1. Zeb-un-Nissa was a Mughal princess and the eldest child of Emperor Aurangzeb and his chief consort, Dilras Banu Begum.
20 Facts About Zeb-un-Nissa
1. 2.
Zeb-un-Nissa was a poet, who wrote under the pseudonym of Makhfi.
3.
Zeb-un-Nissa's mother, Dilras Banu Begum, was Aurangzeb's first wife and chief consort, and was a princess of the prominent Safavid dynasty; the ruling dynasty of Iran.
4.
Zeb-un-Nissa was her father's favourite daughter, and it was because of this that she could compel him to pardon people who had offended him.
5.
Zeb-un-Nissa seems to have inherited her father's keenness of intellect and literary tastes, because Zeb-un-Nissa memorized the Quran in three years and became a Hafiza at the age of seven.
6.
Zeb-un-Nissa then learned the sciences of the time with Mohammad Saeed Ashraf Mazandarani, who was a great Persian poet.
7.
Zeb-un-Nissa learned philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, literature, and was a mistress of Persian, Arabic and Urdu.
8.
Zeb-un-Nissa's library surpassed all other private collections, and she employed many scholars on liberal salaries to produce literary works at her bidding or to copy manuscripts for her.
9.
Zeb-un-Nissa's library provided literary works on each subject, such as law, literature, history and theology.
10.
Zeb-un-Nissa was a kind-hearted person and always helped people in need.
11.
Zeb-un-Nissa took an interest in music and it was said that she was the best singer among the women of her time.
12.
Zeb-un-Nissa had four other younger sisters: Zeenat-un-Nissa, Zubdat-un-Nissa, Badr-un-Nissa and Mehr-un-Nissa.
13.
Zeb-un-Nissa sang well and composed songs and planted many of the gardens of her day.
14.
Zeb-un-Nissa selected "Makhfi" as her pen-name in her poetry.
15.
In Makhzan 'ul-Ghaib, the author writes that the poetic book of Zeb-un-Nissa contained 15,000 verses.
16.
Zeb-un-Nissa supported the young prince in the inevitable ongoing conflict of succession, and was discovered to have written to him during the rebellion in 1681 AD.
17.
Zeb-un-Nissa's punishment was to have her accumulated wealth confiscated, her annual pension of 4 lakhs nullified, and that she was to be held prisoner at Salimgarh until her death.
18.
Zeb-un-Nissa's tomb was in the garden of "Thirty thousand trees", outside of the Kashmiri Darwaza, the north gate of the city.
19.
Zeb-un-Nissa did not get married and remained single her whole life, despite the fact that she had many suitors.
20.
Zeb-un-Nissa spent all her life on literary works and poetry, as she herself said:.