Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c20: Chapter VI. Female Education

Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c20

Language: English

Chapter VI. Female Education

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WE have some evidence proving that female education was also cared for in Muhammadan India. No doubt the education of females was greatly restricted by the *pardah* system which stood in the way of females beyond a certain age being sent to schools, but there was no such obstacle so far as the young girls were concerned. Thus we learn from Ja'far Sharīf that girls were taught in schools. He describes minutely in his *Qānūni-Islām*¹ the custom how a boy or a girl after having finished reading the *Qur'ān* makes presents to the teacher in an assembly invited for the purpose. The author further says that when a boy or a girl goes to school, it is the usual practice for the teacher to write an 'Īdī (a verse of something relating to the 'Īd) or a blessing for the child on a coloured or zarafshānī (illuminated) paper which is read by the child to the parents who make presents to the tutor. Whenever the pupil commences a new book, it is customary to entertain the teacher, to observe what is called

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¹ *Qānūni-Islām*, pp. 47-50.

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*Hadyah*, and present him with money sent by the parents, on which occasion a half-holiday is given to the school. There can be no doubt, therefore, that young girls as well were regularly taught in schools. Besides this evidence of custom of sending girls to school, we have as an historical fact noticed before, that Raẓiyah, who succeeded Altamash on the throne of Delhi, was an educated princess. It appears also that Sulṭān Ghiyāṣuddīn, who reigned in Mālwa from 1469 to 1500, established within his seraglio all the separate offices of the court, and had at one time, we are told, fifteen thousand women within his palace. "Among these were *school-mistresses*, musicians, women to read prayers, and persons of all professions and trades."¹ The very fact that he retained schoolmistresses in the harem indicates that the ladies in the palace were taught by them.

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¹ Ferishta vol. iv, p. 236.

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At the time of the Mughal Emperors also, we have some examples at least of princesses being given a liberal education, and there is no reason to suppose that they lived and died in ignorance.

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Gul-Badan Begam, the daughter of Bābar, wrote the *Humāyūn-Nāmah* as a contribution to the *Akbar-Nāmah*. Though there is no record to show how she was educated, yet there can be no doubt that she must have been a learned lady. It appears also that Gul-Badan used to collect books

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for a library of her own.¹ Salima Sulṭāna, the niece of Humāyūn, being the daughter of his sister Gul-Rukh, was a learned lady. She wrote many Persian poems under the *nom de plume* of Makhfī² (concealed). She became Akbar’s wife after the death of her first husband Bairām Khān. We have already seen that Akbar’s wet-nurse Māham Anaga was well educated, and founded a college in Delhi.

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¹ *Humāyūn-Nāmah* of Gul-Badan Begam, by Mrs. Beveridge, p. 76.

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² Malleson’s *Akbar*, p. 185; Blochmann’s *Ā’īni-Akbarī*, p. 309.

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In Akbar’s time, it seems, that regular training was given to the ladies of the royal household; for in his palace at Fathpūr Sīkrī, Akbar set apart certain chambers as a school for their education. I have given here a plan to show the relative position of the premises of the female school.³

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³ Smith’s *Fathpūr Sīkrī*, Pt. i, p. 8. Mr. Havell has also given a plan in his *Handbook to Agra, etc.*, where the school also appears.

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Nūr Jahān, the celebrated wife of Jahāngīr, was thoroughly versed in Persian and Arabic literature,⁴ and it was she who carried on the administration of government during the lifetime of her husband, which indicates that she was intelligent and educated enough to understand the intricacies of affairs of all the departments of the State. Mumtāz Mahal, the beloved wife of Shāh Jahān, was well versed in Persian, and could compose poems in that language.

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⁴ *The Nineteenth Century*, 1899, p. 756 (article by Justice Amīr ’Alī).

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Shāh Jahān’s eldest daughter Jahānārā Begam was also educated, and encouraged the learned men of

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Corridor leading to the Khwâbgâh

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Girls' School

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PORTICO

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STONE PAVED COURT

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Corridor leading to the Girls' School

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TANK

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SCALE 126 4 3 2 1 0 10 15 20 25 FEET

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Plan of Girls' School in Akbar's Palace at Fathpūr Sīkrī. (From Smith's *Architecture at Fathpūr Sīkrī*.)

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the time with rewards and allowances. She wrote her own epitaph, which is characterized by deep humility and stern simplicity. The inscription runs thus:—

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“Except with grass and green things let not my tomb be

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covered; for grass is an all-sufficient pall for the graves of the poor.”¹ The faqīr, the transitory one, Jahānārā Begam, disciple of the saintly family of Chistī, daughter of Shāh Jahān,—may God make her proof sure!

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¹ Hearn’s *Seven Cities of Delhi*, p. 116. Also S. Aḥmad.

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She ordered it to be placed on her own tomb, which is near that of Niẓāmuddīn Auliyā. Satiun-nisā, a learned lady, was the tutoress of Jahānārā Begam. She could recite the Qur’ān and had a good knowledge of Persian. She was the female Nāẓir to Mumtāz Mahal, at whose recommendation the Empress gave pensions and donations to the daughters of poor scholars, theologians and pious men.² Zibunnisa Begam, the eldest of the five daughters of Aurangzib, was an educated princess: she was taught by her own father, and was thoroughly proficient in the knowledge of the Qur’ān. She knew Persian and Arabic, and was well skilled in the art of calligraphy. She employed many learned men, poets and writers, and to her were dedicated numerous compilations and original works. Aurangzib’s third daughter, Badrunnisā, though she knew the Qur’ān by heart, was not so well educated as her eldest sister.³

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² Prof. J. Sarkar’s *Anecdotes of Aurangzib*, pp. 151, 173.

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³ *Ma’āṣiri-’Ālamgīrī* (Bibl. Indica), pp. 538 ff.

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Though the Indian ladies and princesses did not attain to that degree of literary education as the Muslim ladies in Spain, e.g. Zainab, Hamda,

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Fāṭimah, ’Āishah, Maryam, etc.,¹ yet it will be observed from the examples we have cited that the education of the Muhammadan princesses of India was not neglected; and sometimes they did show some progress which was indeed creditable, considering the comparative seclusion in which they were placed. These examples must have been followed by the nobility and the higher classes of Muhammadans in India. Hence we are justified in the conclusion that the Muhammadan ladies during the Muhammadan rule could not have been so ignorant as it is generally supposed.

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¹ Justice Amīr ’Alī’s *Short Hist. of the Saracens*, p. 569; Condé’s *Arabs in Spain*, vol. i, p. 484.

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the Athenians, who were already in the city, were not aware of the plot, but when they saw the Plataeans fighting, they did not wish to attack them, as they were friends, but when they saw that they were being attacked and killed in the city, they were at a loss what to do. They decided to run to the citadel, and some of them escaped there, while others were killed in the streets as they were caught by the Thebans. The women and slaves were screaming and wailing in the houses, and the Thebans, who were in the city, were throwing stones at them, as the confusion was great. In the meantime, the rest of the Thebans, who were outside, hearing the shouting, rushed into the city to help their comrades.

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The Plataeans, seeing that they were being attacked by the Thebans, and that the Thebans were already in the city, were in great fear. They opened the gates of the city, and let the Athenians, who were in the citadel, come out, and they also let the rest of the Plataeans, who were in the houses, come out. They then attacked the Thebans, and as they were fighting in the dark, and in the narrow streets, the Thebans were at a disadvantage. The Plataeans, who knew the city well, were able to attack them from the houses, and from the roofs, and they were able to kill many of them. The Thebans, seeing that they were being defeated, tried to escape, but the gates were closed, and they were trapped. Some of them climbed over the walls, and others were killed as they tried to escape.

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The Plataeans, having defeated the Thebans, sent a messenger to Athens to tell them what had happened, and to ask for help. The Athenians, hearing the news, sent a force to Plataea, and they also sent a message to the Thebans, telling them that if they did not release the prisoners, they would kill the Thebans who were in their hands. The Thebans, fearing for their men, agreed to release the prisoners, and the Plataeans, having received their men, released the Thebans. This was the beginning of the war between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians.

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THE following pictures are reproductions of old paintings in the collection of Mr. G. C. Manuk, Bar-at-Law, Bankipore, whose notes thereon are thus given :—

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(I.) The first picture shows a Mughal princess having her lesson. The painter is unknown, but the quality of the picture shows its time to be that of Akbar.

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(II.) The second picture shows a group of Muhammadan saints and *maulawīs*. The painter is unknown, but it probably belongs to the time of Shāh Jahān.

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(III.) In the third picture is represented the story of Ḥaqīqat Rāi of Lahore, about two hundred years old. Ḥaqīqat Rāi was a Hindu student in the school of a bigoted Maulawī. In the illustration, he is undergoing a severe punishment amounting almost to torture for his suspected insult to the Muhammadan religion.