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 Sulān 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 Sulān Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī. Mr. Erskine translates the passage thus: ‘Pāyanda Sulān Begam, my father's sister, Khadīja Begam and the other (Turkī, yena; Pers., dīgar) daughters of Sulān 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-
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 Sulān-bakht Begam; her father's name has not yet come to my knowledge; she was a grand-daughter of Sulān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā.
Bābar mentions the arrival of a daughter of Sulān-
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. sulān, 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 Sulān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and of Pāyanda Sulān 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-sulān 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-sulān āghācha. (No. 37.)
(?) The lady of chief honour.
She was a wife of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrzā (died 1494),
and mother of Yādgār Sulān Begam (Bābar's half-
Gul-badan, 25b.
Mems., 10, 14.
VIII. Āghā-sulān Sulanam 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 Sulān 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 Sulān 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-sulān.
Daughter of Manṣūr Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Fīroza Begam Mīrān-shāhī, full and elder sister of Sulān Ḥusain Mīrzā. Bābar states (Mems., 176, 177) that she married (his uncle) Sulān 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-
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 Sulān; Salīqa Begam, Āq Begam. But frequently the personal name is not traceable.
Daughter of Sulān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Pāyanda Sulān Begam Mīrān-shāhī; first cousin of Bābar; wife of Muḥammad Qāsim Arlāt.* She had one daughter, known as the Black-eyed (qarā-gūz) Begam.