[4][5][2][6][7] According to another account by the Mughal historian Khafi Khan, she was the daughter of a Muslim saint named Syed Shah Mir, a descendant of Abdul-Qadir Gilani, who had taken to a life of retirement among the hills of Rajauri.

[2][6] In the imperial harem, she was taught languages and culture by a set of masters, governesses, and Persian women versed in court manners, and in 1638 she was married to Aurangzeb[3] becoming his secondary wife.

They were Prince Muhammad Muazzam Mirza (future Emperor Bahadur Shah I), and the memorizer of the Quran, Princess Badr-un-Nissa Begum.

[10] Although she had given birth to Aurangzeb's first son, still his first wife, the Persian princess, Dilras Banu Begum, remained his chief consort as well as his favourite.

[12] In the war of succession in 1659, her eldest son Muhammad Sultan joined his uncle, Shah Shuja, and married his daughter Gulrukh Banu Begum.

In 1669, a man named Abdullah submitted a petition to Nawab Bai, that after the dismissal of his son, the post of faujdar of Arandole be granted to him.

When Aurangzeb's letter of advice produced no effect, he summoned Nawab Bai from Delhi, in order to send her to her son to rectify his behaviour.

[19] In 1686, she met the famous Italian writer and traveller, Niccolao Manucci at Goa,[20] who claimed that have bleed Nawab Bai twice a year.