Nur Jahan: The Empress Who Ruled in All But Name

Only one Mughal woman ever had coins struck in her own name. She also raised an army to rescue her captured husband, the emperor himself.

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The Empress Behind the Throne

From a widowed noblewoman to the only Mughal woman ever struck on a coin

1577

Mehrunnisa Is Born

Born to a Persian noble family journeying toward the Mughal court.

1611

Becomes Empress

Marries Jahangir, his twentieth wife, and is given the title Nur Jahan.

1626

Rescues the Emperor

Raises an army to free Jahangir after Mahabat Khan takes him hostage.

1627

Loses the Succession

Jahangir dies. Her own brother backs Shah Jahan over her choice.

The throughline: for over a decade Nur Jahan held privileges no other Mughal woman ever had — coins, farmans, an army of her own. When Jahangir died, it was her own family that ended it.

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Timeline

• 1577: Mehrunnisa is born, likely at Kandahar, to a Persian noble family fleeing toward the Mughal court.
• 1611: Mehrunnisa marries Emperor Jahangir. She becomes his twentieth and final wife, and is given the title Nur Jahan.
• 1626: Governor Mahabat Khan seizes Jahangir at the Jhelum river. Nur Jahan raises an army and secures his release.
• 1627: Jahangir dies. Nur Jahan’s own brother, Asaf Khan, backs Shah Jahan for the throne instead of her chosen candidate.

From Mehrunnisa to Empress Need to Know

• Nur Jahan (“Light of the World”) was born Mehrunnisa in 1577, to a Persian noble family.
• Her father, Mirza Ghiyas Beg, rose to become Jahangir’s chief minister. He earned the title I’timad-ud-Daulah, meaning “Pillar of the State.”
• Mehrunnisa’s first husband was a Persian noble, Sher Afgan. He died in 1607, and she then joined the Mughal court.
• In 1611, she married Emperor Jahangir, becoming his twentieth and final wife.
• Jahangir gave her the title Nur Jahan. She was already in her mid-thirties, unusually old for a new royal bride.
• Her own niece, Arjumand Banu Begum, later married Prince Khurram. As empress, she is remembered by another name: Mumtaz Mahal.

Unmatched Royal Power Good to Know

• Jahangir’s health declined from heavy drinking and opium use. Nur Jahan increasingly ran the empire’s day-to-day affairs.
• From 1623 to 1627, coins were struck bearing her own name. No other Mughal woman, before or since, received this honour.
• She could issue farmans, formal imperial orders, under her own seal.
• Only the khutbah, the formal Friday prayer naming the reigning monarch, was never read in her name.
• Historians call the ruling clique she led, built around her father and brother, the “Nur Jahan Junta.”

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Before she became the Mughal empress Nur Jahan, she was known by which name?

Mumtaz Mahal

Jahanara Begum

Mehrunnisa

Arjumand Banu Begum

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The Mahabat Khan Rebellion, and the Fall Great to Know

• Nur Jahan’s growing suspicion of the general Mahabat Khan pushed him toward open revolt in 1626.
• Mahabat Khan’s Rajput troops seized Jahangir’s camp on the Jhelum river, and took the emperor hostage.
• Nur Jahan first tried a direct rescue, and was captured herself. She then organised an escape, and raised a fresh army.
• She succeeded, and freed both herself and Jahangir. It was her single greatest political and military victory.
• When Jahangir died in 1627, Nur Jahan backed her son-in-law Shahryar for the throne, not Prince Khurram.
• Her own brother Asaf Khan broke with her, and backed Khurram instead. He became Emperor Shah Jahan.
• Nur Jahan spent her final eighteen years confined to a Lahore palace, on an annual pension of two lakh rupees.

Legacy

• Nur Jahan commissioned the Tomb of I’timad-ud-Daulah in Agra, built for her own parents between 1622 and 1628.
• Its use of white marble and delicate inlay work is widely seen as a direct architectural forerunner of the Taj Mahal.
• She died in 1645, at age 68, and was buried in Lahore, near Jahangir’s own tomb.
• A melancholic verse is inscribed on her tomb, traditionally attributed to her, though scholars trace it to the poet Tajalli Kashi.