Bakshi Banu Begum

Bakshi Banu Begum (Persian: بخشی بانو بیگم‎; born September 1540) was a Mughal princess and was the second daughter of Emperor Humayun and his consort Gunwar Bibi.[1] Bakshi Banu was thus the older half-sister of the Mughal Emperor Akbar.

Bakshi Banu Begum
BornSeptember 1540
Delhi
Burial
Kabul
SpouseMirza Sharif-ud-din Hussain
HouseTimurid
FatherHumayun
MotherGunwar Bibi
ReligionIslam

Early life

Bakshi Banu Begum was born in September 1540 in Delhi. Her mother was Bibi Gunwar. Gulbadan Begum noted in 'Humayunama' that during Gunwar's pregnancy everyone said, 'a son will be born'.[2]

In 1543, she was part of the large group of Humayun loyalists who fell into the hands of Askari Mirza, Humayun's half-brother; her infant half-brother Akbar (born in 1542) was also part of the party.[3] In the depth of the winter of 1545, she was sent with Akbar from Qandahar to Kabul by the orders of her uncle, Askari Mirza; the two children were escorted by their attendants and foster mothers.[4]

Betrothal to Ibrahim Mirza

In 1550, at the age of ten, Bakshi Banu was betrothed by her father to Ibrahim Mirza, eldest son of Sulaiman Shah Mirza, Governor of Badakshan,[5] and his wife Haram Begum, the daughter of Sultan Wais Kulabi Qibchaq Mughal. The family of Sulaiman Mirza, though their paternal ancestress Shah Begum, claimed descent from Alexander the Great.[6] Ibrahim Mirza, who was six years older than Bakshi Banu, was killed in 1560 at 26. She was twenty years of age.[7]

Marriage to Sharif-ud-din Husain

In the same year as the death of Ibrahim Mirza, she was given in marriage by Akbar to Mirza Sharif-ud-din Hussain Ahrari, the viceroy of Mewat upon his victory over the Kingdom of Amer.[8] His father was Khawaja Moin Ala-ud-din, one of the leaders of Khawal. His mother was Kichak Begum, the daughter of Mir Ala-ul-Mulk Termizi and Fakhr Jahan Begum, the daughter of Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza.[9] After his marriage to Bakshi Banu, Akbar appointed him the Viceroy of Ajmer.[10]

References
  1. Lal, Muni (1980). Akbar. Vikas. p. 7. ISBN 9780706910766.
  2. Begum, Gulbadan (1902). The History of Humayun (Humayun-Nama). Royal Asiatic Society. p. 146.
  3. Latif, Syad Muhammad (2003). Agra Historical & Descriptive with an Account of Akbar and his Court and of the Modern City of Agra. Asian Educational Services. p. 205. ISBN 9788120617094.
  4. Friedrich August Graf von Noer; Friedrich Christian Charles August (Prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg) (1890). The Emperor Akbar: A Contribution Towards the History of India in the 16th Century, Volume 1. Thacker, Spink & Company. p. 58.
  5. Beveridge, Henry (1907). Akbarnama of Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak - Volume I. Asiatic Society, Calcutta. p. 572.
  6. Begum, Gulbadan (1902). The History of Humayun (Humayun-Nama). Royal Asiatic Society. p. 242.
  7. Moosvi, Shiree (2008). People, Taxation, and Trade in Mughal India. Oxford University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-195-69315-7.
  8. Beveridge, Henry (1907). Akbarnama of Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak - Volume II. Asiatic Society, Calcuta. p. 197.
  9. Awangābādī, Shāhnavāz Khān; Prasad, Baini; Shāhnavāz, 'Abd al-Hayy ibn (1979). The Maāthir-ul-umarā: Being biographies of the Muḥammadan and Hindu officers of the Timurid sovereigns of India from 1500 to about 1780 A.D. Janaki Prakashan. pp. 804, 809.
  10. Raghavan, Venkatarama (1975). Sanskrit and Indological Studies: Dr. V. Raghavan Felicitation Volume. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 125.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.