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Updated 08-14-10
Gulbadan Begam
bint Babur Badshah /Gulbadan Banu Begim (1522/3-1603)
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"I WAS FORCIBLY SEPARATED FROM ALL MY... PEOPLE, WITH WHOM
I HAD GROWN UP FROM INFANCY."
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Gulbadan was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, to Babur, who shortly
after her birth became the first Mughal emperor of India (the
term "Mughal" was used for Mongol; Babur was a direct
descendant of both Ghenghis Khan and Tamerlane). Five years later
Gulbadan went with her family to northern India, where she grew
up at the court of Babur and then of her half-brother Humayun.
She was married before she was 17 and had at least one child,
a son. What should have been a peaceful life changed when, in
1540, Humayun was driven out of India; Gulbadan herself would
spend over seven years at Kabul as a captive of another half-brother
who was fighting against Humayun.
When Gulbadan was in her 60s, her nephew, the emperor Akbar,
ordered historians to gather together information on his grandfather,
Babur, and his father, Humayun. Gulbadan responded with the Humayun-nama
(originally titled Ahval-i Humayun Badshah). In it
she tells the story of her family: she describes her own experiences
and she uses sources, such as those from the women's quarters,
that were unavailable to male historians.
The extant Persian manuscript of the Humayun-nama is incomplete: it ends in 1552 instead of carrying the story forward to Humayun's death in 1556. We don't know if the ending has been lost or if the work was left unfinished, although the state of the manuscript suggests missing pages.
We do know something of Gulbadan's life after 1552. After defeating his enemies, Humayun returned to India as emperor in 1555, but he died the following year, to be succeeded by his son, Akbar. Two years later, the teen-aged Akbar brought the begims (the women of the royal family) from Kabul to India. Except for a pilgrimage to Mecca when she was in her 50s, and a visit to Kabul when she was in her 60s, Gulbadan lived the rest of her life at the Mughal court, first in Agra, then in Sikri.
We know that in 1594, Gulbadan interceded with Akbar for a grandson in trouble (success unknown), and that when she died in 1603, Akbar helped to carry her bier (a surprising enough gesture to be mentioned by Akbar's chroniclers). For her personality, we have only her description of her first 28 years in the Humayun-nama, but it is enough for us to come to know her well.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from a translation in print.
Information about secondary sources.
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1. In this collection of Persian texts in translation, click on "Titles," and then, in the alphabetical list at the left, go to The Humayun-namah (alphabetized under "T"); from the table of contents, you can link directly to Annette S. Beveridge's 1902 "Translation of the 'Humayun-nama'" for the text. You can also link to the two parts of Beveridge's introduction and to a valuable biographical glossary (for excerpts from another translation of the work, published in 2009, see below, under "In print").
2. For a taste of the above, links to substantial excerpts from Beveridge's translation; here minor changes to the text and to Beveridge's notes have been made by Deanna M. Ramsay. And at the same site, excerpts from Beveridge's introduction.
3. Use your browser's search function to go to "Gulbadan"
for her description, from another translation, of a
joke played by Babur on an elderly retainer (not a court
jester, as described here): valuables acquired after a 1526 battle
were being sent to those still in Kabul, who were eagerly waiting
to see the value of what each would receive.
4. In this excerpt from the c.1591 account of Antonio Monserrate,
a Jesuit priest who visited Akbar's court, click on "Conduct
to embassies" for a brief description of Gulbadan's
return from Mecca (and Akbar's treatment of her, which Monserrate
compares to his treatment of male courtiers); the translation
is by J.S. Hoyland.
5. Essays, etc.:
(a) A 2007 biography by N.S. Tasneem, "Portrait of a Rose Princess."
(b) "Humayun-Nama: Gulbadan Begum's Forgotten Manuscript" (2005), by Neria Harish Hebbar, summarizes the work and tells something of the manuscript's history.
(c) The opening of a 2004 essay by Ruby Lal, "Historicizing the Harem: The Challenge of a Princess's Memoir"; the essay would become part of Lal's 2005 book (see a review of rhe book just below).
(d) A review by Karuna Sharma of Lal's 2005 study, Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World; elsewhere, another review, this by Rudrangshu Mukher; and yet another, by Angma D. Jhala (for more on the book's treatment of Gulbadan, see "Secondary Sources").
(e) Go to "Gulbadan" for a brief abstract of a 2003 conference paper by Nurten Kilic-Schubel, "Gulbadan Begum's Humayun-nama: The Role of Women in Dynastic Politics."
(f) A brief account, based on contemporary sources, of Gulbadan's 1576-1582 pilgrimage to Mecca.
6. At the same site given in #1 above, from the "Titles" list, you can link to three other contemporary documents:
(a) The Akbarnama of Abul Fazl, translated by Henry Beveridge. This is the first official history of the Mughal court, completed in 1596 (in Volume III, note brief accounts in Chapters 27 and 67 of the departure and return of Gulbadan on her pilgrmage to Mecca).
(b) Memoirs of Humayun; translated by Charles Stewart. This is another memoir of Humayun, written by one of his servants, Jawhar Aftabchi, in response to the same order that caused Gulbadan to write.
(a) The Memoirs of Babur; translated by John Leyden and William Erskine. This is Babur's own memoir, usually called the Baburnama, written in Turki and later translated into Persian.
7. Excerpts from the Baburnama, here translated by Daniel C. Waugh (based on a translation by Annette Beveridge), valuable for the maps and the illustrations from the Persian version of Baburnama made at Akbar's court. At another site (on 3 pages), more of the images from the same edition of the Baburnama, which Gulbadan would have known.
8. For more historical background:
(a) Brief biographical essays (2002) by Hebbar on Babur and on Humayun.
(b) For greater detail, "The Establishment of the Mughal Empire," a chapter from S. M. Ikram's 1964 study, Muslim Civilization in India; at the bottom you can link to the next chapter, "The Age of Akbar."
(c) A map of the Mughal empire at the time of Gulbadan's death.
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[The Humayun-nama is one of W.M. Thackston's translations in this work (two volumes in one). Thackston's preface, notes, and indexes are detailed. The Persian originals are given for all three memoirs. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Three memoirs of Humayun / Persian texts edited and translated
by W.M. Thackston (Bibliotheca Iranica. Intellectual traditions
series; no. 11). Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 2009.
(v. 1: maps ; 23 cm)
LC#: DS461.2 .T49 2009; ISBN: 9781568591780
Includes English translation and Persian original. Includes bibliographical
references and index. Contents: v. 1. Gulbadan Begim's Humayunnama.
Jawhar Aftabachi's Tadhkirat'ul-waqi'at -- v. 2. Bayazid Bayat's
Tarikh-i Humayun
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"What I heard and remember will be written here."
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[The book's opening, describing Akbar's request for manuscripts:]
I have been commanded to write what I know of the lives of Firdaws-Makani [Babur] and His Majesty Jannat-Ashyani [Humayun]. When His majesty Firdaws-Makani departed this mortal world for the realm of eternity, this poor one was eight years old, and events may not have remained so well in my memory. In obedience to the royal order, however, what I heard and remember will be written here. [p.1]
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"God blessed his taking of Kabul, for eighteen children
were born."
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[By 1506, the young Babur had fought and defeated a distant cousin for control of Kabul:]
As he delivered Kabul from the siege of Mizra Khan, God rewarded him with it.
At that time he was twenty-three years old and had no son. He much hoped for a son. When he was eighteen years old, a daughter had been born of Ayisha Begim, the daughter of Sultan-Ahmad Mizra, but she died at the age of three months.
God blessed his taking of Kabul, for eighteen children were born. [p.4]
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"His Majesty... held me on his lap for a long time."
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[Babur had 4 wives; his eldest son, Humayun (b.1507), was born to Mahim, his favorite; Gulbadan was the daughter of Babur's fourth wife but was at first raised by Mahim. From 1525 to 1527 Babur conquered much of the northwest of India while his family remained in Kabul; then. Gulbadan refers to Mahim as "Akam" ("my elder sister"):]
One year after the victory over Rana Sanga [1528] Akam, who is Mahim Begim, came from Kabul to Hindustan, and I, accompanying her, came before any of my sisters and paid homage to His Majesty my father the Padishah. Akam had arrived in Koil, and His Majesty the Padishah sent two litters. From Koil they galloped to Agra.... His majesty my father the Padishah couldn't wait for a horse to be brought and started out on foot. He met [us].... Akam wanted to get out, but my father the Padishah wouldn't let her and went on foot in front of Akam all the way to his quarters.
When Akam was going before my father the Padishah, she said to me, "When it is broad daylight, you will pay homage to His Majesty."... Then...I went to pay homage to His Majesty my father the Padishah and fell at his feet. His Majesty inquired much into my condition and held me on his lap for a long time. At that time I experienced more happiness than could be imagined. [p.12]
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"He assigned mansions to all the begims."
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[Later, the other women of the royal family arrived in India:]
[My father] went to Agra, and no sooner had he arrived that news came that the begims were coming from Kabul. His Majesty my father the Padishah went out to meet... my eldest aunt and elder sister of His Majesty my father the Padishah. He went out as far as Naugram, and all the begims... paid homage to him in his tent, rejoiced, and gave prayers of thanksgiving. Then he came back to Agra, where he assigned mansions to all the begims. [p.12-13]
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"I did not even notice that I was a fatherless orphan."
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[In 1530 Babur died, and Humayun became Emperor; two years later Mahan died, and the 10-year-old Gulbadan began to live with her birth mother. The position of both were entirely dependent on the good will of the new emperor, Gulbadan's half-brother:]
...[A]s long as he was in Hindustan, he [Humayun] used to come to our house to see us, and his kindness, solicitude, and compassion were without limit. His Majesty the Padishah used to visit...all the other married begims in my house, and all the other begims would come to my house to pay homage to him.
In short, His majesty the Padishah took care of me after the deaths of my father the Padishah and Akam, and he was so extremely compassionate toward me that I did not even notice that I was a fatherless orphan. [p.17]
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"There was nothing I could do."
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[By the late 1530's, Humayun's empire in India was in trouble and his brother Kamran was using the unsettled times to take over Kabul. Gulbadan, now about 17 and married, became a pawn in the conflict between her two brothers: Humayun, needing Kamran's support, allowed Kamran to take Gulbadan away from Agra. It's not clear why Kamran wanted her --- perhaps to get her husband on his side in the coming conflict with Humayun --- perhaps Gulbadan herself never knew. As he was leaving Agra for Kabul, Kamran asked her to accompany him part of the way. But then:]
When he had reached the end of that stage, he started swearing oaths again, saying, "I don't want to let you go."
Finally, weeping and crying, I was forcibly separated from all my stepmothers and sisters and from my father's and brothers' people, with whom I had grown up from infancy and from whom I had never been separated.
I realized that it was the emperor's command. There was nothing I could do. [p.32]
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"I'd rather be married to somebody I can control."
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[In 1540, Humayun was forced out of India; by then Gulbadan was Kamran's captive in Kabul. For the next five years, Gulbadan did not see Humayun and seldom saw her mother. But she tells the story of Humayun's 1541 marriage to Hamida, who would become the mother of Akbar and a close friend of Gulbadan (and probably the origin of the story). Hamida was then living with Gulbadan's mother, Dildar, and Gulbadan's full-brother Hindal; Humayun tried to use both as matchmakers:]
...His Majesty came to my mother and said, "Send someone to ask Hamida Banu Begim to come." My mother sent someone, but Hamida Banu Begim did not come. "If he wants me to pay homage," she said, "I did that the other day. Why should I go again?"
The next time His Majesty sent Subhanquli, saying, "Go to Mizra Hindal and tell him to send the begim."
The mizra said, "No matter what I say, she won't go. Go tell her yourself."
Subhanquli went and told her. In reply the begim said, "To see kings once is permissible. The second time is a breach of propriety. I won't go." When Subhanquli reported the begim's words to His Majesty. he said, "If it would be a breach of propriety, let's make it proper."
In short, there were deliberations over Hamida Banu Begim for forty days, but she wouldn't giver her consent. In the end my mother advised Hamida Banu Begim, saying, "Look, in the end you are going to be married to somebody. Who could be better than the emperor?"
'You're right," the begim replied, "but I'd rather be married to somebody I can control, not to somebody the hem of whose skirt I know I am unworthy to touch." Over and over again my mother gave her advice.
Finally, after forty days,...His Majesty took an astrolabe in his own hand and chose an auspicious hour. He summoned Mir Abu-l-Baqa and commanded him to marry them. [p.37]
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"Princess Sultanun, the shah's sister, rode a horse."
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[When Gulbadan was writing her book in the late 1580s, she relied on Hamida's account of her wanderings with Humayun between 1540 and 1545. The description of a visit with the Shah of Persia includes this description of the Shah's sister, who to the surprise of the Mughals, joined the men in hunting:]
When he was in Persia, he went hunting eight times, and every time there was a hunt, the emperor was invited, and Hamida Banu Begim would watch from afar from a litter. Princess Sultanun, the shah's sister, rode a horse and took her place behind the shah. [p.48]
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"The door was sealed with bricks and plaster."
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[In 1545 Humayun succeeded in chasing Kamran out of Kabul. Gulbadan was reunited with her family, and for a year all was quiet. Then Humayun left Kabul to put down a rebellion nearby, and Kamran returned. This time he treated the women more harshly than he had before:]
...Mizra Kamran's men entered the Bala Hisar [citadel] and plundered and pillaged innumerable things belonging to the women of the harem and confiscated them to Mizra Kamran's treasury. The great ladies [including Gulbadan and her mother] were installed in Mizra Askari's house, the door was sealed with bricks and plaster, and the ladies were given food and water over the walls of the house....
He acted very badly to the wives and children of the soldiers who had deserted and joined the emperor, having all their houses plundered and pillaged and turning them all over to someone's custody. [p.55]
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"Thank God, the khan did not go against what I said."
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[When Humayun returned to try to free Kabul, Kamran offered to free Gulbadan and her mother from their imprisonment if Gulbadan would write to her husband, urging him to side with Kamran in his war against Humayun:]
"Khizr-Khwaja Khan [her husband] doesn't know how to read that he could recognize my writing," I said in reply to him. "I have never written anything to him. When he is away he writes to me through his sons. You can write whatever you want."
In the end he sent Mahdi Sultan and Sher-Ali to summon the khan. Straightaway I said to him, "Your brothers are with Mizra Kamran. I hope you don't think you'll do the same and go to him to join your brothers. Don't imagine you can separate yourself from the emperor."
Thank God, the khan did not go against what I said. [pp. 55-56]
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"God preserve His friends from such a place."
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[Humayun besieged Kabul for seven months. He was limited in his use of cannon by the presence of his family --- including Hamida and their son Akbar --- inside the walls. Eventually, though, Kamran abandoned the city; Gulbadan describes the women's release (Bika Begim was Humayun's first wife):]
During those days the two-year-old Jahan Sultan Begim died during the siege. The emperor wrote, "If I use force on the citadel, the mizra will hide Muhammad Akbar."...
On the night Mizra Kamran would flee, it was past the evening prayer time, indeed it was bedtime and no alarm was apparent.... The people of the city were quiet and had settled down when, all of a sudden, the sound of armor, breastplates, and chain mail could be heard, and we told each other that they were making a racket. In front of the tack room were standing nearly a thousand men. We were in terror.
Suddenly they went off. Qaraja Khan's son, Bahadur Khan, came and informed us that the Mizra had fled.... Our people, the begims, and others were outside. They opened the door that had been shut against us. Bika Begim urged us, saying, "Let's go to our houses!"
"Let's wait a bit," I said, "We'll have to go through the lanes, and someone may come from the emperor."
...Ambar Nazir came and said, "His Majesty has commanded that you not leave these apartments until he comes."
Some time had passed before the Emperor came and embraced Dildar Begim and me. Then he greeted Bika Begim and Hamida Banu Begim, and said: "Get out of this place quickly! May God preserve his friends from such a place and make it the lot of his enemies."...
We all got out and spent the night in the emperor's presence. We were so happy the entire night passed in an instant. [p.57]
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"Gulbadan Begim said she wished to see all her brothers
in one place."
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[Humayun's forces followed Kamram and defeated him (at least temporarily):]
It did not take long for Mizra Kamran to capitulate and submit by coming out and paying homage to the emperor....
One day a court tent had been set up in Kishm, and the brothers were gathered. His Majesty Humayun Padishah, Mizra Kamran, Mizra Askari, Mizra Hindal, and Mizra Sulayman were sitting variously in the imperial retinue... At this gathering, the emperor mentioned me and said to his brothers, "In Lahore, Gulbadan Begim said she wished to see all her brothers in one place, and I have been remembering her words since we sat down this morning. I hope God will keep and preserve this unity of ours. God knows I harbor no thought of harming anyone, much less my brothers. I hope God will grant that you all remain cooperative and loyal." [pp.58-59]
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"Would that pitiless blade had pierced my own heart and
eyes or those of my son."
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[Without much concern for cooperation and loyalty, Kamran soon renewed his rebellion against Humayun, and in a 1551 battle caused the death of Hindal, his half-brother and Gulbadan's beloved full-brother:]
Oh, would that pitiless blade had pierced my own heart and eyes or those of my son Sa'adatyar or those of Khizr-Khwaja Khan! Alas, alack and alas, a thousand pities! ...
Mizra Hindal gave his life in devoted service to the emperor.... Had that tyrannical fratricide, Mizra Kamran, pitiless nurturer of strangers, not come that night, this catastrophe would not have descended from heaven. [pp.65-66]
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"If you want to rule, you must forget about being a brother."
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Eventually, in 1152, Kamran was captured. Despite Kamran's treason, Humayun was reluctant to execute him because they were brothers. He finally agreed to a compromise: Kamran was blinded and sent to Mecca, where he died a year after Humayun. This is the end of the extant manuscript:]
In the end, all the khans and sultans, noble and commoner, young and old, military and civilian who had suffered at the hands of Mizra Kamran gathered at an assembly and unaminously said to the emperor, "When one is an emperor and ruler, one cannot be a brother. If you want to give special treatment to your brother, you must abdicate; if you want to rule, you must forget about being a brother.... This is no brother; he is the emperor's enemy."...
In reply the emperor said, "Although I well comprehend what you say, I cannot bring myself to do it."
When they reached the vicinity of Rohtas, he ordered Sayyid Muhammad to blind Mizra Kamran in both eyes. The order was executed at once.
After the blinding operation, the emperor.... [pp.66-67]
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[Unlike the document available online, the print version of Annette S. Beveridge's 1902 edition of Humayun-nama gives the Persian original as well as an English translation. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
The history of Humayun (Humayun-nama), by GulBadan Begam (Princess
Rose-Body). Translated, with introd., notes, illus., and biographical
appendix, and reproduced in the Persian from the only known ms.
of the British Museum by Annette S. Beveridge (Oriental translation
series, 1). Delhi, Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli [1972]. (xiv, 331,
96 p. illus.)
LC#: DS461 .G813 1972
Includes bibliographical references.
[Later reprints from Low Price Publications, Delhi (1989, etc.).
ISBN: 8175360674]
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[Gulbadan's Humayun-nama acts as a centerpiece for Ruby Lal's study of the changing life and roles of women under the first three Mughal rulers. Lal looks at what male writers (both contemporary and later) said about public and private life in the light of what Gulbadan reported, and in so doing invites historians to rethink their traditional categories. The book also provides information from contemporary sources about Gulbadan's life after 1552. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Lal, Ruby. Domesticity and power in the early Mughal world
(Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005. (xv, 241 p.: ill., maps)
LC#: DS461 .L3443 2005; ISBN: 0521850223, 0521615348
Includes bibliographical references and index
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[This biography of Gulbadan by Rumer Godden uses much of Beveridge's
translation of Humayun-nama. However, caution is needed:
phrases and whole sentences are omitted without any indication.
Despite this, much of Gulbadan's own story is told, and the background
information is worthwhile. Unfortunately, the book has no index:]
Gulbadan, portrait of a rose princess at the Mughal court
/ by Rumer Godden; picture research by Helen Topsfield (A Studio
book). New York: Viking Press, 1981, c1980. (153, [7] p.: col.
ill., map)
LC#: DS461.9.G84 G62; ISBN: 0670357561.
Based on : The history of Humayun / by Gulbadan Begam; the Memoirs
of Babur; and The Akbar nama / by Abul Fazl. Bibliography: p.
[158].
[Reissued 2007 by Tara Press; ISBN: 9788183860413]
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Updated 08-14-10