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| Marium uz Zamani (1542 - 1611) | by Abdul Qadir Memon. www.flickr.com |
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Akbar 's name goes down in the history of India as the most famous and highly secular ruler of India and people called him Shahenshah or Badshah.
Mariam uz-Zamani, apart from being a good administrator and advisor to Akbar, she is said to have amazing talents to have been a shrewd business woman. Her business acumen, ability to foresee business prospects and diligent handling of profits and reinvestment surprised Akbar and he had not only allowed her to run her business on her own but also gave her complete freedom to handle business deals, etc.
With full support from the Mogul ruler, she successfully ran an international trade in spices, silk, etc., and the Indian products reached far and wide across the globe. This helped her gain a private fortune which would make the the treasury of many European kingdoms pygmies. She was considered to be among the most prosperous and successful women traders at the Mughal court and none of the noble women of her time could surpass her in her tenacity and commitment as an adventurous and efficient trader by being a Queen Mother.
It is quite surprising to know that Mariam-uz-Zamani owned ocean-going ships that ferried the pilgrims to and from the Islamic holy city of Mecca. Her ship, the Rahīmī, was once seized by Portuguese pirates in 1613 along with 600-700 passengers on board and the cargo. In those days there were numerous pirates and the trade routes in the sea were dangerous. The notorious Portuguese pirates used to give a lot of trouble to those pilgrims sailing from India to Mecca. Rahīmī is believed to have been the largest Indian ship sailing in the Red Sea and was known to the Europeans as the "great pilgrimage ship".
Portuguese officially refused to return the ship and the passengers and this created uproar in the court of Jahangir whose mother Heer Kunmari was the owner of the ship. Jahangir was in rage as his mother's ship was involved and this forced him to order the seizure of the Portuguese town Daman. In the later Indian history, the Mogul rulers sought the help of British traders to put an end to the menace of sea piracy that affected the Muslims going on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Subsequent struggle for India's vast wealth gradually led to the colonization of India by the Europeans.
"Mariam-uz-Zamani had the honor of being granted the right to issue official documents called farman. Normally the emperor would never forgo this privilege which was exclusively enjoyed by them. This shows Akbar's deep trust in his wife. Such privilege was confined to the highest ladies of the harem such as Hamida Banu Begum and in later years to other queens, consorts and princesses such as Nur Jehan, Mumtaz Mahal, Nadira Banu and Jahanara Begum,
Mariam-uz-Zamani was one of the four members of the court (another was the emperor) and the only woman to have the rank of 12,000 cavalry. Further, she was known to receive a jewel from every nobleman "according to his estate" each year on the occasion of New Year's festival.
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| Mariam uz-Zamani alias Jodha Bai www.wikiwand.com |
Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariam-uz-Zamani
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