Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/370

316 THE MEMOIRS OF JAHANGIR although she was born in India, or rather in Kandahar. She was the second daughter of Ghiyas Beg, who gave her in marriage to Sher Afghan, who was in the Mo- ghul army. Some time after her husband's death she chanced to be seen by Jahangir, who took her into his harem in the sixth year of his reign and became so infatuated with her that he exalted her to the position of chief queen and she ultimately became the real head of the kingdom. An account of Nur Jahan is found in the history of Mu'tamad Khan, from which the fol- lowing extract is taken. 1 Among the great events that occurred during the sixth year of the reign of the Emperor Jahangir was his demanding Nur Jahan Begam in marriage. This subject might be expanded into volumes, but we are necessarily confined to a limited space in describing the strange decrees of Fate. Mirza Ghiyas Beg, the son of Khwaja Mohammad Sharif, was a native of Teheran. Khwaja Mohammad was, first of all, the vizir of Mohammad Khan Taklu, governor of Khorasan, but after the death of Mohammad Khan, he entered the service of the renowned King Tahmasp Safawi and was entrusted with the vizirate of Yazd. The Khwaja had two sons, Aka Tahir and Mirza Ghiyas Beg. For his second son the Khwaja sought in marriage the daughter of Mirza Ala-ad-din, the father of Aka Mulla. After the death of his father, Mirza Ghiyas Beg travelled to Hindustan with two sons and a daughter, but as he was passing through Kandahar, another daughter was born to him by the