Ali Quli Istajlu, 'Sher Afgan Khan', also mentioned as Ali Quli Khan Istaju 'Sher Afgan Khan' (Persian: شيرافگن خان) was a Mughal courtier, earlier serving in Persia, who became the jagirdar of Burdwan in West Bengal (1605–1607). He was also the first husband of Nur Jahan (Mehrunissa), who later married Jahangir and became Empress of India.
He was given the title Sher Afgan Khan, by Prince Salim, Jahangir, after his meritorious actions, during a war with the Rana of Mewar.[1] Ali Kuli Istaju, was educated under the instructions of Shah Ismail II of Safavid dynasty in Iran.[2] Like his wife, Sher Afgan was also an immigrant from Persia, who fled from Iran, to Kandahar, then in India.[1]
He was the father of Mehrunissa's only child, a daughter, also called Mehurinissa, like her mother, though later called Ladli Begum, after she married Prince Shahryar, the fifth and youngest son of Jahangir and rival to Shah Jahan.[1]
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Ali Quli Khan Istaju was the safarchi (table-attendant) of Ismail II, the third Safavid Shah of Persia (1576–78). After the Shah's death, Ali Quli came to Kandahar, and at Multan he met Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana who made him a royal employee while in the field.
Later, on Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana's recommendation, Ali Quli received a mansab, Thatta (in present day Pakistan). During the following years he rendered distinguished services to Akbar, and moved to the royal courts at Lahore.[3]
Soon after his arrival at the royal courts in 1594, Ain-e-Akbari suggests, Akbar ordered his marriage to the seventeen-year-old Mehrunissa (the future Empress Nur Jahan), daughter of Mirza Ghias Beg.[1][4] Ghias’s wife had access to the royal harem, and on her visits there she was often accompanied by Mehrunissa. There Prince Salim reportedly saw her and fell in love with her, and in order to avoid scandal, Akbar quickly married her to Ali Quli.[1] Some historians suggest that when Prince Salim saw her, she was already engaged to be married to Ali Quli, and thus the prince couldn’t marry her on that account.
When Prince Salim revolted against Akbar, Ali Quli sided with Akbar against the prince, but when Selim finally ascended to the Mughal throne in 1605 and took the name Jahangir, he pardoned Ali Quli along with all those who favoured Akbar instead of him. Ali Quli was made a jagirdar and received the region of Bardhaman in east Bengal as his domain.
Shaikh Khubu, Qutbuddin Khan Koka, (Khan-i-Chishti), was the foster-brother of Jahangir, as his mother was a daughter of Shaikh Salim. When Jahangir ascended the throne of Mughal Empire in 1605, Qutbuddin was made the ‘subedar’ (Governor) of Bengal, by replacing Raja Man Singh. Meanwhile Sher Afghan Ali Quli Istajlu was tuyuldar of Bardhaman, also in the province of Bengal. Numerous Mansabs and titles were bestowed on his son Sheikh Farid who eventually became the Governor of Budaun. His descendants still live in a fort (now in ruins) in Sheikhupur, Budaun.
In 1607, Qutb was instructed to send Sher Afgan Khan to the court as he was accused of negligence and siding with Afghan rebels and transferred. Sher Afgan Khan refused to obey. Seeing this, Qutbuddin started off for Bardhaman, while he sent Ghiasa, the son of his sister, in advance to pacify Sher Afgan and bring him to the court. So upon his arrival on May 30, 1607, Sher Afgan duly went to meet him, accompanied by two men. At that moment Qutb signaled his men to arrest Sher Afgan, who stepped forward in alarm and attacked Qutbuddin sensing treachery. Qutbuddin was fatally wounded, and seeing this, his men surrounded Sher Afgan and killed him instantly.[5]
Qutbuddin, who was fatally wounded, died later in the night. This caused much grief to Jahangir as he mentions in his memoirs, Tuzk-e-Jahangiri, where he also mentions his elation at the death of Ali Quli and hopes that “the blackfaced wretch will for ever remain in hell”.[6]
The claim that Ali Quli was killed because the emperor coveted his wife has been discounted by many later historians, who cite the fact that if Jahangir had had any such intentions, he wouldn’t have bestowed upon Ali Quli the title Sher Afgan, or pardoned him after he ascended the throne, or given him Bardhaman.[1][7]
Another historical writer, Khafi Khan, mentions another tale about Ali Quli's death, which is said to have been related by Nur Jahan's mother. According to her, Sher Aghan did not die immediately when he was attacked by Qutbuddin's men, but wounded as he was, he managed to get to the door of his house with the intention of killing his wife, whom he did not wish to fall into the emperor's hands. But her mother would not let him enter, and told him to mind his wounds, especially as Mehrunissa had committed suicide by throwing herself into a well. “Having heard the sad news, Sher Afkan went to the heavenly mansions.” Historians do not credit this tale, however.[7]
His tomb is situated within the shrine complex of the poet ‘Bahram Saqqa’, in the present day city of Bardhaman in West Bengal, next to the tomb of Qutbuddin.[8]
After Ali Quli’s death, his wife (Mehrunissa), and their young daughter, were send to the royal harem, where she spent next four years as lady-in-waiting to one of the Jahangir's stepmothers, Sultana Begum, the mother of Khusrau Mirza at Agra. As the story progresses, in March 1611, during the New Year day’s (Nauroz) celebrations, Prince Salim happened to see Mehrunissa at Meena Bazar (Agra) and immediately fell in love with her. Mehrunissa and Prince Salim were married two months later, on May 25, 1611, which made her Jahangir's twentieth wife as Nur Mahal, ‘Light of the castle’, and in 1616, she was given the title Nur Mahal or Nur Jahan, ‘the Light of the World’.[9]
Ali Quli's daughter, who, like her mother, was named also named Mehrunissa, later named Ladli Begum, was married to Prince Shahryar, Jahangir's fifth son in 1620. Shahryar went on to briefly occupy the Mughal throne at Lahore, under the maneuvering of Nur Jahan, after the death of Jahangir on October 27, 1627. He was later captured by Mughal forces led by Asaf Khan, and − first blinded by the orders of Prince Dawar − was later executed by Asaf Khan, at the order of Shah Jahan, who finally ascend to the Mughal throne after executing all his remainder brothers. After Qutbuddin’s death, the next subedar of Bengal was Quli Khan (1607–1608) and when he died, Islam Khan (June 1608–died August 1613).[10]