Masuma Sultan Begum (daughter of Babur)

Masuma Sultan Begum (Persian: معصومہ سلطان بیگم; born c. 1508) was a Mughal princess and the daughter of the first Mughal emperor, Babur. She is frequently mentioned in the Humayun-nama by her sister, Gulbadan Begum, who calls her sister 'Elder sister Moon' (mah chacha).[1]

Masuma Sultan Begum
Shahdokht of Mughal Empire
Bornc. 1508
Kabul
(present-day Afghanistan)
Spouse
(m. 1517; d. 1539)
HouseTimurid
FatherBabur
MotherMasuma Sultan Begum
ReligionSunni Islam

Early life edit

Masuma Sultan Begum was the daughter of Babur and his fourth wife, Masuma Sultan Begum.[2] She was born in Kabul, and her mother died giving birth to her. She was given her mother's name.[3] In 1511, Babur entrusted Kabul to his younger brother Nasir Mirza and set out for Samarkand.

Marriage edit

In 1517, when Masuma Sultan Begum was nine years old, Babur married her to the twenty-one year old Muhammad Zaman Mirza.[4] He was the son of Badi' al-Zaman Mirza, and the grandson of Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara.[5] His mother was the daughter of Tahamtan Beg, and the niece of Asad Beg.[6] After Masuma Sultan Begum's marriage with him, Babur sent him to Balkh.[4]

She became a widow at the age of thirty-one when Muhammad Zaman Mirza died in the Battle of Chausa.[7]

Ancestry edit

References edit

  1. ^ Begum, Gulbadan (1902). The History of Humayun (Humayun-Nama). Royal Asiatic Society. p. 115.
  2. ^ Bābur (Mogulreich, Kaiser), John Leyden, William Erskine (1826). Memoirs of Zehir-ed-Din Muhammed Baber, Emperor of Hindustan. Longman. pp. 22–3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Pawar, Kiran (1996). Women in Indian History: Social, Economic, Political and Cultural Perspectives. Vision & Venture. p. 109.
  4. ^ a b Beveridge, Annette Susannah (1922). The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Babur) translated from the original Turki text of Zahiru'd-din Muhammad Bābur Pādshāh Ghāzī, Volume 1. LUZAC & CO., 46, Great Russel Street, London. p. 365.
  5. ^ Mishra, Neeru (1993). Succession and imperial leadership among the Mughals, 1526 - 1707. Konark Publishers. p. 76.
  6. ^ Babur, Emperor; Thackston, Wheeler McIntosh (September 10, 2002). The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, prince and emperor. Random House Publishing Group. pp. 210. ISBN 978-0-375-76137-9.
  7. ^ Islam, Riazul (1979). A Calendar of Documents on Indo-Persian Relations, 1500 - 1700. Iranian Culture Foundation. p. 204.