The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 102.1

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.