History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c37.s4: §4. Aurangzib's daughters.

History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c37.s4

Language: English

§4. Aurangzib's daughters.

v3.c37.s4.1

The Emperor's eldest daughter was Zeb-un-nisa, a gifted poetess and patron of literary men.

She was highly educated by Persian tutoresses in the harem, mastered Arabic theology, and wrote a volume of odes and quatrains under the pen-name of *Makhfi* or the Concealed One. A scandal, originating in the imagination of some Urdu writers of the 19th century, has imputed to her an illicit love for Aqil Khan, a noble of her father's Court. But the story* as fully developed by these writers is inconsistent with the facts of recorded history in all vital points.

v3.c37.s4.3

Zeb-un-nisa was an ardent partisan of her young brother Muhammad Akbar and held a secret correspondence with him on the eve of his rebellion. When that rising failed and his deserted camp was seized by the imperialists, her letters to him were discovered (January, 1681) and she felt the full weight of her father's wrath, Akbar being out of the reach of his vengeance. Her property and pension of four lakhs a year were attached and she was imprisoned at Salimgarh for the rest of her life (1681-1702). At the news of her death, the Emperor, himself then on the brink of the grave, shed tears and ordered money to be distributed in charity for the good of her soul.

v3.c37.s4.4

Another daughter of Aurangzib, the Princess Zinat-un-nisa, preferred to live in single blessedness.

v3.c37.s4.5

∗ Critically discussed and refuted in my *Studies in Mughal India*.

v3.c37.s4.6

She is said to have begged her dowry from her father and spent it in building a fine mosque at Delhi, long known as the "Maiden's Mosque" (Kumari Masjid). She devoted herself to nursing her father and chaperoning his harem throughout the second half of his reign when he lived in the Deccan. She was a happier if less eminent Jahanara.

v3.c37.s4.7

Aurangzib is said to have been led by a Muslim faqir's insistence and the Prophet's example to give up the Mughal royal practice of making the daughters of the sovereign live and die as maidens. (Storia, ii. 58.) Two of his daughters, Mihr-un-nisa and Zubdat-un-nisa, were given away in marriage, and a third (Badr-un-nisa) died young at the age of twenty-two before a suitable match could be found for her.