Bibi Mubarika Yusufzai ( ps, بيبي مبارکه یوسفزۍ;) 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 or from the royal houses of the Rajputs. Alongside Mughal emperors, these empresses played a role in the building up and rule of the Mugha ...

. She was the fifth wife of Emperor Babur, the founder of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

and the first

Mughal emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...

. 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, Empero ...

, who calls her stepmother 'The Afghan lady' or 'Afghani Aghacha'. "Afghan" is a ethnonym referring to the Pashtun people.

Family

Bibi Mubarika was the daughter of Malik Shah Mansur, the chief of the

Yusufzai The Yusufzai or Yousafzai ( ps, یوسفزی, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ) are one of the largest tribes of ethnic Pashtuns. They are natively based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, to which they migrated to from Suliman mountains dur ...

tribe of

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

. 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-ud-Din Muhammad ( fa, ) (; 6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), better known by his regnal name, Humāyūn; (), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northe ...

and Akbar. 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 states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

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 that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

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 Indian female royalty Mughal nobility Pashtun women Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Indian queen consorts Women of the Mughal Empire People from Swat District 17th-century Indian women 17th-century Indian people