The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 150.3

150.3

An explanation of Gul-badan's silence and also of a part of Babar's has suggested itself to me; it is conjectural merely and hypothetical. The absence of mention of Saliha-sultan and of her child suggests that she appears under another name in Gul-badan's list of her father's children and their mothers. She may be Gul-badan's own mother, Dildar Begam, without undue wresting of known circumstantial witness. The principal difficulty in the way of this identification is Abu'l-fazl's statement that Nuru-d-din's marriage was made by Firdaus-makani, whereas Gul-badan states that her father arranged two Chaghatai marriages for her sisters. If we might read Jannat-ashyani (Humayun) for Firdaus-makani, much would fall into place; the marriage with Nūru-d dīn could be a re-marriage of Gul-chihra was widowed in 1533, and of whose remarriage nothing is recorded until her brief political alliance with 'Abbās Uzbeg in 1540. It is probable that she remarried in the interval. To pass on to recorded incidents of Salīma-sultān's life. There is an entry in Hindāl's guest-list which may indicate her presence.