In Lahore’s Mughal era, the name of Mariyam Zamani the queen of Akbar and high seas shipbuilder and her mosque outside the walled city stand out. In modern times, the name of Asma Jilani the women’s rights activist stands out.

Sadly, that of the rebellious poet princess Zeb-un-Nisa, is still little known among the people of Lahore. Near Nawankot in Lahore is the tomb of Princess Zeb, the eldest daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb who composed poetry under the name ‘Makhfi’, meaning the ‘hidden one’. The defiant life, the passionate loves and the beautiful poetry of Zeb-un-Nisa is legendary. This defiant princess, a Sufi-minded poetess, was at odds with her extreme communal father.

Disagreement between father and daughter went to such an extent that her father Emperor Aurangzeb imprisoned her for 20 years. She died at the age of 64 and was buried outside the city’s Kashmiri Gate. It was after 20 years of imprisonment that, Zeb-un-Nisa died while a prisoner in Delhi’s Shah Jahanabad Fort. Her father was at the time on a trip to the Deccan. She was buried in the Bagh Tees Hazari outside Delhi’s northern gate.

Come the British and their railway line, her tomb and tombstone were shifted to Emperor Akbar’s tomb in Agra. There is a third tomb in Nawankot of Lahore, which is ascribed by the researcher Haroon Khalid as being associated to Dara Shikoh, whom she adored and supported. Also is the likelihood of her affair with Aqil Khan, the governor of Lahore, who after spending time with her in the Chauburji Bagh became a Sufi like her.

One source claims that the Nawankot tomb was built in her lifetime, and there is no proof yet of her body being shifted to Lahore. But then her association with Dara Shikoh, with Aqil Khan, with Chauburji Bagh which she built, as well as her Sufi association with Hazrat Mian Mir, all have led to the third tomb being taken as the original. At this stage of our research, one cannot say with surety that her body was ever moved to Lahore.

Princess Zeb-un-Nisa was the eldest child of Aurangzeb and was born in February 1638 in Deccan. An exceptionally talented girl she learnt the Quran by heart and understood Arabic and Persian. All her life she would argue with her father, as surely with others, who she thought wrongly interpreted the Quran. She soon started writing poetry and used the name ‘Makhfi’.

As she grew up she learnt under different scholars all the sciences, as well as philosophy, mathematics, literature and astronomy. She was an excellent calligraphist. As she was well-endowed with wealth she spent her money on helping the poor, especially orphans, and buying books. One source claims that her library was the finest in the land.

As she read more and more she inclined towards Sufism, and her writings were collected after her death and published under the titles ‘Divan-e-Makhfi’ and ‘Poems of Makhfi: Complete Collection’.

Soon Princess Zeb-un-Nisa, who amazingly was her father’s favourite daughter - one of five – started sending poor people to Haj, as well as getting the poor pardoned for offending the emperor. One source claims that she was an excellent singer, an attribute her father disliked. Being artistic by nature she produced a dress called ‘Angya Kurti’ which was a modified shirt from Turkestan. She often invited the finest poets of the land to visit and recite to her their latest works.

Besides these literary attributes, she was very fond of gardening, and the huge Chauburji Bagh of Lahore was a major contribution to a wide variety of plants and trees. It was during her stay in Lahore that she met the Governor Aqil Khan, who fell in love with her. One can say that it was a mutual friendship, and it can be said, though no proof of this exists, that her affair in Lahore upset the emperor.

Added to all these her rebellious poetry had the courtiers constantly complaining of her ‘anti-Islamic’ verses. In return she would challenge them to a debate on the ‘objectionable’ verses in open court, invariably stunning listeners. Another source claims that these debates convinced Aurangzeb to imprison her daughter, a step that some say pained him.

But a lot of reasons have been attributed for her being jailed. One is that Aurangzeb disliked poetry and music, considering it the reason she was always rebelling against his ideas. Then another reason being that her letters to her brother which Aurangzeb did not like. In some letters, researchers now claim, she accused her father of transgressing Islamic laws for his self-interest.

Perhaps, as Zeb-un-Nisa was originally planned by her grandfather Shah Jehan to marry to Dara Shikoh’s son Sulaiman, with whom she developed a deep affection, this Aurangzeb did not approve of. Once Aurangzeb came to power he called Sulaiman to the Gwalior Fort, where he was executed as an ‘enemy’. This surely must have upset the Princess, who vowed never to marry, which she did not all her life. All these factors and constant challenge to his authority led Aurangzeb to imprison her talented daughter.

In prison, she wrote a lot of poetry including the steering ‘Monis’ul Roh’ and ‘Zen’ul Tafasar’, all of which were published after her death. Zeb-un-Nissa spent all her life on literary works and poetry, as she herself said:

“Oh Makhfi, it is the path of love and alone you must go.
No one suits your friendship even if God be though”.

Some of Zeb-un-Nisa’s original manuscripts are in possession of different libraries of the world, including in Paris, the British Museum, the Tubingen Library in Germany as well as the Mota Library in India. Her books have time and again been reprinted in Iran, where her Persian verses are very popular. The Lahore Museum has one painting of this amazing beauty, a poetess par excellence.

One Sufistic verse, in translation, might explain her better:

Zealots, you are mistaken – this is heaven.
Never mind those making promises of the afterlife:
join us now, righteous friends, in this intoxication.
Never mind the path to the Kaabah: sanctity resides in the heart.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2023