Zeb-un-Nissa: Difference between revisions

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'''Zeb-un-Nissa''' ({{lang-langx|fa|زیب النساء }})<ref>Also romanized as '''Zebunnisa''', '''Zebunniso''', '''Zebunnissa''', '''Zebunisa''', '''Zeb al-Nissa'''. {{lang|fa|زیب}} ''Zēb'' means "beauty" or "ornament" in [[Arabic language|Arabic]] and {{lang|ar|نساء}} ''Nissa'' means "women" in [[Arabic language|Arabic]], ''Zebunnisa'' means "most beautiful of all women"</ref> (15 February 1638 – 26 May 1702)<ref>{{cite book|last=Sir Jadunath Sarkar|title=A short history of Aurangzib, 1618–1707|year=1979|publisher=Orient Longman|page=14}}</ref> was a [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] princess and the eldest child of Emperor [[Aurangzeb]] and his chief consort, [[Dilras Banu Begum]]. She was also a poet, who wrote under the [[pseudonym]] of "Makhfi" ({{lang|fa|مخفی}}, "Hidden, Disguised, Concealed One").

There are multiple conflicting accounts offering explanations for the circumstances which ultimately led to her imprisonment at [[Salimgarh Fort]], Delhi, at the edge of [[Shahjahanabad]] (present [[Old Delhi]]). In 1662, when Aurangzeb was taken ill and his physicians prescribed a change in the environment, he took his family and court with him to Lahore. At that time Akil Khan Razi, the son of his Vizier, was Governor of that city.{{sfn|Lal|Westbrook|1913|p=14}} In the following period, Akil Khan and Zeb-un-Nissa allegedly had a brief yet failed affair,{{sfn|Lal|Westbrook|1913|p=16}} after which Aurangzeb began to distrust her and later imprisoned her.{{sfn|Lal|Westbrook|1913|p=17}} Other theories suggest that she was imprisoned for being a poetesspoet and a musician (both anathema to Aurangzeb's austere, more orthodox and fundamental way of life and thinking).<ref name=Zebu>{{cite book|author=Annie Krieger Krynick|author2=Enjum Hamid |title= Captive Princess; Zebunissa, Daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb|url= http://www.ecampus.com/book/0195798376/|access-date=31 May 2009|quote= The book revolves around Princess Zebunissa (1638–1702) who is defined as the symbol of female power of the Mughal dynasty and portrays their stature in the court life in the seventeenth century...For her the name signified a life dramatically suppressed, cut off from the world. Her mysterious and unexpected imprisonment is also described in this book: Zebunissa's fate changed drastically when she was sent to prison by her father Aurangzeb, where she died leaving a landmark near the Red Fort of Delhi.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/70761/|title= Memories of Ferghana|date= 22 May 2005|access-date=31 May 2009|quote= MUSIC and dance? But wasn't that '‘unIslamic'’ in a country celebrating an Islamic revival, I'd thought back then, as I twirled at an Uzbek soiree at Kokand in the Ferghana Valley. My hostess had snatched up a daf (dafli in India) and was dancing slowly to a sad Persian song by Zebunisa 'Makhfi', an Uzbek-Tajik favourite. She was a princess of Delhi via Ferghana; Aurangzeb's daughter, whom he jailed for 20 years in Salimgarh, next to the Red Fort, because of her Sufi sympathies. Aurangzeb had killed music in his realm. Zebunisa's voice sang in her ancestral homeland, though lost to Delhi.}}</ref> Yet another explanation points to her correspondence with her younger brother, [[Sultan Muhammad Akbar|Muhammad Akbar]]. 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.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T_mC-s_K-6sC&q=pg+51|title=Women in Mughal India|last=Misra|first=Rekha|publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal|year=1967|location=Delhi|pages=51|isbn=9788121503471|oclc=473530}}</ref>

Zeb al-Nissa had four other younger sisters: [[Zeenat-un-Nissa|Zeenat un-Nissa]], [[Zubdat-un-Nissa]], [[Badr-un-Nissa Begum|Badr-un-Nissa]] and [[Mihr-un-nissaNissa Begum|Mihr-un-Nissa]].

Historians sayare of the opinion that ZebunisaZeb-un-Nissa was in love with the Hindu king [[Chhatrasal Bundela]] Bundela, who Aurangzeb did not like when he found out that he imprisoned Zeb-un-Nissa. Many Historians have also supported this.

[[Category:People from Aurangabad, Maharashtra]]

[[Category:17th-century Persian-language poets]]