Like the Mughals, Gulbadan had good knowledge of Persian and Turkish. Gulbadan, who was fond of writing poems and reading books, remained very close to her nephew Akbar. According to historians, it was Akbar who requested him to write the biography of his father Humayun.
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Much has been written in history about the Mughal emperors, but very little has been mentioned about women. One such name is Gulbadan Bano Begum. Babar’s daughter Gulbadan has probably been the first female historian in history. He wrote the biography of Humayun. Gulbadan was born in 1523 in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was brought up by his stepmother Rani Maham Begum. Maham was the mother of Mughal emperor Humayun. This is how Gulbadan’s childhood passed with Prince Humayun.
Like the Mughals, Gulbadan had good knowledge of Persian and Turkish. Gulbadan, who was fond of writing poems and reading books, remained very close to her nephew Akbar. According to historians, it was Akbar who requested him to write the biography of his father Humayun.
That’s why Akbar got father’s biography written by his aunt.
In that period, the work of writing the biography of the emperor was entrusted to a historian, but this did not happen in the case of Humayun. This too had its own reason. Gulbadan used to tell stories to Akbar in his childhood. He liked the way Bua Gulbadan told stories. Akbar entrusted the work of writing his father’s biography to his aunt. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, his story-telling style was very interesting and secondly, he wanted to know everything about his father’s life in depth.
Gulbadan wrote Humayunnama till his old age.
Historians say, during the period of the Mughals, the royal family was always written exaggeratedly. The work was done to show his image as powerful, but Gulbadan did not write anything like this while writing Humayun’s biography. He wrote every part of life in very simple language.
He recorded every aspect of the emperor’s life in history. This was the reason that Gulbadan wrote Humayunnama till his old age. The biography of the emperor was the only such document of the 16th century that was written by a woman of the royal family.
How many secrets of the Mughals were revealed in Humayunnama?
In Humayunnama, the Mughal princess wrote many interesting things about the Janankhana i.e. Haram apart from the rule of the emperor. In that period, the relationship between the women in the janankhana, what was their work and what were their likes and dislikes, has also been mentioned in the biography.
Gulbadan did not allow Humayun’s biography to become a document of the emperor’s heroism. He also mentioned the love story of his friend Hamida and Humayun in his biography. Wrote- How Hamida first did not agree to marry Humayun, but later she accepted the love proposal. Describing about father Babur, he wrote, when Humayun was ill at the age of 22, how Babur was worried about him. Used to roam around his bed, but when Humayun recovered, Babar passed away.
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