[18][19] The Rahimi was homeported in Surat but often traveled to Jeddah, the port near Mecca on the Red Sea, where she carried merchandise for the vendors of the holy city and trafficked in pilgrims on various parts of their journey.
[15][21] The Rahimi was owned by Mariam-uz-Zamani, a Hindu princess by birth with a "Moorish" title who was the Empress Mother of one of the most powerful empires in the world,[22] but she was in no way immune from the dangers of the business.
"[31] The local Sharifs of Mecca were the recipients of substantial Mughal largesse, and the financial assistance rendered to them brought goodwill for Muslim pilgrims from India and favors, when needed, for the imperial court.
[35][36][37][38] Particularly distasteful was that each pass carried stamped on it pictures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, and for orthodox Muslims to travel under such conditions, especially if on pilgrimage, "would mean to countenance idolatry.
There is no record of any question being raised about her position as a ship's owner under the Portuguese Pass, neither her religious status as a wife and then the mother of a Muslim emperor nor the Hindu tradition of her birth[13][40][41] seems to have been jeopardized by her involvement in sea trade in Christian waters.
[22] William Hawkins arrived at Jahangir's court at Agra "very richly clad," wearing apparel of "scarlet and violet," his cloak "lined with taffeta and embroidered with silver lace," a suitably high idea of his own importance, and carrying a letter of introduction from King James, rather perplexingly written in Spanish.
He greeted Hawkins warmly and invited him to come daily to the palace for talks and drinks, and he even bestowed on him the very generous post of 400 horses in the imperial service.
[48] William Hawkins himself, despite his fluency in Turki and his perseverance, is arrogant and rash, refusing to play by the rules of the Mughal court, where nuance and finesse are preferred to intransigence.
[22][49] Even so, Hawkins may have been able to secure some firmans from the ever-generous Jahangir had his agent, William Finch, not made a grave error in judgment by crossing Mariam-uz-Zamani's path.
[23][50] When Mariam-uz-Zamani heard that she had been outbid by an Englishman, she was furious and complained to her son, the emperor, who made the English representative at the court, William Hawkins, suffer for a long time after that.
[54][55] William Hawkins himself had to suffer for a long time after leaving the Mughal court, mentioning that he had no choice but to currie favour with the Jesuits to obtain safe conduct that would allow him and his wife to travel to Goa, from where they would embark for Europe.
"[56] The repercussions were so severe, that in 1612, English Captain Jourdain noted, " the Empress's ship, the Rahimi, was bound for Mocha, & the [ local ] merchants would not lade their goods aboard until wee [Europeans] were gone from the country.
[59] William Hawkins noted that on 1 February 1609, he witnessed a great stir touching Empress Mother's ship as it prepared to carry goods to Mocha, an Arabian port south of Mecca at the Red Sea's entrance.
[60] The incident in particular that permanently turned the Mughals away from their early European friends, the Portuguese, was the seizure and burning[61] of Mariam-uz-Zamani's greatest pilgrimage ship, the Rahimi, in September 1613.
In the words of Findly, "Rahimi incident was the only act of piracy against India, which, on record, evoked a severe and intense response from the Mughal government.
This is an altogether unusual situation, demonstrating the great cultural upheavals and the tectonic changes that are shaping the Mughal empire: this is a Hindu empress's Muslim ship, carrying Hajj pilgrims in Christian waters patrolled by the Portuguese armada.
[71][72] The Portuguese capture of Mariam-uz-Zamani's ship thus served to bring about a major change in the relationship between the two governments and was, by a fortunate accident, a substantial windfall for the English.
[62] When the Portuguese seized and burned an exceptionally large and well-known pilgrimage ship called Rahimi belonging to the Empress Mother Mariam-uz-Zamani, an era of overseas trading came to an end.
They missed their entrance into the Red sea (which was their dessigne), and came for India, gaue Chase to the Queene Mothers Juncke, and, but that God sent in our Fleete, had taken and rifled her.
I ordered the seisure of the shipps, Prises, and goods, and converted them to your vse; and must now tell you if you bee not round in some Course with these men you will haue the seas full and your trade in India is vtterly lost and our liues exposed to Pledge in the hands of Moores.