The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c15.26

v4.c15.26

The second great faction was the harem party, whose influence, as is so often the case in the East, was almost wholly evil. The interests of this party were served, beyond the walls of the harem, by Akbar’s foster-relatives. The relationship existing between a child and the foster-mother who has suckled him is regarded by Turks, and by Muslims generally, as one of peculiar tenderness. It endures through life and extends to all the near relations of the foster-mother. The names of ten of Akbar’s nurses are preserved, and it is recorded that there were others. The most influential of these was Jījī Anaga (“foster-mother”), whose husband, Shams-ud-dīn Khān, had saved Humāyūn from drowning and was honoured, after his wife’s advancement, with the title of Atga (“foster-father”) Khān. Of his two sons, the one who survived beyond the early years of Akbar’s reign was known originally as Mīrzā ‘Azīz *Kūka* (“foster-brother”) but received the title of Khān A‘zam and rose to the highest rank. Akbar excused the leniency with which he treated Khān A‘zam’s acts of disobedience and contumacy by saying, “Between me and ‘Azīz is a river of milk which I cannot cross.” The relationship extended to Atga Khān’s elder brother, Mīr Muhammad Khān, entitled Khān Kalān (“Great”, or elder Khān), to his younger brothers, Sharīf Khān and Qutb-uddīn Khān, and to their sons. Māham Anaga had been Akbar’s chief nurse and though she never seems to have suckled him her son Adham Khān ranked as his foster-brother. These foster-relations are usually referred to by Muslim historians as *Atga Khail*, “the foster-father cohort”.