Zeb-un-Nissa

Zeb-un-Nissa (Persian: زیب النساء)[1] (15 February 1638 – 26 May 1702)[2] was a Mughal princess and the eldest child of Emperor Aurangzeb and his chief consort, Dilras Banu Begum.

Imprisoned by her father in the last 20 years of her life at Salimgarh Fort, Delhi, Princess Zeb-un-Nissa is remembered as a poet, and her writings were collected posthumously as Diwan-i-Makhfi (Persian: ديوانِ مخفى) - "Complete (Poetical) Works of Makhfi".

[3] Zeb-un-Nissa ("Ornament/ Beauty of Womankind"),[4] the eldest child of Prince Muhi-ud-Din (later, Emperor Aurangzeb), was born on 15 February 1638 in Daulatabad, Deccan, exactly nine months after the marriage of her parents.

She seems to have inherited her father's keenness of intellect and literary tastes, because Zeb-un-Nissa memorized the Quran in three years and became a Hafiza at the age of seven.

[9] Aurangzeb paid the princely sum of 30,000 gold pieces to the ustani (an honorific title for a female "ustad" or well-regarded teacher) for having taught his cherished daughter well.

[13] Her library surpassed all other private collections, and she employed many scholars on liberal salaries to produce literary works at her bidding or to copy manuscripts for her.

[15] Zeb-un-Nissa lived in a period when many "great" poets were at the peak of their reputation; e.g. Mawlana Abdul Qader Bedil, Kalim Kashani, Saa'eb Tabrizi and Ghani Kashmiri.

"Zebunnisa was trained in the serious study of religious doctrine and in matters in faith, and she was known as an excellent scholar in several academic areas and as a literary figure and patron of some renown.

[20] Other theories suggest that she was imprisoned for being a poet and a musician (both anathema to Aurangzeb's austere, more orthodox and fundamental way of life and thinking).

She supported the young prince in the inevitable ongoing conflict of succession, and was discovered to have written to him during the rebellion in 1681 AD (over the course of which, he had publicly accused Aurangzeb of transgressions against Islamic law).

Her punishment was to have her accumulated wealth confiscated, her annual pension of 4 lakhs nullified, and that she was to be held prisoner at Salimgarh until her death.

[23][24] Her tomb was in the garden of "Thirty thousand trees" (Tees Hazari), outside of the Kashmiri Darwaza, the north gate of the city.

But when the railway line was laid out by the British at Delhi, her tomb with its inscribed tombstone was shifted to Akbar's mausoleum at Sikandra, Agra.

[26] Haroon Khalid infers that the apocryphal association of Zeb-un-Nissa with the tomb in Lahore came about after the defeat of rebel prince Dara Shikoh in the Mughal war of succession (1657–1661), with the supporters of Shikoh (who had spent time in Lahore) transferring their aspirations to the rebellious princess by connecting her with the tomb even though she remained buried in Delhi and later at Agra.

For example, in her poetic book (Diwan), some would argue that one find a single Ghazal which supports this point, and that all of her poems are based on the Sufi concept of the Love of God.

For example, a claim of: "A sordid episode of [Zeb-un-Nissa's] carnal romance with Aqil Khan Razi and his death inside a hot cauldron with burning fire under it, gained wider currency and was eagerly picked up by the...