Kandhari Begum Tomb

Mirza Muzzaffar having some problems with the Safavid ruling authorities and perceiving the Uzbek pressure to capture Kandahar was forced to capitulate on terms to surrender it to the Mughals. Therefore, as Akbar who was keenly waiting for any chance to capture Kandahar, immediately sent Shah Beg Khan Arghun, Governor of Bangash, to take prompt possession of Kandahar, and though, as in all his undertakings, Muzaffar wavered at the last moment and had recourse to trickery, he was obliged by the firm and prudent behavior of Shah Beg Khan. In this way Kandahari Begum had to leave her native place to visit India in the company of her father and came to India during Akbar's reign near about in the end of 1595 when her father and her four brothers, Bahram Mirza, Haider Mirza, Alqas Mirza and Tahmasp Mirza and 1000 qazilbash soldiers arrived in India. Muzaffar Khan received from Akbar the title of Farzand (son), and was made a Commander of five thousand, and received Sambhal as Jagir (property), “which is worth more than all Kandahar.”nnMirza Muzaffar Husain had exchanged the lordship of Kandahar for a high rank and splendid salary in the service of Emperor Akbar. His younger brother Mirza Rustam, also immigrated to India in Akbar's reign and rose to eminence under Jahagir. The Mughal Emperors made the most of this opportunity of ennobling their blood by alliance with the royal family of Persia even through a younger branch. Muzaffar found everything in India bad, and sometimes resolved to go to persia, and sometimes to Makkah. From grief and disappointment, and a bodily hurt, he died in 1603. His mausoleum (now a domeless crumbled down stone and brick structure with an underground burial chamber with Persian Nastaleeq calligraphed epitaph on the door facing South,) lies amidst other ruins in a garden complex that now is the campsite of the Bharat Scouts & Guides Delhi Jamboree, north of Humayun's Tomb at Delhi.nnAnd so it was that eighteen-year-old Khurram was compelled to make his first marriage to a young Persian maiden. Subsequent Mughal court recorders and biographers, however, merely accord the princess the blandly descriptive label Qandahari Mahal, a clear indication of her lesser status at the court. The process of arranging the marriage appears to have taken some time. The Emperor Jahagir. recorded two related entries in his memoirs, nearly a year apart. The first appeared as just one item of business in a typically humdrum account of the day's court transactions, regional promotions, salary checks and other miscellaneous imperial housekeeping chores. On Sunday, 12 December 1609, Jahangir sent fifty thousand rupees as a wedding pledge to Kandahari Begum's house. Jahangir writes in his Tuzuk that “previously to this I had the daughter of Mirza Muzaffar Husain, son of Sultan Husain Mirza Safavi, ruler of Qandahar, betrothed to my son Sultan Khurram, and on this the marriage meeting had been arranged, I went to the house of Baba Khurram and passed the night there.”

Though Shah Jahan was betrothed to Arjumand Bano ( later Mumtaz Mahal) on 5th April, 1605, he could only marry her in May 1610.nThe Safavid princess married Prince Khurram on 12 December 1609 in Agra.nShe was given title Qandahari Begum. She is the first wife of Shah Jahan.nnTheir daughter Purhunar Begum born in 1611 is the eldest child of Shah Jahan. She is the only queen to leave behind a child by Shah Jahan apart from Mumtaz Mahal.nThough it’s debated whether she was buried in Qandhari Bagh or in the Saheli Burj near the Taj Mahal, consensus is the one near the Taj is her resting place.nnNext to the tomb is an old Mosque called Sandali Masjid (the sandalwood mosque), Kali Masjid ( it was blackened with age).

Kandahari Begum was the first wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.By birth, she was a princess of the prominent Safavid dynasty of Iran (Persia) and was the youngest daughter of Safavid prince Sultan Muzaffar Husain Mirza Safavi, who was the son of Sultan Husain Mirza, the son of Bahram Mirza, the son of Shah Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty of Persia.

Taj mahal is no.1 iconic monument in the world built by mughal emperor shah jha. It is too expensive

Near to taj, there are so many monuments near about Taj. Must visit.