Zeb-un-Nissa
Zeb-un-Nissa | |
---|---|
Sikandra, Agra | |
House | Timurid |
Father | Aurangzeb |
Mother | Dilras Banu Begum |
Religion | Sunni Islam |
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. She was also a poet, who wrote under the pseudonym of "Makhfi" (مخفی, "Hidden, Disguised, Concealed One").
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]
Early years
Birth
Zeb-un-Nissa ("Ornament/ Beauty of Womankind"),
Education and accomplishments
Aurangzeb charged Hafiza Mariam, one of the women of the court, with the education of Zeb-un-Nissa. 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. This occasion was celebrated by her father with a great feast and the declaration of a public holiday.[8] The princess was also given a reward of 30,000 gold pieces by her delighted father.[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.[10]
Zeb-un-Nissa then learned the sciences of the time with Mohammad Saeed Ashraf Mazandarani, who was also a great Persian poet.[11] She learned philosophy, mathematics, astronomy,[12] literature, and was a mistress of Persian, Arabic and Urdu. She had a good reputation in calligraphy as 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.[9] Her library also provided literary works on each subject, such as law, literature, history and theology.[14]
Zeb-un-Nissa was a kind-hearted person and always helped people in need. She helped widows and orphans. Not only did she help people per se, but also sent Hajj pilgrims to Mecca and Medina every year.[15] She also took an interest in music and it was said that she was the best singer among the women of her time.[15]
Aurangzeb's accession
When Aurangzeb became the emperor after
Regarding her looks, "... she is described as being tall and slim, her face round and fair in colour, with two moles, or beauty-spots, on her left cheek. Her eyes and abundant hair were very black, and she had thin lips and small teeth. In Lahore Museum is a contemporary portrait, which corresponds to this description... In dress she was simple and austere; in later life she always wore white, and her only ornament was a string of pearls round her neck."[16] Also with the way she dressed comes about her making an invention. "Zeb-un-Nissa invented a woman garment known as Angya Kurti. This was a modified form of the dress of the women of Turkestan. The modification was done to suit Indian conditions".[15]
Zeb-un-Nissa lived in a period when many "great" poets were at the peak of their reputation; e.g. Mawlana
Zeb-un-Nissa selected "Makhfi" (which means "Hidden One" in Persian) as her pen-name in her poetry. In addition to her poetic book or collection of poems, called Diwan, which contains approximately 5,000 verses, she also wrote the following books: Monis 'ul-Roh, Zeb 'ul-Monsha’at (زیب المنشآت / زيب المنشئات, "Literary Compositions of Zeb") and Zeb 'ul-Tafāsir (زيب التفاسير, "Tafsirs of Zeb"), the first and only tafsir written by a woman. In Makhzan 'ul-Ghaib (مخزن الغيب), the author writes that the poetic book of Zeb-un-Nissa contained 15,000 verses. Zeb-un-Nissa encouraged compilations and translations of various works also.
Later years, imprisonment and death
There are multiple conflicting accounts offering explanations for the circumstances which ultimately led to her imprisonment at
It was here, after 20 years of imprisonment, that Zeb-un-Nissa died after seven days of illness, still captive in Shahjahanabad while Aurangzeb was on a trip to the Deccan. Conflicting sources state the date of her death alternately as 1701 AD and 1702 AD.[23][24] Her tomb was in the garden of "Thirty thousand trees" (
In 1724, years after her death, her scattered and extant writings were collected under the name Diwan-i-Makhfi, literally, the Book of the Hidden One. It contained four hundred and twenty-one
Personal life
Zeb-un-Nissa did not get married and remained single her whole life, despite the fact that she had many suitors. This also came with the rise of speculative gossip about secret lovers and palace trysts.[28]
Zeb al-Nissa had four other younger sisters:
Her grandfather, Emperor
Zeb-un-Nissa spent all her life on literary works and poetry, as she herself said:
Oh Makhfi, it is the path of love and alone you must go.
No one suits your friendship even if God be though.
In some books it has been written that there was a secret love affair between Zeb-un-Nissa and Aqil Khan Razi, a poet and the Governor of Lahore. However, others disagree with the prior theory. For example, in her poetic book (Diwan), some would argue that one cannot 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.
According to certain sources, "dehumanizing" scandals (created and/or written by some foreigners) regarding the lives of Mughal ladies were not uncommon (during the post-
Legacy
Her poetic book was printed in
Ancestry
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Sample translation
Her Ghazal tells the story of love:
- You with the dark curly hair and the breathtaking eyes,
- your inquiring glance that leaves me undone.
- Eyes that pierce and then withdraw like a blood-stained sword,
- eyes with dagger lashes!
- Zealots, you are mistaken – this is heaven.
- Never mind those making promises of the afterlife:
- join us now, righteous friends, in this intoxication.
- Never mind the path to the Kaabah: sanctity resides in the heart.
- Squander your life, suffer! God is right here.
- Oh excruciating face! Continual light!
- This is where I am thrilled, here, right here.
- There is no book anywhere on the matter.
- Only as soon as I see you do I understand.
- If you wish to offer your beauty to God, give Zebunnisa
- a taste. Awaiting the tiniest morsel, she is right here.
Translated by Sally Lee Stewart, Elena Bell and Maksuda Joraeva. [31]
Works
- Princess Zeb-un-nissa (1920). Divan-i Makhf (Persian). Lahore Amrit Press.
- Zeb-un-nissa; Tr. by Paul Whalley (1913). The Tears of Zebunnisa: Being Excerpts from 'The Divan-I Makhf'. W. Thacker & Co.
References
- Arabic, Zebunnisa means "most beautiful of all women"
- ^ Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1979). A short history of Aurangzib, 1618–1707. Orient Longman. p. 14.
- ^ a b Lal & Westbrook 1913, p. 20.
- ISBN 9780861319671.
- ^ Lal & Westbrook 1913, p. 7.
- ^ "Aurangzeb daughter's monument in a shambles". nation.com.pk. 16 July 2009.
- ISBN 9780195798371.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Lal & Westbrook 1913, p. 8.
- ^ a b Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1912). History of Aurangzib: Mainly based on Persian sources, Volume 1. M.C. Sarkar and Sons. p. 69.
- ISBN 978-0-275-98242-3.
- ^ Mirsa, Rekha (1967). Women in Mughal India. Munshiram Manoharlal. p. 90.
- ^ "WISE: Muslim Women: Past and Present – Zebunnisa". Archived from the original on 27 December 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
- ^ ISBN 81-7017-311-6.
- ^ Nath 1990, p. 161.
- ^ a b c Nath 1990, p. 163.
- ^ "The Diwan of Zeb-un-Nissa: Introduction". sacred-texts.com.
- ISBN 9780195794441.
- ^ Lal & Westbrook 1913, p. 14.
- ^ Lal & Westbrook 1913, p. 16.
- ^ Lal & Westbrook 1913, p. 17.
- ^ Annie Krieger Krynick; Enjum Hamid. Captive Princess; Zebunissa, Daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb. Retrieved 31 May 2009.
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.
- ^ "Memories of Ferghana". 22 May 2005. Retrieved 31 May 2009.
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.
- ^ OCLC 473530.
- ISBN 978-1480011830.
- ISBN 978-93-5029-998-2.
- ^ Modern Librarian. Pakistan Library Association. 1930. p. 100.
- ^ Khalid, Haroon (11 August 2017). "How Lahore came to claim the rebellious and gifted Mughal princess Zeb-un-Nisa as its own". Scroll.in.
- ISBN 9781119019534.
- ^ a b Nath 1990, p. 150.
- ^ "Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume 12". Research Society of Pakistan. 1975: 26.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ Atlanta Review; Spring/Summer2002, Vol. VIII Issue 2, p 68.
Bibliography
- Chandrababu, B. S.; Thilagavathi, L. (2009). Woman, Her History and Her Struggle for Emancipation. Bharathi Puthakalayam. p. 209. ISBN 978-8189909970.
- Chopra, R. M., "Eminent Poetesses of Persian", 2010, Iran Society, Kolkata.
- Krieger-Krynicki, Annie (2005). Captive Princess: Zebunissa, Daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-579837-1.
- Lal, Magan; Westbrook, Jessie Duncan (1913). The Diwan of Zeb-un-Nissa. London: John Murray.
- Nath, Renuka (1990). Notable Mughal and Hindu women in the 16th and 17th centuries A.D. (1. publ. in India. ed.). New Delhi: Inter-India Publ. ISBN 9788121002417.
External links
- "The first fifty Ghazals of Diwan-e Makhfi" printed in London, 1913
- "The Tears of Zebunnissa" printed in London, 1913
- "Palace of Zeb-un-Nissa"
- "Diwan e Makhfi -scanned poems collection of Zebunnisa in original Persian Archived 6 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- The Friday Times: The poet princess – Sohaib Arshad discovers the diwan of Zebunnissa Archived 30 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- Studies in Mughal India. Chapter-IV by Jadunath Sarkar
- Story of Aurangzeb's daughter Zeb-un-Nissa at Navbharat Gold
- Works by Zeb-un-Nissa at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)