Zeenat Mahal

زينت محل

–

Delhi

Mughal empress consort (1823–1886), the favoured wife of the emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and de facto regent of the empire from 1840 to 1857. She worked to have her son Mirza Jawan Bakht named heir, kept him away from the rebels in 1857 to protect his claim, and was exiled with her husband to Rangoon after Delhi fell, dying there in 1886.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
Ruler
Region
South Asia
Identifiers
Wikidata
Review

Life in time

1775180018251850187519001925
The Colonial Era · The Gunpowder Empires · The Modern Era Contemporaries: Abd al-Hadi Naja al-Abyari · Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq · Ahmed Cevdet Pasha · علي مبارك · Almamy Suluku

In space

Delhi

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Place in the story

    Unknown (unknown)

    Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

    Connections

    Explore the connections

    Born in
    Delhi
    Spouse of
    Bahadur Shah Zafar

    People and things also explored

    Siege of Delhi· Mirza Ghalib· Bahadur Shah Zafar· Delhi· Coronation of Aurangzeb at Delhi· Founding of Shahjahanabad· Humayun returns to Delhi, 962 AH· Ibn Battuta named envoy to China

    Sources

    • Zeenat Mahal — English Wikipedia
    • Zeenat Mahal — Urdu Wikipedia
    • Zeenat Mahal — Wikidata Q204281
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “Zeenat Mahal”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/zeenat-mahal/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.

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    Wing

    People

    Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story.
    Related

    Siege of Delhi

    In the 1857 rising the rebels held Delhi and proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar emperor; the British besieged the city for months, then stormed it — the end of Mughal rule in Delhi.