From wielding immense wealth and economic authority to influencing imperial decisions, managing conflicts and brokering reconciliations, the Mughal zenana (royal household) was a formidable force. And it would be within its walls that a particularly intriguing figure in England’s historic relationship with India would be nurtured. Maryam Khan, a ward of the zenana, was the first Mughal noblewoman to marry an Englishman and travel between India and England. The traditions of the powerful household in which she was forged clearly emerged in her marital alliances.

Maryam Khan was a Mughal lady of Christian Armenian heritage. Her father, Mubarak Khan, was a respected merchant and courtier at Akbar’s darbar bearing the rank of a thousand cavalry. Upon his death, relatives reportedly seized most of his wealth, leaving her a collection of jewels. She was taken in by the zenana as a ward of the imperial household; Salima Begim too may have kept the young girl under her watchful eye and care. Although bereaved of her father, Khan was far from friendless as she grew up. In addition to her networks in the zenana, she had a brother, mother, aunt and numerous other relatives to look out for her. She was a figure of noble descent and well connected.

Early in his residence at Agra, the intrepid traveller William Hawkins had gained increasing favour at Jahangir’s court. This was fuelled by the emperor’s insatiable curiosity over the cultural fluidity of a firingi hailing from distant northern lands who spoke Turkish. It was further bolstered by Hawkins’s own admiration for the wealth and vibrancy of Mughal lands and his willingness to ingratiate himself at the darbar to further his prospects, including personally transforming himself at the emperor’s behest. Like a puppeteer, Jahangir refashioned the English merchant into an Indian with titles and privileges, which Hawkins seized and embodied to proudly become the English Khan. Then in 1610 the emperor sought to complete the transformation with a further offering: an Indian bride. At this, Hawkins initially faltered, answering: ‘In regard she was a Moore [Muslim], I refused; but if there could be a Christian found, I would accept it.’ In his ignorance, Hawkins admitted he ‘little thought a Christian daughter could be found’. However, Mughal India and its imperial court were immensely cosmopolitan, home to vastly diverse religious, ethnic and linguistic communities, as is India today. Among them was a sizeable Armenian Christian community, from whom Maryam Khan’s family hailed. Akbar had invited Armenians to settle in Mughal lands during his reign, and an Armenian church was established at Agra in 1562. It was far from difficult to identify a potential Christian partner for the English merchant when such an individual was then resident in the Mughal zenana. Khan was soon proposed as the match.

For Hawkins, the offer of marriage to an Indian noblewoman of the imperial household was a tremendous honour. Not only was it an opportunity for him to climb further socially in India, but it also presented the potential for making inroads in EIC trade negotiations via the connections of an elite Indian wife. Hawkins therefore readily agreed. Although records are silent on the matter, Khan would also have been asked and duly consented to the marriage. Mughal noblewomen exercised considerable personal independence and were forthright in their opinions on matrimony. Humayun’s principal wife, Hamida Banu Begim, mother to Akbar, initially refused his proposal; it took forty days of persuasion, and the intervention and counsel of Humayun’s stepmother, Dildar Begim, to finally gain her acceptance. Meanwhile, Babur’s first wife, Aisha Sultana Begim, ultimately decided to leave him altogether. Like other noblewomen of India, Maryam Khan too could have turned down the proposal of marriage to Hawkins.

With the couple’s agreement secured, the marriage soon took place, Hawkins’s serving companion Nicholas Ufflet leading the ceremony. Later, upon the arrival of a priest aboard an English ship captained by Henry Middleton, they remarried with the priest officiating to ensure a lawfully Christian union. But the marriage of Maryam Khan and William Hawkins had a further distinction: not only was it likely to be the first instance of a union between an Englishman and an Indian noblewoman but in due course was the first case of an Indian noblewoman emigrating to England.

Title image: Emperor Jahangir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahangir

This blog is extracted from Travellers in the Golden Realm: How Mughal India Connected England to the World by Lubaaba Al-Azami (John Murray £25 pp320). To order a copy go to Travellers in the Golden Realm by Lubaaba Al-Azami | Hachette UK.