I. Āfāq (Āpāq) Begam.

Princess of the Universe; Ar. āfāq, four quarters, universe, etc..

She is mentioned, without clue to her parentage, by Bābar, as a wife of Sulān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā. He mentions her again, with others of the mīrzā's widows, as seen in Harāt in 912H. (1506-7), and here his wording, both in the Turkī and the Persian texts, allows the inference that she is a daughter of Sulān Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī. Mr. Erskine translates the passage thus: ‘Pāyanda Sulān Begam, my father's sister, Khadīja Begam and the other (Turkī, yena; Pers., dīgar) daughters of Sulān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā.’

When greeting the ladies, Bābar gave Āfāq prece­dence over Khadīja, and notes the fact. Khadīja was not a woman of birth.

Ḥusain Bāyqrā married three daughters of Abū-sa'īd, Shahr-bānū, Pāyanda, and Āfāq. The last bore him no child, but she reared and educated nine chil­dren of his by her own foster-sister, Bābā āghācha.

Early in 932H. (1525) she went from Harāt to Kābul and was received by Bābar (before his depar­ture for India in November, 1525) with all possible respect and kindness. He gives the impression that she was an affectionate and devoted woman, and says that her tender care of her husband in illness sur­passed that of all the other ladies of the ḥaram.

News of her death reached Bābar when he was besieging Chandīrī in 934H. (January, 1528).

Mems., 182, 183, 204.

II. Āfāq Begam. (No. 26.)*

She was a daughter of Sulān-bakht Begam; her father's name has not yet come to my knowledge; she was a grand-daughter of Sulān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā.

Bābar mentions the arrival of a daughter of Sulān-bakht Begam in Āgra in 935H. (October, 1528), and Gul-badan supplies the name Āfāq by naming an Āfāq of this parentage as at the Mystic Feast in 938H. (1531).

Gul-badan. Persian text, 25b.

Mems., 387.

(Afghānī āghācha, the Afghān lady. See Mubārika Bībī.)

III. Afroz-bānū Begam. (No. 33.)

Pers. afroz, dazzling, illuminating, and bānū, (?) a form of bān (vān), which in composition means holding, possessing. Also a prince or chief.

Nothing is said to identify her. She was at the Mystic Feast (1531).

Gul-badan, 25b.

IV. Āghā Begam. (No. 34.)

Turkī, āghā, a title of honour, and Ar. sulān, sway, pre-eminence. Steingass classes the word āghā as Persian. It may be āka, lady. The dictionaries do not apply it to women.

Mentioned as at the Mystic Feast in 1531. She may be Bāyqrā (infra).

Gul-badan, 25b.

V. Āghā Begam Bāyqrā.

She was a daughter of Sulān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and of Pāyanda Sulān Begam Mīrān-shāhī. Her descent being so high through both parents, her name Āghā rises above its frequent application to wives of less degree. Here it may have the meaning of chief or great. She married her cousin Murād who was a son of Rābi'a-sulān Begam (Bedka). The Ḥabību-s-siyār, 327 et seq. (lith. ed.), states that she died before she reached maturity, but this does not agree with Bābar's statements. The Ḥabīb places her death earlier than 912H. (1506).

Mems., 181.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, lith. ed., 327 et seq..

VI. Aghā kūka. (No. 78.)

Wife of Mun'im Khān; at Hindal's Feast (1537).

Gul-badan, 26a.

VII. Āghā-sulān āghācha. (No. 37.)

(?) The lady of chief honour.

She was a wife of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrzā (died 1494), and mother of Yādgār Sulān Begam (Bābar's half-sister). She was present at Hindāl's marriage feast (1537), and probably at the Mystic Feast, in 1531. She is classed amongst ‘our begams.’

Gul-badan, 25b.

Mems., 10, 14.

VIII. Āghā-sulān Sulanam Dughlāt.

She was a daughter of Muḥammad Ḥaidar Mīrzā Dughlāt, and therefore aunt of the author of the Tārīkh-i-rashīdī. She married 'Abdu-l-qadūs Beg Dughlāt in Kāshghar, after 877H. (1472-73). Her husband was alive in 900H. (1494-95), and was gover­nor of Khost for Sulān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī.

Mems., 27.

Tār. Rash., E. and R., 95, 103.

IX. Āī Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Turkī, āī, moon. Her name is not mentioned in the Memoirs, but is so by Ilminsky (Mems., 30; Ilminsky, 34, line 7 from foot).

She was the fourth daughter of Sulān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrānshāhī and Khānzāda Termiẕī II.; and wife of Jahāngīr Mīrzā, half-brother of Bābar. She was betrothed in 901H. (1495-96), married in 910H. (1504-5), bore one daughter, and was widowed not later than 914H. (1508-9).

Mems., 30, 128.

Pavet de Courteille, I. 57, 262.

X. Āka Begam Bāyqrā.

Āka is clearly a title; her personal name I have not found. Her sister who is styled Bedka, appears to be named Rābi'a-sulān.

Daughter of Manṣūr Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Fīroza Begam Mīrān-shāhī, full and elder sister of Sulān Ḥusain Mīrzā. Bābar states (Mems., 176, 177) that she married (his uncle) Sulān Aḥmad Mīrza, and had a son, Kīchak Mīrzā (the young or small prince). But he does not mention her, either as Āka or otherwise, amongst Aḥmad's wives (Mems., 22), and he says that Aḥmad had two sons who died young. Kīchak, how­ever, lived to change his military occupations for literature.

It is singular that a marriage of the oldest Mīrān-shāhī of his generation with the oldest Bāyqrā girl should not have been entered in Aḥmad's biographical notice.

Mems., 22, 23, 176, 177.

(Ālūsh—Anūsh—Begam, Ūlūs, q.v..)

XI. Amīna Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Ara., amīn, faithful.

Daughter of Humāyūn and Māh-chūchak.

Gul-badan, 71a.

XII. Āq Begam Bāyqrā.

Turkī, āq, fair. The word is frequently a sobri­quet and the bearer's personal name is occasionally known; e.g., Yasīn-daulat, Āq Sulān; Salīqa Begam, Āq Begam. But frequently the personal name is not traceable.

Daughter of Sulān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Pāyanda Sulān Begam Mīrān-shāhī; first cousin of Bābar; wife of Muḥammad Qāsim Arlāt.* She had one daughter, known as the Black-eyed (qarā-gūz) Begam.