Mihr Nigar Khanum

Mihr Nigar Khanum was the first wife of Sultan Ahmed Mirza, the King of Samarkand and Bukhara. She was a princess of Moghulistan by birth and was the eldest daughter of Yunus Khan, the Great Khan of Moghulistan and his chief consort Aisan Daulat Begum. She was also the aunt of Emperor Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire of India as well as its first Emperor.[1][2]

Mihr Nigar Khanum
Princess of Moghulistan
Consort of Samarkand
consort of Bukhara
consort of the Shaybanid Empire
SpouseSultan Ahmed Mirza
Muhammad Shaybani
Full name
Mihr Nigar
HouseBorjigin (by birth)
FatherYunus Khan
MotherAisan Daulat Begum
ReligionIslam

In July 1500, after her husband's death, she was captured by Muhammad Shaybani, the Khan of the Uzbeks; and was forcibly married to him as part of the spoils.

Family and lineage

Mihr Nigar Khanum was born a princess of Moghulistan and was the eldest daughter of Yunus Khan, the Great Khan of Moghulistan and his chief consort Aisan Daulat Begum.[3] Her paternal grandfather was Uwais Khan, the Moghul Khan of Mughalistan and her father's predecessor. Mihr Nigar Khanum was, thus, a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, the founder and Great Khan (Emperor) of the Mongol Empire.

She had two other siblings Qutlugh Nigar Khanum and Khub Nigar Khanum. Qutlugh later became her sister-in-law by marrying Umar Sheikh Mirza,[4] the younger brother of her future husband, Sultan Ahmed Mirza.

Being the daughter of a Khan, Mihr Nigar held the title of "Khanum" ("daughter of a Khan or princess") by birth.

Marriages

Sultan Ahmed Mirza

Mihr Nigar Khanum was married to Sultan Ahmad Mirza, the eldest son and successor of Abu Sa'id Mirza,[3] as per the wishes of her father, Yunus Khan, who said: "Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza turned the enmity that existed between Moghul and Chagatai into friendship. I wish now to cement this friendship with a family alliance, and therefore offer my daughter [Mihr Nigar], as a wife, to the son of Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza." Mihr Nigar Khanum bore her husband no children,[3] but remained in his harem for as long as he was alive, until his death in 1494.[5]

Shaybani Khan Uzbek

In early of July, 1500, she was captured by Shaibani and married by him. In 1500-1 she was divorced when he wished to marry Khanzada Begum, her niece. She then stayed awhile in Samarkand. In 1501-2 she went to Tashkand and joined the large family party which assembled there. In the middle of 1505, she came to Kabul with other kinsfolk, soon after the death of her mother and of her father, and during the ceremonial mourning of Babur for his mother. "Our grief broke out afresh," he writes.

Mirza Haidar gives a pleasant account of the welcome she accorded her generous and kindly nephew Babur in 1506-7, when he put down Khan Mirza Wais's rebellion in Kabul: "The Emperor leapt up and embraced his beloved aunt with every manifestation of affection. The khanum said to him: " Your children, wives, and household are longing to see you. I give thanks that I have been permitted to see you again. Rise up and go to your family in the castle. I too am going thither."

In 1507, when Khan Mirza set out for Badakhshan with his mother, Shah Begum, to try his fortunes in her father's ancient lands, "Mihr Nigar also wished to go. It would have been better and more becoming," writes Babar, "for her to remain with me. I was her nearest relation. But however much I dissuaded her, she continued obstinate and also set out for Badakhshan.

Death

Mihr Nigar rued her self will. She and Shah Begam were captured on their way to Qila' Zafar by one of Abubakr Dughlat's ' marauding bands,' and in the prisons of that wretched miscreant they departed from this perishable world.[6]

References
  1. Bābur (Mogulreich, Kaiser), John Leyden, William Erskine (1826). Memoirs of Zehir-ed-Din Muhammed Baber, Emperor of Hindustan. Longman.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Babur (Emperor of Hindustan) (2006). Babur Nama: Journal of Emperor Babur. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-144-00149-1.
  3. Lal, Ruby (2005). Domesticity and power in the early Mughal world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 84. ISBN 9780521850223.
  4. Mehta, Jaswant Lal (1986). Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. p. 19. ISBN 9788120710153.
  5. Dughlt, Mirza Muhammad Haidar (2008). Elias, N. (ed.). A History of the Moghuls of Central Asi: The Tarikh-i-Rashidi. Cosimo, Inc. p. 96. ISBN 1605201502.
  6. Begum, Gulbadan (1902). The History of Humayun (Humayun-Nama). Royal Asiatic Society. ISBN 8187570997.
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