Gulbadan Begum (20 November 1522 – 7 February 1603) was a Mughal princess and the daughter of Emperor Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire.
She is best known as the author of Humayun-Nama, the account of the life of her half-brother and Babar's successor, Emperor Humayun, which she wrote on the request of her nephew and Humayun's son, Emperor Akbar. Gulbadan's recollection of Babur is brief, but she gives a refreshing account of Humayun's household and provides rare material regarding his confrontation with her half-brother, Kamran Mirza. She records the fratricidal conflict among her brothers with a sense of grief.
Gulbadan Begum was about eight years old at the time of her father's death in 1530 and was brought up by her older half-brother, Humayun. She was married to a Chagatai noble, her cousin, Khizr Khwaja Khan, the son of Aiman Khwajah Sultan, son of Khan Ahmad Alaq of the Turpan Khanate in Moghulistan at the age of seventeen.
She spent most of her life in Kabul. In 1557, she was invited by her nephew, Akbar, to join the imperial household at Agra. She wielded great influence and respect in the imperial household and was much loved both by Akbar and his mother, Hamida Banu Begum. Gulbadan Begum is mentioned throughout the Akbarnama (lit. 'Book of Akbar') of Abu'l Fazl and much of her biographical details are accessible through the work.
Along with several other royal women, Gulbadan Begum undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca and returned home seven years later in 1582. She died in 1603.
Contents
Name
Gulbadan Begum's name means "body like a flower" or "rose body" in Classical Persian.
Early life
When Princess Gulbadan was born on 20 November 1522 to Dildar Begum, her father, Babur, had been lord in Kabul for nineteen years; he was also the ruler of Kunduz and Badakhshan, had held Bajaur and Swat since 1519, and Kandahar for a year. During ten of those nineteen years, he had been styled padishah as the head of the House of Timur and for his independent sovereignty.
Gulbadan's siblings included her older brother, Hindal Mirza, and two other sisters, Gulrang Begum and Gulchehra Begum, while her younger brother Alwar Mirza, died in his childhood. Among her siblings, Gulbadan was very close to her brother, Hindal Mirza.
At the age of seventeen, Gulbadan was married to a Chagatai noble, her cousin, Khizr Khwaja Khan, the son of Aiman Khwajah Sultan, son of Khan Ahmad Alaq of the Turpan Khanate.
In 1540, Humayun lost the kingdom that his father Babur had established in India, to Sher Shah Suri, a Pashtun soldier from Bihar, who established the Sur Empire. With only his pregnant wife Hamida Banu Begum, one female attendant, and a few loyal supporters, Humayun fled to Lahore and then Kabul. He was in exile for the next fifteen years in Safavid Iran.
Gulbadan Begum went to live in Kabul again. Her life, like those of all the other women of the Mughal Harem, was intricately intertwined with three Mughal kings – her father Babur, brother Humayun, and nephew Akbar.
Two years after Humayun reestablished the empire, Gulbadan accompanied other Mughal women of the harem back to Agra at the behest of Akbar, who had begun his rule after Humayan died in a fall.
Writing of the Humayun Nama
Akbar commissioned Gulbadan Begum to chronicle the story of his father, Humayun. He was fond of his aunt and knew of her storytelling skills. It was fashionable for the Mughals to engage writers to document their own reigns (Akbar's own history, Akbarnama, was written by the well-known Persian scholar Abul Fazl). Akbar asked his aunt to write whatever she remembered about her brother's life. Gulbadan Begum took the challenge and produced a document titled Ahwal Humayun Padshah Jamah Kardom Gulbadan Begum bint Babur Padshah amma Akbar Padshah. It came to be known as Humayun-nama.
Gulbadan wrote in simple Persian, without the erudite language used by better-known writers. Her father Babur had written Babur-nama in the same style, and she took his cue and wrote from her memories. Unlike some of her contemporary writers, Gulbadan wrote a factual account of what she remembered, without embellishment. What she produced not only chronicles the trials and tribulations of Humayun's rule, but also gives us a glimpse of life in the Mughal harem. It is the only surviving writing penned by a woman of Mughal royalty in the 16th century.
There has been suspicion that Gulbadan wrote the Humayun-Nama in her native language of Turkic rather than Persian, and that the book available today is a translation.
Upon being entrusted with the directive by Akbar to write the manuscript, Gulbadan Begum begins thus:There had been an order issued, ‘Write down whatever you know of the doings of Firdous-Makani (Babur) and Jannat-Ashyani (Humayun)’. At this time when his Majesty Firdaus-Makani passed from this perishable world to the everlasting home, I, this lowly one, was eight years old, so it may well be that I do not remember much. However in obedience to the royal command, I set down whatever there is that I have heard and remember.
From her account, we know that Gulbadan was married by the age of 17 to her cousin, Khizr Khwaja, a Chagatai prince who was the son of her father's cousin, Aiman Khwajah Sultan. She had at least one son. She had migrated to India in 1528 from Kabul with one of her stepmothers, who was allowed to adopt her as her own on the command of her father, the Emperor. After the defeat of Humayun in 1540, she moved back to Kabul to live with one of her half-brothers. She did not return to Agra immediately after Humayun won back his kingdom. Instead, she stayed behind in Kabul until she was brought back to Agra by Akbar, two years after Humayun died in a tragic accident in 1556. Gulbadan Begum lived in Agra and then in Sikri for a short while, but mostly in Lahore or with the Court for the rest of her life, except for a period of seven years when she undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca. The Mughal Court even up to the early years of Shah Jahan's reign was never a confined thing, but a travelling grand encampment and there is no doubt that Gulbadan Banu Begum, like most Mughal ladies, hated the confines living in buildings and no doubt, wholeheartedly agreed with the verses of Jahanara Begum, the daughter of Shah Jahan, that the rot of the empire would set in when the Mughals confined themselves to closed houses.
Pilgrimage to Mecca
Gulbadan Begum described in her memoir a pilgrimage she along with Salima Sultan Begum undertook to Mecca, a distance of 3,000 miles, crossing treacherous mountains and hostile deserts. Though they were of royal birth, the women of the harem were hardy and prepared to face hardships, especially since their lives were so intimately intertwined with the men and their fortunes. Gulbadan Begum stayed in Mecca for nearly four years and during her return a shipwreck in Aden kept her from returning to Agra for several months. She finally returned in 1582, seven years after she had set forth on her journey.
Akbar had provided for safe passage of his aunt on her Hajj and sent a noble as escort with several ladies in attendance. Lavish gifts were packed with her entourage that could be used as alms. Her arrival in Mecca caused quite a stir and people from as far as Syria and Asia Minor swarmed to Mecca to get a share of the bounty.
Later life
When she was 70, her name is mentioned with that of Muhammad-yar, a son of her daughter, who left the court in disgrace. She with Hamida, received royal gifts of money and jewels on the occasion of the New Year by Akbar.
Her charities were large, and it is said of her that she added day unto day in the endeavor to please God, and this by succoring the poor and needy.
When she was 80, in February 1603, her departure was heralded by a few days of fever. Hamida was with her to the end and watched her last hours. As she lay with closed eyes, Hamida Banu Begum spoke to her by the long-used name of affection, "Jiu!" (live or May you Live). There was no response. Then, "Gul-badan!" The dying woman opened her eyes, quoted the verse, "I die—may you live!" and died.
Akbar helped to carry her bier some distance, and for her soul's repose made lavish gifts and did good works. He will have joined in the silent prayer for her soul before committal of her body to the earth, and if no son were there, he, as a near kinsman, may have answered the Imam's injunction to resignation: "It is the will of God."
It is said that for the two years after her death, Akbar lamented constantly that he missed his favorite aunt, until he died in 1605.
Gulbadan was also said to have been a poet, fluent in both Persian and Turkish. None of her poems have survived. However, there are references to two verses and a qasida written by her by the Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar in his collection of verses as well as some references by Mir Taqi Mir.
For much of history, the manuscript of Gulbadan Begum remained in obscurity. There is little mention of it in contemporary literature of other Mughal writers, especially the authors who chronicled Akbar’s rule. Yet, the little-known account of Gulbadan Begum is an important document for historians, with its window into a woman’s perspective from inside the Mughal harem.
In popular culture
Gulbadan Begum is a principal character in Salman Rushdie's novel The Enchantress of Florence (2008).
Gulbadan Begum is portrayed by Shraddha Singh in Jodha Akbar