 1.419).
50. Like the Jami mosque in Mandu in the winters of 1617 and of 1618 (Tuzuk 1.365,
424).
51. Like that of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya in 1606 (Tuzuk 1.58), of Shaikh Ahmad
Khattu in the winter of 1618 (Tuzuk 1.428-29), and of Shaikh Salim Chishti in the winter
of 1619 (Tuzuk 2.70-71).
52. Like the tomb of Humayun in 1606 (Tuzuk 1.58) and of Akbar in 1608 and in
1619 (Tuzuk 1.152; 2.101-2).
53. Tuzuk 234-15.
54. Tuzuk 2.149.
55. Tuzuk 2.101-2.
56. Tuzuk 1.46,58,305-6.
57. Tuzuk 2.101-2.
58. Tuzuk 1.30-31, 102; Tuzuk 2.119.
59. Tuzuk 1.102.
60. Tuzuk 1.303-4.
61. Tuzuk 2.119.
348 Notes

62. Tuzuk 2.2W.

63. Tuzuk 1.1.
64. Tuzuk 1.152; Pelsaert (p. 70) mistakenly said, "King Akbar . . . went there [to
Muinuddin] from Agra on foot with his wife Miryam Makani." Maryam Makani was
Akbar's mother, and we presume that here Pelsaert meant Akbar's wife and Jahangir's
mother, Maryamuzzamani.
65. See, e.g., Begg, pp. 82-84.
66. Tuzuk 1.168. An aged Khwaja Husain was the subject of one of Jahangir's later
allegorical paintings, "Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings," ca. 1615-20, in-
scribed to Bichitr, Freer Gallery of Art (45.15), discussed in Beach, GrandMogul, p. 105.
67. Tuzuk 1.189.
68. Tuzuk 1.253,257.
69. Tuzuk 1.340.
70. Tuzuk 1.249.
71. Tuzuk 1.341.
72. Tuzuk 1.256. This occasion took place in February (1614), corresponding to
Pelsaert's (p. 70) account: "The pilgrimage to his [Muinuddin's] tomb is in February,
when immense numbers of people from all quarters gather near Sikandra, beyond Agra,
and march thither like an army, accompanied by even greater numbers of mendicants
than the devotees, who there take various parties under their standards for protection."
73. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 280.
74. Tuzuk 1.28,264-65, 334-35.
75. Tuzuk 1.267.
76. Tuzuk 1.267-68.
77. Tuzuk 1.297.
78. Tuzuk 1.329.
79. Tuzuk 1.340-41.
80. Tuzuk 1.340.
81. Tuzuk2.\Q9.
82. Tuzuk 1.38.
83. Aslam, p. 135.
84. Roe 2.382.
85. Terry, p. 418. And again (p. 253): "because every one there hath liberty to
profess his own religion freely, and if he please may argue against theirs, without fear of
an inquisition."
86. See A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, pp. 12-14. Bernier (p. 176) noted that Shah
Jahan, however, was "a more rigid Mahometan than his father" and did not tolerate other
religions as his predecessors had done.
87. Tuzuk 1.32-33; see again Tuzuk 1.361.
88. Tuzuk 1.102.
89. Tuzuk 1.244-46.
90. Tuzuk 1.357-59.
91. Tuzuk 1.58.
92. Tuzuk 1.245,268.
93. Tuzuk 1.361,246-47.
94. Bernier, p. 326.
95. Tuzuk 1.254.
96. Tuzuk 1.32-33.
97. Tuzuk 1.254-55.
98. Tuzuk 1.255.
 Notes 349

99. Badshah-nama E&D 7.36.

100. Tuzuk 1.32-33,254.
101. Tuzuk 1.355-59.
102. Tuzuk 2.49,52-53.
103. Tuzuk 2.W4-K.
104. Tuzuk 1.356. See also Chaghatai, pp. 119-30.
105. Tuzuk 1.355-56.
106. Tuzuk 2.52.
107. Tuzuk 1.356.
108. Tuzuk 2.52.
109. Tuzuk 2.105.
110. Tkzafc 2.130-31.
111. Tuzuk 1.142-358. Note his discussion in early 1617.
112. Tuzuk 2.181. The practice did, however, continue and he noted later, without
comment, the immolation of two wives and eight concubines "in the fire of fidelity" of
Raja Bhao Singh. Tuzuk 2.218. Hawkins (in Foster, Early Travels, p. 119) gave a moving
account of Jahangir's attempts to dissuade some wives from their voluntary deaths in the
fires of their husbands.
113. Tuzuk 2.35,218. This he did in spite of the obvious hypocrisy of so many of the
holy men, as vividly and contemptuously described by Manucci (2.9-11).
114. Tuzuk 2.203-4.
115. Tuzuk 2.226-27.
116. Tuzuk 2.224-25.
117. Terry, p. 308.
118. Roe 1.123-24.
119. Manucci 1.152, 151.
120. For a more thorough treatment of Jahangir and the Jains, see Findly, "Vow of
Non-Violence," pp. 245-56.
121. Tuzuk 1.9.
122. Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, pp. 19-22.
123. Sribhanucandraganicarita 4.114-15; Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, p. 59.
124. Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, p. 62.
124. Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, p. 18.
126. This list is a selected and abbreviated version of what appears in Desai in
Sribhanucandraganicarita, pp. 79-91. See also the account of these Mughal documents in
Tirmizi, pp. 82, 83, 99-100.
127. The specified days were the Thursday and Sunday of every week, as so ordered
in Jahangir's eleventh regulation of 1605 (Tuzuk 1.9), the new moon day in every month,
feast days, every new year's day, "in the month of Navroj" (presumably, during the
nineteen days of the Nauroz festival under the sign of Aries), and on the day of Jahangir's
birthday weighing. "On those days there shall be no killing of animals in (our) protected
Kingdom; and no one on that day shall hunt and catch and kill birds and fish and such
like" (Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, p. 84). See also Pelsaert, p. 49.
128. Desai (in Sribhanucandraganicarita, p. 86n) notes that Chandu Sanghavai is
probably the Samghapati Candrapala of Agra, who consecrated the installation of two
images of Sumatinatha, one of them being of the deity Mulanayaka.
129. Roe 1.124.
130. Terry, p. 335.
131. Pelsaert, p. 49.
132. Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, pp. 62-64.
350 Notes

133. Sribhanucandragamcarita 4.168-73.

134. Desai gives these dates because the text refers to the substantial role played in
the following incident by Nur Jahan. Since the text calls her Nur Mahal, Desai argues
that the incident must have taken place before Jahangir gave her the title Nur Jahan in
1616. Certainly the incident happened after her 1611 marriage to Jahangir and most
probably during the immediately succeeding years, but the years after 1616 cannot be
excluded for even after receiving the title Nur Jahan, she was called Nur Mahal by Terry
(in 1618, e.g., pp. 393, 406) and Roe (in 1617, e.g., 2.377, 384, 386, 404, 407, 427, 436,
437, 458).
135. Sribhanucandraganicarita 4.221-334.
136. Sribhanucandraganicarita 4.338-46.
137. Sribhanucandraganicarita 4.347-58.
138. Tuzuk 1.437-38.
139. Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, p. 18.
140. Tuzuk 1.437.
141. Tuzuk 1.438.
142. Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, pp. 18-19.
143. Tuzuk 2.35.
144. Tuzuk 2.36; 1.24-25. For my full argument on this, see Findly, "Vow of Non-
violence," pp. 245-52. Note that Jahangir would subsequently tie the taking of the vow
in his "fiftieth year" to the illness of his beloved grandson, Shah Shuja. The life of the
young boy, then, "would become the means of preserving the lives of many animals. . . .
By the grace of Allah his illness [then] diminished" (Tuzuk 2.45).
145. Tuzuk 2.236-37. Note also that it was in 1619 that Jahangir finally gave freedom
to Khusrau, again indicating that it was a pivotal year for the resolution of tensions
between fathers and sons.
146. Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, p. 91.
147. Du Jarric, pp. 62ff.
148. Payne in Guerreiro, pp. xvii-xviii.
149. Foster in Roe 2.314n-15n. For a general discussion of the history of the Jesuit
missions, see Maclagan, pp. 75-77.
150. Roe 2.314-15.
151. Terry, p. 422.
152. Guerreiro, p. 49.
153. Guerreiro, pp. 49-62.
154. Guerreiro, p. 50.
155. Guerreiro, pp. 51-52, 57.
156. Guerreiro, p. 49.
157. Roe 2.314; Terry, pp. 419-22. Roe's short account of this was made in 1616.
158. Terry, pp. 419-22.
159. Terry, p. 424.
160. E.g., Du Jarric, p. 69.
161. Guerreiro, pp. 24-31.
162. Tuzuk 1.27-28.
163. Note that Muqarrab Khan was one of the physicians who bled Jahangir. Tuzuk
1.226.
164. E.g., Tuzuk 1.144, 153-54, 163, 167, 215, 237, 322, 415.
165. Tuzuk 1.172.
166. Maclagan, p. 78. Note, however, the great difficulty he must have had when the
Portuguese seized Maryamuzzamani's ship during the "wars" between them and the
 Notes 351

Mughals, especially since he had been put in the position of leading a retaliatory attack
against the Portuguese at Daman. See Danvers in East India Company Letters 2 (1613-
15).xviii.
167. Tuzuk 1.217, 224, 229, 231, 234, 237, 255, 303, 322, 323, 375, 378.
168. Tuzuk 1.275, 295, 297, 331, 332, 334.
169. Maclagan, pp. 72-73. Some traditions said only two nephews (e.g., Roe 2.315;
Terry, p. 425, Bernier, p. 287).
170. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 101, 147, 148.
171. Tuzuk 1.28,74-75.
172. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 148. According to Roe (2.315):
And to that end he [Father Francisco Corsi] kept a Schoole some yeares, to which
the King sent two Princes, his brothers sonnes; who beeing brought vp in the
knowledg of God and his sonne our Blessed Sauiour, were solemly Babtised in the
Church of Agra with great Pomp, being Carried first vp and downe all the Citty on
Eliphants in triumph; and this by the Kings expresse order, who often would
examen them in their progression, and seemed much contented in them.
173. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 116. See also Roe 1.198; Roe 2.315-16.
Maclagan (pp. 72, 74) suggests a second reason for the conversions to Christianity and
that was to bring in Portuguese wives for Jahangir.
174. Van den Broecke, p. 74. On the cruel and tortuous lengths Jahangir often went
to to convert Christian children to Islam, see Guerreiro (pp. 13-23), where the emperor
proved to be not above forced circumcision and the eating of pig flesh to test young boys'
faiths. See Maclagan, pp. 73-74.
175. Manucci 1.156. Indeed Bernier (p. 288) preserved a story from the Jesuits that
maintained "that . . . on his death-bed he [Jahangir] expressed a wish to die a Christian,
and sent for those holy men, but that the message was never delivered."
176. Guerreiro, pp. 49-62.
177. Guerreiro, pp. 63-76; Delia Valle 1.98.
178. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 177-78. M. Brown (p. 53) notes that
Jahangir's Agra throne was surrounded by paintings of St. John, St. Anthony, and St.
Bernardine.
179. Van den Broecke, p. 91.
180. Du Jarric, p. 186.
181. Terry, pp. 384-85; Roe 2.318. For a full discussion of this incident, see
Maclagan, pp. 88-89.
182. Terry, pp. 260-61, 389. According to Coryat (in Foster, Early Travels, p. 246):
"Hee speaketh very reverently of our Savior, calling him in the Indian tongue Isazaret
Eesa [Haxarat Isa], that is The Great Prophet Jesus."
183. Guerreiro, p. 67.
184. Guerreiro, p. 70.
185. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 114-15; see Terry, pp. 255-56. On the
black throne, see note 299.
186. Terry (p. 426) described Shah Jahan as "no favourer of the Christians" and Roe
(2.317) described him as "hater of all Christians."
187. Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.399.
188. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.405.
189. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 262, 280.
190. Foster, Early Travels, p. 280n.
191. Coryat in Foster, Early Travels, p. 280; see Foster in Roe 2.314n.
192. Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, p. 41.
352 Notes

193. Although the account is undated, we can probably narrow the period down to
about 1611-13, as, first, the text calls the empress Nur Mahal placing the likely parame-
ters of the event at 1611 and 1616, at least according to Desai (in Sribhanucan-
draganicarita, p. 54n), and, second, it took place when the court was in Agra (Sribhanucan-
draganicarita 4.228-36) presumably occurring before Jahangir transferred his court to
Ajmer for three years to watch over the campaign in Mewar. Desai concurs (in Srib-
hanucandraganicarita, p. 65) with this period, but can give no more exact estimate than
that the discussions occurred after the marriage with Mihrunnisa and before the move to
Ajmer.
194. Sribhanucandraganicarita 4.221-334. Jahangir had found wives for others, nota-
bly William Hawkins, for whom he supplied the daughter of Mubarik Shah, an Arme-
nian Christian, to cook his food. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 84-85. Desai in
Sribhanucandraganicarita, p. 52n.
195. Sribhanucandraganicarita 4.259-83.
196. Ahmad, "Sirhindi," p. 259; Mujeeb, p. 243.
197. Nizami, "Naqshbandi," pp. 41-47; Mujeeb, pp. 269-70.
198. Nizami, "Naqshbandi," pp. 46-47; Friedmann, pp. 81-83.
199. E.g., Tuzuk 1.13, 20, 21, 27, 30.
200. E.g., Tuzuk 1.53, 57, 64, 69.
201. Rizvi, pp. 444-45.
202. Mujeeb, pp. 244, 270; Rizvi, pp. 444-45. Friedmann (p. 79), however, under-
stands Sirhindi's position to be that he did not want to be appointed to the post and was
apprehensive that Jahangir might ask him.
203. Tuzuk 2.91-93; Ani Rai, formerly Anup Rai, had been given his full title after
courageously stepping in to receive a tiger's attack and so preventing serious injury to
Jahangir. Tuzuk 1.185-88. See Temple in Mundy 2.74n.
204. Tuzuk 2.161.
205. Tuzuk 2.276.
206. Nizami, "Naqshbandi," p. 49; Friedmann, p. 85.
207. Tuzuk 2.91-93.
208. Mujeeb, p. 244; Nizami, "Naqshbandi," pp. 47-48; Ahmad, "Sirhindi," pp.
259-70; Ahmad, Islamic Culture, pp. 182-90. Sirhindi's response to Jahangir when
questioned about his claim (Sharma, p. 80) had been, first, that when even the lowest of
servants came to the emperor, he passed through the stations of all the amirs and thus
stood closer to the emperor than even the highest of the others and, second, that his own
assertion that he had passed beyond the khalifas in no way gave him any higher status
than before.
209. Nizami, "Naqshbandi," p. 48; Mujeeb, p. 244.
210. Findly, "Jahangir and the Sufis."
211. Tuzuk2.35,45.
212. Tuzuk 2.83.
213. Aslam, pp. 137-39; Sharma, pp. 80-81. Sharma (p. 85) and Aslam (p. 141)
argue that the reconciliation that took place a year later between the emperor and the
shaikh was based, at least in part, upon Jahangir exempting Sirhindi from prostration, in
the same way that he had other religious at his court. See, e.g., Tuzuk 1.203, 205.
214. Friedmann, pp. 84, 108; Nizami, "Naqshbandi," pp. 48, 49; Aslam, pp. 135-
36; Schimmel, p. 367.
215. Friedmann, pp. 51-52.
216. Friedmann, pp. 52-53.
 Notes 353

217. Tuzuk 1.380-81.

218. In April of 1621, Tuzuk 2.187-88, 202-3.
219. In October of 1621 (Asmat Begam) and January 1622 (Itimaduddaula), Tuzuk
2.216,222.
220. Aslam, p. 137.
221. Friedmann, p. 84.
222. A. Husain, pp. 63-64.
223. A. Husain, pp. 63-64. It may be only circumstantial evidence that it was the
ranks of Abdur Rahim Khankhanan that Sher Afgan had joined in Multan when he had
first entered India from Iran (Tuzuk 1.113). Abdur Rahim would later be a court corre-
spondee of Shaikh Sirhindi, whose Naqshbandi silsila would rival for influence the
Chishti silsila of Qutbuddin Khan Koka's family.
224. See Maclagan, p. 90. If anybody actively worked at dissuading Jahangir from
Christianity, it may have been Shah Jahan. In 1616, e.g., Roe (2.317) described a discus-
sion on Christian miracles at the court and said of Shah Jahan: "The Prince . . . [was] a
most stiff Mahometan and hater of all Christians." Said Terry (p. 426): "The Prince
Sultan Caroome . . . was no favourer of the Christians." See Delia Valle 1.98.
225. De Castro's letters of July 26, 1627, and August 15, 1627, in JASB 23 (Hosten,
1927), pp. 154, 162. See Maclagan, p. 91.
226. See the argument in Aslam, p. 135.
227. A reworking of the argument in Findly, "Religious Resources," p. 144.
228. Guerreiro, pp. 66, 67.
229. Terry, p. 389.
230. Du Jarric, p. 190.
231. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 163, 184; Guerreiro, p. 64.
232. Guerreiro, p. 64.
233. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 115. Of this black throne Jahangir {Tuzuk
1.177) said:
Daulat Khan, who had been sent to Allahabad to bring the throne of black stone,
came on ... (15 September, 1610), and had an audience and brought the stone
safe and sound. In truth it was a wonderful slab, very black and shining. Many say
it is a species of touchstone . . . . I ordered stone-cutters to carve suitable cou-
plets on the sides of it. They had attached feet to it of the same kind of stone. I
often sat on that throne.
See Havell (Agra, p. 56), who notes that by the inscription "~ve learn that it was made in
1603 for Jahangir." Either there was more than one black throne, or Jahangir back-dated
the inscription, or (as is probable given that it was coming from Allahabad where
Jahangir's court was in 1603) the throne arrived fully worked by the stonecutters.
Jahangir was in Agra when he recorded the above entry, and the throne now sits on "the
terrace in front of the Diwan-i-Khas" of the Agra Fort.
234. Du Jarric, p. 190.
235. Guerreiro, pp. 66-67.
236. Guerreiro, p. 63.
237. Du Jarric, pp. 160-62.
238. Du Jarric, p. 192.
239. Terry, p. 427.
240. Du Jarric, pp. 66-67; A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 231.
241. Du Jarric, p. 81.
242. See, for example, "Darbar of Jahangir," from ajahangirnama manuscript attrib-
354 Notes

uted to Manohar, ca. 1620, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (14.654), discussed in Beach,
Grand Mogul, PI. 14. Jahangir also placed European paintings of Madonnas in his albums.
Note here Finch in Foster, Early Travels, pp. 163, 184.
243. Delia Valle 1.98.
244. Gulbadan, p. 104.
245. Roe in a letter to Sir Thomas Smythe, January 16, 1617, East India Company
Letters 5 (1617)328.
246. Van den Broecke, p. 77.

Chapter 9. Arts and Architecture of Nur Jahan

1. See Skelton, p. 15.

2. E.g., Shujauddins, p. 101.
3. Khafi Khan, as quoted by Misra, p. 122.
4. See Pelsaert p. 29.
5. Tuzuk 1.10-12.
6. Tuzuk 2.198. In 1615, Jahangir noted that the nurjahani muhr was equal in value
to Rs. 6,400 (Tuzuk 1.298) and later that it weighed 500 tulcha (Tuzuk 1.300).
7. Pelsaert, p. 29. See also Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.398.
8. Unlike his predecessors, Jahangir "alone . . . dared to put his own portrait on
coins intended for circulation. He habitually disregarded the Prophet's prohibition of
strong drink, and was not ashamed to show himself on the coinage holding a goblet of
wine" (Smith, p. 188). See also R. Vanaja, "Islamac Coinage in India," in Khandalavala
and Doshi, p. 75.
9. Shujauddins, p. 100. See also Vanaja in Khandalavala and Doshi, pp. 73, 75.
10. As quoted in the Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.405.
11. Tuzuk 2.6-7. See Smith (p. 188), who notes that the "figure of Virgo is a Europe-
anized angel."
12. Many of Nur Jahan's coins survive in today's museums and private collections.
See the Shujauddins (p. lOOn) for a selected list of references.
13. Pelsaert, p. 29.
14. Manucci (1.157) suggested (1) that zodiacal coins were indeed introduced by Nur
Jahan, and (2) that they were present in substantial quantity in the public domain: "They
struck coin in her name, which had for symbol the twelve signs of the zodiac, and in her
time these were current money." See Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.398.
16. E.g., Tuzuk 1.5, 116, 119.
17. E.g., Tuzuk 2.292-93.
18. E.g., Roe 1.137; 2.284, 390, 416.
19. My thanks to Mr. Galib Bachooali of Madras. The knife and companion dagger
are published in M. L. Nigam, "The Mughal Jades of India," in Khandalavala and
Doshi, pp. 78-79.
20. Fabri, pis. 20-25 and accompanying texts.
21. Tuzuk 1.384. See also Tuzuk 1.299, 377-78; Tuzuk 2.49, 191.
22. Tuzuk 1.384.
23. Dar, pp. 38-43,59-61.
24. See C. Pant, p. 118; Blochmann, Ain-iAkbari 1.101, 574, 574n; Lai, p. 76. For
some of the women's wear pieces popular in trade at the time, see Pelsaert, p. 19.
25. Note, e.g., Nur Jahan's requests for embroidered articles from Roe: on October
15, 1616, he ordered the "fairest embroidered sweetbag," an "embroidered folding case,"
 Notes 355

and an "embroidered pillow" (letter to factors at Surat, East India Company Letters 4
[1616].207-8). And note Tuzuk 1.342.
26. My thanks to M. C. Joshi of the Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.
27. Again, my thanks to M. C. Joshi of the AST, New Delhi.
28. See Fabri, pi. 21 and accompanying text.
29. E.g., Lai, p. 77.
30. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, pp. 46, 235-36. Das also gives a list of some of the
women known to have painted, as well as modern locations of some of their works. One
of the signatures found on two of the paintings is that of Nadira Banu, tentatively
identified as the legendary Anarkali. The Nadira Banu of these paintings was a colorist,
guided in her renderings of European reproductions by the Jesuits resident at the court,
and was a student of Aqa Riza's in the Salim studio of ca. 1598-1600. A. K. Das, Mughal
Painting, pp. 234, 238.
31. Beach, Grand Mogul, pp. 24-26.
32. Since Sher Afgan was not a supporter of Salim's independent court in Allahabad,
it is more likely that Nur Jahan's training, if any, would have been through artists at
Akbar's court.
33. A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 83.
34. Leach, in Gray, pp. 143-45.
35. Tuzuk 2.37.
36. As quoted by Foster in Early Travels, p. 67n; see also p. 65. For a full discussion
of the shifts in European influence on Jahangiri painting, see P. Brown, Painting, pp.
163-79, and A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, pp. 231-39.
37. Best, p. 244.
38. See letters of Aldworthe to Keridge at Agra, October 22, 1614, East India Com-
pany Letters 2 (1613-15).138; of Edwards to the East India Company, February 26, 1615,
of Keridge to the East India Company, March 20, 1615, and of Mitford to the East India
Company, March 25, 1615 East India Company Letters 3 (1615).15, 63, 85.
39. Letter of Edwards to the East India Company, February 26, 1615, East India
Company Letters 3 (1615). 16, 19.
40. Terry, p. 368.
41. Letter to the East India Company, March 20, 1615, East India Company Letters 3
(1615).67-68.
42. Roe 2.386-87.
43. E.g., letter of Mitford to the East India Company, March 25, 1615, East India
Company Letters 3 (1615).88.
44. Tuzuk2.2Q5.
45. Pal, pp. 44, 60; see A. K. Das, Mughal Painting, p. 46.
46. C. Pant (pp. 121-23) has published a selection of his verse.
47. C. Pant, pp. 124-25.
48. C. Pant, pp. 127-29.
49. C. Pant, pp. 131-33. Blochmann, Ain-iAkbari 1.559-60. For the many others of
Nur Jahan's family who were accomplished composers of verse, see C. Pant, pp. 121-43.
50. The following material is taken from the Shujauddins (pp. 110-12), with the
Persian translated by Prof. Wheeler Thackston of Harvard, to whom I am immensely
grateful.
51. C. Pant, p. 114.
52. Tuzuk 2.24, 73, 80, 81, 100, 200, 211.
53. Shujauddins, p. 101. See also Crowe et al., p. 92.
54. SeeMisra, pp. 110-11.
356 Notes

55. Pelsaert, p. 50.

56. Pelsaert, pp. 4-5.
57. Pelsaert (p. 56) charged:
They . . . keep . . . [the buildings] in repair only so long as the owners live and
have the means. Once the builder is dead, no one will care for the buildings; the
son will neglect his father's work, the mother her son's, brothers and friends will
take no care for each other's buildings; . . . if all these buildings and erections
were attended to and repaired for a century, the lands of every city, and even
village, would be adorned with monuments; but as a matter of fact the roads
leading to the cities are strewn with fallen columns of stone.
58. The name of this building is given variously in tradition and literature as Nur
Sarai, Nur Mahal Sarai, and Nur Jahan Sarai. Nur Sarai is the term used by Jahangir
(Tuzuk 2.192): "On the 21st of the same month I took up my quarters at Nur-saray" See
also Tuzuk 2.220, 249.
59. Tuzuk 2.100. See also Ain-i Akban 1.232.
60. Shujauddins, p. 102.
61. Tuzuk 2.192.
62. Alexander Cunningham, "Report of A Tour in the Punjab in 1878-79, U.P.
XIV." Archaeological Survey of India, as quoted by C. Pant, pp. 197-99. Cunningham
notes (p. 197) that large pieces of old brick and a variety of coins have been unearthed
there, some of which date to well before Nur Jahan's time. The Shujauddins (p. 102) give
the name of the town on the ancient site as Kot Ghalur.
63. Cunningham in C. Pant, p. 197.
64. Cunningham in C. Pant, p. 197. P. Brown's comment (Architecture, p. 100) on
the Jalandhar sarai is as follows: "a small but attractive structure although somewhat of
the 'precious' order, as the designer has aimed at a nicety of detail rather than breadth or
strength."
65. Taken from Cunningham's translation in C. Pant, p. 199.
66. Cunningham in C. Pant, p. 197.
67. Cunningham (in C. Pant, p. 198) notes that the walls of the exterior court to the
emperor's quarters had disappeared by the time he examined the building in 1838.
68. Tuzuk 2.192.
69. See Tuzuk 2.220-49.
70. Temple in Mundy 2.78n.
71. Mundy 2.78-79.
72. Temple in Mundy 2.78n-79n; see Cunningham, pp. 159-62.
73. P. Brown, Architecture, p. 100; Smith, p. 180; Latif, Agra, pp. 183, 184; Havell,
Agra, p. 85, and Indian Art, p. 131; Villiers Stuart, p. 52; Shujauddins, pp. 102-4; Peter
Andrews, "The Architecture and Gardens of Islamic India," in Gray, p. 112; Gascoigne,
p. 159.
74. Shujauddins, p. 101.
75. Pelsaert, p. 5.
76. Crowe et al., pp. 123-24.
77. Crowe et al., p. 124. See also P. Brown, Architecture, p. 101.
78. Andrews, in Gray, p. 112.
79. Crowe et al., p. 124.
80. Andrews, in Gray, pp. 112-13.
81. Andrews, in Gray, p. 113.
82. Gascoigne, p. 159.
83. Smith, pp. 174-75.
 Notes 357

84. Gascoigne, pp. 159-60.

85. Smith, p. 198. A contemporaneous example can be found in the Gol Mandal in
Udaipur, built around 1623 for Shah Jahan.
86. Gascoigne, p. 159.
87. Gascoigne, p. 159.
88. Andrews, in Gray, p. 113.
89. Haig and Burn, p. 553.
90. Andrews, in Gray, pp. 111-12. See also P. Brown, Architecture, p. 102.
91. Gascoigne, p. 159.
92. Joshi, pp. 10, 13.
93. Plaster has been lost on the exterior of the tomb, and it is possible that other
patterns may have originally been included. Only these three, however, were remaining
at the time of my visit in 1988. See also Welch, Emperor's Album, p. 21; Villiers Stuart, p.
53.
94. Again, my thanks to M. C. Joshi of the ASI, New Delhi.
95. Andrews, in Gray, p. 112; Havell, Agra, p. 89.
96. Andrews, in Gray, p. 109.
97. Joshi, pp. 11-12.
98. Joshi, p. 15.
99. Joshi, pp. 13, 14; Havell, Agra, p. 87.
100. Joshi, p. 15.
101. Andrews, in Gray, p. 112; P. Brown (Architecture, p. 100) calls them "broad."
102. Andrews, in Gray, p. 113; see Tuzuk 1.152, where Jahangir noted having or-
dered "a large and lofty gateway with minarets of white stone" to be built at his father's
tomb.
103. C.f. Tuzuk 1.90-91.
104. Haig and Burn, p. 552.
105. Says Smith (p. 180): "[The pietra dura work is] equal to or surpassing in
splendour the finest work of the kind executed in Shah Jahan's reign."
106. P. Brown, Architecture, p. 100.
107. Kak, p. 80; P. Brown, Architecture, p. 88.
108. Shujauddins, p. 44; see also Kak, p. 81.
109. Says P. Brown, Architecture (p. 100), e.g.: "[Jahangir's] mausoleum . . . was
probably constructed after his death under the order of his remarkable consort, Nur
Mahall Begum." See Fergusson, p. 304; Havell, Indian Art, p. 137; and the discussion in
chapter 12.
110. Shujauddins, p. 124.
111. Badshah-namaE&D7.7Q.
112. Shujauddins, p. 126.
113. Its exact limits, however, cannot now be traced because of the general decline
and disrepair of the site. Moynihan, p. 129.
114. Shujauddins, p. 127.
115. Says Villiers Stuart (p. 131): "Its [Jahangir's tomb] model was that of Itimad-
ud-Daulah . . . but . . . on an immense scale."
116. "The central platform of the roof seems to have contained a Bara Dari"
(Shujauddins, p. 127).
117. Shujauddins, pp. 127, 128, 129; Latif, Lahore, p. 109.
118. Shujauddins, p. 127.
119. All taken, says Latif, Lahore (p. 110), when Ranjit Singh, "stripped the building
of its costly ornamental stones."
358 Notes

120. According to the Shujauddins (p. 127n), the Ibratnama of 1854 noted that Nur
Jahan's tomb "was not completed."

Chapter 10. In the Gardens of Eternal Spring

1. Villiers Stuart, p. 126; see pp. 42-43.

2. Tuzuk 1.106.
3. Tuzuk 2.232.
4. Tuzuk 2.64.
5. See Findly, "Idea of Kashmir."
6. Bernier, p. 284.
7. 7«2Mife2.178.
8. Crowe et al., p. 17.
9. Crowe et al., pp. 19-20.
10. Villiers Stuart, pp. 13-14.
11. Terry in Foster, Early Travels, p. 303.
12. Mundy 2.214-15.
13. Mundy 2.215.
14. Tuzuk 1.5. On Kashmiri flowers in the borders of miniature paintings, see P.
Brown, Painting, pp. 139-40.
15. Shujauddins, p. 105.
16. Pelsaert, p. 5.
17. Tuzuk 1.3.
18. The identification of the modern Ram Bagh with the site of Babur's first Agra
garden is fairly well accepted by modern scholars. See Villiers Stuart, p. 42; Crowe et al.,
p. 63; Havell, Agra, pp. 92-94; Latif, Agra, pp. 188, 189.
19. Tuzuk 1.4
20. Tuzuk 1.5
21. Tuzuk 2.95.
22. Tuzuk 2.197. The question, then, is whether Nur Jahan acquired the garden
before or after her first trip to Kashmir: if before, then a burgeoning love of gardens
would have occasioned the trip north; if after, Kashmir would have so aroused her to
garden that she began, perhaps, by appropriating the Nur Afshan as her own. Given the
ascendance of another garden likely hers as well (the Nur Manzil) before the first trip to
Kashmir, it is most probable that Nur Jahan had the Nur Afshan in hand prior to
trekking north and that she acquired it only after seeing what a beautiful job Khwaja
Jahan had done in maintaining it. According to Latif (Agra, p. 188), the Ram Bagh was
"one of the oldest garden enclosures in Agra in which was the garden palace of Nur
Afshan."
23. Tuzuk 2.198.
24. Tuzuk 2.199-200.
25. Tuzuk 2.205-6.
26. Villiers Stuart, p. 5; Crowe et al., p. 63.
27. Crowe et al., pp. 63-66.
28. H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.76n.
29. Tuzuk 1.232,252.
30. Havell, Agra, p. 95; Latif, Agra, p. 190. See also Temple in Mundy 2.214n.
Mundy himself (2.188, 190) visited the Dahra Bagh, for instance, in June of 1632 on the
occasion of Shah Jahan's return to Agra from "warringe against Decan." It is interesting
 Notes 359

that the Englishman called it the "Darree ca baag," indicating that the name Nur Manzil
had had a short life (as one would expect under the anti-Nur Jahan campaigns of the new
emperor).
31. Tuzuk 2.75-76, 84.
32. Tuzuk 2.98.
33. Pelsaert, p. 5.
34. Mundy2.214.
35. Mundy 2.78-79.
36. Temple in Mundy 2.79n; see Latif, Agra, p. 190.
37. Pelsaert, p. 5. His Charbagh, a generic name, could be any of the Persian-style
gardens strung along this far bank, including perhaps the "Char Bagh, or garden palace
of Babar, . . . situated to the east of the Kachpura village" (Latif, Agra, p. 191).
38. Temple in Mundy 2.214n.
39. Mundy 2.215.
40. Temple in Mundy 2.215n.
41. Mundy 2.83-84.
42. Crowe et al., p. 131.
43. Villiers Stuart, pp. 132-33.
44. Tuzuk 1.91-93. See Jahangir's account of Kashmir's land and culture in Tuzuk
2.140ff.
45. Tuzuk 1.91-93.
46. Tuzuk 1.406,412,442.
47. Pelsaert, p. 35.
48. Tuzuk 1.96.
49. Pelsaert, p. 35.
50. Bernier, p. 350. Bernier (p. 385), in fact, went so far as to attribute the heat of the
plains to Kashmir itself:
This extraordinary heat is occasioned by the high mountains of Kachemire; for
being to the north of our road, they intercept the cool breezes which would refresh
us from that quarter, at the same time that they reflect the scorching sunbeams,
and leave the whole country arid and suffocating.
51. Tuzuk235.
52. Tuzuk2.l34.
53. H. Beveridge (Tuzuk 2.164n) suggests that this is the Gurais Valley mentioned in
Lawrence, p. 16.
54. Tuzuk 2.164.
55. Tuzuk 1.92.
56. Tuzuk 1.93; 2.177.
57. E.g., Tuzuk 2.151.
58. Tuzuk 2.134, 178, 238; Bernier, pp. 406-7.
59. E.g., Tuzuk2.l63.
60. Pelsaert, p. 35. Jahangir (Tuzuk 2.146, 159), however, said that Kashmiri pears
were "better than those of Kabul, or Badakhshan," and that the cherry "of Kashmir is
not inferior to that of Kabul; it is even better grown."
61. Tuzuk 2.144, 145, 146, 159, 161.
62. Pelsaert, p. 34.
63. Tuzuk 1.92.
64. Bernier, p. 414.
65. Tuzuk 2.114.
66. Pelsaert, pp. 33-34; Tuzuk 1.92.
360 Notes

67. E.g., Tuzuk 2.144-45; Pelsaert, p. 34.

68. Villicrs Stuart, p. 157.
69. Lawrence, pp. 19-21.
70. Pant, p. 117.
71. Villiers Stuart, p. 159.
72. Pant, p. 117.
73. Tuzuk 2.150-51.
74. Tuzuk 2.162.
75. Tuzuk 2.238.
76. Tuzuk 2.154.
11. Tuzuk 2.151.
78. Bernier, pp. 399-400.
79. Crowe et al., p. 96.
80. Villiers Stuart, pp. 163-66.
81. Tuzuk 2.151.
82. Villiers Stuart, p. 191.
83. Crowe etal., pp. 78-80.
84. Tuzuk 2.173, 237; Pelsaert, p. 33.
85. Bernier, p. 413.
86. Bernier, p. 413.
87. Villiers Stuart, pp. 191-95.
88. Shujauddins, p. 40.
89. Tuzuk 1.94.
90. Tuzuk 1.92-93; Tuzuk 2.141-42, 173.
91. Tuzuk 1.92.
92. Crowe et al., p. 110.
93. Villiers Stuart, pp. 130, 185.
94. Tuzuk 1.92; Tuzuk 2.142, 173-74.
95. Tuzuk 1.92; Tuzuk 2.173.
96. Villiers Stuart, pp. 185-86.
97. Tuzuk 1.92.
98. Tuzuk 2.174.
99. Bernier, p. 414.
100. Tuzuk 2.173.
101. Tuzuk 2.174.
102. Pelsaert, p. 33.
103. Tuzuk2.l74.
104. Two inscriptions at the site date the building of the structures at the spring to
1609 and 1616 (Villiers Stuart, pp. 187-88), and Jahangir remarked that when he saw the
garden in 1620 what he had ordered done had been completed (Tuzuk 2.173).

Chapter 11. The Rebellion of Mahabat Khan

1. Prasad, p. 385. Mahabat Khan's "sovereignty" over Jahangir's imperial camp

lasted from the end of March to the beginning of August 1626, a little over a hundred
days. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.419, 429. See also Dow 3.84, 93.
2. See Tuzuk 1.24.
3. Van den Broecke, p. 96.
4. Tuzuk 1.24.
 Notes 361

5. Tuzuk 1.146, 241, 248, 397; Tuzuk 2.121, 124-25, 231.

6. Tuzuk 1.147, 258, 279; Tuzuk 2.85, 160-61, 212.
7. Intikhab-iJahangir-Shahi E&D 6.452.
8. Tuzuk 2.251, 246.
9. Tuzuk 2.259--60.
10. rwswfc 2.231.
11. Shujauddins, pp. 70-71.
12. Said van den Broecke (p. 96): "[The] King loved him not as a servant, but like a
father in times of difficulty, which indeed he had shown himself to be."
13. Tuzuk 2.271ff., 288; van den Broecke, pp. 65, 96.
14. Dow's account (3.82), though, does suggest that Mahabat Khan had been
"shocked at ... [Shah Jahan's] reiteration of treachery" against the crown.
15. Prasad, p. 330.
16. Van den Broecke, p. 96.
17. Dow 3.81.
18. Dow 3.83; see also van den Broecke, p. 74.
19. Dow 3.83.
20. E&D 6.451-52.
21. Roe 1.262; see Mundy 2.204.
22. C. Pant, pp. 69-70. Manucci's late account (1.164), written during Shah Jahan's
reign and therefore quite sympathetic to Mahabat Khan, suggested that many courtiers
were envious of Mahabat Khan's long-standing intimacy with Jahangir and that Asaf
Khan and Nur Jahan had for some time toyed with assassination, e.g., "they placed ten
thousand armed horsemen on the roads, hoping to get him killed."
23. Van den Broecke, p. 96; see De Laet, p. 222.
24. Van den Broecke, p. 74.
25. De Laet, pp. 222-23, 224.
26. A key player in the whole of this event, Fidai Khan had been an attendant of the
emperor's since Jahangir's childhood under the name Sulaiman Beg. He received the title
by which was best known in late 1607. Tuzuk 1.131.
27. Van den Broecke, p. 75.
28. De Laet, p. 224.
29. Van den Broecke, p. 74.
30. Ikbal-nama-ijahangiri E&D 6.420.
31. Prasad, p. 367. Bits and pieces of an alternate version of the story had Mahabat
Khan consent to go to Bengal and receive his recall to the imperial court there (Ikbal-
nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.420). Another alternate narrative had Parviz, "acting on bad
advice," apparently believing the ill reports about his minister, asking Jahangir himself to
recall Mahabat Khan (Van den Broecke, p. 74). Finally, Dow (3.83) suggests that
Mahabat Khan was ordered to court, but before he got the orders, he had set out with
Parviz to Bengal.
32. Van den Broecke, p. 75.
33. Misra, p. 36. Dow (3.83) argues that Mahabat Khan had kept the elephants he
had taken in the battle of Benares, which ordinarily should have reverted to the crown.
His son also had presents he had received in resettling the province that had to be
returned. C. Pant (p. 70) calls the material in question "the Bengal booty."
34. Van den Broecke, p. 75; see also De Laet, p. 224; Dow 3.84.
35. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.420; van den Broecke, p. 75; De Laet, p. 225;
Dow 3.84. Mutamid Khan called the Rajputs "brave men united in one cause," presum-
ably because they had, in their loyalty, the vindication of their chief solely in mind.
362 Notes

36. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.420; van den Broecke, p. 75; De Laet, p. 225. Van
den Broecke did not have him personally forbidden from the court as Mutamid Khan
did, though in the Dutch account Mahabat Khan did not himself go at first. Also, van
den Broecke said that Nur Jahan and her brother wrote to the minister when they heard
of his approach asking him "why he was coming without the order of the King, and
warned him that it might lead to evil consequences."
37. De Laet, p. 225.
38. Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.396. Sec Appendix C, "Institutes of
Jahangir" in E&D 6.512.
39. Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.396-97; I kbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.420.
40. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.420; Dow 3.85. According to van den Broecke's
colorful narrative, as "soon as Mahabat Khan's son-in-law came to the King, every one
brought serious charges against him and, instigated by Asaf Khan, the King ordered him
to be soundly beaten with shoes." De Laet (pp. 225-26) offered another scenario: "He
was paraded through the camp with uncovered head, mounted on an elephant for all to
see."
41. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.420.
42. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.421. According to De Laet's narrative (p. 226),
the first attack was made by Nur Jahan:
In order to bring about his destruction, they crossed the river with a great army,
which is said to have numbered 50,000 horse, at a time when the king was asleep
in his tent, and made a violent attack upon the army of Mahobotghan, which only
consisted of 5,000 Raspots.
43. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.421-22.
44. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.422.
45. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.422; Dow 3.86-87. Van den Broecke described
Jahangir's fear upon being startled by Mahabat Khan as follows: "[Finding] no guards or
attendants either to his right or his left, he almost died of fear, which changed his whole
being."
46. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.422-23. See van den Broecke, pp. 76-77; De
Laet, p. 226; Dow 3.87-88.
47. Manucci 1.164.
48. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.423. Says Dow (3.88):
[The] Sultana, when Mohabet was busy in securing the person of the emperor,
made her escape to her brother. He considered, that nothing was done, so long as
that haughty woman remained out of his power. He resolved to prosecute his
plan, with the same resolute boldness with which it was begun.
49. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.423.
50. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.424.
51. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.424. See Dow 3.89.
52. Manueci 1.164.
53. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.424. Dow 3.89. Prasad (p. 374) argues that nei-
ther Jahangir nor Mahabat Khan wanted battle, Jahangir because he felt the imperial
forces were outnumbered by the Rajputs and doomed to lose and Mahabat Khan because
a battle would expose the hostile nature of his actions. He had hoped, argues Prasad, to
preserve the illusion that Jahangir had come with him willingly, and the battle therefore
was not in his best interest. See also the Shujauddins, p. 77.
54. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.424.
55. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.425.
56. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.425.
 Notes 363

57. Dow 3.89.

58. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.425.
59. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.426.
60. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.425.
61. Mutamid Khan (Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.426) confessed: "I was paralyzed
at this sight, as if a mill-stone had been revolving on the top of my head."
62. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.426.
63. Dow 3.89.
64. The Iqbalnama (E&D 6.425) said that Asaf Khan set out to do battle "deter-
mined to pass the river in attendance upon Nur Jahan Begam."
65. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.426.
66. Van den Broecke, p. 76.
67. Dow 3.89; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.426.
68. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.426-27. Dow (3.89) says that it was Nur Jahan's
daughter Ladli who received the arrow wound.
69. Dow 3.89-90.
70. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.427. It is odd that Dow (3.184), in referring
probably to this event, should be so critical: "Her passions were indeed too masculine.
When we see her acting the part of a soldier, she excites ridicule more than admiration;
and we are apt to forget that delicacy, beyond which her sex ceases to please."
71. Van den Brocke, p. 76.
72. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin. E&D 6.427-28; see De Laet, pp. 227, 229-230.
73. Van den Broecke, p. 76.
74. Van den Broecke, pp. 75-77.
75. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.428; van den Broecke, pp. 76, 77; De Laet, p.
227.
76. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.427.
77. Van den Broecke, pp. 77. Dow's rendition of the story (3.90-91) says that
initially Nur Jahan had been able to escape to Lahore, but after receiving letters from the
emperor saying that he was being treated well under Mahabat Khan and urging her for
"his peace and safety" to return to camp, she came back and submitted to Mahabat
Khan.
78. Van den Broecke, p. 77. According to De Laet (p. 227): "For the Queen
Nourziahanbegem, who had hitherto been worshipped like a goddess, was now neglected
and deserted by her usual entourage."
79. Dow 3.91.
80. Dow 3.92.
81. Dow 3.92.
82. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.428.
83. Van den Broecke, p. 77.
84. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.428.
85. Van den Broecke, p. 77; De Laet, p. 227; see also Mundy 2.204.
86. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.428.
87. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.429.
88. Van den Broecke (p. 77) calls her "Mouniza Begum."
89. De Laet, pp. 223, 228.
90. De Laet (p. 228) made an odd remark here—that Manija Begam "easily per-
suaded him to restore her husband to his governorship" because "she had long had an
understanding" with him. No other source suggests such a relationship.
91. Van den Broecke, pp. 77-78; De Laet, p. 228.
364 Notes

92. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangm E&D 6.428-29.

93. Van den Broecke, p. 78.
94. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangm E&D 6.429; van den Broecke, pp. 78-79.
95. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangm E&D 6.429. Dow (pp. 93-94) says that Mahabat Khan
decided to leave Kabul for Lahore because of the fight that broke out between his men
and the emperor's.
96. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangm E&D 6.429.
97. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.429.
98. Van den Broecke, p. 79.
99. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangm E&D 6.429; De Laet, p. 229.
100. Van den Broecke, p. 79.
101. Van den Broecke, p. 79; see Dow 3.93-94.
102. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.429; see Dow 3.92-93.
103. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.429.
104. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangm E&D 6.429.
105. Jahangir was apparently able to convince Mahabat Khan that he had been a
helpless pawn in the hands of his wife and of Asaf Khan.
106. Dow 3.92. Nur Jahan "concealed her schemes so effectually," says Dow (p. 93),
"that they escaped the penetrating eyes of Mohabet."
107. Van den Broecke, p. 79.
108. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.430; De Laet, p. 229.
109. Van den Broecke, p. 79.
110. Mutamid Khan gave the number at 2,000 men. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D
6.430.
111. Van den Broecke, pp. 79, 80. Van den Broecke (p. 80) also noted that Shahryar
played an important role in gathering troops from Lahore for his mother-in-law.
112. Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri E&D 6.430n; Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.430.
Van den Broecke (p. 80), however, portrayed Mahabat Khan not as resigned to his fate,
but overconfident about the powers of his army: "Mahat Khan was not at all concerned
about it, having the greatest confidence in his Rajputs. He said, 'They are like sheep
before me. God willing, I shall destroy and scatter them like sand in the wind.' "
113. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.430. Dow's account (3.94) of the transfer of
power says simply that Mahabat Khan "took a sudden resolution to throw up his power"
and negotiated a quiet deal. Nur Jahan's subsequent demand for his death was overruled
by her husband, who "commanded her to be silent."
114. Prasad, p. 386; see Dow 3.95.
115. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.430-31; see van den Broecke, pp. 79-81.
116. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.431. Van den Broecke (p. 80) reported that Asaf
Khan was kept more freely now, as one of his legs was taken out of chains and he was
given better food. He also reported (p. 81) that, characteristically, Mahabat Khan
throughout the ordeal maintained his staunch loyalty to the emperor and refused to be
seen as a traitor.
117. Van den Broecke, p. 81.
118. Van den Broecke, p. 81.
119. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangm E&D 6.431.
120. Van den Broecke, p. 82. De Laet, p. 232.
121. Van den Broecke (p. 82) said that Asaf Khan, ever mindful of his need to appear
faithful to the emperor, assured Jahangir that in doing whatever he needed to fulfill the
obligation "he would have nothing to do with any one trying to bring about his
 Notes 365

[Jahangir's] ruin." We know, however, that Mahabat Khan, along with Asaf Khan,
became great favorites at Shah Jahan's court.
122. De Laet, p. 232.
123. De Laet, p. 232.
124. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.431; van den Broecke, p. 82.
125. Van den Broecke, p. 82.
126. Van den Broecke, pp. 82-83; De Laet, p. 233; see Latif, Lahore, p. 39.
Blochmann (Ain-i Akbari 1.359) notes that Nur Jahan "contributed herself twelve lacs of
rupees to the expedition" of the old Khankhanan against Mahabat Khan.
127. Van den Broecke, p. 81.
128. Dow (3.95) says further that "Asiph disapproved of his sister's violence. He
knew the merit of Mohabel: he was not forgetful of his kindness to himself, when under
his power. He was tired, besides, of the weakness of Jehangire, and of the Sultana's
tyranny. He, however, observed a cautious silence."
129. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.434. Dow (3.95-96) preserves a tradition that
believes Mahabat Khan, once in flight, made his way to Asaf Khan, who was at that time
on the road between Lahore and Delhi. Mahabat Khan entered Asaf Khan's camp about
nine o'clock at night and, finding his way into the inner passages, asked that the vakil
come see him. Asaf Khan met his former captor and, seeing how miserable he was now
and foreseeing what a good ally he would eventually make, was overjoyed to hear the
visitor suggest an alliance with Shah Jahan on the grounds of Parviz's weakness and Shah
Jahan's excellent skills in the field. Asaf Khan then sent Mahabat Khan off with the
promise of a pardon and an army, both "having sworn fidelity to one another."
130. Van den Broecke, p. 96.
131. Van den Broecke, p. 96.

Chapter 12. Death of Jahangir and Retirement to Lahore

1. Ma-asir-i-Jahangiri E&D 6.444. Kamgar Khan said that Shah Jahan was "in a
very feeble state of health."
2. Ma-asir-i-Jahangiri E&D 6.444.
3. Saksena, pp. 53-54; Prasad, p. 391.
4. Ma-asir-i-Jahangin E&D 6.444. The Iqbalnama (E&D 6.432) gave the troop
number as three or four hundred.
5. Ma-asir-i-Jahangiri E&D 6.444.
6. Ma-asir-i-Jahangiri E&D 6.444.
7. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.432-33; Ma-asir-i-Jahangiri E&D 6.444-45.
8. Ma-asir-i-Jahangiri E&D 6.445.
9. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.432; Saksena, pp. 54-55. For a history of Shah
Jahan's relations with Persia and especially with Shah Abbas, see Saksena, pp. 210ff.
10. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.433.
11. Kamgar Khan (Ma-asir-i-Jahangiri E&D 6.445), obviously partisan, said:
Just at this time [of the defeat at Tatta] a letter reached him from Nur Jahan
informing him that his march had alarmed Mahabat Khan, whose forces had been
driven away and dispersed, and that the Prince had better return to the Dakhin,
and await a change of fortune. The advice of the Begam seemed good, so the
Prince determined to return to the Dakhin by way of Gujarat.
12. Van den Broecke, p. 85.
366 Notes

13. Van den Broecke, p. 88.

14. Van den Broecke, p. 84.
15. Ikbal-nama-ijahangiri E&D 6.432; De Laet, p. 233.
16. Van den Broecke, p. 84.
17. Terry, p. 412. See also Tod 1.294; 2.33. Van den Broecke (p. 84) said that various
of Parviz's nobles were arrested for questioning after his death "for it was they who had
always given him food and drink."
18. Shujauddins, p. 91.
19. Van den Broecke, p. 84.
20. Saksena, p. 55. Bulaqi was the nickname of Dawar Bakhsh, given to him "from
bulaq, the ring worn by women in the septum of the nose. A boy is ornamented in this
way in order that he may be supposed to be a girl, and thus escape from the effects of the
Evil Eye" (Ball in Tavernier, p. 67n).
21. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.434; van den Broecke, p. 89; De Laet, p. 237.
22. De Laet, p. 236.
23. Saksena, p. 53.
24. De Laet, p. 236; see Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.434 and van den Broecke,
p. 88.
25. Van den Broecke, pp. 84-85; De Laet, p. 234.
26. Van den Broecke, p. 85.
27. Van den Broecke, pp. 85-86.
28. Dow (3.94ff), as noted above, suggests that the decision to approach Shah Jahan
was not initially Mahabat Khan's but Asaf Khan's, who acted as midwife to the alliance.
29. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.434.
30. Van den Broecke, p. 89.
31. Dow (3.96) contends that the pardon of Mahabat Khan was from Jahangir and
was engineered by Asaf Khan. See Shah Jahan Nama, p. 12.
32. Mundy2.204.
33. Van den Broecke, pp. 86-87.
34. Van den Broecke, p. 85.
35. Van den Broecke, p. 88.
36. Van den Broecke, p. 88.
37. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.435. See also H. Beveridge in Tuzuk 2.vi.
38. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.435.
39. Saksena, p. 56.
40. DeLaet, p. 237; Dow 3.101.
41. Tuzuk2.l&0.
42. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.435.
43. Terry, pp. 381-82.
44. Tuzuk 2.176.
45. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.435. See also Badshah-nama E&D 7.5; De Laet,
p. 237; Manucci 1.172; Prasad, p. 393.
46. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.435. Dow (3.101), oddly, gives Jahangir's death
date as November 9, 1627, and van den Broecke (p. 89) gave Jahangir's age at death as
63.
47. Badshah-nama E&D 7.5.
48. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.436.
49. DeLaet, p. 238.
50. Dow 3.108. See Shah Jahan Nama, pp. 12, 13.
51. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.436. See Dow 3.107.
 Notes 367

52. Majalisu-s Salatin E&D 7.137.

53. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.436.
54. Van den Broecke, p. 90.
55. Majalisu-s Salatin E&D 7.137.
56. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.436. In this way Asaf Khan and his nobles hoped
"to guard against mutinies and disturbances which might otherwise arise" (Majalisu-s
Salatin E&D 7.137). See also De Laet, p. 238; Manucci 1.172; C. Pant, p. 76; and
Saksena, p. 57. Initially, Dawar Bakhsh had been placed "by Nur Mahal's contrivance"
under the care of Shahryar, but when Shahryar left for Lahore, he "had been put under
the charge of Iradat Khan by Jahangir" (Badshah-nama E&D 7.6).
57. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.436. See Shahjahan Nama, p. 12.
58. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.436. The Badshah-nama (E&D 7.5-6) suggested
that Dawar Bakhsh (Bulaqi) was not raised to the throne in Bhimbar but sometime after
the journey had recommenced, perhaps even as far in their journey as Lahore.
59. Van den Broecke, p. 89. Dow (3.107) claims, however, that "the will of Jehangire
had been opened immediately upon his demise. He had, at the instigation of the Sultana
named his fourth son Shariar, as his successor in the throne."
60. On the kingdom Mundy (2.107) said: "Jehangueere [Jahangir] left it to Sultan
Bulake [Bulaki] Cozrooes sonne."
61. Manucci 1.169, 172.
62. Van den Broecke, p. 89. Tirmizi (p. 137), however, preserves a nishan of Dawar
Bakhsh in which he said he came to the throne with the support of Nur Jahan.
63. Van den Broecke, p. 89.
64. Van den Broecke, p. 90.
65. Van den Broecke, p. 90.
66. Van den Broecke, p. 90. See Shahjahan Nama, p. 12.
67. Van den Broecke, p. 90.
68. Van den Broecke, p. 90.
69. Van den Broecke, p. 97.
70. Van den Broecke, p. 90.
71. Van den Broecke, p. 90.
72. Van den Broecke, p. 96.
73. Van den Broecke, p. 97.
74. Van den Broecke, p. 93.
75. Badshah-nama E&D 7.5-6; Saksena, pp. 57-58.
76. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.436.
77. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.436.
78. Latif, Lahore, p. 50. See Shahjahan Nama, p. 13.
79. Badshah-nama E&D 7.6.
80. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangm E&D 6.436; see Dow 3.108.
81. Van den Broecke, p. 89.
82. Badshah-nama E&D 7.5.
83. C. Pant (p. 77) notes that Nur Jahan "along with her sister was virtually reduced
to the position of a state prisoner." Since Manija was probably back in Agra with her
husband Qasim Khan (he was to welcome Shah Jahan there upon his arrival), the sister in
question here may have been Khadija.
84. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.436.
85. Gascoigne, p. 179.
86. Van den Broecke, p. 90. Again, note Dow (3.107) who suggests that Shahryar
had been named "as his [Jahangir's] successor in the throne" in the late emperor's will.
368 Notes

87. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.436.

88. Ikbal-nama-i JahanginE&D 6.436.
89. Ikbal-nama-i Jakangiri E&D 6.436. Dow (3.108) claims that Shahryar appointed
Bayasanghar commander of his forces because he was "ill of a venereal disorder himself."
90. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.436-37; see also Majalisu-s Salatin E&D 7.137.
91. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.437.
92. Saksena (p. 58) gives him as Afzal Khan.
93. Saksena, pp. 58-59.
94. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.437; Dow 3.108.
95. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangin E&D 6.437; Dow 3.108.
96. Prasad, p. 401.
97. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.437.
98. Manucci 1.174.
99. Prasad, p. 402. In spite of Shah Jahan's inclination toward observing a period of
mourning, Saksena (p. 60) notes that his counsellors "advised him to hasten; and the
astrologers were asked to choose the auspicious time for the journey to the north."
100. Saksena, p. 61. Part of the Iqbalnama account (E&D 6.438) stated that "On
reaching the boundaries of the Rana, Shah Jahan was waited upon by Rana Karan at
Kokanda, who, as well as his father Rana Amar Singh, had shown great loyalty. He
offered his tribute, and received great gifts and honours."
101. Van den Broecke, p. 95.
102. Tahmuras and Hoshang were included, argued Tavernier (2.270-71), because
even though they had become Christian and were thus not in the running for the throne,
being "kind-hearted," they had warned Bulaqi early on of the duplicitous designs of Asaf
Khan. The fate of the third brother and son of Daniyal, who fought to the end with
Shahryar, is stated by Maclagan (p. 74) as follows: "After being signally defeated in battle
near Lahore, [Bayasanghar] vanished into oblivion."
103. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.438; Dow 3.109-10.
104. Says Dow (3.Ill): Shah Jahan, "either by the dager or bowstring, dispatched all
the males of the house of Timur; so that he himself and his children only remained of the
posterity of Baber, who conquered India."
105. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.438.
106. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.438. Manucci (1.175) preserved a version of the
story in which Dawar Bakhsh, upon Shah Jahan's accession, was not killed but fled to
Persia "where he ended his life in destitution." Tavernier (1.271-72) also preserved this
story (but see 1.66-67!), noting that the young emperor Bulaqi took to flight, wandering
for a long time in India as a sort of Fakir. But at length, wearied with that kind of
life, he took refuge in Persia, where he was magnificently received by Shah Safavi,
who bestowed upon him a pension worthy of a great Prince. He enjoys it still, and
I had an opportunity of conversing with him during my travels in Persia, and
drank and ate with him.
Ball's note here (in Tavernier 1.272n) offers support to confirm Tavernier's account.
107. De Laet, p. 240; see Mundy 2.105 and Dow 3.110. In Manucci's version
(1.175), two of the princes, presumably the two sons of Daniyal in question, were bricked
up inside a room and left to die.
108. Saksena, p. 63. As Bernier (p. 199) had noted earlier:
In Hindoustan the right of governing is usually disputed by all the sons of the
deceased monarch, each of whom is reduced to the cruel alternative of sacrificing
his brothers, that he himself may reign, or of suffering his own life to be forfeited
for the security and stability of the dominion of another.
 Notes 369

109. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.438. According to Saksena (p. 62), Shah Jahan
visited the tomb of Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti and, in fulfillment of a vow he made at the
time of the Mewar campaign, ordered a marble mosque to be built.
110. Majalisu-s Salatin E&D 7.137.
111. See Tuzuk 2.15-76.
112. Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri E&D 6.438; Prasad, p. 402. C. Pant (p. 79) gives the
date of arrival outside Agra as January 28 and Dow (3.110) as January 31. Although C.
Pant (p. 79) notes that Shah Jahan had "encamped in the Nur Manzil garden"—
confirmed by Dow's (3.110) "in the garden which from its beauty was called the Habita-
tion of Light" (i.e., nurmanzil)—the Iqbalnama (E&D 6.438) said simply "the gardens,"
and Saksena (p. 63) says "in the Dahara garden," confirming in this last that the Nur
Jahani name for the site was indeed short-lived.
113. Majalisu-s Salatin E&D 7.137, 141. The Badshah-nama (E&D 7.6) gave the date
as February 6.
114. Majalisu-s Salatin E&D 7.137.
115. Say the Shujauddins (p. 122), by
the roadside the corpse was given the last wash and was prepared for burial
according to the prevalent Muslim rites. At Chingas Serai, close to the Mughal
mosque, there is a grave on a platform with a green flag fluttering over it. The
common people take it to be Jahangir's grave. It is said that the last bath to the
body was given here and the entrails, ripped out to save the corpse from early
decomposition were entombed here.
116. Dow 3.178.
117. Tuzuk 1.63.
118. Latif, Lahore, pp. 44ff.
119. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 161.
120. Monserrate, p. 159.
121. Hawkins in Foster, Early Travels, p. 120.
122. See, e.g., Villiers Stuart, p. 185; Lawrence, Kashmir, p. 194; and Moynihan, p.
128.
123. Latif, Lahore, p. 106.
124. Havell, Indian Art, p. 137.
125. Fergusson, pp. 304-5.
126. P. Brown, Architecture, p. 100.
127. Prasad (p. 399): "Here [in Shahdara in the garden of Nur Jahan] in time the
widowed empress erected a magnificent mausoleum at her own expense."
128. In Crowe et al.,p. 93.
129. Gascoigne (p. 179): "[Nur Jahan in retirement] occupied herself with building a
tomb for her husband at Lahore."
130. Shujauddins, p. 123.
131. DeLaet, p. 240.
132. Dow 3.123.
133. Badshah-nama E&D 7.70.
134. Dow 3.184.
135. Dow 3.184.
136. As noted by Dowson in Badshah-nama E&D 7.70n.
137. Badshah-nama E&D 7.69-70.
138. Dow 3.184.
139. Dow 3.184.
140. Misra (p. 40) argues instead, oddly, that after Jahangir's death Nur Jahan chose
370 Notes

voluntarily to retire from political life, thus leading "one to conclude that her interests
were [always] confined to Jahangir and Jahangir alone." Had she wanted to, Misra
continues, she could have retained power within the inner circles of the imperial palace
where her knowledge and expertise would have been especially useful. Instead she freely
committed herself to the life of a recluse now that Jahangir, "with whom were bound all
her interests," was gone.
141. Gascoigne, p. 179.
142. Van den Broecke, p. 90.
143. That there were some monies kept as hers was suggested by the following
remark of Manucci's (1.199): "While Aurangzeb was king, the whole of these treasures,
and the treasures of Queen Nurjahan, were expended, owing to the falling off in the
revenue." Irvine's note, however, says the "statement is not literally exact, for both
Bahadur Shah in 1707 and the Sayyid brothers in 1719 disinterred large hoards within
Agra Fort," presumably referring to the treasure of Nur Jahan which may still have been
intact then. The implication in both accounts, however, is that although Nur Jahan did
have a sizable treasure at the time of Jahangir's death, she was not allowed to use it by
Shah Jahan.
144. Ikbal-nama-iJahangiriE&D 6.405.
145. Desai in Sribhanucandraganicarita, pp. 45, 49.
146. Mundy 2.78; see also Mundy 2.101.
147. Saksena, p. vi.
148. Shujauddins, p. 124.
149. Finch in Foster, Early Travels, p. 186.
150. Shujauddins, p. 125.
151. Saksena, p. 130.
152. Saksena, pp. iv, vii.
153. Prasad, p. 403. See Shah Jahan Nama, pp. 333-34.
154. Prasad, p. 403; Shujauddins, p. 99.
155. Prasad, p. 403; Shujauddins, p. 125.
156. Badshah-nama E&D 7.69-70.
157. Prasad, p. 403.
 Abbreviations and
Selected Annotated Bibliography

(References have been left as published, with the exception of the diacriticals.
Bibliographic narrative uses standard form.)

Primary Sources

Ain-i Akbari

Blochmann, H., trans. The Ain-i Akbari by Abul-Fazl Miami. Vol. 1. 1873. 2d ed.,
revised by D. C. Phillott. Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1927.
Jarrett, Colonel H. S., trans. Ain-i Akbari by Abul Fazl Allami. Vols. 2, 3. Calcutta:
Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1910, 1894.
The Ain-i Akbari is the third volume of Abul Fazl's Akbarnama. Volume one
covers the history of the Timurid line up through Humayun, volume two is a
detailed history of Akbar's reign, and volume three (the Ain-i Akbari} is a discus-
sion of information about Akbar's reign arranged thematically.

Baburnama

Beveridge, Annette Susannah, trans. The Baburnama in English (Memoirs of Babur).

Translated from the original Turki text of Zahirud-din Muhammad Babur
Padshah Ghazi. 2 vols. London: Luzac, 1922. Reprint. New York: AMS Press,
1971.

Badauni

Lowe, W. H., trans. Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh by Abd-ul-Qadir bin Maluk Shah known as

al-Badaoni. Vol. 2. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1884. Reprint.
Karachi: Karimsons, 1976.
Haig, Sir Wolseley, trans. Muntakhabu-t-Tawarikh, by Abdu-l-Qadir ibn-i Mulukshah,
known as al-Badaoni. Vol. 3. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1925. Re-
print. Karachi: Karimsons, 1978.
Written in secret between 1590 and 1596, this account of the Mughals, and
especially of Akbar's reign, gives the view of a conservative Muslim.

371
372 Selected Bibliography

Bernier

Constable, Archibald, ed. Travels in the Mogul Empire, A.D. 1656-1668, by Francois
Bemier. London: Oxford University Press, 1891. 2d ed. New Delhi: S. Chand &
Co., 1968.
This is a revised edition based upon Irving Brock's translation. Bernier was a
celebrated French physician who was in the Mughal empire from 1658 to 1665.
Among other things, he traveled with Tavernier to Bengal in 1665 during the
latter's sixth and final voyage to the subcontinent.

Best

Foster, Sir William, ed. The Voyage of Thomas Best to the East Indies (1612-14). London:
Hakluyt Society, 1934.
Best sailed on the tenth voyage of the East India Company to India. Although his
account tells us relatively little of Jahangir's court, it was a successful trip, marked
by a victory over the Portuguese and the settlement of a factory at Surat.

De Laet

Hoyland, J. S., trans., and S. N. Banerjee, annot. The Empire of the Great Mogol, A
Translation of De Laet's "Description of India and Fragment of Indian History."
1928. Reprint. Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Belli, 1975.
Joannes De Laet's text is a 1631 Latin translation of materials originally written by
Pelsaert and chronicled by van den Broecke, as well as materials from other
travelers to India. Although he never went to India, he was a Director of the
Dutch East India Company and concerned himself primarily with gathering infor-
mation about the subcontinent.

Delia Valle

Grey, Edward, ed. The Travels of Pietro Delia Valle in India. 2 vols. London: Hakluyt
Society, 1892.
This is from the old English translation of the original Italian done in 1664 by G.
Havers. Delia Valle was in India from February of 1623 to November of 1624 and
left a detailed account of his somewhat limited travels in eight letters published
beginning in 1663.

Du Jarric

Payne, C. H., trans. Akbar and the Jesuits: An Account of the Jesuit Missions to the Court of
Akbar by Father Pierre Du Jarric, S.J. London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.,
1926.
This translation from the French is of that portion of Du Jarric's Historie (com-
pleted in 1614) that deals with the reign of Akbar. It is an account of the Jesuit
missions to the court of the early Mughal compiled from the letters and reports
written by the Portuguese Fathers while on service there, and it provides one of
the earliest European accounts of the Mughal empire. Du Jarric himself never
went to India, residing much of his life in Bordeaux, and many of his Jesuit
 Selected Bibliography 373

authorities are left unnamed. A major source of information, however, was cer-
tainly Father Fernao Guerreiro, S.J.

E&D
Elliot, H. M., and John Dowson, trans, and ed. The History of India as told by its Own
Historians. The Muhammadan Period. Vols. 5, 6, 7. London: Triibner and Co.,
1873, 1875, 1877. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, Inc. 1966.
These volumes include selected translations of historical texts contemporary to the
reigns of Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan.

Tabakat-i Akbari E&D

Vol. 5: Tabakat-i Akbari of Nizamu-d din Ahmad, Bakhshi, also known as the the
Tabakat-i Akbar-shahi and the Tarikh-i Nizami. This work is a history of India,
unusual because for the first time India alone is the subject and not other Asian
countries as well. The author, Nizamuddin Ahmad, was for a long time bakhshi
for Akbar in Gujarat and was throughout his life a loyal and devoted minister to
the emperor.

Akbar-nama E&D
Vol. 6: Akbar-nama of Shaikh Abul Fazl. Abul Fazl Allami was the second son of Shaikh
Mubarak, the elder being Shaikh Abul Fayz (better known as Fayzi), a popular
poet of the time. Abul Fazl was a close companion and learned minister of
Akbar's, whose two-volume Akbarnama, a historical account of the Mughal dy-
nasty down through Akbar, and Ain-i Akbari, a detailed description of Mughal
government, are essential sources for Akbar's reign.

Ikbal-nama-i E&D
Ikbal-nama-i Jahangiri of Mutamad Khan. This text is a history of the Mughal dynasty,
whose third volume deals with Jahangir. Up until the middle of 1624, this part of
the Iqbalnama is more or less an abridgment of Jahangir's own memoirs, the last
two years of which (1623-24) Mutamid Khan himself transcribed; after the mem-
oirs cease, the Iqbalnama continues the chronicle of the reign up to and beyond
Jahangir's death in 1627. For these last three years of Jahangir's life, it is one of the
best of the Persian sources available.

Intikhab-iJahangiri-Shahi E&D
Intikhab-iJahangiri-Shahi, by a contemporary and a companion of Jahangir's, possibly a
certain Shaikh Abdu-1 Wahab, author of Akhlak-i Jahangiri. Many of the narra-
tives herein are firsthand, eyewitness accounts.

Ma-asir-i Jahangiri E&D

Ma-asir-i Jahangiri, of Kamgar Khan. Although the exact name of the text is unclear,
Khwaja Kamgar Ghairat Khan intended with this text (completed early in the reign
of Shah Jahan) to make up for the incompleteness of Jahangir's own memoirs.
374 Selected Bibliography

Takmila-i Akbar-hama E&D

Takmila-i Akhar-nama, of Inayatu-lla, or Muhammad Salih. This text is the supplement

to the Akbarnama, containing an account of the last four years of Akbar's reign
after the murder of Abul Fazl.

Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahanairi E&D

Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri, of Muhammad Hadi. This work is a completion of

Jahangir's memoirs covering the years 1624 to 1627; included in it is an account of
the rest of Jahagir's life taken in large part from the Iqbalnama. That Muhammad
Hadi was a writer from the first quarter of the eighteenth century makes this text
somewhat less useful than other chronicles.

Wikaya-i Asad Beg E&D

Wikaya-i Asad Beg. Also called Halat-i Asad Beg, this text is a personal memoir from the
latter part of Akbar's reign and is especially good on the death of Abul Fazl.

Majalisu-s Salatin E&D

Vol. 7: Majalisu-s Salatin, of Muhammad Sharif Hanafi. Composed in the early part of
Shah Jahan's reign, Hanafi compiled an abridged history of India using long
histories of the period.

Badshah-nama E&D

Badshah-nama, of Abdu-1 Hamid Lahori. This contemporary history of the first twenty
years of the reign of Shah Jahan is intended to be in the style of Abul Fazl.

East India Company Letters

Danvers, Frederic Charles, ed. Letters Received by the East India Company, From Its
Servants in the East, Transcribed from the Original Correspondence Series of the India
Office Records. 5 vols. (1602-13, 1613-15, 1615, 1616, 1617). London: Sampson
Low, Marston & Company, 1896, 1897, 1899, 1900, 1901. Reprint. Amsterdam:
N. Israel, 1968.

English Factories

Foster, William, ed. The English Factories in India, 1618-1621; The English Factories in
India, 1622-1623. A Calendar of Documents in the India Office, British Museum and
Public Record Office. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1906; 1908.

Firishta

Briggs, John, trans, and ed. History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India Till the
Year A.D. 1612, Translated from the Original Persian of Mahomed Kasim Ferishta.
London, 1829. Reprint. Calcutta: R. Cambray and Co., London: K. Paul,
Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1908-110.
 Selected Bibliography 375

Firishta's Gulshan-i Ibrahimi was written in the early part of the seventeenth
century. He had worked for rulers in Ahmadnagar and Bijapur but had traveled
throughout much of the Mughal empire.

Floris

Moreland, W. H., ed., Peter Floris: His Voyage to the East Indies in the Globe, 1611-1615,
The Contemporary Translation of his Journal. London: Hakluyt Society, 1934.
Peter Floris was a Dutch merchant who took up the name Floris for use in
England, his real name being Pieter Willemsz van Elbing. He was just over thirty
when he joined the East India Company in London, and the voyage by the Globe
was the seventh for the company.

Foster, Early Travels

Foster, William, ed. Early Travels in India, 1583-1619. Humphrey Milford: Oxford
University Press, 1921.
This collection includes personal travel accounts of Ralph Fitch (1583-91), John
Mildenhall (1599-1606), William Hawkins (1608-13), William Finch (1608-11),
Nicholas Withington (1612-16), Thomas Cory at (1612-17), and Edward Terry
(1616-19).

Guerreiro

Payne, C. H., trans. Jahangir and the Jesuits, With an Account of the Travels of Benedict
Goes and the Mission to Pegu, From the Relations of Father Fernao Guerreiro, S.J.
New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1930.
The most important material here comes from three letters written by Father
Jerome Xavier to the Provincial of Goa, dated September 25, 1606, August 8,
1607, and September 24, 1608.

Gulbadan

Beveridge, Annette S., trans. The History of Humayun (Humayun-nama), by Gulbadan

Begam (Princess Rose-Body). 1901. Reprint. Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli,
1972.
This volume includes the Persian text and English translation, and a long introduc-
tion and biographical data on women of the period.

Jourdain

Foster, William, ed. The Journal of John Jourdain, 1608-1617, Describing his Experiences
in Arabia, India, and the Malay Archipelago. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1905.
Reprint. Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint Limited, 1967.

Keshavadasa

Jahangirj aschandrika. In Keshav Granthavali. Edited by V. P. Misra. Vol. 3. Allahabad,

1959.
This Hindi text is a eulogistic tribute to the emperor Jahangir written in April of
376 Selected Bibliography

1612 in reply to a question posed to Keshavadasa by Irij Khan, son of Abdur

Rahim Khankhanan. The question was whether udyam ("effort") or karma
("fate") was superior and, in answering, the Hindi poet-laureate praised Jahangir's
justice and the splendor of his court. The final verdict, predictably, was that both
udyam and karma were equal.

Manriquc

Luard, Lt.-Col. C. Eckford with Father H. Hosten, trans, and cd. Travels of Fray
Sebastien Manrique, 1629-1643; a translation of the Itinerant) de las missiones orien-
tales. Oxford: for the Hakluyt Society, 1927.
Manrique was an Augustinian friar who came to the Bengal mission in 1629 and
for the next six years remained in Arracan. After a long voyage to the Philippines
and China, he traveled through northern India during the years 1640 to 1641 on
his way back to Europe. His work Itenerario was published in 1649.

Manucci

Irvine, William, trans. Storia do Mogor, or Mogul India, 1653-1708, by Niccolao Manucci,
Venetian. Vol. 1. London, 1907. Reprint. Calcutta: Editions Indian, 1965.
A native of Venice, Manucci arrived in India in 1656 as a gunner and a "physi-
cian." Over time he fought in military units under the Mughals and Hindu
chieftains and held various positions of responsibility at the Mughal court until his
death in India in 1717. His narrative is florid and rambunctious and appears to
depend on local gossip for its many stories.

Manusmriti

Biihler, Georg, trans. The Laws of Manu. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886. Reprint. New
York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1969.

Mehri

Sarapa-i Mehri. This manuscript is available through the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek,

Berlin, and University Library, Bombay.
This is a work by a Persian poetess, who was brought up and patronized by Nur
Jahan and used Mehri as her pen name.

Monserrate

Hoyland, J. S., trans., and S. N. Banerjee, annot. The Commentary of Father Monserrate,
On his Journey to the Court ofAkbar. Humphrey Milford: Oxford University Press,
1922.
Monserrate, one of the three members on the first Jesuit mission to Akbar, was at
the Mughal court from 1580 to 1582. The original Latin text of this manuscript
was edited by Father H. Hosten, S.J., and published in the memoirs of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal (3:513-704).
 Selected Bibliography 377

Mundy

Temple, Sir Richard Carnac, cd. The Travels of Peter Mundy, in Europe and Asia, 1608-
1667. Vol. 2, Travels m Asia, 1628-1634. London: Hakluyt Society, 1914.
Mundy arrived at Surat in 1628, was appointed to the Agra factory in 1630, and
remained in India for eight years. His travels included the surrounds of Agra and
Patna, from which he was able to give excellent and very detailed descriptions of
local monuments. His historical sections appear to come from "common report,"
rather than from contemporary Persian chronicles and, therefore, have their own
historical value. The text is illustrated with Mundy's own delightful line drawings
of things he saw.

Pelsaert

Moreland, W. H., and P. Geyl, trans. Jahangir's India, The Remonstrantie of Francisco
Pelsaert. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd., 1925.
Pelsaert was in Agra from 1620 to 1627. As a senior factor for the Dutch East India
Company, he was a subordinate of van den Broecke's. His account was intended as a
commercial report, and seems to be a combination of his own firsthand historical
and linguistic knowledge and material gleaned from contemporary Persian sources.

Roe

Foster, William, ed. The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of the Great Mogul, 1615-
1619, As Narrated in His Journal and Correspondence. 2 vols. London: Hakluyt
Society, 1899.
Roe was in India as the first official ambassador from England to the Mughal court
from August 1615 to February 1619 and with Jahangir's court from January 1616
to August 1618.

Shah Jahan Nama

Begley, W. E., and Z. A. Dcsai, ed. and comp. The Shah Jahan Nama of I nay at Khan.
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Using A. R. Fuller's almost complete translation (1851) of Inayat Khan's Shah
Jahan Nama as a basis, Begley and Desai have produced a fully revised edition.
Inayat Khan's text is an abridged chronicle of the history of Shah Jahan's reign
based on the Padshahnama.

Sribhanucandraganicarita

Desai, Mohanlal Dalichand, ed. Bhanucandra Caritra by His Pupil Gani Siddhicandra
Upadhyaya. Ahmedabad-Calcutta: The Sanchalaka-Singhi Jaina Granthamala,
1941.
This Sanskrit text is both a biography of the great Guru Upadhyaya Bhanucandra
Gani and an autobiography of his student Siddhicandra Upadhyaya. Both Jain
monks were present at the courts of Akbar and Jahangir and give us eyewitness
accounts of intimate events in the inner chambers. Desai's lengthy introduction is
an excellent account of the history of the Jains at court under these two emperors.
378 Selected Bibliography

Taj Mahal

Begley, W. E., and Z. A. Desai, comp. and trans. Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb. An
Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Mughal and European Documentary Sources. Cam-
bridge, Mass. The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture; Seattle and Lon-
don: The University of Washington Press, 1989.

Tavernier

Ball, V., trans., and William Crooke, ed. Travels in India byJean-Bapliste Tavernier, Baron
ofAubonne. Vol. 1. 2d ed. London, Humphrey Milford: Oxford University Press,
1925.
This text was translated from the original French edition of 1676. Tavernier was a
jewel merchant who, in all, made six voyages to India to buy and sell precious and
semiprecious gemstones. His voyages covered the years 1631-67.

Terry

Terry, Edward. A Voyage to East-India. London: J. Wilkie, W. Cater, S. Hayes, E.

Easton, 1777.
This text was reprinted from the edition of 1655. The young Edward Terry had
just arrived in Surat in September of 1616 when he was called upon by Thomas
Roe to be the ambassador's chaplain in the stead of John Hall who had recently
died. Terry remained with Roe and accompanied him back to England in 1619.
The original version of this account was presented to the throne in 1622; subse-
quent versions contained updated information from travelers returning from the
Mughal empire.

Tod

Tod, Lieut.-Col. James. Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or, the Central and Western
Rajpoot States of India. 2 vols. Popular edition. London: George Routledge &
Sons Ltd.; New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1914.
Tod compiled this extensive history of Rajasthan (1782-1835) from his own work
in India.

Tuzuk

Rogers, Alexander, trans., and Henry Beveridge, ed. The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, or Memoirs of
Jahangir. 2 vols. 1909-14. 2d ed. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1968.
Jahangir wrote the memoir himself during the years 1605 to 1622; the years 1622
to 1624 were transcribed from Jahangir by Mutamid Khan; and for the years 1624
to 1627 there is no contemporary text. An eighteenth century addendum by
Muhammad Hadi has been attached to the text, but it is derived primarily from
Mutamid Khan's Iqbalnama. For lengthy discussions of the Jahangiri text, see
E&D 6.276-83 and H. Beveridge, Tuzuk l.v-vii.
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Van den Broecke

Narain, Brij, and Sri Ram Sharma, trans, and ed. A Contemporary Dutch Chronicle of
Mughal India (by Pieter van den Broecke, supposed author). Calcutta: Susil Gupta
(India) Ltd., 1957.
Van den Broecke's chronicle seems to be derived primarily from that of Pelsaert,
his senior factor in Agra with whom he returned to Holland from India in 1627.
Van den Broecke was director of what was officially known as the "Western
Quarters" for Holland, that is, north and west India, Persia, and Arabia.

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 Index

Abdul Qasim Narnakin, 44 and Abul Fax!, 20, 28, 295 n. 1, 296 n, 12, n.
AbdullaKhan, 72, 167, 175 17, n. 18
Abdur Rahim, Kbankhauan, 14, 21, 25, 26, and the arts, 63, 114, 7.47
49, 168, 173, 177, 179, 180, 186, 267, 273, court/camp, 8 10, 12, 64, 106, 107, ?.22, 293
294 n. 47, 299 n. 73, 341 n. 20, 345 n. 143, n. 36, 294 n. 47, 319 n. 63, 323 n. 1.78, 324
n. 144, 353 n. 22.3, 365 n. 126, 376 n. 189, 355 n, 32, 371, 372, 373, 374, 376
Abdur Rahim (Tarbiyat Khan), 125, 330 n. 394 death, 16, 19-24, 284, 298 n. 45, 346 n. 3, n.
Abdur Rahman, 296 n. 19, 31l n. 32 22
Abu Talib Shayista Khan, 267, 268, 270-72, description, 1 1 - 1 2
282 grandson of Babur, 1 1
Abul Fax!, 20, 24, 2,8, 30, 65, 111, 120, 18:,, and Guru Arjun, 27
189, 198, 205, 207, 295 n. 1, 296 n. 12, n honor of mother, 85, 94
17, n. 18, n, 19, 3! 1 n. 32, 373, 374 involvement in Mihrunnisa's marriage, 13-
Abu! Hasan, brother of Mur jahan, 9, 37, 39, 15, 294 n. 41, n. 45
44, 55. See a/so Asaf Khan (TV); Itiqad and Itimaduddaula family, 10, 12, 43-45
Khan in Kashmir, 255
Abul Hasan, painter, 73 224, 3 1 4 n . 87, n. 88, loves Khurram, 48, 50, 12.5
n. 89 and Mauroz, 35
Achabal, 257-58 relations with Saiim/Jahangtr, 20-24, 25, 64,
Achin, 149 68, 74-75, 78, 85, 122, 184-87, 198-99,
Afghan, 75, 173, 174, 188, 298 n. 53 205, 215, 2.52, 2.95 n. 3, 2.96 n. 21, 396-97
Afghanistan, 18), 344 n. 113 n. 27, 2,97-98 n. 41, 346 n. 6
Afim, 315 n. 122 religious tolerance, 23, 117, 118, 12.9, 184,
Africa, 128, 149 185, 189, 191, 195-96, 201, 203, 207-8
Agra, 3, 10, 11, 13, 20, 24-26, 31-34, 36, 38, service to, 12, 95, 122, 171
41, 45, 63, 80, 90, 94, 105, 111, 114, 121, tomb, 189, 198, 238, 2,84. 2.98 n. 45, 299 n.
125, 130, 131, 133, 134, 139, 141, 144, 62, 347 n. 52, 357 n. 102
145, 151, 153, 162, 165, 171, 172, 174-76, wealth, 141
181, 182, 189, 200, 201, 202, 206, 214-16, women, 91, 95-97, 100, 108, 109, 111, 114,
220, 2.2,2, 228, 230, 233-37, 240, 241, 2 4 4 , 121, 123, 124, 177, 226, 244, 245, 287,
245, 248-53, 263, 270, 277, 280, 7.83-36, 296 n. 20, 325 n. 229, 329 n. 366, n. 369
293 n, 15, n. 17, 295 n. 62, n. 7, 298 n. 45, worship of the sun, 40, 74
299 n. 64, 301 n. 117, 302 n. 143, 30.3 n. Akbarnagar, 180
146, 313 n. 72, 316 n. 138, 318 n. 20, 322 Akbarpur, 196
n, 141, 344 n. 113, 348 n. 64, n. 72, 349 n, Aldworthe, Thomas, 130, 134
128, 351 n. 172, n. 178, 353 n. 193, 353, n. Ali, 210, 328 n.. 333
233, 358 n. 13, n. 22, n. 30. 367 n. 83, 369 Ali Quli Khan Isajlu. See also Slier Algan
n. 112, 377 death, 16
Agra Fort, 38, 70, 89, 91, 250, 553 n. 233, 370 marriage to Mihrumusa, 1 3 - 1 8
n. 143 posted to Bengal, 15
Ahadi, 95, 2.61, 269, 271, 272 receives title Sher Afgan, 16
Ahmad Beg Khan Kabuli, 44, ISO Turkish background and service, 14, 15, 16,
Ahmadnagar, 168, 170, 180, 2 7 ) , 375 18
Ahmedabad, 11, 134, 141. 17/, 220, 251, 264 Ali Rai, 126
Ajmcr, 134, 139, 177, 1 8 4 , 185, 137, 189-91, Allah, 186, 2,09, 350 n. 144
193, 203, 204-6, 213, 251, 270, 276, 284, Allahabad, 19, 20, 21, 25, 124, 171, 172, 180,
352. n. 193 185, 198, 205, 207, 22/1, 295 n. 5, 329 n.
Akbar, 3, 6, ! 1 369, 333 n 233, 355 n. 30, n, 32

391
392 Index

Allahabad Khan, 167 and the Portuguese, 143, 334 n. 121

Amar Singh, 50 promoted at time of Nur Jahan's marriage,
Amba Khan, 28, 300 n. 87 37,43, 304 n. 175
Ambar, 114, 115 receives Jahangimama, 55, 224
Amber, 124, 149 and Shah Jahan, 37, 49, 55, 165, 167, 175-
American, 146 77, 181, 182, 275, 279-84, 286, 309 «.
Amir, 72, 97, 126, 167, 295 n. 62, 352 n. 208 150, 364-65 n. 121, 366 n. 28
Amir ul-umara, 32 Ashrama, 207
Anarkali (Nadira Banu Begam; Sharifunnisa), Asia, 64, 65, 74, 111, 128, 129, 141, 144-47,
123-25, 329 n. 366, n. 369, 355 n. 30 284
Andha Nag, 254 AsirFort, 178, 181
Anglican, 199 Askari, 121, 122
Ani Rai Singh Dalan, 208, 330 n. 401, 352 n. Asmat Begam
203 attar of roses, 114-15
Animal slaughter, 68, 192, 193, 195-96, 198- death, 85, 165, 183, 231, 234
99,205, 349 n. 127, 350 n. 144 at death of Sher Afgan, 31
Anne, 141, 153 family, 9, 12, 45, 116, 180, 214, 289, 313 n.
Apurva, elephant, 24, 298 n. 42 79
Aqa Aqayam, 95, 114 flees Persia to India, 8, 9, 10
Aqa Mulla, 9, 44 gives birth to Mihrunnisa, 9, 292 n. 8
Aqa Riza, 224, 355 n. 30 Ataliq, 177
Arabia, 121, 128, 131 Attock, 75, 268, 269, 271
Arabian Sea, 128, 129 Aurangzeb, 35, 50, 96, 99, 100, 102, 104, 114,
Arabic, 227 171, 181, 254, 256, 281, 319 n. 40, n. 47,
Araq, 77, 315 n. 118 321 n. 119, 322 n. 134, 326 n. 267, 327 n.
Arjumand Banu Begam 293, n. 297, 370 n, 143
daughter of Abul Hasan/Asaf Khan, 39, 51 Azam Khan, 282
death, 49, 51,94 Aziz Khan, 173
entombed in Taj Mahal, 39, 49, 233, 285, Azix Khan Koka. See Mirza Aziz Khan Koka
286, 320 n. 102
and Khurram/Shah Jahan, 39, 51, 164, 320 Babul, 315 n. 118
n. 79 Babur, 11,90-91,97, 111, 114, 187,244,248,
receives title Malika-i Jahan, 94 318 n. 20, 320 n. 91, 344 n. 103, 358 n. 18,
receives title Mumtaz Mahal, 39, 94 359 n. 37, 368 n. 104
at Shah Jahan's accession, 284 Bada Batashewala Mahal, 235-38
Arjun. See Guru Arjun Badauni, 19, 40, 117
Armenian, 66 Badla, 222
Asaf Khan (IV). See also Abul Hasan; Itiqad Badrunnisa Begam, 100
Khan Bagh-i Bahar Ara, 255
appointed to Bengal, 179 Bahadur Shah, 370 n. 143
appointed as vakil, 182 Bahlwan, 166
buildings, 228 Bairam Beg, 179, 345 n. 144
bypassed in inheritance, 82-83, 110, 167, Bairam Kala, 278
342 n. 46 Bairam Khan, 25, 244, 294 n. 47, 296 n. 20,
daughter Arjumand Banu Begam, 39, 51, 60, 299 n. 73
165, 167, 309 n. 150 Bajwaral, 271
death, 240, 242, 286 Bakhshi, 24, 261, 373
at death of mother, 85, 165 Balaghat, 181
and the English, 60, 137, 139, 142, 143, Baluchpur, 177, 178, 181,261
152-55, 157, 161, 309 n. 125, n. 128, 310 Banarasi, 279, 283
n. 160, 334 n. 121, 334-35 n. 125 Baniya, 93, 141, 144, 195, 196, 198
given title in 1614, 37, 44, 55 Bantim, 149
and Khusrau, 57-58, 164, 168-72, 309 n. Baoli, 114
146, 343 n. 91 Baqir Khan, 177, 264
and Mahabat Khan, 263, 264, 266-74, 344 Baradan, 231, 241, 246, 247, 249, 255, 256,
n. 113, 361 n. 22, 362 n. 36, n. 40, 363 n. 357n. 116
64, 364 n. 105, n. 116, n. 121, 365 n. 129 Baramula, 193
as member of junta, 37, 48, 55-56, 59-61, Barddhaman, 17, 24, 27-29, 31, 32, 180, 188,
73, 162 211, 300 n. 89
against Nur Jahan, 278-84, 365 n. 128, 367 Baroda, 134
n. 56, 368 n. 102 Bayana, 145,244
 Index 393

Bayasanghar (Don Carlo), 201, 282, 368 n. 89, Central Asia, 95, 161,218
n. 102 Chadar, 92, 247
Bazaar gossip, 13, 30-31, 36, 103, 104, 207, Chaghatai, 11, 297 n. 36
281, 292 n. 8, 294 n. 45, 305 n. 5, 322 n. Chahar chanar, 255
141, 376, 377. See also Oral traditions Chain of Justice, 70, 74, 313 n. 69
Bega Begam, 324 n. 206 Chajja, 231, 233, 237
Begam, 18, 122, 318 n. 20 Chak, 330 n. 403
Benares, 144, 361 n. 33 Champa, 66, 67
Bengal, 15, 17, 18, 21, 24, 25-27, 29, 30, 38, Chand Bibi, 3
39, 44, 98, 111, 146, 151, 173, 180, 182, Charbagh, 231, 237, 241, 246, 250-52, 257,
188, 211, 264, 273, 277, 283, 298 n. 53, 359 n. 37
300 n. 89, 313 n. 79. 361 n. 31, n. 33, 372, Chardara (Nurpur), 256
376 Chenab River, 26, 272
Bengali Mahal, 91 China, 149, 376
Bernier, Francois, 47, 99, 102, 103, 104-5, Chinese porcelain, 52, 145, 235
107, 118, 192, 254, 256-59, 372 Chingaz Hatli, 278,279, 283
Best, Thomas, 60, 133-34, 137, 148, 224, 332 Chingaz Sarai, 284, 369 n. 115
n. 47, 372 Chingi/Khan, 11,26
Beveridge, Annette S., 38, 65, 88, 94, 118, 120 Chishti, 187-91, 204, 211, 353 n. 223. See also
Beveridge, Henry, 64, 88, 171, 244, 249, 315 n. Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti; Shaikh Salim
116 Chishti
Bhang, 327 n. 293, n. 297 Christ. See Jesus Christ
Bhanucandra (Guru Upadhyaya), 195-97, 206 Christian, 23, 64, 66, 68, 85, 86, 94, 137, 142,
Bharat Singh, 277 186, 191, 200-203, 210, 212, 214-17, 312
Bhimbar, 278, 279, 281, 282, 367 n. 58 n. 50, 352 n. 194, 368 n. 102
Bhutan, 111, 151 Christianity, 5, 86, 117, 199-203, 206, 317 n.
Bibi Akbarabadi, 114 197, 351 n. 173, n. 174, 353 n. 224. See
Bibi Fatima, 95 also Jesus Christ; Madonna
Bible, 225 Chuwa, 114
Bichitr, 314 n. 90, 348 n. 66 Clothing, 21, 24, 63, 111-12, 149-50, 218,
Bickford, James, 153 219, 221-22, 226, 326 n. 245, n. 249, 354
Biddulph, William, 130 n. 24. See also Textiles
Bigha, 196 Coach, 53, 108, 146, 324 n. 194, 337 n. 202,
Bihar, 173, 180 340 n. 302
Bihar Banu Begam, 126 Cocks, Richard, 145
Bihroz, 269 Coins, 40, 43, 46, 148, 219-21, 287, 295 n. 5,
Bijapur, 121, 168, 180, 375 306 n. 32, n. 44, 354 n. 6, n. 8, n. 12, n.
Bika Begam, 114, 244 14, 356 n. 62
Bikaner, 126, 197 Zodiac, 46, 80, 220, 306 n. 32, 316 n. 146,
Bilqis Makani, 94, 125. See also Jagat Gosaini 354 n. 14
Hindu, 112 Concubines. See Women
Bir Singh Deo, 20, 24 Corsi, Father Francisco, 200, 351 n. 172
Blinding, 33-34, 302 n. 129, n. 131, n. 137 Coryat, Thomas, 57, 70, 85, 103, 141, 164,
Borneo, 149 184, 189,205, 206, 332 n. 41
Brahman, 177, 192, 193
Broach, 134 Dacca, 180
Brown, Michael, 157, 159 Dahra Bagh, 125, 249-50, 358 n. 30, 369 n.
Brown, Percy, 238, 285 112. See also Nur Manzil
Browne, John, 152, 153 Dal Lake, 255-57
Bukhara, 173 Daman, 331 n. 19, 350-51 n. 166
Bulaqi. See Dawar Bakhsh Dana, 120
Bundela, 20, 126, 311 n. 31 Daniyal, 123, 329 n. 366
Burhanpur, 11, 49, 134, 139, 141, 170-72, children of, 94, 97, 100, 126, 201, 202, 269,
179, 180, 181, 188, 196, 201, 263, 270, 272, 282-84, 312 n. 50, 351 n. 172, 368 n.
315 n. 114 102, n. 107
death, 19,23,75, 315 n. 114
Calicut, 146, 336 n. 170 Dara Shikoh, 104, 181, 281, 319 n. 47, 321 n.
Cambay, 71, 129, 133, 134, 139, 196, 201 119
Canning, Lancelot, 134 Darbar, 35, 215
Canning, Paul, 134 Darogha, 95
Cartaz (pass), 128-30, 150-51 Darogha Bagh, 255
394 indc-.

Darya K h a n , (74 298 n 42, 299 n 75, 312 n. 40, 313 n. 79,
Das, Ashok Kumar, 63, 64, 1 5 1 , 224 321 n, 112. 324 n. 186, n. 189, n. 190, 351
Dasiar ul-amal, 68 n. 172, 361 n, 33, 362 n. 40
Dasuha, 271 Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 13?
Danlaf Khan, 353 n. 233 Eikingtou, Thomas. 131
Dawar Bakhsh (Bulaqi), 177, 269, 275, 277- English, 47, 56, 60, 65, 72, 101, 108, 113, 128
84, 366 n 20, 367 n. 56, n. 58, n. 60, n. 60, 164, 179, 199, 215, 224, 225, 250, 251,
62, 368 n. 102, n. 106 263, 311 n. 50, 331 n. 16, n. 30, 332 n. 32,
De Castro, Father Joseph, 200, 212 n. 35, n. 36, n. 41, 340 n. 302, n. 8, 377
De Laet, Joannes, 30, 32, 55, 260, 264, 270, Escheat, 82- 83, 110, 141, 167, 325 n. 221, 341
277, 284, 285, 294 n. 41, 302 n, 146, 372 n. 42, n. 43, 342 n. 45
IXcapitaiion, 20, 26, 28 Eumsch, 66, 89, 93, 98-99, 102, 104-7, 257,
Dcccan, 19, 20, 49, 50, 51, 58, 109, 111, 124, 271, 312 n. 40, 320 n. 75, n. 98, n. 101, n.
144, 161, 163, 167-70, 172-75, 179-82, 102, 321 n. 106, n. 112, 322 n. 132, 322-
210, 261, 263, 270, 275 77, 279, 280, 283, 23 n. 148, 323 n. 154, n. 161, 327 n. 297
311 n, 23, 315 n. 114, 342 n. 51, 358 n.30, Europe, 35, 85, 93, 105, 111, 113, 128, 144,
365 n. 11 146, 160, 199, 214, 225, 284, 376
Delhi, 11, 114, 176, 177, 191, 229, 235, 245, European, 4, 40, 46, 56, 63, 65, 84, 86, 103,
251, 273, 277, 293 n. 17, 299 n. 66, 365 n. 104, 130, 144-47, 149, 152, 157-59, 170,
129 196, 206, 224, 311 n. 30
Delia Valie, Pietro, 30, 34, 55, 40, 5 1, 81, 1 18, European art, 147, 215-16, 218, 224. 25 1, 351
126, 156, 164, 170, 175, 182, 215, 372 n. 178, 353 -54 n. 242, 354s, 11, 355 n.
Dervishes, 18°, 189, 244 30, n. 36. See also Painting; Pictures
Devi, 215, 216 European sources ami travelers, 6, 7, 10, 11,
Dbolpur, 111, 174-75, 181, 344 n. 103 30, 31, 118, 123, 219, 250, 287, 305 n. 5,
Dila Rani, 319 n. 69 319 n. 47, 343 n. 85, 372
Dildar, 97, 320 n. 91
Dirham, 71, 313 n. 31 Factory system, 129. 133, 134, 137, 142, 143,
Diu, 153 152, 159, 179, 372, 377
Divali, 120, 192 Falanja, 114
Diivan, 12, 13, 25 32, 33, 44, 167, 224, .301 n. Far East, 93
122 f-ammn, 43,46, 84, 87, 122-23, 133, i37, 152,
Diwan-tam, 38, 256 159, 195, 196, 197, 199, 221, 264, 270,
Diwan-i buyuiai, 12, 24 283, 284, 295 n. 9, 344 n. 99
Diwan-i kbits, 256, 353 n. 233 Fauh-i chundum, 222
Diwan-i kul, 44, 167 Farzandi, 56
Diyanat K h a n , 33, 167 Faichpur Sikri, 8, 10, 12, 121, 176, 177, 185,
Dow, Alexander, 9, 10, l4-15, 16, 29, 36, 46, 187, 229, .300 n. 89
55, 56, 89, 94, 95, 99, 169, 171, 133, 260, Iwhjang. Set Ibrabini X h a n
263, 269, 285, 292 n. 9, 298 n. 53 f'aujdar, 271
Oownton, Nicholas, 136 Fidai Khan (Sulaiman Beg), 264-66. 268, 277,
Du Jarric, Father Pierre, 12, 23, 85, 186, 214, 361 n. 26
215, 313 K. 69, 372 I'ihmiya, 77, 315 n. 122
Dv.du.mi, 222 finch, William, 21, 33, 95, 113, i.23, 150, 201,
Durga, 193, 204, 216 214, 284, 287, 326 n. 245, 329 n. 366, n.
Dust Muhammad (Kruvaja Jahau), 89, 248, 358 369
n. 22 Fiqh, 209
Dutch, 13, 30, 36, 55, 105, 150, 1 3 1 , 144, 170, Florence, 231
199, 224, 228, 250, 268, 280, 283, 302 n. Firms, Peier, 379
146, 375 Flowers/iruils, 112, 1 1 4 - 1 5 , 2 18, 222, 237,
241, 244, 246-49, 2 5 1 - 5 5 , 258, 259, 287,
East India Company (Daich), 372, 377 327 n. 290, 358 n. 14, See also (Gardens
East India Company (English), 129, 130, 133, Foster, William. 171, 329 n, 366
134, 136, 141, 143, 145, 147-49, 152, 153, French, 104, 147, 372
155-57, 159, 160, 224, 303 n. 151, 372,
375 Ganga Bai, 123
Edwards, William, 150, 136, 142, 148, 155, Ganges River, 180
224, 310 n. 165, 339 n. 254 Gardens, 3, 46, 91, 110, 114, 147, 218, 228,
Elephants, 24,28, 3l, 41, 50, 51, 55, 63, 67, 237,238,241, 244-59, 277, 284, 301 n.
71, 75, 78, 104, 107, 108, 110, 116, 126, 114, 318 n. 20, n. 27, 324 n. 206, 344 n.
148, 169,219,253, 2 6 4 , 2 6 5 , 2 6 7 , 2 7 3 , 103. Sac -also Flowers/fruits
 Index 395

Achabal, 257-58 Gulazar Begam, 91, 121

Bagh-i Bahar Ara, 255 Gulbadan Begam, 6, 90, 97, 112, 113, 116,
Darogha Bagh, 255 117, 120, 121, 126,216
Khusrau Bagh, 171 Gulf of Cambay, 129
Mandakar, 244, 327 n. 276 Gulkan, 242
Mod Bagh, 230, 250-51 Guru Arjun, 27, 299 n. 78
Nawal Ganj, 230, 250 Gwalior Fort, 167, 204, 208
Nur Afshan, 41, 248-50, 358 n. 18, n. 22
Nur Afza, 255-56 Haiiz, 224
Nur Mahal Sarai, 41, 82, 114, 176, 219, 222, Haidar Malik, 28, 31-32, 255 -56, 259, 300 n.
223, 228-30, 246, 356 n. 58, n. 62, n. 64, 90, 301 n. 114
n. 67 Haji Begam, 121
Nur Marml, 41, 114, 249-50, 284, 358 n. HajiKoka, 319 n. 69
22, 369 n. 112. See also Dahra Bagh Hajipur, 32
paradise garden, 246, 257 Hajj, 120, 121
Shahdara, 240-43, 251-52, 281, 285, 369 n, Hakim Abul Path, 33, 315 n. 120
127 Hakim Abul Qasim, 162
Shalamar, Dal Lake, 256-57 Hakim Beg (Hakim Khan), 45
tomb of Itimaduddaula, 114, 166, 222, 230- Hakim Humam, 315 n. 120
38,241-43,251-52,357n. 115 Hakirn Nuruddin, 167
lomb of Nur Jahan, 18, 114, 239-43, 275, Hakim Ruhullah, 82, 162
287, 357 n. 119, 358 n. 120 Hakim Rukria, 162
Vernag, 252-54, 258-59, 285 Hakirn Sadra, 34, 162, 341 n, 14
Garshasp, 284 Hall, John, 137
Gascoigne, Barnbcr, 66, 104, 108, 235, 285, Hamida Banu Begam, 88, 93, 97, 117, 123,
286 213. See also Maryarn Makani
Gastos, 320 n. 79 Hammam, 256
Gemstones, 35, 49-50, 51, 53, 56, 66, 106, Haram, 12.2
107, 110-12, 120, 141, 144, 146-50, 155, Harem, 6, 24, 32-34, 36, 46, 49, 50, 55, 56,
157, 165, 170, 189, 202, 215, 221, 231-33, 80, 88, 90, 91, 93-101, 104-10, 112, 113,
235, 269, 310 n. 5, 316 n. 138, 325 n. 229, 116-18, 120, 121, 123, 126-28, 132, 183,
326 n. 250, re. 251, 328 n. 329, 336 n. 183, 206, 207, 212, 213, 245, 249, 296 n. 26,
n. 184, 337 n. 207, n. 208, 341 n. 42, 342 318 n. 8, n. 2,0, n. 27, 319 n. 42, 320 n. 79,
n. 45, 344 n. 106, 357 n. 119 321 n. 125, 322 n. 132, n. 138, 325 n. 212,
Georgia, 146, 327 n. 297 327 n. 290, n. 297. See also Mahal;
Ghari, 77 Women; Zanuna
Ghazi, 267 Hari Parbat Fort, 255-56
Gifts, 60-61, 109-10, 129, 139, 143, 146-49, Hasan, Nurui, 43
152-56, 158, 159, 201, 204, 248, 303 n. Hauda, 107-8, 116, 265, 267, 324
152, 306 n. 29, n. 36, 310 n. 165, n. 166, n. 190
n. 170, 313-14 n. 84, 324-25 n. 211, 333 Hauz, 246-47
n. 68, 336 n. 182, n. 183, 337 n. 189, 339 Hauz-i jahangiri, 3 8
n, 249, n. 254, 354 n. 25, 368 n. 100 Havan, 120
Giranbar, elephant, 24 Hawkins, William, 21, 30, 33, 38, 46, 56, 64,
Globe, 375 66, 67, 70, 93, 94, 118, 125, 133, 136,
Goa, 129, 130, 137, 153, 200, 201, 215, 336 n. 141-43, 154, 155, 164, 165, 201-3, 214,
170, 375 284, 352 n. 194
Gobindwal, 27 Hazrat Mian Mir, 109
Goes, Brother Bendicl, 44, 293 n. 36 Hector, 133, 145
Gol Mandal, 357 n. 85 Himalayas, 75, 252, 253
Golconda, 168, 179, 180 Hiridal. See Mirza Hiridal
Gopal Das, 178 Hindi, 41,74, 112
Gosain Jadrup, 192-94, 203-4 Hindu/Hinduism, 11, 13, 19, 66, 102, 162,
Govardhan, 42 198, 201, 203, 204, 215, 226, 2.56, 279,
Guerreiro, Father Fernao, 12, 23, 33, 185, 186, 286, 376
200, 202, 214, 293 n. 36, 373 arts and crafts, 142, 145, 150, 158, 330 n.
Gujarat, 44, 50, 77, 91, 128, 131, 133, 134, 141, 394
143, 168, 173, 175, 177, 179, 195-97, 201, caste system, 66, 71, 191-93
221,253,276,283,284, 365 n. 11, 373 charity, 120
Gul Afshan, 248 consort images, 5, 213, 216, 217
Gulalbar, 106 doctors, 82, 105, 323 n. 159
396 Index

Hindu/Hinduism (continued) buildings, 228

festivals/rituals, 118, 120, 121, 192, 193, charges of embezzlement against, 32-33, 37,
257, 258, 329 n. 346. See also Sati 38, 45, 55, 166, 264, 301 n. 121, n. 124
food, 109 death, 82, 110, 165-67, 183
holy men, esp. Gosain Jadrup, 191-94, 204 during 1606 revolt of Khusrau, 26, 229 n. 64
icons/idolatry, 66, 191, 192, 193-95, 219, and the English, 59, 308 n. 102, 309 n. 125,
225, 229 310n. 160
intoxicants, 115 family, 292 n. 8
sun worship, 40 gives kind favors, 32, 53-55, 167, 244
temples, 191-93, 256-58 grandfather to Arjumand Banu Begam, 39,
theology, 193 289
women, 37, 87, 94, 99, 111, 112, 117, 118, honored at Jahangir's accession, 24, 44, 301
120, 121, 124-26, 177, 213, 216, 217, 219, n. 124, 304 n. 172
225, 245, 317n. 182 as member of junta, 48, 53-55, 57-59, 73,
Hiran Minar, 238 162, 165, 341 n. 36
Holi, 118-20, 192, 328 n. 329 and Nur Jahan, 35, 303 n. 146
Holland, 158 power of family, 43-45, 49, 51, 101, 289,
Hoshang (Don Henrico), 201, 272, 283, 284, 304 n. 173
368 «. 102 promoted at Mihrunnisa's marriage to
Hoshang Shah, 233 Jahangir, 37-39, 44, 301-2 n. 124, 304 n.
Hoshiyar Khan, 271 172, n. 184
Hukm, 123 receives Jahangirnama, 55, 224
Humayun, 6, 24, 88, 93, 95, 97, 111, 116, 121, receives title, 24, 44, 304 n. 172
122, 216, 229, 235, 321 n. 125, 324 n. 206, receives title Madarulmulk, 53
347 n. 52, 371 son to assassinate Jahangir, 33, 45
Humayunnama, 6, 90, 301 n. 117 tomb, 114, 166, 222, 230-38, 241-43, 251-
Huqqa, 115 52, 357 n. 115
Husain Beg, 25, 26 Itiqad Khan, 37, 39, 44, 55. See also Abul
Husain Chak, 126 Hasan; Asaf Khan (IV)
Hyderabad, 221 Itiqad Khan (Shapur), 44, 292 n. 8

Ibrahim Husain, 235 Jadrup. See Gosain Jadrup

Ibrahim Khan (Fathjang), 45, 180, 313 n. 79 Jadu, 38, 133, 141-44, 155
Ibrahim Lodi Afghan, 11 Jafa, Jyoti, 16
Id, 47, 188, 226, 328 n. 333 Jafar Beg, Asaf Khan (III), 12, 44
Iffat Banu, 126 Jafar Khan, 102, 110, 322 n. 134, 325 n. 223
Imam Quli Khan, 122, 306 n. 36 Jafari, 257
Inayat Khan, 75 Jagat Gosaini (Jodh Bai), 49, 116-17, 124-26,
Indigo, 129, 131, 145, 146, 149, 151, 336 n. 162, 311 n. 31. See also Bilqis Makani
166 Jagat Singh, 126, 179,311 n. 31
Indra, 311 n. 15 Jagir, 2 0 , 2 4 , 2 5 , 2 7 , 9 6 , 111, 123, 151, 174,
Intikhab-i Jahangir-Shahi, 34, 47, 263 175, 180, 181, 268, 295 n. 9, 325 n. 243,
Iqbalnama, 10, 12, 19, 30, 36, 43, 44, 120, 123, 342 n. 45
161, 260, 265, 268, 269, 279, 282, 286, Jagjot, elephant, 55
293 n. 36, 294 n. 59, 304 n. 183, 373, 374. Jagu.li, 221
See also Mutamid Khan Jahanara (Sahibatuzzamani), 94, 99, 103, 107,
Iradat Khan, 279, 281, 282, 367 n. 56 109, 110, 111, 113-15, 123, 284, 322 n.
Iran, 224, 237, 258, 353 n. 223 132, 327 n. 297
Iraq, 173, 292 n. 5 Jahandar, 79
Irij Khan, 376 Jahangir. See also Salim
Isfahan, 8, 121 ability to rule, 63-67, 311 n. 23, n. 24
Ishtadevata, 120 and Abul Fazl, 20,24, 30,65,296 n. 12, n. 19
Islam, 11, 23, 37, 86, 99, 110, 115, 129, 186, accession to throne, 12, 16, 19-24, 25, 40,
188, 196, 201, 204-10, 212-14, 286, 346 44, 68, 69, 86, 98, 182, 199, 205, 209, 294
n. 7, 351 n. 174. See also Muslim n. 59, 297 n. 33, n. 36, 346 n. 8
Islam Khan (Shaikh Alauddin), 32, 187, 204 on AH Quli/Sher Afgan, 14, 16, 24-25, 27-
Italy, 146, 231 28, 300 n. 83, n. 84, n. 87, 355 n. 32
ItibarKhan, 176, 177, 182 and the arts, 63-65, 93, 355 n. 36
Itimaduddaula. See also Mirza Ghiyas Beg bestows title Sher Afgan, 16, 294 n. 58
allowed among unveiled women, 55, 90, 104, building projects, 93, 114, 356 n. 57
109, 167 charity, 185, 188-90
 Index 397

and Chishtis, 187-88. See also Shaikh 209, 215, 252, 255, 295 re. 3, 296 re. 21,
Muinuddin Chishti 297-98 n. 41, 346 n. 6
and Christianity, 199-203, 212, 214, 351 n. religious tolerance, 129, 184, 185, 191,201,
174, n. 175, n. 178, n. 182, 353 n. 224 203-5,348 re. 85
coinage, 219-21, 316 n. 146, 354 n. 6, n. 8 response to salt, 118, 349 re. 112
cruelty, 62, 66-68, 199, 205, 217, 312 n. 40, role of Naqshbandis in accession, 22-24,
351n. 174 186-87, 207-8, 346 re. 8, 346-47 re. 22
death, 13, 18, 45, 251-52, 258-59, 278-79, and Shahryar, 49, 66, 68, 164-65, 312 re. 49,
283, 287, 366 n. 46, 369 n. 115, 369-70 n. re. 50
140, 370 n. 143, 373 and Shaikh Salim Chishti, 119-20
and deaths of Qutbuddin and Sher Afgan, sickness, 38, 83, 162-63, 168, 170, 175, 189,
27-31 204, 205, 253-54, 277-78, 343 n. 87
drinking and drug habits, 3, 19, 57, 63, 75- and signs and portents, 79-80, 118-20, 316
79, 81, 83-84, 115, 119, 162-63, 167, re. 148, re. 153
253, 278, 297 n. 40, 307 n. 70, 310 n. 10, silence on blinding of Khusrau, 34, 65, 67,
311 n. 15, 315 n. 116, n. 120, n. 122, n. 205, 302 n. 129
123, n. 129, 316 n. 138 silence on marriage to Nur Jahan, 37-40, 65,
and the English, 65, 108, 133, 134, 136, 137, 311 n. 31
139, 147, 154, 155, 157-59, 310 n. 156, and Sirhindi, 188, 203-4, 208-9, 352re.202,
311 n. 30, 332 n. 41, n. 47 n. 208, re. 213
handing of power over to Nur Jahan, 46-48 and sisters, 97, 122
and Hinduism, 118, 119, 142, 191-95, 328 1611 meeting of Nur Jahan, 3, 35-37, 45,
n. 329, 375-76 86, 155, 302 n. 143, n. 146, 304 n. 183,
and hunting, 57, 75, 106, 109, 116-17, 155, 330 n. 410
221, 245, 278, 314 n. 101 1607 assassination plot against, 33, 301 n.
and Islam, 188-92 122, re. 123, 302 n. 125, re. 126
and Itimaduddaula, 51, 53-55, 90, 166 and 1606 rebellion of Khusrau, 25-27, 197,
"Jahangin itr," 115 205, 298-99 re. 62, 299 n. 73, re. 75, 307 n.
and Jainism, 195-98, 206-7, 322 n. 137 64
and the junta, 56, 59, 61, 65 and 1622 rebellion of Shah Jahan, 142, 161,
in Kashmir, 253-59 172-83, 199, 205, 270, 340 re. 8, 342 re. 47,
and Khusrau, 49, 57, 68, 168-72, 186-87, 343 re. 87
199, 205, 296-97 n. 27, 342 n. 51, 343 n. and Spain, 333 re. 68
85, n. 91, 350 n. 145 stories of early meetings with and love for
love of justice, 62, 68-72, 205, 217, 269, 313 Mihrunnisa, 13-16, 28-32, 39, 301 re.
n. 69, n. 71, n. 72, n. 79, n. 81 117, 302 re. 146, 308 n. 87, 330 n. 410
love of Madonna pictures, 23, 85-86, 147, succession fight at his death, 61, 279-84, 367
212-16, 353-54 n. 242 re. 56, n. 58, n. 59, re. 60, re. 62, re. 83, re.
and Mahabat Khan, 20, 176-77, 260-74, 86, 368 re. 99, re. 102, re. 104, n. 106, re.
360 re. 1, 361 n. 12, n. 22, n. 31, 362 re. 40, 107, n. 108
n. 45, n. 53, 363 n. 77, 364 n. 105, n. 113, sun imagery, 40-41, 71, 74, 185, 313 n. 72,
re. 121, 366n. 31 n. 77
memoirs, Tuzuk-i Jahangin, 4, 6, 7, 30, 38, takes name Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir
41, 55, 64, 82, 83, 162, 170, 178, 186, Padshah Ghazi, 24, 40, 279, 298 re. 46, 314
191, 193, 197, 198, 203, 211, 224, 248-50, n. 85
253, 315 n. 116, n. 123 tomb, 240-43, 251-52, 281, 284-87, 357 re.
and mother, 94, 105, 130, 150, 177-78, 191, 109, n. 115, 369 n. 115, n. 129
216. See also Maryamuzzamani vow of non-violence, 116, 192, 195-96, 198-
nature of relationship with Nur Jahan, 4, 5, 99, 203-5, 209, 296 n. 19, 349 n. 127, 350
80-87, 306 n. 25, 316 n. 164 n. 144,n. 145
no children with Nur Jahan, 18, 79, 98 wealth, 108, 141, 150, 280, 342 n. 46
other marriages, 38, 81, 93, 117, 123-26, and women of harem, 89, 90, 91, 93-96,
303 re. 169, 304 re. 170, 311 re. 31, 329 re. 100-101,111-13
373, 330 re. 409,351 n. 173 Jahangin, 40
and Parviz, 276-77 Jahangvmama, 55, 224
and the Portuguese, 23, 86, 130, 131, 147, Jain, 87, 103, 104, 112, 195-99, 203, 205-7,
199, 212,214, 317 n. 197 209, 286, 349 n. 128. See also
refusal to execute Khusrau, 33, 49, 67, 302 Shvetambara; Siddhicandra
n. 126 Jaisalmer, 125,270, 311 n. 31
relationship with Akbar, 25, 64, 68, 74-75, Jalandhar, 41, 114, 222, 223, 228-30, 246, 356
78, 122, 184-86, 191, 195, 198-99, 205, n. 64
398 Index

James I, King of England, 60, 134, 136, 142, Khanain, 319 n. 54

154, 159, 303 n. 151 Khandesh, 126, 175
Jami mosque, 185, 347 n. 50 Kharikhanan. See Abdur Rahirn
Jammu, 257, 258 Khanzada Begam, 122
Japan, 60, 149 Khazana, 306 n. 32
Jesuits, 12, 23, 86, 94, 129, 130, 133, 154, 185, Khichri, 184, 205, 347 n. 49
186, 199, 200-202, 212, 214, 224, 307 n. Khirki, 170
64, 317 n. 197, 331 n. 19, 334 n. 121, 339 Khizr Khan Hazara, 126
n. 249, 350 n. 149, 351 n. 175, 355 n. 30, Khurasan, 8, 173, 2.92 n. 5
372-73,376 Khurram. See also Shah Jahan
Jesus Christ, 23, 85-86, 129, 147, 202, 203, and Arjumand Banu Begam, 39-40, 49, 51,
210, 212, 214-16, 224, 225, 351 n. 182. 94, 308 n. 87, n. 88
See also Christianity; Madonna birth, 125
Jharoka, 46, 70-71, 74, 80, 313 n. 71, n. 72 under care of Ruqayya Sultan Begam, 32,
Jhelum River, 258, 260, 264, 265, 267, 272 97-98, 301 n. 119
Jiddah, 150 description, 49-50
Jizym, 196 drinking habit, 79, 307 n. 70, n. 71, 316 n.
Jodhpur, 124 141
Joshi, M. C., 235-38 and Ladli Begam, 51
Jotik Rai, 80, 120, 125 loved by Akbar, 48, 50, 125, 182
Junnair, 283 as member of junta, 48, 49-53, 59, 189, 301
Junta, 37, 43-61, 65, 132, 139, 142, 143, 152, n. 119
153, 155, 156-57, 158, 161-83, 204, 205, mother Jagat Gemini, 49, 125
210-11, 217, 224, 301 n. 119, 305 n. 1, n, receives title Shah Jahan, 51
3, n. 5, n. 11, 314 n. 92, 328 n. 315 third son of Jahangir, 32, 125, 307 n. 77, n.
Junta debate, 43-45, 305 n. 5 78
Jusat, 114 Khushruz, 36, 303 n. 160
Khusrau
Kabul, 12, 13, 26, 27, 33, 108, 114, 115, 125, birth, 124
126, 244, 254, 260, 261, 264, 265, 270, blessed by Guru Arjun, 27
271, 301 n. 123, 359 n. 60, 364 n. 95 blinding, 33-34, 65, 170, 205, 261, 280, 302
Kabul River, 106 n. 129, n. 131, n. 137
Kajawa, 108 description, 48-49, 296 n. 25
Kali, 5, 215-17 imprisoned, 51, 57, 58, 164, 308 n. 90
Kalyan, 67, 31 In. 31 and Jahangir, 33, 49
Kama, 245 mother, 21, 115, 124, 171, 296 n. 26, 329 n.
Kamgar Khan, 20, 81, 275, 373 374, 330 n. 381, 343 n. 84
Kandahar, 3, 8, 9, 12, 14, 27, 64, 173-76, 181, move to replace Salim as heir to Akbar, 16,
343 n. 91, 344 n. 113 19-.24, 25, 45, 48, 115, 122, 123, 186-87,
Kangra, 166, 167 296 n. 26, 296-97 n. 27, 297 n. 33, n. 36,
Karamsi, 125 n. 41, 298 n. 44, 346 n. 22
Karan. See Raja Karan Singh problem for junta, 56-58, 84, 122, 308 n. 91,
Karma, 376 309 n. 131, n. 133, n. 146
Karnatic, 63 pro-Christian, 23, 61, 142, 186, 296 n. 25,
Kashmir, 3, 28, 32, 63, 75, 95, 104-5, 109, 307 n. 64
115, 126, 144, 162, 163, 166, 179, 180, rejects Ladli Begarn in marriage, 18, 51, 57,
188, 193, 204, 205, 212, 230, 238, 239, 164, 168, 308 n. 90, n. 91
244, 246-49, 251, 252-59, 277, 278, 285, relation to Mirza Aziz Koka, 21, 25, 122,
300 n. 87, 301 n. 114, 323 n. 161, 330 n. 171, 186
403, 358 n. 14, n. 22, 359 n. 44, n. 50, n. 1607 assassination attempt on Jahangir, 33,
60 34,44,45, 57
Keridge, Thomas, 144, 148, 149, 153, 225 1606 rebellion against Jahangir, 25-27, 33,
Khadija, 5, 213-14 34, 44, 57, 106, 122, 186-87, 197, 208,
Khadija Begam, Nur Jahan's sister, 45, 281, 292 n. 8, 298-99 n. 62, 299 n. 72, n. 73, n.
292 n. 8, 367 n. 83 75, 300 n. 83, 307 n. 64
Khan Khan, 9, 10, 13, 15,29, 31, 110, 116, son Dawar Bakhsh, 177, 269, 280, 283
219, 221, 293 n. 10, 294 n. 42, 300 n. 97, suspicious death, 57, 58, 124, 163, 168-72,
301 n. 112, n. 116 181-82, 205, 284, 342, n. 51, n. 56, n. 58,
Khalifa, 208, 209, 352 n. 208 n. 71, 342-43 n. 72, 343 n. 75, n. 85, n. 87
Khan Jahan, 173 wife, 51, 57, 122, 164, 171, 308 n. 90, 343 n.
Khan Jahan Lodi, 264, 276 80
 Index 399

women favorable to him, 33, 49, 122, 32S n. Mahabat Khan (Zarnana Beg)
315, 331 n. 412 and Asaf Khan, 263, 264, 266-74, 365 n.
Khutba, 47, 221, 279, 281, 283, 306 n. 44 128, n. 129, 366 n. 31
Khwaja, 189 during 1606 revolt, 26-27
Khwaja Abdullah, 186, 346 n, 17 and the English, 59
Khwaja Abdus Saraad Shirinqalam, 224 honors at Jahangir's accession, 24
Khwaja Abul Hasan, 167, 267, 268, 271 against Nur Jahan, 47-48, 260-74, 275, 277,
Khwaja Baqi Billah, 2 0 8 - 9 344 n. 113, 362 n. 48, 364 n. 106, n. 113,
Khwaja Barkhurdar, 264-65 365 n. 126
Khwaja Hasan, 125 and Parviz, 177-82, 261-62, 264, 277, 345
Khwaja Hashim, 188 n, 143, 361 n. 31
Khwaja Husain, 189, 348 n. 66 rebellion, 45, 260-74, 360 n. 1, 361 n. 22, n.
Khwaja Jahan. See Dust Muhammad 31, n. 33, 362 n. 36, n. 40, n. 42, n. 45, n.
Khwaja Muinaddin Chishti. See Shaikh 53, 363 n. 77, 364 n. 95, n. 105, n. 112, n.
Muiimddin Chishti 116, 364-65n. 121, 366n. 31
Khwaja Muhammad Shaiif, 8, 9, 226 receives title, 24
Khwaja Umar Naqshbandi, 264 service to Salim/Jahangir, 20, 73, 176-77,
Khwaja Waisi, 301 n. 122 261
Khwaja Zakariya, 186 and Shah Jahan, 179, 180, 183, 261-62, 272,
Khwaja-i Jahan, 126 274, 276-77, 280, 345 n. 144, 361 n. 14,
Khwajagi Razi, 226 365 n. 129, 366 n. 28
KhyberPass, 30! n. 123 urges blinding of Khusrau, 33, 261
Kinari, 222 Mahal, 90-93, 96-104, 109-1.3, 115-18, 120,
Kuriraarg, 254 121, 123, 126, 226, 235, 287, 318 n. 7, 321
n. 114, 322 n. 134, 324-25 n. 211. See also
Ladli Begarn Harem; Women; Zanana
buried next to Nur fahan In Lahore;, 18, 241, Mahaldar, 95
287 Maham Begam, 97, 216
at court with mother under care of Ruqayya Mahinval, 322 H. 131
Begam, 32, 34, 87, 295 n. 63 Makhfi, 113,226
married to Prince Shahryar, 18, 49, 163-65, Maktubat, 209-210
210 Malik Ambar, 73, 168, 170, 180, 270, 276
only child of Nur Jahan, 18, 84, 286, 295 n, Malik Masud, 9, 10, 12
62, n. 63, Malika Jahan, a wife of Jahangir, 125
own daughter, 178, 267 Malika-i Jahan. See Arjumand Banu Begam
in rebellion of Mahabai Khan, 267, 363 n. 68 Malwa, 144, 173, 175, 178, 225
rejected by Khusrau in marriage, 18, 57, Man Bai, 21, 115, 124, 171, 296 n. 26, 329 n.
164, 168, 308 n. 90 374, 330n. 381, 343 n. 84
Lahore, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18, 22, 25-27, 33, 93, Man Singh, 197-98, 203, 205, 209
123--25, 145, 169, 171, 175, 176, 178, 180, Manor, 75
186, 212, 214, 220, 227-29,238, 239-43, Mandakar, 244, 327 n. 276
248, 251-53, 260, 264, 271, 272, 277, 278, Mandate, 73
281, 282, 284-87, 292 n. 9, 299 n. 75, n. Mandu, 51, 141, 173, 174, 176, 178, 185, 191,
78, 363 n. 77, 364 n. 95, n. 111,365 n. 129, 221,251,261, 347 n. 50
367 n. 56, n. 59, 368 n. 102, 369 n. 129 Manija Begam, 45, 226, 270, 292 n. 8, 363 n.
Lakh, 33, 131, 240, 273, 282, 285, 286, 320 n. 90, 367 n, 83
79, 365 n. 126 Manohar, 22, 54, 262, 316 n. 139, 353-54 n.
Lakshrni, 216 242
Lancaster, James, 132-33 Manrique, Sebastian, 49, 376
Lar, 255 Mansab, 12, 14, 16, 24, 25, 27, 44, 45, 71, 165,
Latin, 200 167, 171, 174, 177, 178, 182, 187, 201,
Levant, 145 293 n. 32
Little Tibet, 126 Marisur, 247, 314 n. 101
Manucci, Niccolao, 15, 16, 29, 30, 47. 83, 96,
f-Aaasir-i j'ahangm,, 30 100, 103-5, 110-15, 195, 202, 265, 280,
Macao, 149 376
Madho Singh, 124 Maqsud Khan, 281
Madonna (Virgin Mary; Mary), 5, 23, 52, 85— Marathas, 168, 248
86, 129, 147, 202, 203, 212-16, 224, 2.25, Marble, 218, 230-33, 235, 237, 238, 287, 369
353—54 n. 242. See also Christianity; Jesus n. 109
Christ Mary. See Madonna
400 Index

Maryam Makani, 20-21, 24, 85, 93, 94, 114, arrives in India, 10, 12, 293 n. 12
122, 123, 213, 244, 325 n. 229, 348 n. 64. betrothal of Mihrunnisa, 15, 126
See also Hamida Banu Begam flees Persia, 8, 9
Maryamuzzamani, 85, 94, 96, 105, 108, 111, honored by Jahangir on accession, 24
^122, 123, 126, 130-31, 145, 150-53, 165, poet, 226
177-78, 189, 213, 216, 244, 312 n. 59, 325 receives title Itimaduddaula, 24
n. 231, 330 n. 374, 331 n. 16, 338 n. 232, service to Akbar, 12, 13, 44, 53, 293 n. 36,
348 n. 64, 350 n. 166 305 n. 11
Master Stecle, 104, 323 n. 154 son of Khwaja Muhammad Sharif, 8, 9
Matab Nuruddin Quli, 172 Mirza Ghiyasuddin AH, Asaf Khan (II), 12, 33,
Mathnaiai, 113 44
Mathura, 216 Mirza Hasan, 25
Mecca, 30, 106, 111, 120, 121, 128, 149, 150, Mirza Hindai, 32, 97, 121
159,203 Mirza Kamran, 26
Mehri, 113,227,228, 376 Mirza Muhammad Hakim, 75, 201
Mercator's alias, 72, 313-14 n. 84, 314 «. 85 Mirza Muzaffar Husain, 91, 125, 235, 308 n.
Mewar, 16, 19, 50, 168, 177, 191, 225, 277, 87, 341 n. 20
352 n. 193, 369 n. 109 Mirza Nuruddin, 33, 45
Middle-ton, Sir Henry, 133, 143, 150-51 Mirza Rustam, 116
Mihrunnisa. See also Nur Jahan Mirza Sanjar, 126
abandonment narrative, 9-10, 12-13 Mirza Shah Rukh, 25
beauty, 36-37,41, 303 n. 163 Mirza Wall, 100
birth, 9, 292 n. 8, 292-93 n. 10 Miyan Shaikh Muhammad Mir, 188
daughter Ladli Begam with Sher Afgan, 18, Mocha, 128, 141, 150, 153
32, 34 Mongols, 11
family advancement on marriage to Jahangir, Monserrate, Father, 10, 108, 284, 376
37, 301-2 n. 124, 304 n. 173, n. 184 Moor, 23, 27, 137, 191, 200, 202, 214, 336 n.
first marriage, to All Quli/'Sher Afgan, 13— 166
18, 21, 28, 39, 188, 256, 300 n. 87, 301 n. Moscow, 94
114 Mosque, 23, 47, 141, 185, 188, 238, 239, 248,
given title Nur Jahan, 40, 41, 94 254, 284, 286, 347 n. 50, 369 re. 109, n.
given title Nur Mahal, 40, 41, 45, 94 115
lady-in-waiting to Ruqayya Sultan Begam, 3, Mota Raja. See Udai Singh
31, 32, 34, 36, 50, 97, 301 n. 116, n. 117, MotiBagh, 230, 250-51
n. 118, n. 119, n. 120, 302 n. 143, 303 n. Moti Mahal, 250-51
146 Mubarak Chak, 126
parentage, 8-9, 24 Mubarik Shah, 352 n. 194
Persian heritage, 13, 15 Muhammad, 23, 213, 214
second marriage, to Jahangir, 31, 37-40, Muhammad Hadi, 43, 374
126, 303 n. 167, 352 n. 193 Muhammad Khan Sharifuddin Ughlu Taklu, 8
1611 meeting of Jahangir, 35-37, 304 n. 183 Muhammad Sadiq Tabrizi, 294 n. 42
stories of early contact with Salim/Jahangir, Muhammad Salih, 285, 374
13-16, 28-32, 34-35, 39, 294 n. 40, n. 41, Muhammad Sharif, 9, 33, 45, 55, 292 n. 8
n. 45, 301 n. 117, 302 n. 146, 308 n. 87, Muhammad Tahir, 9, 226
330 n. 410 Muharram, 120, 188
widowed, 3, 31, 32, 37, 39 Muhr, 219,220, 354 n. 6
youth, 10, 13, 14, 293 n. 12, n. 36 Mulanayaka, 349 n. 128
Mina Bazaar, 14, 36, 37, 294 n. 45 Mulla, 103, 200, 202
Mir bakhshi, 20, 24, 279 Multan, 14, 173, 353 n. 223
Mir Husamuddin, 178 Mumtaz Mahal. See Arjumand Banu Begam
Mir Jamaluddin Husain, 325 n. 213 Mundy, Peter, 30, 31, 53, 103, 118, 171, 230,
Mir Mansur, 266 247, 250, 251, 277, 280, 286, 308 n. 96,
Miran Shah, 11 358-59 n. 30, 377
Mirza Alauddaula, 9 Muqarrab Khan (Shaikh Hasan; John), 60, 71,
Mirza Ali Beg, 189 130, 133, 142, 143, 152, 20l', 337 re. 189,
Mir/a Aziz Khan Koka, 21, 23-25, 95, 122, 350 n. 163
171, 186, 319 n. 63, 346 n. 17, n. 22 Murad, brother of Jahangir, 19, 75, 100, 295 n.
Mirza Fathulla, 33 1, 3 1 5 n . 114
Mirza Ghazi, 298 n. 41 Murad, son of Shah Jahan, 181
Mirza Ghiyas Beg (Mirza Ghiyasuddin Muslim, 11, 13, 19, 21, 37, 40, 59, 66, 71, 79,
Muhammad). See also Itimaduddaula 82, 85, 86, 94, 95, 102, 105, 111, 117,
 Index 401

118, 120, 121, 125, 126, 128, 129, 142, at deaths of parents, 165-67, 183, 210
159, 162, 186, 188, 192, 193, 200, 202, domestic trade, 46, 96, 111, 151
203, 205, 207, 208, 213, 215, 216, 217, edicts, 122-23
225, 229, 238, 323 n. 159, 325 n. 221, 341 exile to Lahore, 3, 30-31, 240, 284-87, 369
n. 43, 371. See also Islam n. 129, 369-70 n. 140
Mutamid Khan, 43, 81, 163, 175, 255, 260, family fortunes on marriage to Jahangir, 37-
265, 267-69, 300 n. 87, 362 n. 36, 363 n. 39, 44-45, 304 n. 173, n. 175
61. See also Iqbalnama and family of Shaikh Salim Chishti, 206, 211
Muzaffar Khan, 270 foreign trade, 3, 111, 113, 151-53
Muzaffarnagar, 299 n. 66 gardens/flowers, 3, 4, 46, 82, 87, 114, 115,
Mystic Feast, 97, 116 218, 228, 244-59, 344 n. 103, 358 n. 22
granddaughter, 178, 267, 271
Nadim, 267 influence on Jahangir, 10, 14, 28-30, 41, 46-
Nadiri, 63, 221 48, 57, 58, 62, 71-72, 80-87, 98, 101,
Naqarkhana, 107 126-27, 163, 183, 184, 211-17, 285-86,
Naqib Khan, 189 305 n. 5, 306 n. 25, 313 n. 79, 316 n. 164
Naqshbandi, 21, 23, 24, 186-87, 207, 208, influence over Shahryar, 18, 49, 165, 168,
264, 347 n. 22, 353 n. 223. See also Shaikh 172, 174-75, 177, 181-83, 278-83, 344 n.
Ahmad Sirhindi 106
Narmada River, 178, 179, 283 inherits father's holdings, 82-83, 110, 167,
Nasik, 181 183
Nasik Trimbak, 275 at Jahangir's death, 279-82, 285, 367 n. 56,
Nasiruddin, 66, 67, 93, 318 n. 8 n. 83
Nauroz and junta, 43-61, 132, 161-83, 205, 305 n.
general, 35-36, 103, 128, 147, 185, 349 n. 5 , 3 1 4 n . 92
127 as Khadija, 5,213-14
in 1611, 3, 35, 40, 45, 86, 302-3 n. 146 and Khurram/Shah Jahan, 50-53, 58, 87,
Navaratra, 120 109, 111, 116-17, 162, 167-69, 173-74,
Nawal Ganj, 230, 250 179-83, 211, 252, 284-87, 308 n. 96, 365
Nayika, 225 n. 11
Nazir, 96, 98 against Khusrau, 51, 57-58, 122, 126, 164,
Nilgau, 189 168-72, 308 n. 90, n. 91, 309 n. 131, 331
Nimbus, 41, 52, 74, 119, 314 n. 93 n. 412, 343 n. 91
Nishan, 123, 195, 196, 367 n. 62 landholdings, 96, 111, 123, 151, 174, 181,
Nizami, Khaliq Ahmad, 23, 186 325 n. 243, 344 n. 103
Nizamuddin, 126 and legend of Sher Afgan as tiger slayer, 16,
Nur, 74 295 n. 61
Nur Afshan, 41, 248-50, 358 n. 18, n. 22 as the Madonna, 5, 85-86, 213, 216
Nur Ai'za, 255-56 against Mahabat Khan, 48, 260-74, 275.
Nur Gaj, elephant, 41 277, 361 n. 22, 362 n. 36, n. 42, n. 48, 363
Nur Jahan. See also Junta; Mihrunnisa n. 64, n. 77, n. 78, 364 n. 105, n. 106, n.
and Arjumand Banu Begam, 39 113, 365 n. 126, n. 128
arts, 218-43, 244-59 marksmanship, 16, 116—17, 328 n, 329
and Asaf Khan. See Asaf Khan (IV); Junta marriage to Jahangir, 37-40, 44, 62, 86, 126,
beauty, 36-37, 41, 79, 84, 269, 316 n. 164 220, 352 n. 193
birth,"8, 9 as Nur Mahal, 40, 41, 45, 50, 51, 53, 58, 59,
brothers. See Asaf Khan (IV); Itiqad Khan; 94, 99, 152, 153, 155, 164, 169, 184, 189,
Muhammad Sharif 230, 250, 254, 259, 279, 281, 286, 308 n.
brothers-in-law. See Hakim Beg; Qasim 96, 316 n. 164, 319 n 47, 331 n. 412, 338
Khan Juvaini; Sadiq Khan n. 232, 343 n. 91, 350 n. 134, 352 n. 193,
buildings, 46, 82, 87, 91, 96, 114, 218, 222, 357 n. 109, 367 n. 56
228-43, 356 n. 57, 357 n. 109 and painting, 6, 87, 113, 224-26, 355 n. 32
charity, 4, 46, 83, 87, 111, 120, 184, 205-6, parents. See Asmat Begam; Itimaduddaula
286 as Parvati, 5, 217
and Christianity, 206, 212, 317 n. 197 personality, 10, 14
coins, 3, 46, 123, 219-21, 306 n. 32, n. 44, political effectiveness, 7, 46-48, 58-59, 60,
354 n. 6, n. 12, n. 14, 356 n. 62 61, 183, 225, 245, 266-69, 306 n. 29, n.
daughter Ladli Begam, 3, 18, 35, 57, 79, 81, 30, «. 36
84, 86, 87, 98, 164-65, 210, 241, 267, prowess in battle, 31, 266-69, 275, 363 n. 70
286, 287, 295 n. 62, 363 n. 68 religious practices, 184, 189, 204-12, 286-
death, 3, 31,240, 287 87, 328 n. 329
402 Index

Nur Jahan (continued} allegory, 64-65, 72-74, H7, 225, 314 ». 92,
rivalry with jagat Gosaini, i 16, 125, 126 n. 93,348 n 66
and Roe, 59-61, 108, 121-22, 129, 131, 132, Paintings. See Pictures
139, 149, 152-58, 160, 310 n. 1 5 7 , n. 166, Pal, Pratapaditya, 225
338 n. 232, 354 n. 25 r/zlki, 107, 108', 276, 278
seal, 43, 46, 123, 224 Pampur, 253, 254
servants, 66, 68, 99, 152, 155, 312 n. 40, 321 Panchtoliya, 222
n. 112 Pandit, 191, 192
sickness, 105, 32.3 n. 159 Panipat, 11
and Siddhicandra, 197, 206-7, 330 n. 134 Pant, Chandra, 6-7, 43, 47, 169
and Sirhindi, 2,06-11 Parda, 36, 59, 89, 90, 102, l(M, 107, 108, 1(3,
sisters. See Khadija Begam; Manija Begam 152,158
1611 meeting of Tahangir, 3, 35-37, 45, 86, Pargana, 58, 111, 174
155, 302 n. 143, n. 146, 330 n. 410 Parhez Banu, 98
title given in 1616, 38, 41, 319 n, 47, 330 n. Paris, 107
395 Parliament, 134, 136, 147,225
tomb, 18, 114, 239-43, 275, 287, 357 n. 119, Parricide, 66-68, 31? n. 48
358 n. 120, 369 n. 12.7 Parvali, 5, 216, 2,17
tomb for father, 114, 222, 230-38, 7.41-43, Parviz, 49, 58, 100, 110, 125, 139, 176-82,
251,252 212, 2,61, 263, 264, 270, 276-78, 321 n.
wealth, 47, 80, 110, 183, 230, 242, 252, 280, 117, 344 17. 132, 345 n. 143, n. 144, 361 n.
2.85, 286, 370 n. 143, 356 n. 62 31, 365 n. 129, 366 n. 17
writings, 6, 87, 112, 113, 22.6-28, 355 n. 49 Parwana, (23
youth, 10 Pass system. See Cartaz
Nur Mahal. See Mihrunnisa; Nur Jahan Pathan, 271
Nur Mahal Sarai, 41, 82, 114, 176, 219, 222, Patna, 29, 32, 151, 321 n. 125, 335 n. 151, 377
223, 228-30, 246, 356 n. 58, n. 62, n. 64, Pattar Masjid, 238-39
n. 67 Pegu, 336 n. 171
Nur Manzil, 41, 114, 249-50, 284, 358 n. 22, Pdsnert, Francisco, 13, 37, 46, 48, 61, 79, 80,
369 n. 112. See also Dahra Bagh 83, 92, 94, 99, 101, 109, 111, 114, 115,
Nurdaulat, 40 121, 144, 145, 151, 159, 196, 220, 228,
Nur-i Nauroz, elephant, 41 230, 248, 250, 253, 254. 287, 294 n. 40,
Nurjahani, 40, 220, 354 n. 6 348 n. 64, 372, 377
Nurkaram, 40 Persia, 3, 8, 9, 12, 14, 34, 105, 115, 131, 146,
Nurmahal, district, 230 158, 162, 165, 173, 218, 235, 254, 270,
Nurmahali, 219, 222 276, 286, 292 v. 5, 343 n. 91, 365 n. 9, 368
Nurmihr, 40 n. 106
Nurpur, 256 Persian, 9, 10, 12, 29, 31, 35, 39, 44, 53, 63,
Nurshahi, 40 64, 81, 1.04, 1 1 1 , 112, 113, 139, 1'U, 1-13,
Nursultani, 40 148, 170, 171, 173, 176, 185, 188, 204,
Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir Padshah 2.05, 210, 218, 219, 225, 227, 228, 237,
Ghazi. See Jahangir 245, 246', 251, 252, 256, 293 n, 12, n. 36,
Nurunnisa Begam, 1.25 310 n, 156, 313 n. 69, 332 n. 41, 376
Persian sources, 6. 7, 9, 38, 30, 36, 38, 373,
377
Oral traditions, 7, 219. See also Bazaar gossip
Phalor, 229
Orissa, 44, 179, 180
Pictures, 23, 35, 41, 85, 86, 91, 92-93, 104,
Ornament, 218, 219, 229, 232, 235, 237, 2.38,
i l l , 113, 118, 129, 136, 147-48, 155, 159,
242, 249
185, 200, 214-16, 222-26, 231, 251, 255,
Oudh, 180 303 n, 151, 329 n. 396, 337 n. 189, 351 n.
178, 353-54 n. 242, 354 n. 8, 355 n. 30.
Padshah Begam, 94 See also European an; Painting
title given to Nur Jahan, 125, 330 n. 395 Pielra dura, 166, 231-33, 235, 242-43, 247,
title given to Saliha Banu Begam, 80, 125, 357 n. 105
31 In. 31 Pilgrimage, 106, i l l , 120-22, 128-30, 132,
Padshahnama, 51, 164, 279, 287 150, 159, 187, 188, 189, 206, 245, 2,52,
Pahunchi, 116 329 n. 346, 341 n. 14, 348 n. 72
Paijama, 221 Pinheiro, Father Emmanuel, 201
Painting, 20, 63, 75, 102, 104, 113, 117, 148, Pintado, 146
222-26, 254, 355 n. 36, 358 n. 14. See also Pitrc de Lan, 105
European art; Pictures Poiish. 94
 Index 403

Portuguese, 12, 23, 60, 94, 102, 128-33, 137, Rajput, 71, 94, 95, 100, 117, 124, 125, 173,
139, 142-44, 146, 147, 150-54, 156, 158, 178, 189, 206, 225, 235, 263-69, 271, 312
199, 200, 201, 214, 215, 224, 312 n. 59, n. 40, 327 n. 2,94, 361 n. 35, 362 n. 42, n.
331 n. 16, n. 19, 332 n. 36, 336 n. 166, n. 53, 364 n. 112
170, 340 n. 302, 350-51 n. 166, 351 n. Ram Bagh. See Nur Afshan
173, 372 Ram Chand Bundela, 126, 311 n. 31
Prasad, Beni, 34, 47, 164, 177, 283, 285, 287 Ramadan, 120, 188, 328 n. 333
Pravarsena II, 256 Ramsar, 151,325 n. 243
Prophecy, 79-80, 118-20, 125, 197, 205, 209, RanaofUdaipur, 15, 16,277
220, 278, 316 n. 148, n, 153, 320 n. 96, Rani Durgavati, 3
328 n. 330, 368 n. 99 Ranjit Singh, 357 n. 119
Protestant, 199, 214, 225 Ranthambhor, 173, 263, 264
Puja, 120 Rathor, 126
Punjab, 25, 44, 55, 173, 230, 272, 2,99 n. 64, Raushanara Begam, 102, 107, 114, 324 n. 186
322 n, 131 Ravi River, 15, 240-41, 251, 285
Rawalpindi, 173
Qaba, 221 Raza Bahadur, 170, 171, 284, 342 n. 69
Qaim Khan, 125 Raziyya Sultan, 3
Qarisha, 116 Red Sea, 12.8, 129, 131, 133, 141, 146, 150,
Qasim Khan Juvaini (Mir Qasim), 45, 226, 157
270, 280, 284, 292 n. 8, 367 n. 83 Roe, Sir Thomas, 30, 34, 43, 47-50, 53, 56-
Qazaq Khan, 8 61, 63-65, 70, 72, 79, 88, 89, 99, 108,
Qazi, 37, 318 n. 8, 327 n. 297 12.1, 122, 128, 132, 134-37, 139, 140-49,
QaziNasir, 188 152-61, 164, 168, 191, 195, 196, 199, 200,
Qulanj, 170 217, 225, 251, 263, 310 n. 156, n. 157, n.
Qulij Khan, 186 165, n. 166, n. 170, 332 n. 33, 334 n. 125,
Qumar Sultan, 32 338 n. 232, 350 n. 134, 354 n. 25, 377
Quran, 120, 179, 188, 208, 246, 272 Rohtas, 181, 268, 271, 272
Qutbuddin Khan Koka (Khubu) Roman Catholicism, 129, 133, 199, 200, 225,
appointed to Bengal, 25 298 n. 45
death, killing of Sher Afgan, 27-32, 33, 211, Ruqayya Sultan Begam, 31, 32, 34, 36, 50, 87,
298 n. 57, 300 n. 86. n. 87, n. 89 91, 97, 121, 213, 301 n. 116, n. 118, n.
death of his mother, 28, 85, 187-88, 211. 119, n. 120, 302-3 n. 146
213-14, 298 n. 57 Russian, 94
grandson of Shaikh Salim Chishti, 20, 187-
88,211, 353 n. 223 Sachaq, 126
loyal service to SaJim, 20, 21, 22, 95, 187- Sadhu, 192
88, 300 n. 83 SadiqKhan, 45, 281, 292 n. 8
Qmbulmulk, 180 Sadurkhun,255
Safarchi, 14, 294 n. 46
Radha, 217 Safavid, 235
Ragmi, 225 SafiMirza, 312 n. 51
Rahimi, 130-32, 145, 150-51, 153, 312 n. 59, Sahib Jamal, 125
331 n. 16, n. 19, 338 n. 22,4, n. 232 Sahibatuzzamani. See Jahanara
Rai Singh, 126, 197 Said Khan Ghakkar, 126
Raja Ali Khan, 126 Sakscna, Banarsi Prasad, 7, 284, 287
Raja Bhagwan Das, 124, 329-30 n. 374 Salar Jung Museum, 221
Raja Bhao Singh, 349 n, 112 Saliha Banu Begam, Padshah, 80,125, 311 n. 31
Raja Bihari Mai, 329-30 n. 374 Salim. See also Jahangir
Raja Bikramajit (Sundar), 177 and Anarkali, 123-24, 329 n. 369
Raja Kalyan, 125 birth, 64, 118-19, 211, 325 n. 229
Raja Karan Singh, 50, 73, 284, 368 n. 100 court in Allahabad, 19-21, 25, 207-8, 295 n.
Raja Kesu Das, 125 5, 329 n. 369, 355 n. 30, n. 32
Raja Kishan Singh, 276 early love for Mihrunnisa, 13-16, 294 n. 40,
Raja Man Singh,'21, 24-27, 124, 126, 180, 297 n. 41, n. 45
n. 29, 298 n. 41, 304 n. 170, 311 n. 31, 329 effects of alcohol, 19, 24, 75-78
n. 374, 330 n. 381, 346 n. 22 final relations with Akbar, 20-24, 25, 122,
Raja Nar Singh Deo, 276 346 n. 22
Raja Sarup Singh, 104 orders murder of Abul Fazl, 20, 195
Raja Surat Singh, 122, 12.3 rivalled by son Khusrau as heir to Akbar,
Rajauri, 251, 278 19-24, 346-47 n. 22
404 Index

Salim (continued) receives title, 51

and Shaikh Salim Chishti, 119-20, 211 sickness, 105, 365 n. 1
and tigress, 16 1622 rebellion, 3, 80, 106, 111, 161, 169,
wet-nurses, 85 172-83, 199, 205, 261-62, 270, 275-76,
work with AH Quli, 15, 16 334 n. 115, 340 n. 8, 342 n. 47, 343 n. 87,
Salim Shah, 20 344 re. 99, n. 101, n. 105, 365 n. 9, n. 11
Salima Khanam, 121 successor to Jahangir, 32, 48, 61, 252, 275,
Salima Sultan Begam, 20, 47, 85, 112-14, 121, 279-84, 307 n. 64, n. 77, re. 78, 368 re. 99,
122, 213, 244, 296 n. 20, 301 n. 116, 327 re. 100, n. 104, n. 106, 369 n. 109, n. 112
n. 276, 330 n. 395 and Taj Mahal, 233, 235, 247
Samghapati Candrapala, 349 n. 128 women, 96, 102-5, 110, 308 n. 87, n. 88,
Samskara, 192 322 n. 132, n. 134, re. 141, 325 n. 223, 341
Sanad, 123 re. 20, 345 n. 143
Sannyasi, 192, 193, 204 Shah Salim, 20
Sanskrit, 40, 112, 113 Shah Shuja, 80, 84, 98, 281, 294 n. 42, 320 n.
Sarai, 46, 68, 110, 114, 222, 228-30, 250, 252, 96, 350 n. 144
273, 356 n. 64 Shah Tahmasp Safawi, 8, 292 n. 5
Sarandaz, 37 Shahabad, 273
San, 117-18, 193, 328 n. 323, 349 n. 112 Shahdara, 240-43, 251-52, 281, 285, 369 n.
Satyr, 147, 225 127
Sayyid Abdullah, 20 Shahi, 47
Sayyid Ahmad, 16 Shahjahannama, 285
Sayyids, 26, 173, 271, 297 n. 36, 299 n. 66, 370 Shahnawaz Khan, 43, 267, 271, 341 n. 20
n. 143 Shahr Banu Begam, 114, 244
Shab-i Barat, 188 Shahryar
Shah Abbas, 67, 74, 173, 175, 181, 276, 312 n. birth, 79
51, 343 n. 91, 344 n. 99, 365 n. 9 death, 18, 283-84
Shah Begam, 47 description, 49, 261
Shah Burj, 70, 91 and Dholpur, 174, 181
Shah Hamadan, 32 at end of Jahangir's reign, 276-83, 367 re. 56,
Shah Ismail, 14, 270, 292 n. 5, 341 n. 20 n. 59, re. 86, 368 n. 89, re. 102
Shah Jahan. See also Khurram marriage to I.adli Begam, 18, 163-65, 210,
anti-Nur Jahan propaganda, 30-31, 47, 116- 267
17, 279, 287, 294 n. 42, 359 n. 30, 370 n. as Nashudani, 164, 165, 281
143 as Nur Jahan's puppet, 18, 165, 168, 172,
and Arjumand Banu Begam, 94, 164, 320 n. 174-75, 177, 181-83, 269, 275-83, 344 re.
79 106, 367n. 59
andAsaf Khan, 37, 55, 165, 167, 175-77, own daughter, 178, 267
181-82, 275, 279-87, 309 n. 150, 366 n. in rebellion of Mahabat Khan, 261, 266-69,
28 364n. 111
asBidaulat, 161, 173, 175, 177-79, 261 religious instruction, 195, 196
death of a daughter, 55 youthful encounters with Jahangir, 49, 66,
disdain of Hinduism, 192, 256, 348 n. 86 68, 164-65, 312 n. 49, n. 50
enemy of Christians, 142, 203, 215, 348 n. Shahzada Khanam, 91, 95, 121, 125, 155, 235
86, 351 n. 186, 353 n. 224 Shaikh, 118, 120, 159, 185, 187,203,208-11,
and English trade, 139, 141-42, 152, 157, 300 n. 89, 352 n. 213
159, 161, 179, 334 n. 115, 334-35 n. 125 Shaikh Abul Fayz (Fayzi), 373
and Khusrau, 168-72, 342 n. 51, n. 56, n. Shaikh Abul Fazl. See Abul Fazl
58, n. 71, 342-43 n. 72, 343 n. 75, n. 85, Shaikh Ahmad, 187
n. 91 Shaikh Ahmad Khattu, 347 re. 51
and Mahabat Khan, 179, 180, 183, 261-62, Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi. See also Naqshbandi
272, 274, 276-77, 345 n. 143, n. 144, 361 Jahangir moves against, 188, 203, 204, 208-
n. 14, 364-65 n. 121, 365 n. 129, 366 n. 28 9, 352 re. 202, n. 208, n. 213
as member of junta, 48, 61, 73, 162, 163, letters to courtiers of Akbar, 23, 186, 346 n.
164, 205 7, 346-47 re. 22, 353 n. 223
and mother, 94, 116-17, 162 and Nur Jahan, 206, 207-11
and Nur Jahan, 50-53, 87, 109, 111, 161, Shaikh Alauddin. See Islam Khan
164, 173-74, 181-83, 252, 308 n. 96 Shaikh Baha, 201
and Parviz, 277 Shaikh Bayazid Muazzam Khan, 187
pro-Portuguese, 142-43 Shaikh Farid Bukhari, 346 n. 9
receives Jahangirnama, 55 conveys news of Abul Fa/l's death to Akbar, 20
 Index 405

death, 210 Shri, 216

letters from Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, 186, Shujauddin, Mohammad and Razia, 6, 34, 36,
208, 210, 346 n. 1 117, 124, 125, 169, 228, 229, 239-42,
role in 1606 revolt of Khusrau, 26, 187, 208 285-87, 294 n. 44, 303 n. 163
supporter of Salim at accession, 23, 24, 186, Shvetambara, 196-98, 205, 209. See also Jain
204, 297 n. 33, 346-47 n. 22 Siddhicandra (Upadhyaya), 103, 104, 112-13,
Shaikh Husain Jami, 186 196-97, 206-7,322 n. 137
Shaikh Ibrahim, 187 Sikandra, 25, 46, 111, 151, 177, 189, 238, 250,
Shaikh Ibrahim Baba, 188 252, 298 n. 45, 348 n. 72
Shaikh Kabir, 187 Sikhs, 27
Shaikh Mubarak, 373 Silsila, 21, 186, 187, 189, 207, 208, 353 n. 223
Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti. See also Chishti Sind, 14, 21
founder of Chishti silsila, 189 Sind Canal, 255
veneration by Akbar, 187, 189, 348 n. 64 Sir, 47
veneration by Jahangir, 184, 189-91, 203, Sirhindi. See Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi
204, 213, 348 n. 72 Sita, 216
veneration by Nur Jahan, 205-6 Skelton, Robert, 329 n. 369
veneration by Shah Jahan, 369 n. 109 Smith, Sir Thomas, 148, 153, 303 n. 151
Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya, 191, 204, 347 n. Sohni, 322 n. 131
51 Solomon, 70
Shaikh Pura, 91 Sosanwar, 257
Shaikh Salim Chishti. See also Chishti South Asia, 148
family, 21, 187-88, 204, 211 Spain, 333 n. 68
family of, and Nur Jahan, 204, 206, 211 Spanish Armada, 132
grandfather of Qutbuddin Khan Koka, 20, Spices, 131, 133, 144, 151, 335 n. 151
187-88, 211,300n. 89 Sribhanucandraganicarita, 103, 311 n. 15, 352 n.
and prophecy, 80, 118-20 193
and Salim/Jahangir, 64, 80, 187, 211 Srinigar, 145, 238, 255, 257-59
tomb, 185, 187, 233, 347 n. 51 Suba, 25, 177, 188, 201, 272, 313 n. 79
Shaikhzada, 173, 271 Subhan Quli, 67
Shalamar, Dal Lake, 256-57 Sufi, 21, 23, 74, 159, 186, 187, 189, 191, 193,
Shapur. See Itiqad Khan 203,204,206, 210, 297 n. 33
Sharifa, 178 Sultan Salim Shah, 20
Sharifulmulk, 276 Sultanam, 121
Shayista Khan, 321 n. 125 Sultanate, 94, 95
Sher Afgan. See also Ali Quli Khan Istajlu Sultanpur, 229
brother Qumar Sultan, 32, 295 n. 62 Sultanunnisa, 124
daughter Ladli Begam, 18, 79, 87, 98, 163, Sumatinatha, 349 n. 128
295 n. 62 Sumatra, 149
death, killing of Qutbuddin, 18, 27-34, 38, Sun imagery, 40-41, 71, 80, 185, 313 n. 72, n.
39, 87, 188, 211, 256, 298 n. 57, 300 n. 86, 77
n. 87, n. 88, n. 89,301 n. 114 Sundar. See Raja Bikramajit
Jahangir's view of, 14, 16, 24-25, 27-28, Sunni, 204
300 n. 83, n. 84, n. 87, 355 n. 32 Suraj Mai, 328 n. 329
marriage to Mihrunnisa, 15 Surat, 128-31, 133, 134, 136, 137, 139, 141-
mother, 32 43, 150, 152, 153, 156, 158, 159, 283, 316
possible son, 295 n. 62 n. 138, 331 n. 19, 332 n. 47, 372, 377
posted to Bengal, 18, 24, 25, 29 Surkh, 77
receives title "Tiger Slayer," 16, 294 n. 59 Suviar, 37, 39, 45, 165, 174, 177, 277, 280, 293
service to Akbar and Jahangir, 15-18, 39, n. 32, 296 n. 19, 301 n. 124, 304 n. 173,
45, 294 n. 58, 353n. 223 311 n. 32
sides with Akbar and Khusrau against Salim Suyurghal, 319 n. 69
in Allahabad, 21, 25, 45, 299-300 n. 83, Swally, 129, 131
355 n. 32
tomb, 17 Tahmuras (Don Philippe), 97, 126, 201, 272,
Turkish background, 3, 15 283, 284, 368 n. 102
Shia, 13, 120, 184, 204, 209-12, 286, 347 n. 49 Tahwildar, 96
Shikasta, 53 Taj Mahal, 39, 49, 230-38, 247, 285, 286
Shiraz, 186 Takhallus, 113
Shiva, 217 Talib Amli, 227
Shivaratri, 192 Tapti River, 129, 133, 179
406 Index,

Tatar Sultan, 8 Urdubegi, 95

Tatimma-i Wakiat-i Jahangiri, 5 5 Urs, 205-6
Tarta, 14, 270, 272, 2,73, 276, 279, 294 n. 47. Ultam Chant!, 32
298?;. 41, 365 n. 11
Tavernicr, Jean-Baptiste, 34, 100-1.03, 105, Vakil, 96, 182, 22,9, 264, 272, 282, 365 n. 12.9
108, 118, 121, 280,372 Vakil khilat-i khas, 44
Tehran, 3, 8, 167 Van den Broecke, Pierer, 7, 13, 15, 26, 30, 32-
Tdingana, 180 34, 37, 55, 65, 68, 80, 81, 84, 131, 141,
Terry, Rev. Edward, 8, 2.1, 30, 33, 37, 62, 64, 164, 171, 173, 175, 176, 182, 202, 217,
67, 70, 72, 74, 79, 81, 85, 89, 93, 94, 98- 260, 261, 268-70, 273, 2,75, 279-83, 287,
103, 108, 111, 112, 118, 134, 137, 144, 292 n. 8, 302 n. 146, 362 n. 36, 372, 377
146-48, 154-57, 168, 170, 171, 191, 195, Van Ravcsteyn, Pieter Gillesx, 131
196, 199, 200, 214, 215, 225, 244, 247, Varaha, 192, 193, 204
350 n. 134 Vedanta, 193
Textiles, 129, 131, 133, 145-51, 154, 155, 158, Venice, 148, 376
218, 221-2,2, 237, 238, 326 n, 2,49, 336 n. Venus, 147, 224, 225
170, K. 171, 337 n. 189, n. 202, n. 2,07, 339 Vernag, 252-54, 258-59,285
«. 254, 354-55 n. 25. See also Clothing Vijayadeva Suri, 196
Thailand, 149 Vijayasena Suri, 196
Theological debate, 129, 185, 193, 200, 202 Villiers Stuart, Charlotte, 244, 25,2, 257
Tibet, 144 Vina, 113
Timur, 11, 298 n. 46, 368 n. 104 Virgin Mary. See Madonna
Timurid, 11, 371 Vishnu, 192, 193
Tinha, 196
Tiryaq, 124 Wazir, 8, 39,44, 155
Toda, 58, 111, 151 Waxiralmulk, 26
Tola, 40, 219, 2.20, 2.22, Withington, Nicholas, 11, 64, 118, 130
Trade Women. See also Harem: Mahal; Sati; Zanana
centers as sources of information, 31, 162 abuse of, 198
with the English, 61, 65, 113, 128-60, 161, after age thirty, 66, 79, 84-85, 95, 101
199, 214, 311 n. 30, 332 n. 32, n. 36, «. and thearts, 91-92, HI -15, 218-43, 326 n.
41, 340 n. 302 267, n. 270
with Europeans, 46, 56, 93, 308 n. 102, 311 bearing arms, 115-17, 32,7 n. 299
n. 30, 332 n. 22, n. 32 ami children, 94, 97, 101, 320 n. 91, 321 n.
items of, 144-50, 336 n. 182, n. 183, 337 n. 125, 322 n, 132
189, n. 202, n. 207 clothing/jewelry/loilet, 111-12, 114, 116,
at Miria Bazaar, 36 149-50, 219, 221-22, 321-22 n. 128, 326
with the Portuguese, 23, 128-60, 199, 214, n. 245, n. 250, n. 251, 326 n, 259, 327 n.
331 n. 16, n. 19, 332 n. 32, n. 36, 336 n. 290, 354 n. 24
166, 340 n. 302, 350-51 n. 166 concepts of beauty, 5
women and, 3, 36, 96, 110, 111, 113, 132 concubines, 34, 49, 79, 93, 94, 97, 100, 164,
Transoxiana, 188 312 n. 49, 329 n. 366, 349 n. 112
Troy, 108 diplomacy among, 46, 122
Trully, Robert, 134 drug/alcohol use, 115, 327 n. 293, n. 297,
Turan, 122, 306 n. 36 343 n. 84
Turki, 11, 112, 133 and education, 112-13
Turkish, 11,95, 120, 141 emperor's relationship with, 39-40, 94-95,
Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, 6, 7, 30, 33, 38, 39, 88, 134, 109, 317 n. 4
159, 161, 162, 170, 173, 186, 191, 193, female infanticide, 193
197, 198, 203, 211, 219, 220, 221, 244, festivals, 36
248-50, 253, 256, 32.0 n. 96, 346 n. 6 food, 109, 221, 32,4-25 n. 211, 325 n. 213
gardens, 244-59, 324 n. 206
Udai Singh (Mota Raja), 124, 162, 311 n. 31 gifts, 51, 53
Udaipur, 15, 16, 357n.'85 in government, 48, 121-23, 179, 306 n, 30
Udyam, 376 guarding of, 94- 96, 98, 107, 116, 323 n. 161,
Ujjain, 192, 193, 204 327 n. 299
Ulama, 208, 209, 239 and honor, 89, 99-100, 317 n. 5. 318 n. 7,
Umrn Kulsum, 12! 321 n. 114
Umma, .37 and illness, 105, 106, 108
Una, 195 importance of mother, SO, 53, 85-86, 213,
Upanayana, 192 216, 298 n. 57
 Index 407

inheritance, 109-10 unmarried, 5, 100, 121

and leisure, 245-46, 257, 317 n. \ and wealth, 24, 47, 90, 96, 109-11, 114,
life in apartments, 13, 88-96, 245-46, 319 n. 120, 150, 319 n. 69, 320 n. 79, 325 n. 223,
40 n. 229
literature by, 226
marriage, 5, 37, 46, 51, 100-101, 118, 120, Xavier, Father Jerome, 200, 302 n. 131, 375
121, 193, 202, 2,05, 213, 214, 216, 217,
219,287, 303 n. 169, 31J n. 31, 317 n. Yamuna River, 11, 70, 78, 91, 111, 151, 231,
182, 321 n. 115, n. 119 248-51
models, 5, 6 Yazd,8
painters, 224, 329 n. 369, 355 n. 30 Yogi, 191, 192,204,217
pictures of, 224-26 Yuga, 207
physical residences, 90-93, 114, 318 n. 20, Yusuf Khan, 28, 31
n. 27
religious practices, 117—21, 32.8 n. 323, n. Zabad, 114
329 Zahara Bagh. See Nur Manzil
rivalries, 94-95, 101, 109, 321 -22 n. 128, Zain Khan Koka, 12.5
324 n. 206 Zakat, 37
seclusion, 89-90, 104-6, 108, 111, 117, 226, Zamana Beg. See Mahabat Khan
257, 260. See Parda Zamindar, 197, 269
secret intrigues, 96, 101-2, 322 n. 132, n. Zanana, 81, 88-90, 93-100, 102-4, 106, 108-
134, 322-23 n. 148 14, 118, 122, 123, 126, 132, 146, 149, 206.
seniority system in harem, 32, 94, 95, 97 221, 224, 226, 237, 242, 257, 258, 323 n.
sexual life, 99-104, 303 n. 158, 322 n. 132 161, 328 n. 329 See also Harem; Mahal;
titles, 94, 319 n. 46, 330 n. 395 Women
in trade, 3, 36, 96, 110, 111, 113, 122, 128, Zat, 37, 39, 44, 45, 165, 174, 177, 293 n. 32,
132, 149, 150-5.3, 178 296 n. 19, 301 n. 124, 311 n . 32
and travel, 47, 89, 98, 106-8, 245-46, 253, Zebunnisa, 104, 113, 114
257, 323 n. 173, n. 178, n. 181, 323-24 n. Zinatunnisa Begam, 100, 114
182, 324 n. 186, n. 189 Ziyaulrnulk Qazwini, 297 n. 36