The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 102: CXVI Maham anaga
The History of Humāyūn (A. S. Beveridge) 102
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CXVI Maham anaga
102.1
Nurse of Akbar; wife of Nadim kuka; mother of Baqi and Adham kukas. Cf. Babu agha. Much of her story is given in the Introduction to this volume. The word Maham is explained by Mr. Erskine (who did not know Gul-badan’s book) as Babar’s name of endearment for his favourite wife, and as meaning ‘my moon.’ Mr. Schuyler also translates it by the same words. He says that a woman who was shot for political offences in Bukhara was known as ‘My moon (Maham) of Kenimez.’ But many Mahams are chronicled, and not only Babar gives the name to Humayun’s mother, Gul-badan speaks frequently of ‘my lady who was Maham Begam,’ and Maham seems to be her personal name. It is used at least once as a man’s (Akbar-nama, I. 820, Maham ‘Ali Quli Khan). Whether maham is to be classed with sultanam, khanam, begam, shaham, I am unable to say. Sir Douglas Forsyth (Mission to Yarkand, 84) translates khanam and begam by my lord and my chief. But neither is a domestic word; both are in common use in the sources to designate, for general readers, the wives or daughters of khans and begs, or princes. Sultanam also is a common title, and from Gul-badan’s use of it does not appear to be a personal name, but to answer to sultan as khanam to khan, etc.
102.2
Against reading khanam as my lady, with a sense of possession or admission of superiority (as is done by Sir Douglas Forsyth), there are the Turki words formed from it, e.g., khanam ati, honeysuckle, and khanam bujagi, ladybird. Shaham, which has the appearance of being formed from shah like the others by the suffix am or im, is used both for man and woman. Shir-am occurs as a man’s name. Maham was a wife of whom it was said that she was to Babar what ‘Ayisha was to Muhammad, and she was Humayun’s mother. Gul-badan mentions her often, yet no one of the numerous sources I have consulted, sets down her family or the name of her father. At one time it appeared to me probable that she was a Begchik Mughal, because Babar calls Yadgar Begchik taghai when speaking of him in connection with Humayun. Further consideration led to the abandonment of the theory. Uncle Yadgar, Uncle ‘Ali, and Uncle Ibrahim (Chapuk, slashed-face) are named as being three of the eight brothers or half-brothers of Gul-rukh, the mother of KaBnan, and Bega (Sani) Begam is the daughter of Uncle Yadgar. Amongst these eight Begchiks I do not find one named Uncle Muhammad 'Ali, and there is a good deal to lead one to regard a certain Khwaja Muhammad 'Ali taghai as being Maham's brother.
102.3
He was associated with Khost, and it is on record that Humayun visited his maternal grandparents (nanaha) in Khost. The Begchiks do not seem to have been connected with Khost. Babar speaks frequently of Khwaja Muhammad 'Ali as being employed in the government of Khost (925 H.), as coming from Khost for orders, etc., and the mir-zadas of Khost also are recorded as visiting the court. One of Maham's children was born in Khost. Babar frequently mentions an 'Abdu-l-maluk Khosti, and he may be a connection of Maham. He, however, appears as Khosti, Kheasti, Qasti, qfnchif Qilichia, and without a more complete good Turki text no opinion can be formed as to his identity. Gul-badan says that Akao (Maham) was related to the owners of the New Year's Garden in Kabul, and this was made by Ulugh Beg Kabuli Miran-shahi. Abu'l-fazl says Maham was of a noble Khurasan family, related to Sultan Husain Mirza (Bayqra), and, like Hamida-banu Begam, was of the line of Shaikh Ahmad Jami (az dudman-i-a'yan wa ashraf-i-Khurasan bud, wa ba Sultan Husain Mirza nisbat-i-khwesh dasht). Perhaps nisbat-i-khwesh implies blood-relationship on the father's side. Gul-badan speaks of Maham's Mughal servants, but a Chaghatai, a Begchik, a Quchin is also a Mughal, and Babar often sinks the divisional tribe-name in the general one, Mughal (e.g., Mems. 9 and 21).
102.4
Some considerations suggest that Maham was a Dughlat Mughali and of the family of 'Abdu'l-qudus, but no valid opinion can be formed until a text as good as the Elphinstone is available for guidance. Babar married Maham in Harat when he visited that city after Sultan Husain Mirza’s death, and in 912H (1506) Humayun was born on March 6, 1508 (Zu’l-qa‘da 4th, 913H ) Four other children were born to her, and all died in infancy They were Bar-bul, Mihr-jahan, Isan-daulat and Faruq The events of her career are detailed in the Introduction to this volume and in Gul-badan Begam’s book Mems , 260, 405, 412, 428, 428 n Gul badan, 4a, 6b, 7a, 8b, 11b, 13b, 14b, 16a, 16b, 17a, 18b, 21a and b, 22a and b, 23a and b 24b Akbar nama, Bib Ind ed , and H Beveridge, 8 n Maham and Maham ‘Ali Quli Khan Turkistan, Schuyler, 95 ff