Sultan Jahan, Begum of Bhopal

Sultan Jahan (9 July 1858 – 12 May 1930) was the ruling Begum of Bhopal, the Islamic principality in central India, from 1901 to 1926; her full name was Sultan Kaikhusrau Jahan Begum, and she was also known as Sarkar Amman. ^{1 2}

She succeeded her mother, Sultan Shah Jahan Begum, continuing the line of ruling Begums that made Bhopal a state governed by women for generations, and became known for sweeping reforms in education, health and administration that made her, in her contemporaries' eyes, a model of the reforming Muslim ruler. ¹

Sultan Jahan was born at Bhopal, the elder and only surviving child of Nawab Begum Sultan Shah Jahan and her husband Baqi Muhammad Khan Bahadur (1823–1867). ¹

In 1868, following the death of her grandmother Sikander Begum and her mother's succession to the throne, she was proclaimed heiress apparent to the Bhopal musnaid, and so grew up from the age of ten as the declared heir. ¹

Sultan Jahan succeeded her mother on her death in 1901, becoming Nawab Begum of Dar-ul-Iqbal-i-Bhopal. ¹

A reformer in the tradition of her mother and grandmother, she was a member of the Bharat Stree Mahamandal (The Great Circle of Indian Women), which promoted girls' education; she founded several important educational institutions in Bhopal and established free and compulsory primary education in 1918. ¹

She had a particular focus on public instruction, especially female education: she built many technical institutes and schools and increased the number of qualified teachers. From 1920 until her death she was the founding Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University — as of 2020, the only woman to have served as its Chancellor, and the first woman Chancellor of any Indian university. ¹

Her reforms ranged beyond education: she reformed taxation, the army, the police, the judiciary and the jails, expanded agriculture, and constructed extensive irrigation and public works; in 1922 she established an Executive and Legislative State Council and began open elections for the municipalities. ¹

In 1914 she was president of the All-India Muslim Ladies' Association, and she was a patron of the National Council of Women in India. ¹

Her primary legacy was in public health: she pioneered widespread inoculation and vaccination programmes and improved the water supply and standards of hygiene and sanitation. ¹

In 1926, after a reign of 25 years, she abdicated in favour of her youngest child and only surviving son, Hamidullah Khan; she died four years later, aged 71. ¹

Sultan Jahan was a prolific author who wrote several books on education, health and other topics, including Hidayat uz-Zaujan, Sabil ul-Jinan, Tandurusti (Health), Bachchon-ki-Parwarish, Hidayat Timardari and Maishat-o-Moashirat. ¹

In 1912 she published the Gauhar-i-Iqbal, detailing the first seven years of her reign and the socio-political conditions of Bhopal; an English translation, An Account of My Life, was written by C. H. Payne, her education advisor. A follow-up, Akhtar-i-Iqbal, was published in 1922 with its final part in 1927. ¹

In 1918 she wrote the Iffat-ul-Muslimaat, comparing the notions of purdah and hijab with similar concepts in Europe, Asia and Egypt. ¹

On 1 February 1874 she married Ahmad Ali Khan Bahadur, Nawab Consort of Bhopal (1854–1902); the couple had three sons and two daughters, of whom the two elder sons died in 1924 and the youngest, Hamidullah Khan (1894–1960), succeeded her. ¹

She received numerous honours for her activities, among them the grand commander grades of the Orders of the Star of India and the Indian Empire, the Order of the British Empire, and the Ottoman Nishan-i-Majidi in 1911. ¹

The 2017 Films Division documentary Begamon Ka Bhopal explores her life together with the other ruling Begums of Bhopal. ¹

• English Wikipedia article on Sultan Jahan, Begum of Bhopal (revision 1373471307) and Wikidata item Q2364774. No Arabic Wikipedia article exists for her. Neither source names a school of Islam for her; Wikidata records her religion as Islam only, and her school remains unknown in the museum's record.