Salima Sultan Begum

Salima Sultan Begum (23 February 1539 – 2 January 1613) was a Mughal empress, the daughter of Babur's daughter Gulrukh Begum, who married first the commander Bairam Khan and then her cousin the emperor Akbar, and became one of the most influential and cultivated women of the Mughal court.¹

Salima was born in 1539 to Nuruddin Muhammad Mirza and Gulrukh Begum, a daughter of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire.¹ In 1557 Humayun married her to Bairam Khan, the Khan-i Khanan and regent of the young Akbar, who was much older than her.¹ After Bairam Khan was assassinated in 1561, his son Abdur Rahim was sent to court, and Salima married Akbar himself in the same year.¹

Salima became one of Akbar's senior and most influential wives; she was a wide reader and a poet who wrote under the pen name Makhfi, "the Concealed One".¹ When Prince Salim, the future Jahangir, rebelled against his father, Salima played a central part in mediating between father and son until they were reconciled.¹²

Salima died on 2 January 1613, and Jahangir dated her death in his memoirs to 11 Dhu al-Qa'da 1021.¹ Wikidata gives different dates for her birth and death (5 March 1539 – 15 December 1612); this record follows the English article's dates, which rest on Jahangir's memoirs.³