Nur Jahan

“ As Georgia looked after him, something of pity rose in her heart. After all, the only tragedies in Kubbet-ul-Haj were not those of the older women with their woful past, and Nur Jahan with her comfortless future. There was tragedy also in the story of the man who for life’s sake had given up all that ennobled life, and who had gained so much that he found was valueless, and lost so much that he now knew was invaluable. ”

“ Prince Jadar's strategies and intrigues, first with and then against Queen Janahara, resemble in many ways those of Shah Jahan as he struggled to thwart the ambitions of Nur Jahan. The Shahbandar and the opium-sotted governor of Surat also had counterparts in real individuals, as did Jadar's beloved Mumtaz, his younger brother Prince Allaudin, Princess Layla, Malik Ambar, and Inayat Latif. The Sufi mystic Samad was re-created from the real-life poet Sarmad, who was admired by Shah Jahan and who was executed by a later Moghul for precisely the reasons given in the story. ”

“ Nūr Jahān Begam indicated me, and said: “Do you recognise (him) ?” At such a time he recited this couplet of Anwarī:
Were a mother-born blind man present
He’d recognise Majesty in the World-Adorner.
I was for two hours at his pillow. Whenever he was conscious, whatever he said was intelligent and rational. In fine, on the 17th of the said month (Bahman) (about the end of January, 1622) , after three gharis had passed he attained to eternal mercy. What shall I say about my feelings through this terrible event? He was a wise and perfect Vizier, and a learned and affectionate companion. ”

“ You have not presented me to your wife, Haigh.”
Sir Dugald performed the ceremony briefly, and then introduced the guest to Georgia, explaining that she was St George Keeling’s daughter.
“And you are the lady doctor?” said Jahan Beg. “I have one thing to ask of you, Miss Keeling. It is possible that at the Palace you may see my daughter, Nur Jahan, Rustam Khan’s wife. Have pity upon her, and don’t make her discontented with her life. She must stay here all her days, and she is happy with her husband and her baby. ”

“ On the first of the Divine month of Isfandārmuẕ I gave the establishment and everything belonging to the government and Amirship of Iʿtimādu-d-daula to Nūr Jahān Begam, and ordered that her drums and orchestra should be sounded after those of the king. On the 4th of the same month I pitched in the neighbourhood of the pargana of Kas͟hhūna.73 On this day K͟hwāja Abū-l-Ḥasan was raised to the lofty dignity of supreme Diwan. I conferred dresses of honour on 32 individuals of the Deccan Amirs. Abū Saʿīd, grandson of Iʿtimādu-d-daula, was raised to the mansab of 1,000 personal and 500 horse. ”

“ Jahāngīr's eldest son, Khusrū, had his eyes put out by his father's orders for repeated rebellions, to which he had been instigated by a desire to revenge his mother's murder, and by the ambition of her brother, the Hindoo prince, Mān Singh, [14] who wished to see his own nephew on the throne, and by his wife's father, the prime minister of Akbar, Khan Azam. [15] Nūr Jahān had invited the mother of Khusrū, the sister of Rājā Mān Singh, to look with her down a well in the courtyard of her apartments by moonlight, and as she did so she threw her in. ”

“ As this news reached me through Nūr-Jahān Begam, I gave her the parganah of Boda (Ṭoḍā?) ,20 the revenue of which is 200,000 rupees. Please God, when the victorious forces enter the province of the Deccan and its forts, and the mind of my excellent son K͟hurram is satisfied with regard to their possession, he will bring with the ambassadors such an offering from [381] the Deccan as no other king of this age has received. It was ordered that he should bring with him the Amirs who were to receive jagirs in this Subah, in order that they might have the honour of waiting on me. ”

“ Increasing his mansab as a reward for this service, I gave him a horse and a dress of honour.
On Monday, the 4th, Tuesday, the 5th, Wednesday, the 6th, I marched continuously, and, halting on Thursday, the 7th, I arranged a feast of pleasure on the bank of a tank. Nūr-Jahān Begam had been ill for some time, and the physicians who had the good fortune to be chosen to attend on her, Musulmans and Hindus, perceived no gain from all the medicines they gave her, and confessed their helplessness in treating her. At this time Ḥakīm Rūḥu-llah began to wait upon her, and undertook (to find) a remedy. ”

“ An elephant is not at ease when it smells a tiger, and is continually in movement, and to hit with a gun from a litter (ʿimārī) is a very difficult matter, insomuch that Mīrzā Rustam, who, after me, is unequalled in shooting, has several times missed three or four shots from an elephant. Yet Nūr-Jahān B. so hit the tiger with one shot that it was immediately killed.
On Monday, the 12th, my desire to see the Gosāʾīn Jadrūp again increased, and hastening to his hut, without ceremony, I enjoyed his society. ”

“ For fear that some injury might occur to the country and the servants of God, I kept this secret from most of those familiar with and near to me, and did not inform the physicians and hakims. A few days passed in this manner, and I only imparted this to Nūr-Jahān Begam than whom I did not think anyone was fonder of me ”

“ I hope that he may enjoy a long life with prosperity.
At this time Rs. 20,00,000 were sent to K͟hurram for the expenses of the army of the Deccan by Allah-dād K., who [216] was honoured with an elephant and a standard. On the 28th Qiyām K., chief huntsman, died a natural death. He was a confidential servant, and apart from his skill in hunting, looked over every trifling detail relating to it, and consulted my pleasure in it. In short, I was much grieved at this event. I hope that God may grant him forgiveness.
On the 29th the mother of Nūr Jahān Begam died. ”

“ But, after two years, he failed in securing trading privileges for the East India Company, and left Agra in 1611. The influence of Nur Mahal, his favourite wife, was paramount over Jahangir; but he had no children by her. Of his four sons, he kept the eldest, Khusru, in prison for rebellion. Parwiz, the second, was a drunkard. Khurram, afterwards known as Shah Jahan, succeeded his father. Shahryar was the youngest. In 1615 Sir Thomas Roe arrived at the court of Jahangir, as ambassador from James I., and remained until 1618. ”

“ Perhaps the ba Mīr of text is a mistake for bar baḥr, ‘by sea.’ ↑
7 Tuqūz means nine in Turkī. ↑
8 The I.O. MSS. seem to have Sakakdar or Sakakandar. ↑
9 It appears from S͟hāh ʿAbbās’s letter to Jahāngīr (Tūzuk, p. 165) that Muḥammad Ḥusain Chelebī had been employed by Jahāngīr to collect curios in Persia. ↑
10 Note by Sayyid Aḥmad. They say that a poet recited this impromptu couplet—
“Though Nūr-Jahān be in form a woman,
In the ranks of men she’s a tiger-slayer.”
The point of this couplet is that before Nūr-Jahān entered Jahāngīr’s harem she was the wife of S͟hīr-afgan, the tiger-slayer. ”

“ Soon the Garden of Heart’s Delight was emptied of the gang save those who were dead or too badly injured to crawl. Then lights were brought.
Nur Mahal was the first to find her husband’s body. She threw herself by his side in a gust of tears.
[Pg 189]
“Alas!” she sobbed, “they have slain him! It is my fault, O prince of men! What evil fate made thee wed me, Sher Afghán? I vow to Allah, though I could not love thee living, I shall mourn thee dead. Jahangir, if thou hast done this thing, bitterly shalt thou rue it! Oh, my husband, my husband, thou art fallen because of an unworthy woman!” ”

“ Yet, when they reached the main alley, where Sher Afghán lay dead, they knew not whom to strike nor whom to spare, so intermixed were the combatants and so confused the riot of ringing simitars, of hoarse shouts, of agonized appeals for mercy.
But Nur Mahal, quicker than they to distinguish between native and native, cried as she ran with them:—
“My husband’s men wear white turbans. All the others are strangers.” ”

“ Remember, the eleventh hour—three hoots—”
“Stay, Jai Singh,” said Walter, quietly. “There must be no attempt at a rescue. If any attack be made on the column, Sainton-sahib and I will strike hard for [Pg 267] Fateh Mohammed. We have given our bond to accompany him to the very presence of Jahangir. God helping us we will maintain our honor in this matter as in all others. Go you, and tell Nur Mahal what I have said. There is no other way. We are pledged to meet the Emperor face to face as his prisoners, and he must do with us what he wills, or, rather, what God wills.” ”

“ Overhead is the tiny Gem Mosque, where the women prayed the Prophet to grant them souls; this exquisite marble cell being afterward the prison place of Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan, the accepted Great Mogul of Europeans, and contemporary of Cromwell, was deposed by his son, Jahangir, but cheered in his seven years' captivity by his faithful daughter, Jahanira. Another passage leads along above the battlements from the Jasmine Tower to the Diwan-i-Khas, another private audience-hall with an inner decoration of white on white in low relief, the outer pillars and arches inlaid with color. ”

“ They knew, they said, that Sher Afghán was slain—it was even rumored that the companion of the Hathi-sahib was concerned in the deed—and that his widow had gone towards Burdwán with the two Feringhis. As for the statement that Jahangir had charged these latter with a mission, it was manifestly absurd in view of his eagerness to secure their arrest, while it was impossible that anyone so far south could be aware of Nur Mahal’s fortunes at Agra, seeing that they, the messengers, had passed her returning escort privily by night, being urged thereto by the Chief Eunuch, who accompanied her. ”

“ Was there no knowledge of Jahangir’s intent to capture me?”
The other hesitated, and Mowbray cried bitterly:—
“Tell all thy tale, Jai Singh, or else leave me in peace.”
“Hush, sahib! Not so loud. I swear by Khuda I am party to no device against your Excellency. If I look through glass I can see what is beyond, but if [Pg 265] I look into a woman’s mind I peer at the reflection of my own conceits. I can only tell you of things as they are. When I seek to fathom Nur Mahal’s thoughts I am gazing into a mirror.” ”

“ So marvel not to hear me tell thee who thou art and who is the King thy sire and who is Nur al-Nihar, the daughter of thine uncle. I have full knowledge of all concerning thyself and thy kith and kin; how thou art one of three brothers who all and each were daft for love of Princess Nur al-Nihar and strave to win her from one another to wife. Furthermore thy sire deemed it best to send you all far and wide over foreign lands, and thou faredest to far Samarkand and broughtest back a Magical Apple made with rare art and mystery which thou boughtest for forty thousand Ashrafis ”

“ Juma Khan has already given ample proof of his loyalty, and Halil Khan, untrustworthy as he is, would never dream of fighting the Sirkar alone. If I may advise I would suggest that whoever is ultimately set free Nur-Mahommed is never liberated. He is Jiand's evil genius. Without him you might have won over Jiand to real loyalty, but so long as Nur-Mahommed, who is a devil, is always whispering in his ear you can never trust Jiand to keep any oath."
Before we left Karsimabad I paid Murad some compensation for his straw, for he had had the best intentions. ”

“ He counted that, long ere this, Nur Mahal was firmly established as the despot of a despot. He was sure that a woman of cultured and artistic tastes would sway the shallow-minded King back from his retrogade policy with regard to other nations. Therefore, the instant Jai Singh heard that Fateh Mohammed had taken the pill so neatly prepared for him, the Rajput and a couple of men would ride at utmost speed to Agra and warn Nur Mahal as to the way in which Jahangir’s authority had been usurped. ”

“ This was only the first of many times that the young convert was to bear the reproach of the Cross, and he had not yet learnt to take the vindictiveness of his Muhammadan compatriots with the forbearance which was a later growth of the Spirit. This assault, however, resulted in a parting of the ways, and from that time Jahan Khan publicly avowed himself a Christian. He had many a battle yet to fight—not so much with outward enemies as with his own Pathan nature—but the Spirit was to conquer.
Some time after his baptism Jahan Khan conceived a burning desire to revisit his childhood’s home. ”

“ Yet, the native artists had achieved a better result than the Englishmen expected, whilst Jahangir was puzzled by his wife’s eagerness to see Nellie Roe’s presentment, although she evinced no curiosity concerning her when first he mentioned the projected marriage.
But the Emperor, still a wine-bibber it is clear, soon ceased to question the why and the wherefore of Nur Mahal’s actions. Each day of his life he fell more and more under her influence. ”

“ Even he could not be aware that the beautiful Nur Mahal, whose fascination for Jahangir is known to all India, would become a widow, and hence regain her ascendency at court. It is true. Her husband, Sher Afghán, is dead. She herself is Sultana by this time, and her first act has been to free all the European prisoners in Agra, Delhi, and other cities, whose bondage was the result of Jahangir’s earlier policy. Judge for yourself what she will say when she hears of the excesses committed by Abdul Aziz. ”