A few words must be said about her age at the time of her marriage, because the question has been raised through Jahāngīr's statement that she died at the age of sixty in 1021H., and commented upon by the Darbār-i-akbarī. If Jahāngīr gives her age correctly she must have been born in 961H., and this would make her a child of five when she married Bairām, and needs her betrothal by her father to Bairām to date from babyhood.
The Darbār-i-akbarī says that it is clear from Jahāngīr's statement of her age at death that she was married to Bairām ætat. 5, and that her memory is thus cleared from the reproach of two marriages!
Whatever is concealed in Jahāngīr's ‘sixty,’ nothing
is said to indicate that he desired to bring Salīma-
It does not, however, seem correct to accept Jahāngīr's
statement that Salīma-sulān was sixty only at death
To have betrothed her as a baby and to have married
her to a man of, at least, middle-age at five, is not in
harmony with the Muḥammad custom of Ḥumāyūn's
day. Moreover, Jahāngīr himself speaks of her as
married (kad-khudā) to Bairām. She is said by Abū'l-
Badāyunī's words indicate adult and not child
marriage; sābiqā dar ḥabāla-i-Bairām Khān Khān-i-
After the murder of Bairām in 968H. Salīma-sulān was married by Akbar. She was probably a few years his senior.
In 983H. she made her pilgrimage with Gul-badan. Particulars of the expedition are given in the Introduction to this volume.
Her name appears in the histories as a reader, a poet who wrote under the pseudonym of makhfī, and as pleading with Akbar for Salīm's forgiveness.
Her death is chronicled by Jahāngīr who heard of it on Ẕū'l-qa'da 2nd, 1021H. (December 15th, 1612). He gives particulars of her birth and descent, and of her marriages; and he states that she was sixty at the time of her death. By his orders her body was laid in a garden which she herself had made.
Jahāngīr praises her both for her natural qualities and her acquirements. She creates an impression of herself as a charming and cultivated woman.
Gul-badan, (?)26a.
Akbar-nāma s.n..
Badāyunī, Lowe, 13, 216, 389.
Tūzūk-i-jahāngīrī, Sayyid Ahmad, Aligarh, 113.
Khāfī Khān, Bib. Ind. ed., I. 276.
Āīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, s.n..
Darbār-i-akbarī, 736.
The genealogical table on the next page illustrates Salīma-sulān's descent, and the following dates bear also upon the topic:
| Pāshā married Maḥmūd | 873H.—1469. |
| Bayasanghar born | 882H.—1477. |
| Maḥmūd died | 900H.—Jan. 1495 |
| Bābar married Zainab, d. of Maḥmūd | 910H.—1504. |
| Zainab died | 913H.-914H.—1507-8. |
| Sālḥa's child, the wife of Nūru-d-dīn, was
not born in 911H.—1511, because she
is not in the list of children who left
Kābul with Bābar in that year. (Gul- |
CLXXI. Salīma Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.
Daughter of Khiẓr Khwājā, but whether also of Gul-badan is not recorded.
She went with Gul-badan to Makka in 983H. (1575).
Āīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 441.
CLXXII. Salīqa-sulān Begam (Āq Begam) Mīrān-shāhī.
(Ilminsky, 25, reads Ṣālḥa.) The princess of excellent disposition; Ar. salīqa, of good disposition, and sulān, pre-eminence.
Daughter of Sulān Aḥmad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and Qūtūq (Katak) Begam; wife of her cousin Ma'sūd. The marriage was announced to Bābar in 900H. (1494) with gifts of gold and silver, almonds, and pistachios. She was captured by Abū-bakr Dughlāt with Shāh Begam and Mihr-nigār Khānam.
Mems., 22, 27.
CLXXIII. Sāmiḥa Begam Barlās.
The gentle princess; Ar. sāmiḥ, gentle.
Daughter of Muḥibb 'Alī Barlās (son of Niāmu-ddīn 'Alī Khalīfa), and presumably of Nāhīd Begam; mother of Mujāhid Khān.
Mujāhid (who is named in the abaqāt-i-akbarī as commander of 1,000, but is not in the Āīn) was a son