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Zinat-un-Nissa Begum

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Zinat-un-Nissa Begum (Persian: زینت النساء بیگم 5 October 1643 – 7 May 1721) was a Mughal princess and the second daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb and his chief consort, Dilras Banu Begum. Her father had conferred upon her the honorable title of Padshah Begum.[1][2]: 14, 318 

Zinat-un-Nissa Begum
Shahzadi of the Mughal Empire
Padshah Begum
Tenure1681 – 7 May 1721
PredecessorJahanara Begum
SuccessorBadshah Begum
Born5 October 1643
Aurangabad, Mughal Empire
Died7 May 1721(1721-05-07) (aged 77)
Delhi, Mughal Empire
Burial
Zeenat-ul-Masajid, Delhi
HouseTimurid
FatherAurangzeb
MotherDilras Banu Begum
ReligionSunni Islam

Life

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Zinat-un-Nissa Begum ("Jewel among Women") was born on 5 October 1643, probably in Aurangabad, to Dilras Banu Begum, Aurangzeb's first wife and chief consort. Her mother was a princess of the prominent Safavid dynasty of Persia and was a daughter of Mirza Badi-uz-Zaman Safavi, the Viceroy of Gujarat.[3] Her paternal grandfather was the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan during whose reign she was born. Zinat-un-Nissa had in-depth knowledge of the doctrines of Islam, just like her elder sister, Princess Zeb-un-Nisa and her younger sister, Princess Zubdat-un-Nissa Begum.[4] She was educated by private tutors and scholars, and refused to marry, choosing to remain single her entire life.

Zinat was a partisan of her youngest step-brother, Muhammad Kam Bakhsh, for whom she gained pardon from her father on several occasions. Though her full brother, Azam Shah, had a strong disliking for him.[5] She was her father's sole companion during the later part of his reign, along with his concubine Udaipuri Mahal. She was the superintendent of her father's household in the Deccan for a quarter of a century till his death in 1707. She survived him many years, enjoying the respect of his successors as the living memorial of a great age.[2]: 282 

Contributions to architecture

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The Zeenat-ul-Masajid built by Zeenat-un-Nissa, located in Daryaganj, Delhi.

Zinat-un-Nissa is known to have built fourteen caravanserais. At the age of thirty-seven, she undertook a project to construct a number of inns of the highway linking Awadh with Bengal. This effort of hers earned her the praise of her father.[6] She also had the Zeenat-ul-Masajid ("Ornament of Mosques") constructed at her expense in c.1700 by the riverside wall of the Red Fort in Delhi, where she was buried.[7] Tradition goes that she demanded the amount of her dowry from her father, and spent it in building the mosque.[6]

Death

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Zinat-un-Nissa Begum died at Delhi on 18 May 1721 at the age of 77 years.[8]

Ancestry

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1973). Volumes 1-2 of History of Aurangzib: Mainly Based on Original Sources. Orient Longman. p. 38.
  2. ^ a b Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1979). A short history of Aurangzib, 1618-1707.
  3. ^ Annie Krieger-Krynicki (2005). Captive princess: Zebunissa, daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb. Oxford University Press. p. 1.
  4. ^ Schimmel, Annemarie (1980). Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, Volume 2, Issue 4, Part 3. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004061170.
  5. ^ Richards, J.F. (1995). Mughal empire (Transferred to digital print. ed.). Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521566032.
  6. ^ a b Soma Mukherjee (2001). Royal Mughal Ladies and Their Contributions. Gyan Books. pp. 203–4. ISBN 9788121207607.
  7. ^ Annemarie Schimmel, Burzine K. Waghmar (2004). The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture. Reaktion Books. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-86189-185-3.
  8. ^ William Irvine (1971). Later Mughal. Atlantic Publishers & Distri. pp. 2–.
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