Zeb-un-Nisa: Mughal Princess Imprisoned for More Than Two Decades by Her Father

Zaibunissa Palace / Image Credit

Mughal princess Zeb-un-Nisa was the eldest child of sixth Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. She was a poetess of considerable merit and wrote under the pen name of Makhfi (meaning Hidden One in Persian). She produced a brilliant collection of beautiful poems which were published after her death in 1702 as Diwan-i-Makhfi.

Born in 1738 in Daulatabad in Deccan, Zeb-un-Nisa seems to be antithetical to what Auranzeb stood for.

Strained relationship between Zeb-un-Nisa and Aurangzeb had led the father to imprison the daughter for the last 20 years of her life at Salimgarh Fort which lies adjacent to the Red Fort in Delhi.

Her grandfather, the fifth Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, had betrothed her to Sulaiman Shikoh, the eldest son of Dara Shikoh, elder brother of Aurangzeb. The marriage, however, did not take place. This is because as soon as Shah Jahan fell ill in September, 1657, it sparked a deadly war of succession among his four sons – Dara Shikoh, Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad. During the course of this fratricidal war of succession Murad and Sulaiman Shikoh were executed on the orders of Aurangzeb in the Gwalior Fort where they were imprisoned.

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