Noorjahan

Noorjahan

Noorjahan

The early name of Noorjahan was Mehr-un-nisa. She was the daughter of Mirza Ghias Beg who belonged to Tehran. Dr. Iswari Prasad writes about the character and personality of Noorjahan, “Few women in the world’s history have displayed such masterful qualities of courage and statesmanship as this extraordinary woman, who held her husband in tender strings and dominated the state for a number of years.”

Noorjahan was not only beautiful and smart but also full of wisdom and efficiency. Her beauty was enhanced to a great extent by the use of precious ornaments. Besides, she was physically strong and took delight in riding and hunting.

She was an educated lady and was well-versed in poetry, music and painting. She had command over Persian language and literature and had the skill to compose poems in Persian. She had a special virtue of inventing new things. She invented much new style in ornaments and clothes. Dr. Beni Prasad has remarked in this connection, “The fashions introduced by Noorjahan still governed society and the old ones survived only among the Afghans in backward towns.”

She was a very liberal woman and she attained honour and popularity in the society die to her virtue of charity. Muhammad Hadi remarks, “She was an asylum for all suffers.” She always helped the exploited person with open hands. During sixteen years of her regime she arranged for the marriage of at least 5000 orphans girls and gave dowry to them. A great number of people were benefited by her charity.

Noorjahan was a very ambitious lady and had a strange capacity for solving problems. Even her opponents were impressed by her qualities and used to say that the most intricate problems were solved by the touch of Noorjahan. She was really a great administrative genius. She scolded her brother Asaf Khan for his irresponsible behavior when he left Jahangir alone in the camp and he was overpowered by Mahabat Khan. Diplomatically she surrendered before Mahabat Khan and after some time she got her husband freed from the clutches of the rebel noble. It shows her skill and statesmanship.

Noorjahan was a mixture of opposites like her husband Jahangir. Khafi Khan describes her as fashionable lady but Muhammad Hadi mentions that she was a liberal and charitable woman. Noorjahan was a lady of firm decision and strong will.

She sued to take keen interest in the affairs of the state. She was satisfies in all circumstances. As wife of Sher Afghan, she was quite faithful to him but after her marriage with Jahangir she remained true to the last to him who had offered his empire to this ambitious lady for a few cups of wine and a plate of meat. After the death of Jahangir, she, who was the hub of politics, totally gave up politics and passed her remaining life as a pious widow wearing white clothes and having no interference in politics.

Besides the virtues mentioned above there were some demerits in her character. As she was an ambitious lady she wanted to centralize all the powers in her hands which made the high officials disinterested in their duties because Noorjahan began to doubt the integrity of the high officials, hence a gulf was created between the two. As a result noble and commander like Mahabat Khan resorted to revolt because of the excesses of queen Noorjahan. Dr. Ishwari Prasad has aptly observed in this connection, “If Jahangir’s reign forms an inglorious period in the annals of Mughals dynasty, she must share the responsibility in no small measure.”

In fact there were womanly weaknesses in the character of queen Noorjahan. She was full of womanish pride and revengeful attitude. She was very much interested in her own family, therefore she included her father Etimad-ud-daula, mother Asmat Begam, brother Asaf Khan and son Khurram and other into the Junta group but she broke away all her relations with Khurram after marrying his daughter ladli Begam with Shaharyar in A.D. 1621. Her double policy forced Prince Khurram to revolt.

Thus, we can say that Noorjahan was a generous and kind lady, she had some extraordinary virtues in her. Her influence enabled Jahangir to enjoy a bit more life otherwise excess of wine would have told upon his health but her excessive policy created some problems in all the spheres of the state.

Milan Tomic

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