He was also the first husband of Nur Jahan (Mehrunissa), who later married Jahangir after Ali Quli Khan's death and became Empress of India and the power behind the emperor.

[3] He was the father of a daughter called Mihr-un-nissa Begum, after she married Prince Shahryar, the fifth and youngest son of Jahangir and rival to Shah Jahan.

[3] Ali Quli Khan Istajlu was a member of the Turkoman Ustajlu tribe, and was the safarchi (table-attendant) of Ismail II, the third Safavid king (shah) of Iran (1576–78).

[1] After the Shah's death, Ali Quli came to Kandahar, and at Multan he met Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan who made him a royal employee while in the field.

[5] Soon after his arrival at the royal courts in 1594, Ain-e-Akbari suggests, Akbar ordered his marriage to the seventeen-year-old Mehrunissa (the future Empress Nur Jahan), daughter of Mirza Ghias Beg.

When Jahangir ascended the throne of Mughal Empire in 1605, Qutbuddin was made the subedar (Governor) of Bengal, by replacing Raja Man Singh.

At that moment Qutb signalled his men to arrest Sher Afghan, who stepped forward in alarm and attacked Qutbuddin sensing treachery.

According to her, Sher Aghan did not die immediately when he was attacked by Qutbuddin's men, but wounded as he was, he managed to get to the door of his house with the intention of killing his wife, whom he did not wish to fall into the emperor's hands.

After marrying Jahangir, Nur Jahan slowly gathered the all powers of the government in her hands and became the active and dominant force behind the Mughal throne.