Mubaraka Yusufzai

Mubaraka Yusufzai, (other names Bibi Mubaraka, Mubarika Yusufzay, Bika Begum, Afghani Aghacha) became known as Bega Begm was the Empress consort of the Mughal Empire as the wife of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire and the first Mughal emperor.

Biography

She was born in Pashtun family of present Pukhtunkhwa. She belonged to the Yusufzai tribe of Pashtuns and from the state of Swat in Pakhtunkhwa, in the Yusufzai dominated territory. She was the daughter of Malik Shah Mansur Yusufzai who was the chieftain of the Yusufzai during the time of Babur and grand daughter of Suleman Shah, who was the elder of the Yusufzais during the reign of Alag Baig in Kabul.

It is thought that Babur married her to form an unspoken alliance with the Yusufzai Pashtuns so that they will give him and his armies a safe passage to the capital of the Lodi Empire in Delhi, India. The marriage of Bibi Mubaraka and Babur is believed to be a very interesting story. Babur met Bibi Mubaraka as a beggar when she was distributing foods among other beggars. She asked him to pray against Babur as the Yusufzais were not happy with his invasion. Her marriage to Babur on 30 January 1519, at Kehraj sealed an important pact between the Yusufzai and the Mughal, making it possible for Babur to strengthen his hold in India with the support of the Yusufzai or rather that he faced less trouble from them.

Bibi Mubaraka has been a very intriguing figure in the history of the Yusufzai and there is very little about her that is ever mentioned in history books. Her claim to fame seems to be that she is one of Babur’s ten wives and she persuaded Humayun to inter Babur’s remains in his favorite garden in Kabul. Bibi Mubaraka lived through Babur's reign and she died early in Humayun's reign on 17 June 1631.

See also

• Babur
• Mughal Empire

References