Just Jahan
Mehr-un-Nisa (German = "sun among women"; born 1577 in Kandahar ; died December 18, 1645 in Lahore ) became known as the 20th (and last) wife of the 4th Grand Mogul Jahangir , on whom she exercised great influence . He gave her the honorary title Nur Jahan ("Light of the World"). Under the guidance of her parents, who came from Persia, she also developed a keen sense for the arts, had buildings erected, gardens laid out and fabric samples, carpets and perfumes; In addition, she also intervened in religious questions and regulated the court finances.
biography
childhood
Mehr-un-Nisa's father was Mirza Ghiyas Beg, who came from a respected family, the mother was Asmat Begam; Both came from Persia, were highly educated, but had to leave the country together with their children (two sons and one daughter). While fleeing to India, the caravan they joined was ambushed and the family lost all of their assets with the exception of two mules on which they continued to ride. Her mother gave birth to Mehr-un-Nisa in 1577 in a caravanserai near Kandahar. Nur Jahan's parents were thus (educated) Persian refugees in India; her father had served at Akbar's court since 1577 , quickly rose to higher offices and received the honorary title Itimad-ud-Daula ("pillar of the state").
First marriage
In 1594, at the age of 17, Mehr-un-Nisa was first married to Ali Quli Khan Istajlu, a Persian soldier who had been Sher Afghan since 1599 ; a daughter was born to both of them in 1605 - this was their only child. After Akbar's death on October 24, 1605, his son Jahangir ascended the throne. In the winter of 1607, her niece Arjumand Banu (later Mumtaz Mahal ) was betrothed to the third son of Jahangir, Prince Khurram (later Shah Jahan ). In 1607, her first husband, Sher Afghan, died under unknown circumstances during a campaign. That year, her family also fell from grace because they had become involved in Prince Khusrau's rebellion against his father Jahangir. Your brother Abul HasanHowever, Asaf Khan , Mumtaz Mahal's father, was a good friend of Jahangir and his loyal advisor for many years.
Second marriage
At the Nouruz festival in March 1611, the 8-year-old Mughal emperor Jahangir saw the 34-year-old Mehr-un-Nisa probably for the first time and immediately fell in love with her. The wedding took place shortly afterwards on May 25, 1611. After 19 other wives, this was the last marriage that Jahangir entered into. Mehr-un-Nisa was given the title Nur Jahan ("Light of the World"). However, the marriage remained childless.
Jahangir was an alcoholic and an opium addict . Only Jahan knew how to use this skillfully - since her marriage she had been the real power behind the throne and had the empire firmly under control. Together with her father, her brother and Prince Khurram, she directed all government affairs. Coins were even issued under her name. She held court, negotiated with foreign embassies, received supplicants, spoke justice, and many decrees were only valid when theirs was next to Jahangir's seal. In addition, she was a passionate hunter and took part - hidden behind veils and in litter, of course - in many of the court's hunting events.
Her marriage also marked the beginning of a great rise in her family (brother, uncle, brother-in-law, etc.) - until the death of Jahangir (1627) they received 27 governor's and other high posts and were given enormous income. A great personal success was the marriage (1621) of her daughter from her first marriage, Ladli Begum ("the one who is loved"), with Shahriyar, the youngest son of Jahangir. The two had a daughter on September 4, 1623. From then on, only Jahan protected Shahriyar as pretender to the throne against Shah Jahan; her brother Asaf Khan, on the other hand, supported his son-in-law Shah Jahan against his own sister and made sure that she was placed under house arrest in Lahore after Jahangir's death on October 28, 1627 - well provided for. Here she devoted a large part of her time and income to building the Jahangir mausoleum, and later that of her own tomb. Only Jahan died in 1645 at the age of 68.
buildings
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Aside from her family and political activities, Nur Jahan was involved in the planning and management of several buildings of Mughal architecture : As early as 1618, she gave the construction of a caravanserai ( Sarai Nurmahal ) - later named after her - in Nurmahal near Jalandhar, which is named after her ( Punjab ), whose architecture and building materials are still strongly rooted in tradition.
In the years 1622–1628 she devoted herself to the planning and construction of the tomb of her parents in Agra ( Itimad-ud-Daula-Mausoleum ), later (1627–1637) then that of her second husband in Lahore ( Jahangir-Mausoleum ). Both mausoleums differ significantly from earlier buildings of this type in their dome-less shape, the diverse use of white marble and the stone inlays and suggest a - now developed - largely independent and autonomous character of the client. In this context one can certainly make the assertion that - without the previous buildings of Nur Jahan - the Taj Mahal would have been built without its marble outer skin and without framing corner minarets.
Her own tomb - planned by herself and perhaps completed during her lifetime - in which her daughter Ladli was buried next to her, is in the immediate vicinity of the - twice as large - mausoleum of her second husband near Lahore (Pakistan). Allegedly, both buildings were connected by an underground tunnel. The two restored facades show an unusually strict and completely uniform decor for buildings from the Mughal period, consisting of square and rectangular fields, which are separated from one another by borders made of white marble inlays; floral motifs are completely absent - only the white arched gussets loosen up the geometric austerity of the facade design a little. Inside there are still traces of flower paintings.
It is unclear whether the building originally had roof structures in the form of pavilions, chhatris , turrets, battlements or the like. In the case of looting by Sikh troops, who - allegedly - in the 18th and 19th centuries brought all somehow tangible white marble from Lahore to Amritsar , which is only about 50 km away , and used it there for the construction of the Golden Temple , any existing roof structures and both marble cenotaphs destroyed; the latter were replaced by two new ones in the 20th century. Only two facades of the building have been restored, the other two are - like the interior of the tomb - in a very poor condition.
importance
Even more than her niece Mumtaz Mahal or her daughter Jahanara Begum - or as her distant forerunner Roxelane in the Ottoman Empire - Nur Jahan is a rare example of the fact that, under special circumstances, a woman in the otherwise male-dominated Islamic world can have a woman in leading positions at court and the associated opportunities for participation and self-realization. On the other hand, she was - probably also because she was not the mother of a possible heir to the throne - actively and passively involved in various court intrigues, which ultimately resulted in her removal from the Mughal court.
literature
- Bamber Gascoigne: The Mughals - splendor and greatness of Mohammedan princes in India . Prisma-Verlag, Gütersloh 1987 ISBN 3-570-09930-X
- Ellison Banks Findly: Nur Jahan, Empress of Mughal India . Oxford University Press 1993, ISBN 0-19-507488-2
- Ruby Lal: Empress. The astonishing reign of Nur Jahan , New York: Norton 2018 ISBN 978-0-393-23934-8
Web links
- Nurmahal Sarai - Photos + Text (Eng.)
- Nur Jahan's Tomb - Photos and text (Engl.)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Just Jahan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mehrunnisa |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Wife of the Grand Mughal Jahangir |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1577 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kandahar |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 18, 1645 |
| Place of death | Lahore |