Women and men are important................
Nur Jahan[edit]
Mehr-Un-Nisa, or Nur Jahan, occupies an important place in the history of Jahangir. She was the widow of a rebel officer, Sher Afgan, of Mughals, whose actual name was Ali Quli Beg Ist'ajlu. He had earned the title "Sher Afgan" (Tiger tosser) from Emperor Akbar after throwing off a tiger that had leaped to attack Akbar on the top of an elephant in a royal hunt at Bengal, and then stabbing the fallen tiger to death. Akbar was greatly affected by the bravery of the young Turkish bodyguard accompanying him and awarded him the captaincy of the Imperial Guard at Burdwan,Bengal. Sher Afgan had killed in rebellion (after having learned of Jahangir's orders to have him slain to possess his beautiful wife Mehr Un Nisaa as Jahangir yearned for her much earlier than her wedding to Sher Afgan), the governor of Bengal Qutubuddin Koka who was instructed secretly by Jahangir in his quest and who also was the emperor's foster brother and Sheikh Salim Chishti's grandson and consequently had been slain by the guards of the Governor. The widowed Mehr-un-Nisaa was brought to Agra along with her nine-year-old daughter and placed in—or refused to be placed in—the Royal harem in 1607. Jahangir married her in 1611 and gave her the title of Nur Jahan or "Light of the World". It was rumored that Jahangir had a hand in the death of her first husband Sher Afghan. Albeit there is no recorded evidence to prove that he was guilty of that crime; in fact most travelers' reports say that he met her after Sher Afgan's death.(See Ellison Banks Findly's scholarly biography for a full discussion.)
According to poet and author Vidya Dhar Mahajan, Nur Jahan had a piercing intelligence, a volatile temper and sound common sense.[4] She possessed great physical strength and courage. She went on hunting tours with her husband, and on more than one occasion shot and killed ferocious tigers.[5] She was devoted to Jahangir and he forgot all about the world and entrusted all the work of the government to her.[6]
The loss of Kandahar was due to Prince Khurram's refusal to obey her orders.[7] When the Persians besieged Kandahar, Nur Jahan was at the helm of affairs. She ordered Prince Khurram to march for Kandahar, but the latter refused to do so. There is no doubt that the refusal of the prince was due to her behaviour towards him.[7] She was favouring her son-in-law, Shahryar, at the expense of Khurram. Khurram suspected that in his absence, Shahryar might be given promotion and he might die on the battlefield. It was this fear which forced Khurram to rebel against his father rather than fight against the Persians[7] and thereby Kandahar was lost to the Persians. Nur Jahan struck coins in her own name during the last years of Jahangir's reign when he was taken ill.
Conquests[edit]
In the year 1594 Jahangir was dispatched by his father, the Mughal Emperor Akbar, alongside Abul Hasan Asaf Khan also known as Mirza Jaafar Beg son of Mirza Ghias Beg Isfahani and brother of Nur Jehan and Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, to defeat the renegade Vir Singh Deo of Bundela and capture the city of Orchha, which was considered the center of the revolt. Jahangir arrived with a force of 12,000 after many ferocious encounters and finally subdued the Bundela and ordered Vir Singh Deo to surrender. After tremendous casualties and the start of negotiations between the two, Vir Singh Deo handed over 5000 Bundela infantry and 1000 cavalry but he feared Mughal retaliation and remained a fugitive until his death. The victorious Jahangir Only 16 years of age, ordered the completion of the Jahangir Mahal a famous Mughal citadel in Orchha to commemorate and honor his victory.[8]
Jahangir then gathered his forces under the command of Ali Kuli Khan and fought Lakshmi Narayan of Koch Bihar. Lakshmi Narayan, then accepted the Mughals as his suzerains he was given the title Nazir and later established a garrison at Atharokotha.
In 1613, the Portuguese seized the Mughal ship Rahimi, which had set out from Surat on its way with a large cargo of 100,000 rupees and Pilgrims, who were on their way toMecca and Medina in order to attend the annual Hajj. The Rahīmī was owned by Mariam-uz-Zamani, Jahangir's mother. She was referred as Queen mother of Hindustan during his reign. Rahīmī was the largest Indian ship sailing in the Red Sea and was known to the Europeans as the "great pilgrimage ship". When the Portuguese officially refused to return the ship and the passengers, the outcry at the Mughal court was quite unusually severe. The outrage was compounded by the fact that the owner and the patron of the ship was none other than the revered mother of the current emperor. Jahangir himself was outraged and ordered the seizure of the Portuguese town Daman. He ordered the apprehension of all Portuguese within the Mughal Empire, he further confiscated churches that belonged to the Jesuits. This episode is considered to be an example of the struggle for wealth that would later ensue and lead to colonization of the Indian sub-continent.[9][10]
Jahangir was responsible for ending a century long struggle with the state of Mewar. The campaign against the Rajputs was pushed so extensively that the latter were made to submit and that too with a great loss of life and property. Jahangir also thought of capturing Kangra Fort, which Akbar had failed to do. Consequently a siege was laid, which lasted for fourteen months, and the fort was taken in 1620.
The district of Kistwar, in the state of Kashmir, was also conquered.
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