Mumtaz Mahal Mughal empress What was special about the mughal empress? Mumtaz Mahal provided pensions and donations to the daughters of poor scholars, theologians, and pious men. Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? Shah Jahan bestowed her with luxuries that no other empress was given before her. did they marry? Each wife of the Mughal emperor
did they have any children?
Did Mumtaz Mahal and Mughal empress have any children?
Upon his accession to the throne in 1628, Shah Jahan designated Mumtaz as his chief empress with the title of 'Malika-i-Jahan' ("Queen of the World") and 'Malika-uz-Zamani' ("Queen of the Age"). Mumtaz's tenure as empress was brief (spanning a period of only three years due to her untimely death), nonetheless Shah Jahan bestowed her with luxuries that no other empress was given before her. For example, no other empress' residence was as decorated as Khas Mahal (part of Agra Fort), where Mumtaz lived with Shah Jahan. It was decorated with pure gold and precious stones and had rose water fountains of its own. Each wife of the Mughal emperor was given regular monthly allowance for her gastos (housekeeping or travelling expenses). The highest allowance on record is 10 lakh rupees per year given to Mumtaz Mahal under Shah Jahan.  Shah Jahan consulted Mumtaz in both private matters and the affairs of the state and she served as his close confidante and trusted adviser. At her intercession, he forgave enemies or commuted death sentences. His trust in her was so great that he gave her the highest honour of the land -- his imperial seal, the Mehr Uzaz, which validated imperial decrees. Mumtaz was portrayed as having no aspirations to political power, in contrast to her aunt, Empress Nur Jahan, the chief consort of Emperor Jahangir, who had wielded considerable influence in the previous reign.  A great influence on him, often intervening on behalf of the poor and destitute, she also enjoyed watching elephant and combat fights performed for the court. Mumtaz also patronized a number of poets, scholars and other talented persons. A noted Sanskrit poet, Vansidhara Mishra, was the Empress' favourite. On the recommendation of her principal lady-in-waiting, Sati-un-Nissa, Mumtaz Mahal provided pensions and donations to the daughters of poor scholars, theologians, and pious men. It was quite common for women of noble birth to commission architecture in the Mughal Empire, so Mumtaz devoted some time to a riverside garden in Agra, which is now known as Zahara Bagh. It is the only architectural foundation which can be connected to her patronage. CANNOTANSWER
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Mumtaz Mahal (, ),  born Arjumand Banu Begum (; 27 April 1593 – 17 June 1631) was the empress consort of the Mughal Empire from 19 January 1628 to 17 June 1631 as the chief consort of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. The Taj Mahal in Agra, often cited as one of the Wonders of the World, was commissioned by her husband to act as her tomb.

Mumtaz Mahal was born Arjumand Banu Begum in Agra to a family of Persian nobility. She was the daughter of Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan, a wealthy Persian noble who held high office in the Mughal Empire, and the niece of Empress Nur Jahan, the chief wife of Emperor Jahangir and the power behind the emperor. She was married at the age of 19 on 10 May 1612 or 16 June 1612 to Prince Khurram, later known by his regnal name Shah Jahan, who conferred upon her the title "Mumtaz Mahal" (Persian: the exalted one of the palace). Although betrothed to Shah Jahan since 1607, she ultimately became his second wife in 1612. Mumtaz and her husband had 14 children, including Jahanara Begum (Shah Jahan's favourite daughter), and the Crown prince Dara Shikoh, the heir-apparent, anointed by his father, who temporarily succeeded him, until deposed by Mumtaz Mahal's sixth child, Aurangzeb, who ultimately succeeded his father as the sixth Mughal emperor in 1658.

Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631 in Burhanpur, Deccan (present-day Madhya Pradesh), during the birth of her 14th child, a daughter named Gauhar Ara Begum. Shah Jahan had the Taj Mahal built as a tomb for her, which is considered to be a monument of undying love. As with other Mughal royal ladies,  no contemporary likenesses of her are accepted, but numerous imagined portraits were created from the 19th century onwards. She is wrongly referred to as "Taj Bibi" which was the corrupted of her title Mumtaz and was in reality the title of her mother-in-law, Jagat Gosain.

Family and early life
Mumtaz Mahal was born as Arjumand Banu on 27 April 1593 in Agra to Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan and his wife Diwanji Begum, the daughter of a Persian noble, Khwaja Ghias-ud-din of Qazvin. Asaf Khan was a wealthy Persian noble who held high office in the Mughal Empire. His family had come to India impoverished in 1577, when his father Mirza Ghias Beg (popularly known by his title of I'timad-ud-Daulah), was taken into the service of Emperor Akbar in Agra.

Asaf Khan was also the older brother of Empress Nur Jahan, making Mumtaz a niece, and later, a step daughter-in-law of Nur Jahan, the chief consort of Emperor Jahangir, Shah Jahan's father. Her older sister, Parwar Khanum, married Sheikh Farid, the son of Nawab Qutubuddin Koka, the governor of Badaun, who was also the emperor Jahangir's foster brother. Mumtaz also had a brother, Shaista Khan, who served as the governor of Bengal and various other provinces in the empire during Shah Jahan's reign.

Mumtaz was remarkable in the field of learning and was a talented and cultured lady. She was well-versed in Arabic and Persian languages and could compose poems in the latter. She was reputed to have a combination of modesty and candor, a woman warmly straightforward yet bemusedly self-possessed. Early in adolescence, she attracted the attention of important nobles of the realm. Jahangir must have heard about her, since he readily consented to Shah Jahan's engagement with her.

Marriage

Mumtaz Mahal was betrothed to Shah Jahan around 5 April 1607, when she was 14 years old at the time and he was 15. They were, however, married five years after the year of their betrothal on 10 May 1612 or 7 June 1612 in Agra. After their wedding celebrations, Shah Jahan, "finding her in appearance and character elect among all the women of the time", gave her the title "Mumtaz Mahal" Begum ("the Exalted One of the Palace"). During the intervening years between their betrothal and marriage, Shah Jahan had married his first wife, Princess Kandahari Begum in 1610 and in 1617, after marrying Mumtaz, took a third wife, Izz-un-Nissa Begum (titled Akbarabadi Mahal), the daughter of a prominent Mughal courtier. According to the official court historians, both the marriages were political alliances.
 
By all accounts, Shah Jahan was so taken with Mumtaz that he showed little interest in exercising his polygamous rights with his two other wives, other than dutifully siring a child with each. According to the official court chronicler, Motamid Khan, as recorded in his Iqbal Namah-e-Jahangiri, the relationship with his other wives "had nothing more than the status of marriage. The intimacy, deep affection, attention and favour which Shah Jahan had for Mumtaz exceeded what he felt for his other wives." Likewise, Shah Jahan's historian Inayat Khan commented that 'his whole delight was centered on this illustrious lady [Mumtaz], to such an extent that he did not feel towards the others [i.e. his other wives] one-thousandth part of the affection that he did for her.'
 
Mumtaz had a loving marriage with Shah Jahan. Even during her lifetime, poets would extol her beauty, grace, and compassion. Despite her frequent pregnancies, Mumtaz travelled with Shah Jahan's entourage throughout his earlier military campaigns and the subsequent rebellion against his father. She was his constant companion and trusted confidant, leading court historians to go to unheard lengths to document the intimate and erotic relationship the couple enjoyed. In their 19 years of marriage, they had 14 children together (eight sons and six daughters), seven of whom died at birth or at a very young age.

Mughal empress
Upon his accession to the throne in 1628 after subduing his half brother, Shahryar Mirza, Shah Jahan designated Mumtaz as his chief empress with the title of Padshah Begum '(Lady Emperor)',  'Malika-i-Jahan' ("Queen of the World") and 'Malika-uz-Zamani' ("Queen of the Age") and 'Malika-i-hindustan' ("Queen of the Hindustan"). Mumtaz's tenure as empress was brief, spanning a period of only three years due to her untimely death, nonetheless, Shah Jahan bestowed her with luxuries that no other empress was given before her. She was also the only wife of Shah Jahan to be addressed as " Hazrat ". For example, no other empress' residence was as decorated as Khas Mahal (part of Agra Fort), where Mumtaz lived with Shah Jahan. It was decorated with pure gold and precious stones and had rose-water fountains of its own. Each wife of the Mughal emperor was given a regular monthly allowance for her gastos (housekeeping or travelling expenses); the highest such allowance on record is the one million rupees per year given to Mumtaz Mahal by Shah Jahan. Apart from this income, he gave her a lot of high-income lands and properties.

Shah Jahan consulted Mumtaz in both private matters and the affairs of the state, and she served as his close confidant and trusted adviser. Whenever an official sent matters or the people made a request, he first reported the matter to the Empress and made the decision with the knowledge of understanding and consultation with her. At her intercession, he forgave enemies or commuted death sentences. His trust in her was so great that he gave her the highest honour of the land – his imperial seal, the Mehr Uzaz, which validated imperial decrees. Mumtaz was portrayed as having no aspirations to political power, in contrast to her aunt, Empress Nur Jahan, the chief consort of Emperor Jahangir, who had wielded considerable influence in the previous reign.

A uncontested and great influence on him, often intervening on behalf of the poor and destitute, she also enjoyed watching elephant and combat fights performed for the court. Mumtaz also patronized a number of poets, scholars and other talented persons. A noted Sanskrit poet, Vansidhara Mishra, was the Empress's favourite. On the recommendation of her principal lady-in-waiting, Sati-un-Nissa, Mumtaz Mahal provided pensions and donations to the daughters of poor scholars, theologians, and pious men. It was quite common for women of noble birth to commission architecture in the Mughal Empire, so Mumtaz devoted some time to a riverside garden in Agra, which is now known as Zahara Bagh. It is the only architectural foundation which can be connected to her patronage.

Death and aftermath

Mumtaz Mahal died from postpartum hemorrhage in Burhanpur on 17 June 1631 while giving birth to her 14th child, after a prolonged labor around 30 hours. She had been accompanying her husband while he was fighting a campaign in the Deccan Plateau. Her body was temporarily buried at Burhanpur in a walled pleasure garden known as Zainabad originally constructed by Shah Jahan's uncle Daniyal on the bank of the Tapti River. The contemporary court chroniclers paid an unusual amount of attention to Mumtaz Mahal's death and Shah Jahan's grief at her demise. In the immediate aftermath of his bereavement, the emperor was reportedly inconsolable. Apparently, after her death, he went into secluded mourning for a year. When he appeared again, his hair had turned white, his back was bent, and his face worn. Mumtaz's eldest daughter, Jahanara Begum, gradually brought her father out of grief and took her mother's place at court.

Mumtaz Mahal's personal fortune (valued at 10 million rupees) was divided by Shah Jahan between Jahanara Begum, who received half, and the rest of her surviving children. Burhanpur was never intended by her husband as his wife's final resting spot. As a result, her body was disinterred in December 1631 and transported in a golden casket escorted by her son Shah Shuja, the deceased empress's head lady-in-waiting, and the distinguished courtier Wazir Khan, back to Agra. There, it was interred in a small building on the banks of the Yamuna River. Shah Jahan stayed behind in Burhanpur to conclude the military campaign that had originally brought him to the region. While there, he began planning the design and construction of a suitable mausoleum and funerary garden in Agra for his wife. It was a task that would take 22 years to complete, the Taj Mahal.

Taj Mahal 

The Taj Mahal was commissioned by Shah Jahan to be built as a mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal. It is seen as an embodiment of undying love and marital devotion. English poet Sir Edwin Arnold describes it as "Not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the proud passion of an emperor's love wrought in living stones." The beauty of the monument is also taken as a representation of Mumtaz Mahal's beauty and this association leads many to describe the Taj Mahal as feminine. Since Muslim tradition forbids elaborate decorations on graves, the bodies of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan are placed in a relatively plain crypt beneath the inner chamber with their faces turned to the right and towards Mecca.

The Ninety Nine Names of God are found as calligraphic inscriptions on the sides of the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal in the crypt including, "O Noble, O Magnificent, O Majestic, O Unique, O Eternal, O Glorious…". There are many theories about the origin of the name of this tomb and one of them suggests that 'Taj' is an abbreviation of the name Mumtaz. European travelers, such as François Bernier, who observed its construction, were among the first to call it the Taj Mahal. Since  they are unlikely to have come up with the name,  they might have picked it up from the locals of Agra who called the Empress 'Taj Mahal' and thought the tomb was named after her and the name began to be used interchangeably, but no firm evidence suggests this. Shah Jahan had not intended to entomb another person in the Taj Mahal; however, Aurangzeb had Shah Jahan buried next to the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal rather than build a separate tomb for his father. This is evident from the asymmetrical placement of Shah Jahan's grave on one side of his wife's grave which is in the centre.

In popular culture

Astronomy
A crater was named in her honour on asteroid 433 Eros, along with another one after her husband.
A crater on the planet Venus is named after her.

Literature 

 A cat named after Mumtaz Mahal ("Princess Arjumand") plays a major role in Connie Willis's 1997 novel To Say Nothing of the Dog.

Arjumand Banu (Mumtaz Mahal) is a principal character in Indu Sundaresan's novel The Feast of Roses (2003) and its sequel, Shadow Princess (2010), begins with her death.
Mumtaz Mahal is a main character in Sonja Chandrachud's novel Trouble at the Taj (2011). She appears in the book as a ghost.
In John Shors' novel Beneath a Marble Sky (2013), Mahal's daughter, Princess Jahanara, tells the extraordinary story of how the Taj Mahal came to be, describing her own life as an agent in its creation and as a witness to the fateful events surrounding its completion.

Films
Mumtaz Mahal is a 1926 Indian silent film by Homi Master.
Actress Enakshi Rama Rau played the role of Mumtaz Mahal in Shiraz (1928). 
Mumtaz Mahal, a 1944 Indian film was based on her life.
Actress Suraiya played the role of young Mumtaz Mahal in Nanubhai Vakil's film Taj Mahal (1941).
Mumtaz Mahal was portrayed by actress Nasreen in Abdul Rashid Kardar's film Shahjehan (1946).
Mumtaz Mahal is a 1957 Indian Hindi-language drama film by Ram Daryani, starring Veena in the titular role.
Bina Rai portrayed Mumtaz Mahal in M. Sadiq's film Taj Mahal (1963).
Shahzadi Mumtaz, an Indian film starring Asokan and Shakuntala released in 1977.
Purnima Patwardhan portrayed her role in the 2003 Indian historical drama film, Taj Mahal: A Monument of Love.
Sonya Jehan portrayed Mumtaz Mahal in Akbar Khan's film Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story (2005).

Other
Mumtaz Mahal was the inspiration behind the popular Guerlain perfume Shalimar (1921).

Issue

Ancestry

References

Bibliography

External links 

Mumtaz Mahal

1593 births
1631 deaths
Deaths in childbirth
Indian Shia Muslims
People from Agra
Taj Mahal
16th-century Indian women
16th-century Indian people
17th-century Indian women
17th-century Indian people
16th-century Iranian people
17th-century Iranian people
Indian people of Iranian descent
Wives of Shah Jahan
Else Hansen (Cathrine Marie Mahs Hansen) also called de Hansen (1720 – 4 September 1784), was the royal mistress of king Frederick V of Denmark.  She is his most famous mistress and known in history as Madam Hansen, and was, alongside Charlotte Amalie Winge, one of only two women known to have been long term lovers of the king.

Life

The background of Else Hansen does not appear to be known.  Tradition claims her to be the sister of Frederick's chamber servant Henrik Vilhelm Tillisch, who in 1743 reportedly smuggled in his sister to the king at night, but modern research does not support them to be the same person.

Royal mistress
It is not known exactly when and how Hansen became the lover of the king.  Frederick V was known for his debauched life style.   According to Dorothea Biehl, the king was known to participate in orgies or 'Bacchus parties', in which he drank alcohol with his male friends while watching female prostitutes stripped naked and danced, after which the king would sometime beat them with his stick and whip them after having been intoxicated by alcohol. These women where economically compensated, but none of them seem to have had any status of a long term mistress, nor did any of the noblewomen and maids-of-honors, which according to rumors where offered to the king by their families in hope of advantages but simply married of as soon as they became pregnant without any potential relationship having been anything but a secret. The relationship between the king and Else Hansen was therefore uncommon.

Else Hansen gave birth to five children with the king between 1746 and 1751, which is why the affair is presumed to have started in 1746 at the latest and ended in 1751 at the earliest.   At least her three younger children where all born at the manor Ulriksholm on Funen, a manor owned by Ulrik Frederik von Heinen, brother-in-law of the de facto ruler of Denmark, the kings favorite Adam Gottlob Moltke, who likely arranged the matter.  The manor was named after the royal Ulrik Christian Gyldenlove, illegitimate son of a previous king.   The king's children with Hansen where baptized in the local parish church near the manor, where they were officially listed as the legitimate children of the wife of a non existent man called "Frederick Hansen, ship writer from Gothenburg to China". The frequent trips to Ulriksholm by Hansen as soon as her pregnancies with the king became evident was publicly noted.   Neither Else Hansen nor any other of the king's mistresses where ever any official mistress introduced at the royal court, nor did they have any influence upon state affairs whatever, as politics where entrusted by the king to his favorite Moltke.

In 1752, the relationship between the king and Hansen may have ended – in any case, it was not mentioned more or resulted in any more children.  She settled in the property Kejrup near Ulriksholm with her children, officially with the status of "widow of the late sea captain de Hansen".

Later life
After the death of Frederick in 1766, she acquired the estate Klarskov on Funen. She sold Klarskov and moved to Odense in 1768.  In 1771, however, she bought Klarskov a second time and continued to live there until her death.

Her children were not officially recognized, but unofficially they were taken care of by the royal court: her daughters were given a dowry and married to royal officials and the sons careers where protected, and her grandchildren where also provided with an allowance from the royal house.

After Hansen, the king did not have any long term mistress until Charlotte Amalie Winge (1762–66).

Legacy
At Frederiksborgmuseet, there are three paintings of Hansen by Jens Thrane the younger from 1764. Hansen is known by Dorothea Biehl's depiction of the decadent court life of Frederick V.

Issue 
Her children were officially listed with the father "Frederick Hansen, sea captain".
Frederikke Margarethe de Hansen (1747–1802)
Frederikke Catherine de Hansen (1748–1822)
Anna Marie de Hansen (1749–1812)
Sophie Charlotte de Hansen (1750–1779)
Ulrik Frederik de Hansen (1751–1752)

Sources
 Charlotte Dorothea Biehl, Interiører fra Frederik V's Hof, udgivet af Louis Bobé.
 Aage Christens, Slægten de Hansen, 1968.

References

1720 births
1784 deaths
Mistresses of Danish royalty
18th-century Danish people
18th-century Danish women landowners
18th-century Danish landowners Maria Komnene (c. 1144 – 1190) was Queen of Hungary and Croatia from 1163 until 1165. Maria's father was Isaac Komnenos (son of John II).

Marriage
She married c. 1157 to King Stephen IV of Hungary (c. 1133 – 11 April 1165). They did not have any children.

Sources 
 Kristó Gyula - Makk Ferenc: Az Árpád-ház uralkodói (IPC Könyvek, 1996)
 Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9-14. század), főszerkesztő: Kristó Gyula, szerkesztők: Engel Pál és Makk Ferenc (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1994)

Hungarian queens consort
1140s births
1190 deaths
Maria
12th-century Byzantine women
12th-century Hungarian women
12th-century Byzantine people
12th-century Hungarian people