Storia do Mogor 143: Marriage of the Princesses.

143

This was the year (? 1673) of marriages, for in it was married that same girl (Murad Bakhsh's daughter) to a Pirzadah or holy man of Balkh, as to whom I shall speak further on (II. 60). In it, too, Aurangzeb married two of his own daughters — that is to say, Zinat-un-nissa Begam, and Badr-un-nissa Begam, as I said at the beginning (II. 41)—one to the son of Dara, and the other to the son of Murad Bakhsh; he also married the beautiful Jani Begam to Sultan A'zam, to whom on that occasion was given the title of A'zam-tara. She was not married to Sultan Akbar, as stated by Monsieur Bernier, who, from not being present, fell into error. Begam Sahib, or Padshah Begam, to the seed-pearls which issued from her eyes at thus losing her beloved niece, added lovely pearls and handsome jewels as a marriage present. After the marriage, Aurangzeb sent Prince A'zam Tara as viceroy to Bengal.
A curious case happened in Dihli in the matter of marriages. For the daughter of 'Abd-ul-wahhab, on learning that the king was marrying off his daughters and nieces, also wanted to be married. However, her father had no such intention, for she looked after his house and had his wealth under her control. Nevertheless, she managed to get her father to give her in marriage without his knowing it. It was in this way: she got up a friendship with a youth in the neighbourhood, who came and went secretly without the father suspecting anything. Next she decided to leave the house one day in a covered palanquin, having first sent all the property to a place of security. Then she went in the youth's company to the qazi's public audience. On arriving there, the youth said to 'Abd-ul-wahhab that he and the woman in the palanquin had made a vow [145] to be married by him. The qazi, not recognising the woman to be his daughter, asked her if she consented to marriage with the youth. Disguising her voice, she answered ' Yes.' The qazi performed the ceremony and dismissed them.
The youth and his bride feared that the qazi by his influence might get the marriage annulled. The bridegroom therefore hastened at once to the captain of the guard, an acquaintance of his, and informing him of the facts, begged his friend to let him speak with the king and get His Majesty to act the godfather in the matter. Aurangzeb laughed over the story, and at once gave an order to bring the qazi to him, before he had gone home and found out that his daughter was not in the house; they were to tell him that what he had done was well done, but not a word was to be breathed about the marriage or anything else.
Rendered anxious by such a message, 'Abd-ul-wahhab started for his house, and found that his daughter was not in her apartments. Searching, and again searching, he discovered a small opening made in the wall, and by this time he realized that the marriage he had just performed had been the marriage of his daughter. He was much cast down, but his sadness was doubled when, on opening his boxes, he found that all that he had gathered together by impostures had been carried off by his daughter with a liberal hand. From this contretemps, aggravated by heart complaint, he fell ill and died in great pain, a terrible death.