Mirza Ghiyas Beg

The family was robbed on the road and reduced to two mules. At Kandahar his wife Asmat Begam gave birth to a daughter, Mihr-un-Nissa - the future Nur Jahan, the most powerful woman of the Mughal court - and the merchant Malik Masud sheltered the destitute family and later helped Ghiyas Beg enter Akbar's service ¹.

Akbar appointed him diwan (treasurer) of the province of Kabul, and for his financial skill awarded him the title I'timad-ud-Daulah, "Pillar of the State". Under Jahangir his rise was swift: in 1611 the emperor married his daughter Nur Jahan and made Ghiyas Beg Vakil - grand vizier - of the whole empire, an office he held until 1621; by 1615 he had reached a rank of 6,000 men, with a standard and drums, honours normally reserved for great princes. His son Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan became a leading general and, under Shah Jahan, grand vizier; Ghiyas Beg was thus also the maternal grandfather of Mumtaz Mahal ¹².

The Encyclopaedia Iranica dates his death, near Kangra as the royal camp moved towards its Kashmir summer quarters, to 1031/1622; the current English article gives January 1621 instead, and this record follows the Iranica dating while noting the variant. His body was carried to Agra and buried on the left bank of the Yamuna, where Nur Jahan afterwards built the Tomb of I'timad-ud-Daulah (1622-1628), a jewel of Mughal marble inlay and a forerunner of the Taj Mahal ²¹.