Nawab Begum Sajida Sultan Ali Khan Pataudi (4 August 1915 – 5 September 1995) was the daughter of the

Nawab of Bhopal The Nawabs of Bhopal were the Muslim rulers of Bhopal, now part of Madhya Pradesh, India. The nawabs first ruled under the Mughal Empire from 1707 to 1737, under the Maratha Empire from 1737 to 1818, then under British rule from 1818 to 1947, an ...

Hamidullah Khan Hajji Nawab Hafiz Sir Hamidullah Khan (9 September 1894 – 4 February 1960) was the last ruling Nawab of the princely salute state of Bhopal. He ruled from 1926 when his mother, Begum Kaikhusrau Jahan Begum, abdicated in his favor, until 19 ...

, and the wife and Begum Consort of

Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi Nawab Mohammad Iftikhar Ali Khan Siddiqui Pataudi, sometimes I. A. K. Pataudi (16 March 1910 – 5 January 1952), was an Indian prince and cricket player. He was the captain of the India's national cricket team during its tour of England in 1 ...

, the 8th Nawab of Pataudi, and in her own right, the 12th

Nawab Begum of Bhopal The Nawabs of Bhopal were the Muslim rulers of Bhopal (state), Bhopal, now part of Madhya Pradesh, India. The nawabs first ruled under the Mughal Empire from 1707 to 1737, under the Maratha Empire from 1737 to 1818, then under British Raj, Briti ...

Biography

Sajida Sultan was born on 4 August 1915 in the Qasr-e-Sultani Palace, Bhopal, to Nawab

, last ruling

and his wife, Begum Maimoona Sultan. She was the second of three children; she had an older sister,

Abida Sultan Princess Suraya Jah, Nawab Gowhar-i-Taj, Abida Sultan Begum Sahiba (28 August 1913 – 11 May 2002) was the eldest daughter of Hamidullah Khan, the last Nawab of the Bhopal state, and his wife Begum Maimoona Sultan. Life and family Sultan is ...

, and a younger sister, Rabia Sultan. Sultan Jahan, the Begum of Bhopal, was her grandmother, and her predecessor Shah Jahan Begum was her great-grandmother. The Pakistani diplomat Shahryar Khan, is her nephew through her sister Abida. On 23 April 1939, Sajida married Nawab Iftikhar Ali Khan, 8th Nawab of Pataudi. Together they had three daughters – Saleha, Sabiha, and Qudsia – and a son, the cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Sher Ali Khan Pataudi, the major general in the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

was her brother-in-law by marriage. The actors Saif Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan, the jewelry designer Saba Ali Khan and the cricketer

Saad Bin Jung Saad Bin Jung (born 26 October 1960) is a former Indian cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1978 to 1984. He is now a conservationist and lives in his village of Mangala near Bandipur in Karnataka, India, whilst his children manage hi ...

are her grandsons and granddaughters.

Sara Ali Khan Sara Ali Khan Pataudi (; born 12 August 1995) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. Born into the Pataudi family, she is the daughter of actors Amrita Singh and Saif Ali Khan. After graduating with a degree in history and political sc ...

, an actress in the

Hindi film industry Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

is her great-granddaughter. On 5 January 1952, Iftikhar Ali Khan died and Mansoor succeeded his father as the 9th titular Nawab of Pataudi. In 1960, upon the death of her father, she became titular ruler of Bhopal. Her older sister, Abida, was the

heiress apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

to the title but had emigrated to Pakistan in 1950 and declined to return to Bhopal permanently; her son declined also. Sajida was formally recognised as the Nawab Begum of Bhopal in 1962, with recognition being effective from 1960. She died on 5 September 1995 at the age of 80. Mansoor Ali Khan subsequently became the ''mutawalli'' of the Auqaf-e-Shahi of Bhopal, a title which is currently held by her granddaughter Saba Ali Khan.

Issue

References

1915 births 1995 deaths Begums of Bhopal 20th-century Indian Muslims Muslim rulers Indian people of Pashtun descent 20th-century Indian women 20th-century Indian people {{India-royal-stub

Biography

Issue

See also

References