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Updated 06-04-09
Zeb-un-Nissa /Zebunnisa /Makhfi
(1638-1702)
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"BEHOLD LOVE'S PATH---IT SEEMS SO LONG."
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Zeb-un-Nissa was the eldest daughter of the last of the major
Mughal rulers of India, Aurangzeb. Her mother, Aurangzeb's first
wife and a descendant of a Persian emperor, would have one other
daughter and two sons before her own death in 1657. Zeb-un-Nissa
was born in the Deccan, where Aurangzeb acted as viceroy for
his father, Shah Jahan. When she was in early teens, her family
returned to the north and lived first at Agra and then at the
new capital in Delhi. As a member of the royal family, she studied
not only Persian and Arabic, but also mathematics and astronomy,
under the chief scholars of the realm.
In 1658, when Zeb-un-Nissa was 21 years old, Aurangzeb seized
the throne from Shah Jahan. For some years, his eldest daughter
would have considerable influence over the new emperor. Contemporary
chroniclers found it noteworthy that Aurangzeb asked her opinion
on palace appointments and that he sometimes accepted her decisions
even when he did not agree.
Zeb-un-Nissa never married, although some tradition gives her an unwanted engagement and various love affairs. She had her own courts at Delhi and at Lahore, to which scholars and poets came; at least some of her own poetry --- in Persian and in Arabic --- is from this period of her life. She established a library and had classical Arabic texts translated into Persian under her personal supervision.
Aurangzeb was a strict Moslem and, once in power, became increasingly severe in his requirements for the observance of Islamic law. However, his eldest sister was a Sufi (a Moslem who gave less emphasis to religious ritual and more to a personal devotion to Allah). Perhaps through the influence of her aunt, Zeb-un-Nissa eventually also chose that path of devotion. The Sufis held only a marginal place in Mughal society, but unless they allied themselves with Aurangzeb's opponents, they were tolerated.
In 1681, when Zeb-un-Nissa was 44 years old, the younger of her two full-brothers, Akbar, rebelled against his father and proclaimed himself emperor. The rebellion lasted only a month; Akbar fled the country but continued to be troublesome. Zeb-un-Nissa had some communication with her exiled brother and was accused by Aurangzeb of being the rebel's ally; for this she was imprisoned in a Delhi fortress and disappeared from the official record. We don't know how harsh the imprisonment was nor if she remained in prison until her death in 1702.
Some of her poetry, written under the pen-name "Makhfi" ("the hidden one") circulated among her contemporaries; 50 years after her death over 400 poems were collected and published in Persian as the Diwan-i-Makhfi. Most of the poems are ghazals, originally an Arabic form used to declare human love.
Many of Zeb-un-Nissa's poems are clearly expressions of her Sufi belief, expressing a personal devotion to Allah. With others it is difficult to tell whether the love described is human or divine or a mixture of both. Only a fraction of her poetry has yet been translated into English, but what we have reveals her vision of love --- of whatever kind.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations 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 an alphabetical list at the left, go to The Diwan of Zeb-un-Nissa: The First Fifty Ghazals; from the table of contents you can link to each of the poems, in a 1913 translation by Magan Lal and Jessie Duncan Westbrook. You can also link to Westbrook's introduction (which includes verses not given in the text) and to "Notes," actually a helpful glossary of names and terms. (For examples of the poems, see below, under, "In print.")
2. At the same site, in the alphabetical "Title" list, go to The Tears of Zebunnisa; from the table of contents you can link to 61 poems, translated by Paul Whalley in 1913. Look at Whalley's "Preface" for his comments on Zeb-un-Nissa and his explanation of the division of the translation into three groups.
3. Poems by Zeb-un-Nissa from other translators:
(a) "Though I am Laila," translated by Willis Barnstone. (Laila and Majnun are characters of a popular Arabian /Persian love story: Laila was married to another, so Majnun, mad from love, went to the desert to teach love to birds and animals.)
(b) "When from my cheek," an adaptation by Sarojini Naidu of part of a Zeb-un-nissa poem (Lal and Westbrook's full version is given below.)
(c) Near the end of an essay by Hazrat Inayat Khan, two poems: "The nightingale would forget his song to the rose," and "If the beloved face thou canst not see."
(d) Another version of the final lines of the first poem given just above, "I am hidden in my poetry as the fragrance in the Rose"; the transliterated original is also given.
(e) Near the end of another Hazrat Inayat Khan essay, for lines beginning, "If thou thinkest of the blooming rose."
(f) In an excerpt from Enjum Hamid's translation of Annie Krieger-Krynicki's 1990 biography, Captive Princess: Zebunissa, Daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb, lines from three poems; the excerpt starts not with an account of Zebunissa in prison (as the site says) but with a description of a painting believed by some to represent Zebunissa. (That painting can be seen in #4c below.)
4. Other views:
(a) A 2007 essay by Raza Rumi on Zeb-un-Nissa and the stories told of her.
(b) A brief anecdote about Zeb-un-Nissa and a broken mirror.
5. Reviews (for more on the books, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Muneeza Shamsie on Hamid's 2005 translation of Krieger-Krynicki's biography, Captive Princess
(b) Sandip Roy on Wendy Doniger's 2009 book, The Hindus: An Alternative History; elsewhere, another review, this by Michael Dirda.
5. Some information on Zeb-un-Nissa's father, Aurangzeb. And, at another site, Aurangzeb's last speech. Note the final two sentences: It was Zeb-un-Nissa's full-sister who remained with her father until his death in 1707; Zeb-un-Nissa herself had died five years before, apparently unreconciled with her father.
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[Magan Lal and Jessie Duncan Westbrook have translated the first 50 poems of Diwan-i-Makhfi. The introduction by Westbrook gives what was known of Zeb-un-Nissa in 1913, and quotes some verses of poems not in the text. The book's endnotes consists of a glossary of names and terms, but there are no superscripts in the text to lead to them. The book is available online:]
The diwan of Zeb-un-Nissa: the first fifty ghazals / rendered
from the Persian by Magan Lal and Jessie Duncan Westbrook; with
an introd. and notes (The Wisdom of the East series). New York
Dutton, 1913. (112p.; 17 cm)
LC#: PK6559 .Z5A25 1913
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"...only within the verses I have writ."
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[The first two poems given here are from Westbrook's introduction. This one was apparently written in response to a fellow poet who had asked her to lift her veil and show her face. (The bulbul is the nightingale, which was believed to pay court to the rose; Lakshmi is Vishnu's wife):]
I will not lift my veil---
For if I did, who knows?
The bulbul might forget the rose,
The Brahman worshipper
Adoring Lakshmi's face
Might turn, forsaking her,
To see my face;
My beauty might prevail.
Think how within the flower
Hidden as in a bower
Her fragrant soul must be,
And none can look on it;
So me the world can see
Only within the verses I have writ---
I will not lift the veil. [p.12]
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"I bow before the image of my Love,"
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[Here love rejects both Moslem and Hindu convention:]
No Muslim I,
But an idolater,
I bow before the image of my Love,
And worship Her.
No Brahman I,
My sacred thread
I cast away, for round my neck I wear
Her plaited hair instead. [p.22]
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"Men see it not, so dull they are and blind."
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[On the marginality of Sufi devotees in a culture of orthodoxy:]
Why should we but in the assembly pray?
Only when friends are gathered call for wine?
Lo, I have done with this hypocrisy,
And ever pray and drink the cup divine.
The fountain of my spirit has run dry,
So that in tears no more my sorrow flows,
Mute is the heart that wailed continuously,
Silent the bulbul in the garden-close.
Here, as we tread the pilgrim's way, we find
The torch of inspiration like a fire,
Men see it not, so dull they are and blind,
They yearn not for the garments of desire.
To each was given on the Creation-day
His fitting portion, his appointed share,
Why should'st thou then demand from destiny
More joy than others have, less pain to bear?
O Makhfi, for thy counsel all have come.
Their secrets thou has kept concealed, apart,
But why should'st thou, who for their sakes art dumb,
Tell shamelessly the secrets of thy heart? [p.82]
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"Where are the merry-makers?"
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[The following are excerpts from longer poems (the roman numerals are given so that you can see the whole poem online). First, another description of the devotee's solitude:]
Here is the path of love---how dark and long
Its winding ways, with many snares beset!
Yet crowds of eager pilgrims onward throng
And fall like doves into the fowler's net.
Now tell me what the grain that drew the dove?
The mole it was upon a cheek so fair.
Tell me of what was wove the net of love?
The wandering curls of the Beloved's hair.
The festival of love is holden here,
The goblet passes; drink thou of this wine,
Yea, drain it to the lees, and never fear
Intoxication that is all divine....
But Makhfi, tell me where the feast is made?
Where are the merry-makers? Lo, apart,
Here in my soul the feast of God is laid,
Within the hidden chambers of my heart. [V:
pp.31-32]
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"My grief might turn to hymns."
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[Zeb-un-Nissa sings of her own failures, but the very song becomes a "psalm":]
My heart is looted of its treasury, left
Careless and unprotected, to my shame,
And thus I weep, feeling myself bereft,
Knowing myself to blame.
With mine own hands the altar-fire I lit;
As flame within a lamp my heart afire
Glows even through the body casing it,
And burns it with desire....
I would that I my longing might outpour,
My grief might turn to hymns, my pain might tell
In psalms like that sweet singer sang of yore,
David of Israel....
O wise one, at the feast of love be glad,
But careful too, and guard thy cup of wine;
In ecstasy I drank the share I had,
O Sage, take heed of thine.... [VI:
pp.33-34]
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"So see after all, thou art caught like the rest."
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[Again, failure to follow the sages produces a song of praise:]
I ask not from Heaven that it give
Fortune or power,
I ask but a garden apart,
Where for the brief hour
That we are appointed to live,
Of earth that delight that is nearest divine
Might be mine---
To live in the love of the friends of my heart.
The rapturous nightingale sings,
Wooing the rose
In the midst of the garden new-born;
But only the gardener knows
Of the labour that brings
to the garden its beauty; he toiled in the heat,
And his feet
Have been wounded by many a thorn.
Immortal is beauty, for, see,
Like the sun in his might,
It illumines the worlds and all things that are made
With the joy of its light;
For this be our thanks unto Thee,
And for the great teachers vouchsafed in our need
To guide and to lead,
Their presence to be our safe shelter and shade.
Upon us Thy mercy bestow!
Consider how weak,
How afflicted we are and how sorrowful; then
When we passionate seek
For oblivion, and Thou dost know
How time on our desolate spirit has beat
And brought us defeat---
O save us, nor let us endure it again....
O Makhfi, as out of the nest
The fledgling birds fall
And fluttering, helpless, are caught in the snares,
So see after all
Thou art caught like the rest,
For, flying too boldly, thy feeble wings fail,
And thou dost bewail
Thy fate, thus enmeshed in the net of thy cares. [X:
pp.39-41]
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"Thou shalt desire, and find."
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[Many of the poems speak of failure and loss, but some offer hope:]
Stronger my love shall grow:
Bearing the bonds of sorrow for thy sake,
More patient and more proud my heart shall be,
Like the imprisoned bird who tries to make
His cage a garden, though his wild heart know
He never shall be free.
Behold Love's path---it seems
So long, O Makhfi; but be strong to tread
Its toilsome way, and come, nor look behind;
The temple where thou canst bow down thy head,
The idol fairer than thy fairest dreams,
Thou shalt desire, and find. [XLIV:
p.97]
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[Enjum Hamid has translated Annie Krieger-Krynicki's 1990
French-language biography. Because so little is known of Zeb-un-Nissa's
life, Krieger-Krynicki most frequently tells of Aurangzeb's actions
and then deduces (based in part on lines from the poetry) what
the reaction of his eldest daughter is likely to have been. The
book provides useful information on the lives of the royal women
and on the world they lived in. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Krieger-Krynicki, Annie. Captive princess: Zebunissa, daughter
of Emperor Aurangzeb; translated from French by Enjum Hamid.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. (xx, 216 p.,
[4] p. of plates: col. ill., map; 26 cm)
LC#: DS461.9.Z43 K75 2005; ISBN: 0195798376
Includes bibliographical references (p. [209]-211) and index
[ translation of Zebunissa, princesse captive a la cour du grand
Moghol, 1990]
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[One of Wendy Doniger's goals for her "alternative history" is to show "the contributions of women, the lower castes, and other religions" (p.18). One of her chapters, " Dialogue and Tolerance under the Mughals," provides useful background on the world in which Zeb-un-Nissa lived. The book has a helpful chronology and glossary. (See the book's table of contents online.)]
Doniger, Wendy. The Hindus: an alternative history. New York:
Penguin Press, c2009. (779 p.: ill., maps)
LC#: BL1151.3 .D66 2009; ISBN: 9780670020317
Includes bibliographical references (p. [729]-753) and index.
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Updated 06-04-09