The daughter of the Tartar Aiass was a woman of haughty spirit, and
could ill brook the indifference with which she was treated by her
former admirer. It preyed deeply upon her mind. She was not ignorant of
the Emperor’s hostility towards her late husband, though unconscious
that it had been the cause of his death. She severely felt her
bereavement; and the change from perfect freedom to captivity--from the
affection of a generous husband to the indifference of a capricious
master, deeply mortified her. Meanwhile, however, she was not idle: the
resources of her mind were no less fertile than extraordinary.
Being very expert at working tapestry and all kinds of embroidery,
and in painting silks with the richest devices, she applied herself
with great assiduity to those employments. By intense application,
she acquired an expertness which enabled her to transcend the works of
the best manufacturers in the empire. In a short time the exquisite
productions of her taste and skill became the talk of the capital, and
she immediately became a person of importance, apart from her being the
widow of the renowned Shere Afkun. The ladies of the Omrahs of Delhi
and Agra would wear nothing upon grand occasions but what came from the
hands of the lovely Mher-ul-Nissa; she was consequently soon pronounced
the oracle of fashion and of taste.
While she affected an extreme simplicity in her own dress, she attired
her attendants in the richest tissues and brocades, making those
who had attractive persons the vehicle of setting off to advantage
the works of her own industry. She thus amassed a considerable sum
of money, and became more celebrated in her obscurity than she had
hitherto been as the wife of the most distinguished hero of his age.
Her milder glories had been hitherto eclipsed by the predominancy of
his.
Notwithstanding the success of her exertions in the occupation to
which she had devoted herself, the daughter of Aiass the Tartar was
still an unhappy woman. She loathed her captivity: she felt the moral
degradation to which she was subjected, and that the influence which
she imagined herself born to exercise was extinguished by an untoward
destiny. She had always entertained a secret conviction that the
strange events of her birth portended a mortal distinction of singular
splendour; it therefore mortified her to find that she continued to
live celebrated only as a fabricator of brocades and tissues. Her
spirits drooped: she grew peevish and irritable. Her occupation became
a toil, and she talked of relinquishing it, when one day she was
apprised that there was an old woman in the harem who pretended to
look into the future and read the destinies of mankind. Mher-ul-Nissa
immediately sent for the prophetess. The crone appeared before her,
bending beneath the weight of years. Upon seeing the widow of the late
Shere Afkun, she lifted her skinny arms, clasped her bony fingers
together, and muttered a few incoherent words which had more the
seeming of madness than of prophecy: there was, however, more sanity
than madness in the mummery--it was a sort of label to her draught of
foreknowledge.
“Well, mother,” inquired Mher-ul-Nissa mildly, “what do those strange
words portend? I would know something of my destiny, if it is in thy
power to read it: if not, take this, and leave a blessing behind thee;
for an aged woman’s curse is a dreadful thing to hang over any one’s
head.” Saying this, she placed a gold mohur upon the beldam’s right
palm, who giving a chuckle of delight, mumbled forth her vaticination
with a distorted grin of satisfaction. “You were born in a desert to
die upon a throne. She who as a babe was embraced by a reptile, as a
woman will be embraced by a king. The infant that was brought into
the world amidst famine will go out of it amidst plenty. The star, so
puny at thy birth, will expand into a sun. I am not deceived;--believe
me, and leave here a proof of your faith.” She extended her hand, and
having received another golden recompense, retired.
Mher-ul-Nissa was willing to believe the prophecy of the sibyl.
There was something in it, in spite of its vague generalities, that
harmonized closely with those silent presentiments which she had for
some time past permitted herself to cherish. She was ambitious, and
a thirst after distinction was her ruling passion. Her mind was too
strongly fortified against superstition to render her the dupe of a
juggler’s predictions; nevertheless, the mere promise of aggrandisement
was agreeable to her ear, and she therefore lent a willing attention
to what her reason despised, not caring to pay for the indulgence a
thousand times above its value. She cherished the promise of worldly
exaltation, not because she believed the hag who made it had a further
insight into futurity than her neighbours, but only because the theme
was grateful to her sensitive ambition; and there moreover existed
a strong presentiment within her, that she should rise from the
grovelling condition to which she was now reduced, and be exalted in
proportion to her present degradation.
Actuated by this feeling, she did everything in her power to give
currency to her reputation. She well knew that her taste was the
theme of general approbation, and the marvellous power of her beauty
began to be talked of beyond the precincts of the harem. An Omrah
of distinction, holding a high office in the state, offered her his
hand, and it was soon noised abroad that she was about to become his
wife. She secretly encouraged this report, though she had given him no
pledge, hoping that it would come to higher ears and procure her an
interview with the Emperor.
This state of things could not last long; and when pressed by the
impatient noble for a definitive answer to his offer of marriage,
to his astonishment and that of all who were acquainted with the
circumstance, she declined it. Mortified at his repulse, he determined
to obtain by force what was denied to his entreaty, and took an
opportunity of violating the sanctity of the harem by appearing before
her. She was alone in her apartment when the disappointed lover
entered. He commenced by upbraiding her with her caprice, which she
bore with dignified patience, until, irritated by her calmness, the
Omrah seized her arm and roused her indignation by the most offensive
menaces. He being a powerful man, she was as an infant in his grasp;
nevertheless, with the impulse of roused passion, she suddenly burst
from his embrace, rushed into an inner chamber, and, seizing a crease,
commanded the intruder to retire. Maddened by disappointment, he sprang
forward to repeat the violence which he had already offered: she
instantly raised her arm and buried the dagger in his body. He fell
reeking in his blood. He was borne from the apartment insensible; and a
confinement of three months to his bed, under the daily peril of death,
taught him a lesson never to pass from memory but with his life. Other
suitors sought the hand of the Tartar’s daughter, but all with like
success.
The accomplishments of this singular woman were soon carried to the
ears of the Emperor, who had probably by this time forgotten the
ascendency which she once held over his heart; or perhaps it was that
the mortification of her having been the wife of another rendered him
sullen in his determination not to see her. He resolved, however, now
to visit her, in order to have ocular proof whether the voice of
public report were a truth or an exaggeration. One evening therefore
he proceeded in state to her apartment. At the sight of her unrivalled
beauty, all his former passion revived in an instant. She was reclining
on a sofa in an undress robe of plain white muslin, which exhibited her
faultless shape to the best advantage, and became her better than the
richest brocades of Bagdat, or the finest embroideries of Cashmere.
As soon as the Emperor entered, the siren rose with an agitation that
served only to heighten her charms, and fixed her eyes upon the ground
with well-dissembled confusion. Jehangire stood mute with amazement,
and rapture took immediate possession of his soul: he felt, if he did
not utter, the sentiment of an eminent poet of his own religion:--
“Sweet maid, if thou wouldst charm my sight,
And bid these arms thy neck infold;
That rosy cheek, that lily hand,
Would give thy lover more delight
Then all Bocara’s vaunted gold,
Than all the gems of Sarmacand.”
He was dazzled by the perfection of her form, the dignity of her mien,
and the transcendent loveliness of her features. Advancing to where she
stood with downcast eyes and suffused cheeks, blushing in the dazzling
plenitude of her beauty, he took her hand and said: “Sun of women, the
Emperor of a great and mighty nation throws himself at thy feet as an
act of just homage to thy beauty. Wilt thou be the Sultana of Jehangire
the predominant?”
“A subject has no voice,” replied the enchantress; “and a woman
especially can have no will but that of her sovereign: it is his
privilege to command--her heritage is to obey.”
Jehangire again took her hand, declared his resolution to make her his
Empress, and immediately a proclamation was issued for the celebration
of the royal nuptials with the lovely relict of the late Shere Afkun.
A general festival was observed throughout the empire. Those rich
embroideries which had lately been the admiration of the ladies of
Delhi no longer issued from the harem. The humble embroidress cast
aside the distaff for the crown, and in the issue proved to be one of
the most extraordinary women which the pen of history has celebrated.
She became the principal director of the complex machine of government.
The name of Mher-ul-Nissa was exchanged for that of Noor Mahil, “The
Light of the Harem.”
From this moment she was acknowledged as the favourite wife of the
Emperor of the Moguls. In the climax of her exaltation her name was
again changed to Noor Jehan, or, “The Light of the World.” As a
distinguishing mark of her pre-eminence in the sovereign’s affections,
she was allowed to assume the title of Shahe, or Empress. Her family
was held next in rank to the princes of the blood, and advanced to
places of the highest trust. Its members were admitted to privileges
which had never before been enjoyed by subjects under the Mogul
domination. The current coin of the realm was stamped with her name,
as well as with that of the sovereign! She converted the harem into
a court, where the mysteries of state policy were discussed with a
freedom and a power seldom known under despotic governments.
It was from the harem that those celebrated decrees were
fulminated--for though they passed in the Emperor’s name, it is
credibly attested that they emanated from his Sultana--which rendered
the reign of Jehangire one of the most politically prosperous in the
annals of Mahomedan history. Her influence exceeded that of any other
person in the empire, not even excepting the sovereign; and perhaps,
under the rigid scrupulosity of Mogul policy with regard to women
sharing in the administration of the state, there never has been an
instance of one of the sex attaining an ascendency so paramount, and
such perfect political control over the destinies of so many subject
principalities as the renowned Noor Jehan.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Hafiz was a lyric poet, called, by way of pre-eminent distinction,
the Anacreon of Persia.