Ruqaiya Sultan Begum

Ruqaiya Sultan Begum (Persian: رقیه سلطان بیگم‎‎; also spelled as Ruqayya) (1542 – 19 January 1626) was Empress of the Mughal Empire from 11 February 1556 to 27 October 1605 as the first wife and chief consort of the third Mughal emperor Akbar. She was also the longest serving Mughal empress, having a tenure of almost half a century.
Ruqaiya was born a Mughal princess (Shahzadi) and was the only daughter of Mughal prince Hindal Mirza, who was Akbar's youngest paternal uncle. She was also a granddaughter of Emperor Babur (the founder of the Mughal Empire and the first Mughal emperor) as well as the niece of the second, Humayun.
Ruqaiya played a crucial role in negotiating a settlement between her husband and her stepson, Jahangir, when the father-son's relationship turned sour in the early 17th century, eventually helping to pave the way for Jahangir's accession to the Mughal throne.

Family and lineage

Shahzadi (Princess) Ruqaiya Sultan Begum was born into the Timurid dynasty as a Mughal princess, and was the only daughter of Mughal prince Hindal Mirza, the youngest son of the first Mughal emperor Babur from his wife Dildar Begum. Ruqaiya's mother, Sultanam Begum, was the daughter of Muhammad Musa Khwaja and the younger sister of Mahdi Khwaja, who was the brother-in-law of Emperor Babur, being the husband of his sister, Khanzada Begum. Ruqaiya's oldest paternal uncle was the emperor Humayun, who later became her father-in-law as well, while her most notable paternal aunt was the imperial princess, Gulbadan Begum, the author of Humayun-nama ("Book of Humayun").

Being the granddaughter of Emperor Babur and a Timurid princess, Ruqaiya (just like her first-cousin Akbar), was a descendant of the lines of the highest Central Asian aristocracy: Timur or Tamerlane the Great through his son Miran Shah, and Genghis Khan through his son Chagatai Khan.

As it was customary for a Mughal princess, Ruqaiya was well educated and knew many languages such as Chagatai, Persian, Arabic and Urdu.

Marriage to Akbar

Hujra-I-Anup Talao or the Turkish Sultana House, a pleasure pavilion attached to a pond, was used by Empress Ruqaiya

At the age of nine, Ruqaiya married her first cousin, Akbar, in November 1551 at Kabul, Afghanistan, shortly after his first appointment as a viceroy in the province of Ghazni. The marriage was performed as per the wishes of Akbar's father, Emperor Humayun, and took place soon after the untimely death of Ruqaiya's father, Hindal Mirza, who had died in a battle. Humayun conferred on the young couple, all the wealth, army and adherents of his deceased younger brother, Hindal, and Ghazni, which was one of Hindal's jagir, was given to his nephew and now son-in-law, Akbar.

Ruqaiya became Empress of the Mughal Empire at the age of fourteen years following her husband's accession to the throne in 1556. As Empress, she bore the exalted title of "Padshah Begum", a title reserved for the first lady of the Empire and the Emperor's principal consort.

Ruqaiya remained childless throughout her marriage but assumed the primary responsibility for the upbringing of her step-grandson, prince Khurram (the future Emperor Shah Jahan). Ruqaiya's adoption of Prince Khurram signified her undisputed rank and power in the imperial harem as one of the special privileges of women of rank (in the Mughal Empire) was to care for ranking children not their own.

Just prior to Khurram's birth, a soothsayer had reportedly predicted to Ruqaiya Sultan Begum that the still unborn child was destined for imperial greatness. So, when Khurram was born in 1592 and was only six days old, Akbar ordered that the prince be taken away from his mother and handed him over to Ruqaiya so that he could grow up under her care and Akbar could fulfill his aging wife's wish, to raise a Mughal emperor. Khurram remained with her, until he had turned 13. The young prince was then, finally, allowed to return to his father's household, and thus, be closer to his biological mother. Ruqaiya oversaw Khurram's education as well for she, unlike her husband, was well educated. Ruqaiya and Khurram, therefore, shared a close relationship much like the relationship that Akbar had shared with Khurram (the prince had been a favourite of his grandfather). Khurram's father and Ruqaiya's step-son, Jahangir, noted that Ruqaiya had loved Khurram "a thousand times more than if he had been her own son".

Despite the fact that she did not bear him any children, she was always kept in high regard by her husband, as he held great respect and affection for her. Ruqaiya was thus, the most senior figure in the imperial harem and at court during her husband's reign as well as in his successor's (Jahangir) reign. This was primarily due to the fact that she was Mirza Hindal's daughter, a Mughal princess as well as Akbar's first and chief wife.

The Empress also took an active part in court politics and played a crucial role (along with Salima Sultan Begum) in negotiating a settlement between Akbar and her step-son, Jahangir, (when their relationship had turned sour), eventually helping to pave the way for Jahangir's accession to the throne. During Jahangir's reign, Ruqaiya and Salima Sultan Begum again played a crucial role in successfully securing pardon for the powerful, Khan-i-Azam, Mirza Aziz Koka, who had been sentenced to death by Jahangir. Apart from her own palace at Fatehpur Sikri, Ruqaiya owned palaces outside the fort in Agra, near the Jamuna river, a privilege given to Mughal princesses only and sometimes to empresses who were kept in high esteem.

In 1607, Ruqaiya, for the first time, visited the mausoleum of her father Hindal Mirza as the imperial harem and Jahangir were on a hunting trip to Kabul. Ali Quli, the jagirdar of Burdwan died and his widowed wife, Mehrunnissa (later Empress Nur Jahan) was summoned to Agra by Jahangir to act as lady-in-waiting to the Empress Ruqaiya. Given the precarious political connections of Ali Quli before his death, his family was in great danger and therefore for her own protection, Mehrunnissa needed to be at the court in Agra. Ruqaiya, having been the late Emperor Akbar's principal wife and being the most senior woman in the harem, was by both stature and ability, the most capable of providing the protection that Mehrunnissa needed at the Mughal court.

Nur Jahan and her daughter, Ladli Begum, served as ladies-in-waiting to the Empress for four years while earnestly endeavoring to please their imperial mistress. The relationship that grew up between Ruqaiya and Mehrunnissa appears to have been an extremely tender one which remained so until Ruqaiya's death in 1626. The Dutch merchant, Pieter van den Broecke said: "This Begum [Ruqaiya] conceived a great affection for Mehr-un-Nissa; she loved her more than others and always kept her in her company."

Gardens of Babur at Kabul, Afghanistan

Ruqaiya died in 1626, at the age of 84 having outlived her husband by 20 years. She was buried on the fifteenth level in the Gardens of Babur (Bagh-e-Babur) in Kabul, which is also the resting place of her grandfather, Emperor Babur and her father, Hindal Mirza. Her tomb was built by her step-grandson, Emperor Shah Jahan.

While recording her death in his autobiography, Jahangir, whose son she brought up, makes note of her status as Akbar's chief wife.

• Empress Ruqaiya is a main character in Indu Sundaresan's award-winning historical novel, The Twentieth Wife (2002), as well as in its sequel, The Feast of Roses (2003).
• Ruqaiya is a pivotal character in Tanushree Podder's historical novel, Nur Jahan's Daughter (2005).
• Ruqaiya was portrayed by Lavina Tandon in Zee TV's fictional drama, Jodha Akbar.
• Deepika Amin portrayed Ruqaiya in EPIC channel's critically acclaimed historical drama, Siyaasat (based on the The Twentieth Wife).
• Ruqaiya was portrayed by Falaq Naaz in Sony TV's historical drama, Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap.

• Kaur, Balwinder (April 15, 2012). "The power behind the throne". The Tribune. Retrieved June 28, 2013. 
• Podder, Tanushree (2005). Nur Jahan's daughter. New Delhi: Rupa & Co. ISBN 8129107228. 
• Chaya Unnikrishnan (2013-06-26). "So far, so good". dnaindia.com. Retrieved 2013-12-04. 
• "Characters". epicchannel.com. 
• Unnikrishnan, Chaya (14 April 2016). "SRK is as enthusiastic and fun-loving as he was: Deepika Deshpande Amin". dnaindia.com. Retrieved 30 July 2016. 
• Tiwari, Vijaya (14 October 2014). "Maharana Pratap: Krip Suri and Falak Naaz as grown-up Akbar-Rukaiya in the show". The Times of India. Retrieved 30 July 2016.