Jahanara Begum was a Mughal Dynasty princess during the peak of the Mughal empire. Born to Shah Jahan and Mamtaz Mahal in 1614, Jahanara's world was one of immense luxury and prowess. Her father ordered the building of the grand Taj Mahal in honor of her mother in 1632. Further, when Jahanara's brother Aurangzeb claimed the throne in 1658, he utilized unrelenting military campaigns to expand the Mughal empire and cover the lengths of the Indian subcontinent.

When Mamtaz Mahal passed away, the emperor, Shah Jahan, appointed Jahanara to the role of Padshah Begum (First Lady) of the empire. At only 17, the princess gained control of the imperial harem and the imperial seal, giving her substantial power. She handled the empire's political, social, and economic transactions.

Despite her royal status, Jahanara remained a practicing Sufi Muslim for the entirety of her life. Dara Shikoh, her eldest brother, introduced the princess to Mullah Shah, a Sufi ascetic, when she was 20. Both siblings were disciples of Mullah Shah and produced writings, commisioned artwork, and designed buildings in honor of him. In contrast, their younger brother Aurangzeb was a Sunni Muslim who didn't believe in the mystical teachings of Sufism. This religious disagreement exacerbated the pre-existing tensions between the siblings over the throne.

We will explore how Jahanara's devout Sufi beliefs allowed her comfort in the gilded cage of the Mughal Empire, while also giving her and her favored family members divine sanction for their royal status.

As seen below, the pardah rule for Mughal princesses was strictly adhered to. There are many paintings of Dara Shikoh and Mullah Shah made during Jahanara’s lifespan, yet there is only one identified painting of Jahanara. Despite Jahanara’s high status as the Padshah Begum, she was kept tucked away by the standards of her time.

Although Jahanara was unable to marry or appear unrestricted in the public eye, she utilized her role of Padshah Begum to the fullest. The princess upheld the devout image of the empire by providing safe passage to Muslim pilgrims on Mughal vessels. Jahanara also participated in politics and would be the first point of contact for foreign representatives, establishing her name in the empire.

Dara Shikoh and Jahanara were closely-knit and shared the same Sufi beliefs. Dara introduced Jahanara to Mullah Shah, a Qadiri Sufi ascetic, when she was 20, and both siblings devoted works of art and buildings to Shah.

Dara Shikoh was in line to inherit the tile of emperor from his father, Shah Jahan. However, the younger brother, Aurangzeb, also had his eyes on the throne. After many years of fighting and bitter struggle, Aurangzeb ordered Dara to be executed for Islamic heresy.

This heresy label is explained when considering the differing viewpoints of the Jahan siblings. Dara and Jahanara were united by mystic Sufi law, venerating their guru Mullah Shah as a way to reach the divine. In fact, Jahanara and Dara were the first out of their royal family to get initiated into a Muslim order, namely the Qadiri Sufi order associated with Mullah Shah. Dara was a proponent of religious pluralism.

Conversely, Aurangzeb was a Sunni Muslim who enacted Sharia law and religious taxes. He supported the traditional Naqshbandi Sufi order which looked down on the mystical practices of the Qadiri order. This naturally created further religious conflict between the Jahan siblings.

In the midst of this conflict between her favored brother, Dara Shikoh, and the opposing Aurangzeb, Jahanara was stuck in a position of limited intervenability due to her gender. Regardless, she was able to utilize her position as a disciple of Mullah Shah in order to gain more religious credibility, which in turn solidified her pro-Dara writings.

Regardless of Sufism being historically accepting of female saints and leaders, Mullah Shah refused to make Jahanara his successor due to her gender. This shows how in practice, Sufism in Mughal India was still restricted by the cultural gender inequality. Through her artistic and architectural patronage, however, Jahanara was able to reclaim some level of political power and sovereignty. The approval of a revered Sufi leader, Mullah Shah, worked alongide this to give Jahanara and Dara the appearance of pious leaders of Mughal India.

As Afshan Bokhari notes, Jahanara was well versed with the Mughal precedent of utilizing royal biographies as a mean of legitimizing power. The Akbarnama, written about emperor Abkar, and the Shahjahannama, about Jahanara's fathers, both portray the emperor as the Insan-i Kamil or "Perfect Man". By portraying emperors as devout and pious leaders, biographies communicate to the audience that emperors are divinely sanctioned and even a messianic figure.

Jahanara's two books both are designed to look like biographies about male Sufi leaders at first glance, but both have authorial self insertions about Jahanara being an ideal Sufi devotee. Jahanara circumvented Mughal standards of women not having biographies written about themselves by instead focusing on a male Sufi figure and inserting herself into the narrative to her own personal agendas.

Here, not only does Jahanara frame Dara as the righteous heir of the throne, she simultaneously asserts that Dara and her are "one spirit", subtly elevating herself to the same rank as the prince. Jahanara uses both Mullah Shah and Dara in the Risalah-i Sahibiyah as impeccable figures, and stresses her deep connection with them to claim power through an indirect way.

Another examaple of Jahanara's beliefs embedded into the biography of Mullah Shah: she informs the audience that, despite the cultural beliefs of the Mughal Empire, being a women does not bar spiritual ascension. Perhaps Jahanara inserted this quote as pushback against Mullah Shah's refusal to name her his successor just because of her gender.

Royal Mughal women would be commission buildings, but there would be no trace of their involvement with the project. Jahanara broke this pattern by inscribing both the Jama and Mullah Shah masjids with clearly visible and flattering descriptions of her, some even crediting her as the most honorable female. Mosques served as a place for communal prayer, which was a male-dominated activity in the 17th century. By building and inscribing the mosque herself, Jahanara challenges Mughal gender roles and establishes her as a legitimate Sufi ruler.

As demonstrated, Jahanara utilizes Sufism in a two fold manner:

1. To bring her comfort in a role in which she was barred from any romantic relations for life, while simultaneously allowing her to circumvent many gender restrictions under the label of a Sufi devotee instead of simply a Mughal princess
2. To legitimize her preferred brother, Dara, as the rightful heir to the throne under the threat of Aurangzeb.

It is important to conduct studies into expressions of Sufism because historically, Sufis have been a discriminated sect of Islam. Further, female voices have continually been erased from history, and so studies of female Sufis are an area that is incredibly understudied. This is demonstrated by how there are no published translated manuscripts of any of Jahanara’s books. Only recently have there been attempts into studying this powerful Mughal Padshah Begum, compared to centuries of focus on Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. As such, I thought it would be relevant to research the architectural princess who gained the title of Sahibat al-Zamani (Lady of the Age) posthumously by Aurangzeb, despite their many differences and arguments in life.