Saliha Banu Begum
{{short description|Padshah Begum of the Mughal Empire}}
{{Infobox royalty
| consort = yes
| name = Saliha Banu Begum
| title = Empress consort of the Mughal Empire
| predecessor = Hamida Banu Begum
| succession = Padshah Begum
| successor = Nur Jahan
| reign = {{circa}} 1608 – 10 June 1620
| spouse = {{Marriage|Jahangir|1608}}
| house = Timurid (by marriage)
| father = Qasim Khan
| issue =
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| death_date = 10 June 1620
| death_place = Agra, Mughal Empire
| place of burial =
| religion = Islam
}}
Saliha Banu Begum ({{Abbr|d.|death}} 10 June 1620) was the chief consort of Emperor Jahangir.{{cite book|last1=Findly|first1=Ellison Banks|title=Nur Jahan, empress of Mughal India|url=https://archive.org/details/nurjahanempressm00find|url-access=limited|date=1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780195360608|page=[https://archive.org/details/nurjahanempressm00find/page/n137 125]}} She was the Padshah Begum for the most part of the reign of her emperor husband until her death in the year 1620.{{cite book|title=The Journal of the Numismatic Society of India, Volumes 20-21|date=1958|publisher=Numismatic Society of India|page=196|language=en}}
Family
Saliha Banu Begum was the daughter of Qasimn,{{cite book|last1=Lal|first1=K.S.|title=The Mughal harem|date=1988|publisher=Aditya Prakashan|location=New Delhi|isbn=9788185179032|page=27}} She was the granddaughter of Muqim Khan, the son of Shuja'at Khan from Akbar's time.{{sfn|Awrangābādī|Prasad|Shāhnavāz|1979|p=925}}
Marriage
Jahangir married her in 1608, in the third year of his reign. As a consequence, her brother Abdur Rahim's position greatly advanced. He was awarded with the title of Tarbiyat Khan. His son named Miyan Joh, whom Saliha had taken for her son, was killed at the banks of river Jhelum by Mahabat Khan when the latter behaved insolently towards Jahangir,{{sfn|Awrangābādī|Prasad|Shāhnavāz|1979|p=926}} in 1626.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}
Padishah Mahal ("Sovereign of the Palace") and Padishah Banu ("The Sovereign Lady") were her nicknames.{{cite book|first=M.|last=Abdul Kader|title=Historical Fallacies Unveiled|publisher=İslamic Foundation Bangladesh|year=1988|pages=105}}{{cite book|first=Sudha|last=Sharma|title=The Status of Muslim Women in Medieval India|publisher=SAGE Publications India|date=March 21, 2016|pages=144, 209|isbn=978-9-351-50567-9}} She was, reportedly, Nur Jahan's only powerful rival for Jahangir's affections. However, Nur Jahan was a formidable rival who had dominated not only Jahangir but also governmental affairs.{{cite journal|last1=Asiatic Society (Calcutta, India)|title=Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|date=1 January 1932|volume=25|page=62|publisher=Asiatic Society.|language=en}} Williams Hawkins, a representative of the English East India Company noted her among Jahangir's chief wives. He said the following:
{{blockquote|Hee (Jahangir) hath .... three hundred wives whereof four be chiefe as queenes, to say, the first, named Padasha Banu, daughter to Kaime Chan (Qaim Khan); the second is called Noore Mahal (Nur Jahan), the daughter of Gais Beyge (Mirza Ghiyas Beg); the third is the daughter of Seinchan (Zain Khan Koka); the fourth is the daughter of Hakim Humaun (Mirza Muhammad Hakim), who was brother to his father Ekber Padasha (Akbar){{cite book|first=Sir William|last=Foster|title=Early travels in India, 1583-1619|publisher=AMS Press|year=1975|pages=100–101|isbn=978-0-404-54825-4}}}}
Saliha Banu Begum was reportedly to be well versed in Hindi poetry.
Death
Saliha Banu Begum died on Wednesday, 10 June 1620.{{cite book|first1=Emperor |last1=Jahangir|first2=Wheeler McIntosh|last2=Thackston|title=The Jahangirnama : memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India|url=https://archive.org/details/jahangirnamamemo00jaha |publisher=Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; New York: Oxford University Press|year=1999|pages=[https://archive.org/details/jahangirnamamemo00jaha/page/340 340]|isbn=978-0-19-512718-8 }}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{Cite book|first1=Shāhnavāz Khān|last1=Awrangābādī|first2=Bani|last2=Prasad|first3='Abd al-Hayy ibn|last3=Shāhnavāz|title=The Maāthir-ul-umarā: being biographies of the Muḥammadan and Hindu officers of the Timurid sovereigns of India from 1500 to about 1780 A.D.|publisher=Janaki Prakashan|year=1979}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saliha Banu Begum}}
Category:16th-century Indian women
Category:16th-century Indian people
Category:Place of birth unknown
Category:Year of birth unknown