Empress
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10.It is Shirazi who points out candidly that Asaf withdrew upon the killing of Mahabat’s brother. Fathnama-i Nur Jahan Begum, 154.
11.Thackston, Jahangirnama, 442.
12.Fathnama-i Nur Jahan Begum, 148.
13.Dhakhiratul Khawanin, 17.
14.Thackston, Jahangirnama, 447.
15.Ibid.
16.According to Hadi’s account, Buland Khan carried Nur’s message to Mahabat: “Today the Begam will hold a review of troops for His Majesty. It would be better to hold in abeyance the ceremonies for the beginning of the day lest an argument ensue and battle break out.” Thackston, Jahangirnama, 447. On the heels of the first messenger, she sent another person to convince Mahabat of the reasonableness of obeying her order. Who sent these messages to Mahabat varies according to who records the history of these times. For Mu’tamad, while the empress was fully in charge, Jahangir was working behind the scenes. Indeed, the two messengers who carried the message to Mahabat were Jahangir’s. It was the emperor who was building grounds of trust with Mahabat, not Nur Jahan.
17.Thackston, Jahangirnama, 447.
18.Ibid.
19.Fathnama-i Nur Jahan Begum, 256.
FIFTEEN: ANGEL OF DEATH
1.Faruqui, Princes, cited in chapter 7, 254.
2.Thackston, Jahangirnama, cited in chapter 1, 450.
3.Ibid., 453.
4.Ibid., 456.
5.For a rich description of areas that the Mughal retinue went by at this time, parts that Sir Richard Temple would describe later, see, Richard Temple, Hyderabad, Kashmir, Sikkim and Nepal Vol. II (London: Allen and Co., 1887), 19 for the Chitta Pani waterfall. Temple’s description comes close to Jahangir’s, in that the latter notes briefly the beauty of the waterfall in 1620. Tuzuk, cited in chapter 1, 2:179.
6.Iqbalnama-i Jahangiri, cited in chapter 2, 435; Hadi makes exactly the same statement, see Thackston, Jahangirnama, cited in chapter 1, 456.
7.Tuzuk, 2:180.
8.Khafi Khan does not refer to Chingiz Hatli at all: Muntakhab-ul-Lubab, cited in chapter 2, 1:338. The Iqbalnama-i Jahangiri, cited in chapter 2, and the “Maasir-i Jahangiri” note the emperor’s death here, as does Hadi, but he calls it Chakkar Hatli. H. M. Elliott and John Dowson, “Maasir-i Jahangiri of Kamgar Khan,” in Elliott and Dowson (eds.), The History of India, cited in chapter 1.
9.Tuzuk, 2:181.
10.Begley and Desai, Shah Jahan Nama, cited in chapter 9, 12.
11.Ibid.
12.Dhakhiratul Khawanin, 21.
13.Thackston, Jahangirnama, 457; also noted in Iqbalnama-i Jahangiri, 436.
14.Begley and Desai, Shah Jahan Nama, 12–13.
15.Ibid., 12.
16.Thackston, Jahangirnama, 458.
17.Faruqui, Princes, 252.
18.Thackston, Jahangirnama, 460.
19.Fathnama-i Nur Jahan Begum, cited in chapter 6, ii, and viii. We get a further evidence of Shah Jahan’s involvement in the production of these texts from another translation. Elliott and Dowson suggest that Husaini noted at one point that it was as a result of the incomplete character of Jahangir’s memoir that “he had long contemplated supplying its deficiencies [sic] by writing a complete life himself; when he was at last induced to undertake it at the instigation of the Emperor Shah Jahan in the third year of his reign [1630–31].” Elliott and Dowson, “Maasir-i Jahangiri of Kamgar Khan,” 439.
20.Begley and Desai, Shah Jahan Nama, xiii.
21.Prasad, History of Jahangir, cited in chapter 2, 403; Shujauddin and Shujauddin, The Life and Times of Noor Jahan, cited in chapter 1, 99–100.
22.R. B. Whitehead, “The Mint Towns of the Mughal Emperors of India,” Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, 8 (1912): 425–531; R. B. Whitehead, First Supplement to “The Mint Towns of the Mughal Emperors of India,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Numismatic Supplement 25 (July and August 1915); Singhal, Mint-Towns of the Mughal Emperors of India, cited in chapter 10, 33–35.
23.Kanbo, ‘Amal e Salih, cited in chapter 13, 1:13.
24.Later biographers followed this line of thought and assumed that Nur Jahan’s resources were limited and hence she could not embark on a grand venture such as the late Emperor’s tomb. Syed Muhammad Latif, Lahore: Its History, Architectural Remains and Antiquities (Lahore: The New Imperial Press, 1892), 106; Shujauddin and Shujauddin, The Life and Times of Noor Jahan, 123.
25.Koch, Taj Mahal, cited in chapter 8, 84, 88; E.B.A. Havell, A Handbook of Indian Art (London: John Murray, 1927), 137; James Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1967), 304–5; Percy Brown, Indian Architecture, Islamic Period (Bombay: Taraporevala Treasure House of Books, 1968, 5th ed.), 100.
26.Koch, Taj Mahal, 88.
27.Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture: An Outline of its History and Development (1526–1858) (New York and London: Prestel Publishing, 1991), 98.
28.Shujauddin and Shujauddin, The Life and Times of Noor Jahan, 124.
29.Maathir-Ul-Umara, cited in chapter 2, 1077.
30.Shah Jahan Nama, 333–34.
SIXTEEN: BEYOND 1627, AN EPILOGUE
1.Mernissi, The Forgotten Queens of Islam, cited in chapter 13; Peirce, The Imperial Harem, cited in chapter 13, among other scholars who have written on Muslim women’s leadership.
2.L.W.B. Brockliss, “The Anatomy of the Minister-Favourite,” in J. H. Elliott and L.W.B. Brockliss (eds.), The World of the Favourite (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999), 285. The literature on the favorite is enormous. Apart from this volume, I have consulted John Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986); Antonio Feros, Kingship and Favoritism in the Spain of Philip III, 1598–1621 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
3.Nur Jahan Holding a Portrait of Emperor Jahangir, 1627, is now the crowning glory of the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. For a discussion of this painting, see Ruby Lal, “From the Inside Out: Spaces of Pleasure and Authority,” in Sonya Rhie Quintanilla (ed.), Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories, The Cleveland Museum of Art (London: D. Giles Ltd, 2016). The attribution to Bishandas is still being considered by Islamic art critic Marcus Fraser. The painting is also mentioned in the following volumes: Beach, The Grand Mogul, cited in chapter 1, 159; Philippa Vaughan, “Begams of the House of Timur and the Dynastic Image,” in Humayun’s Garden Party, ed. Sheila R. Canby (Bombay: Marg Publications, 1994), 132, fig. 13; and Linda Komaroff, Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Court (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011), no. 59, 177.
4.In Nizami of Ganja’s twelfth-century collection there is a story, Khusrau va Shirin: a parable of love, unity, and divinity in which the painter Shapur, highly skilled at lifelike presentations, tells the hero, Khusrau, about the beautiful Shirin (literally, “sweet”). Khusrau’s grandfather once told him that he would meet a beloved of great sweetness. And so Khusrau asks Shapur to find Shirin. He can only do so through Khusrau’s portrait. Shapur, disguised as a monk, goes to Armenia to find Shirin. He finds out from a priest where she and her attendants spend time. Early one morning, he goes to that meadow, paints a portrait of Khusrau, and suspends it on a branch of tree. Shirin and her companions arrive. Her eyes fall upon the portrait. The women bring the portrait to her, and looking at it she becomes absorbed “in rapt contemplation.” She embraces it as if it were alive. Fearful, thinking that the portrait was the work of demonic creatures, the women take it away from her. The next day Shapur makes a second painting, exactly like the first. When Shirin sees it, she is overwhelmed, unable to speak. Her companions destroy the painting again, burn rue to dispel the evil spirits, and move to a new meadow. And yet, Shapur embarks on a third, exactly like the first two. Shirin finds and holds up the portrait. The portrait that Shirin held, says Nizami, “contained her own reflection.” “In the mirror (ayina) she saw her own reflection (nishan) when she seized it, she fainted.” (Priscilla Soucek, “Nizami on
Painters and Painting,” in Richard Ettinghausen (ed.), Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972), 17, 18.
5.“Women seeing portraits” are available in the following museums: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Washington, DC), F.1984. 43 2 and 1985. 1. 354; Bonhams (London, UK), 3.19. 2012 lot. 1167; and Jahangir Viewing a Portrait of Akbar, Louvre (Paris, France), OA 3676 b (1); For further examples and details, see Klaus Ebeling, Ragamala Painting (New Delhi: Ravi Kumar, 1973), 76, C26.
6.Afshan Bokhari, “Imperial Transgressions and Spiritual Investitures: A Begum’s ‘Ascension’ in Seventeenth Century Mughal India,” Journal of Persianate Studies 4 (2011), 94, 95.
7.Ibid., 92.
8.Cited in Ibid., 91.
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
The mythical Wak-Wak tree: A Floral Fantasy of Animals and Birds (Waq-Waq), early 1600s. India, Mughal. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; page: 37.6 × 26.6 (14 13/16 × 10 1/2 in); painting: 19.8 × 12.5 cm (7 13/16 × 4 15/16 in). © The Cleveland Museum of Art. Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, 2013.319.
The fort complex at Agra: Exterior View of the Fort Complex. IAA107530 © Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Michael Peuckert (photographer).
Nur Jahan surrounded by harem women: Chiterin: An Illustration of the Nur Jahan Episode, © Bharat Kala Bhavan, BHU, Varanasi.
Abul-Hasan’s remarkable painting: Portrait of Nur Jahan Holding a Musket, by Abul-Hasan Nadir uz-Zaman, c. 17th century CE. 10 × 6 cm. Courtesy of Rampur Raza Library.
A clear indicator: Silver Rupee with Nur Jahan and Jahangir’s Names. H. Nelson Wright, Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum Calcutta 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1908). Plate 8, 1625–28 CE.
A celebration: Jahangir and Prince Khurram Entertained by Nur Jahan, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1907.258.
Nur Jahan: Portrait to Be Worn As a Jewel, seventeenth century. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, the Stuart Cary Welch Collection. Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch, 2009.202.4, Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Posthumous Portrait of Emperor Jahangir Under a Canopy (recto), c. 1650. India, Mughal, 17th century. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, borders with floral motifs in colors and gold (recto); page: 35.2 × 22.1 cm (13 7/8 × 8 11/16 in); painting; 20.4 × 8 cm (8 1/16 × 3 1/8 in). © The Cleveland Museum of Art. Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; bequest of Louise T. Cooper, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, 2013.329.
Mausoleum of I’timad ud-Daula, 19th-century image of the exterior approach to the tomb. IAA110086 © Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Samuel Bourne (photographer).
Maqbara-i Jahangir, General View from the North. IAA107790 © Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
Tomb of Nur Jahan at Shahdara, 2005. © Guilhem Vellut, https://www.flickr.com/photos/o_0/7962186/.
A painting in the Indian and Persian tradition: Nur Jahan, Holding a Portrait of Emperor Jahangir, c. 1627. Northern India, Mughal court, 17th century. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; page: 30 × 22.1 cm (11 13/16 × 8 11/16 in); painting: 13.6 × 6.4 cm (5 3/8 × 2 1/2 in). © The Cleveland Museum of Art. Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, 2013.325.
The Mughal Queen Nur Jahan Playing Polo with Other Princesses. Painted by Ustad Haji Muhammad Sharif (1889–1978), property of S. M. Mansoor, visual artist, Lahore, Pakistan.
Mughal Brave Queen Nur Jahan with Her Husband King Jahangir after Killing Tiger with Her Spear. Painted by Ustad Haji Muhammad Sharif (1889–1978), property of S. M. Mansoor, visual artist, Lahore, Pakistan.
Princess Nur Jahan and Attendants, 18th century, India. Gouache on paper; 11 3/4 × 8 5/8 in (29.8 × 21.9 cm). Rogers Fund, 1948, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Film still: Photographic Still Mounted on Lobby Card. Noor Jahan,1967; India. Zenith Productions, directed by M. Sadiq. Courtesy: The Osian’s Archive & Library Collection. 0864490/The Osian’s Collection.
INDEX
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Note: Page numbers in italics indicate figures.
Abbasid caliphs, 134
Abbasid dynasty, 52
Abdal-Qadir Baduani, 44
Abdullah Khan, 190
Abdul-Wali, Maulawi, Proceedings of Asiatic Society of Bengal, 91
Abdur-Rahim Khan-i Khanan (Rahim), 62–63, 68, 77, 98, 182, 187, 205, 235, 284n
Abul-Fazl (Fazl), 22, 85, 262n
Akbarnama (The history of Akbar), 40–41, 44, 80, 81, 99, 218
assassination of, 80, 81
Abul-Hasan (painter), 144–148, 235–236, 263–264n, 278n, 279n
Adraskand, 23
Afghanistan, 76
Afghans, 79, 115
Agra, 1, 7–9, 30–32, 50, 78, 83–85, 109–110, 121–122, 151–153, 165, 181, 215–216
Agra Fort, 86–88, 94–95, 166
monuments in, 176
mosque in, 225
Shah Jahan’s march to, 182–183
ahadis, 204–205
Ahmadnagar, 124–125, 194
Ajmer, 40, 104, 106, 122–123, 126, 132, 139, 140, 188, 202
Akbari Darwaza (Akbar’s door), 94–95
Akbarnama (The history of Akbar), 80, 81, 99
Akbar the Great. See Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Akbar (Akbar)
alcohol, 116–119, 138–139, 172
Al-Ghazzali, 153, 279–280n
Al-Hind. See India
Ali (fourth caliph), 51, 184–185
Ali Quli Beg (Sher Afgan), 61, 63–75, 76, 77, 98, 169, 245, 269n
breaks with Salim, 80–81
death of, 90–92, 160
forgiven by Jahangir, 84
given title Sher Afgan (Slayer of Tigers), 72, 78
Khusraw and, 86
marriage to Mihr un-Nisa, 59, 60–75, 76, 265n
religion and, 254–255n
serves under Salim, 77–80
complicity in plot against Jahangir, 90
Allahabad, 68, 78–80, 189, 283n
Al Sakhwai, Kitab al-Nisa, 55–56
Amar Chitra Katha, 8
animism, 17
Aqa Aqayan, 95, 137, 155, 276n
Aqa Reza, 144–145
architecture, 148–149, 166, 175–176, 218–219, 224–225
Arjumand Banu (Mumtaz Mahal), 105, 131, 134, 143, 155, 161–162, 166, 170, 191, 209, 213, 216, 236, 280n
death of, 224, 225
marriage to Khurram, 108, 110, 112–113
Armenians, 17
art, 79, 144–147, 223–224, 271–272n, 276n. See also Mughal art
Asaf Khan, 46, 57–58, 65, 102, 108–109, 113, 124–126, 134–136, 171, 175, 236–237, 263–264n
daughter-in-law of, 205
Deccan problem and, 156
Jahangir’s rescue and, 198–202
in Kabul, 194–195
Ladli’s wedding and, 168, 170
Mahabat and, 195, 196, 205–207
named Wakil-i Hazarat, 109
political leanings of, 180, 181
rise to prominence, 112
support for Shah Jahan, 181–182, 211–213, 215–216
travels to Kashmir, 153–157, 208
Ashqa Jolaha, 91
Asir, 192–207
Asmat Begum, 15–19, 22, 39, 42, 46–49, 53, 66–67, 105, 112, 114, 237
in Al-Hind, 29–37
birth of Mihr un-Nisa and, 22–23, 24–25, 26–28
children of, 263–264n
‘itr
-i-Jahangiri (Jahangir’s perfume), 111–112, 273n
death of, 173, 180
in Fatehpur-Sikri, 32–33, 34, 45
first appearance in Jahangirnama, 110
I’timad ud-Daula’s Tomb, 175–176
Ladli’s wedding and, 169, 170
in Lahore, 29–32
Mihr un-Nisa’s first marriage and, 60, 61
passage from Persia to Al-Hind, 15–19, 256n
upbringing of children, 56–59
astrology, 14–15
Attar, 167
Attock, fortress at, 201–202
Aurangzeb, 16, 26, 191, 249–250, 259n
Awadh, 109
Ayisha, 184–185, 207, 222
Babur, 12, 39, 77, 83–84, 99, 116, 121, 141, 167, 176, 203, 237, 247
Baby Taj, 176
Bagh-i Nur Afshan (Light-Scattering Garden), 166–176
Bahat River, 157, 160–161, 192, 195, 203, 205
Bahlon, Kangra, 174
Bahramgalla, 210
Bahram Sakka, 69, 74, 107, 188
Bahu Begum, 267n
Banaras, 68, 189
Banarasi, 81, 212, 260–261n
Baramula, Kashmir, 158
Baroman, 140
Battle of the Camel, 184–185, 207, 222
Battle of Tons, 285n
bazaars, 58, 138
Beach, Milo Cleveland, 278n
Begam Shahi mosque, 225
Bengal, 40, 67–75, 76, 79–80, 85, 86, 94, 109, 188, 193
Berar, 137
Bernier, Francois, 161
Travels in the Mughal Empire, 161
Bhagwan Das, 271n
Bhanuchandra, 274n
Bhasha, 58
Bhuliyas, 157
Bhuliyas Pass, 157
Bigeh Begum, 114
Bihar, 85, 109, 188, 189
Bihari Mal, 271n
Bijapur, 135, 189
Bikaner, raja of, 140
Bishandas, 223–224, 289n
Bishnupur, 69
Bolan Pass, 29
Borte, 222
boys, education of, 56, 57–58
Brahe, Tycho, 14
Braj, 48, 58
British East India Company, 9, 220
bubonic plague, 151
Buland Khan, 286n
Burdwan, Bengal, 67, 69–70, 72–73, 90, 91
Burhanpur, 134, 194