Bibi Mubarika Yusufzai (;) was the

Empress consort of the Mughal Empire This is a list of Mughal empresses. Most of these empresses were either from branches of the Timurid dynasty, from the royal houses or families of Persian nobles. Alongside Mughal emperors, these empresses played a role in the building up and rule ...

. She was the fifth wife of Emperor

Babur Babur (; 14 February 148326 December 1530; born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also ...

, the founder of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

. She is frequently mentioned in the Humayun-nama by her stepdaughter

Gulbadan Begum Gulbadan Begum ( 1523 – 7 February 1603) was a Mughal princess and the daughter of Emperor Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire. She is best known as the author of '' Humayun-Nama'', the account of the life of her half-brother and B ...

, who calls her stepmother 'The Afghan lady' or 'Afghani Aghacha'. "Afghan" is an

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

referring to the

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...

people.

Family

Bibi Mubarika was the daughter of Malik Shah Mansur, a

Yusufzai The Yusufzai or Yousafzai (, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ), or Yusufzai Afghans historically, are one of the largest tribes of Pashtuns. They are natively based in the northern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( Malakand, Dir, Swat, Shangl ...

chief. She was the granddaughter of Malik Sulaiman Shah, and the niece of Taus Khan. One of her brothers named Mir Jamal accompanied Babur to India in 1525, and held high posts under

Humayun Nasir al-Din Muhammad (6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), commonly known by his regnal name Humayun (), was the second Mughal emperor, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Northern India, and Pakistan from ...

and

Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

. He was given the title of Khan.

Marriage

Babur married her at Kehraj on 30 January 1519. The

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

was the sign and seal of amity between him and her tribe. An intelligent woman, Mubarika played an important role in the establishment of friendly relations between the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

and the Yusufzai Pashtun chiefs. Mubarika was much-loved by Babur as evidenced by the fact that she was one of the small and select party of ladies who were the first to join him in India in 1529.

Death

Bibi Mubarika lived through Humayun's reign and died early in Akbar's reign.

In popular culture

Bibi Mubarika is a character in Farzana Moon's historical novel ''Babur: The First Moghul in India'' (1977).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bibi Mubarika Wives of Babur Pashtun women Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 16th-century Indian women 16th-century Mughal Empire people Pashtun people