Amina Begum (, ) was a Bengali aristocrat from the Nawab family of Bengal and mother of

Siraj ud-Daulah Mir Syed Jafar Ali Khan Mirza Muhammad Siraj-ud-Daulah (1733 – 2 July 1757), commonly known as Siraj-ud-Daulah or Siraj ud-Daula, was the last independent Nawab of the Bengal Subah. The end of his reign marked the start of the rule of th ...

, the last independent Nawab of Bengal.

Early life and background

Amina Begum was the youngest daughter of Nawab

Alivardi Khan Alivardi Khan (1671 – 9 April 1756) was the fourth Nawab of Bengal from 1740 to 1756. He toppled the Nasiri dynasty of Nawabs by defeating Sarfaraz Khan in 1740 and assumed power himself. During much of his reign Alivardi encountered frequen ...

, the

Nawab of Bengal The Nawab of Bengal (, ) was the hereditary ruler of Bengal Subah in Mughal India. In the early 18th-century, the Nawab of Bengal was the ''de facto'' independent ruler of the three regions of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa which constitute the mod ...

, and Princess Sharfunnisa, the paternal aunt of

Mir Jafar Mir Jafar ( – 5 February 1765), was a commander-in-chief or military general who reigned as the first dependent Nawab of Bengal of the British East India Company. His reign has been considered by many historians as the start of the expansion ...

. Her paternal grandfather was Mirza Muhammad Madani, who was of either

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

or Turkic descent, the son of a foster-brother of the

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

emperor

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

. Her paternal grandmother belonged to the Turkic Afshar tribe of

Khorasan KhorasanDabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 (; , ) is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West and Central Asia that encompasses western and no ...

. Through her, she was a relative of

Shuja-ud-Din Muhammad Khan Shuja-ud-Din Muhammad Khan was the second Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. He married Zainab un-nisa Begum and Azmat un-nisa Begum, the daughters of Murshid Quli Khan by Nasiri Banu Begum. Shuja-ud-Din's third wife was Durdana Begum Sahiba. ...

, the two having shared a common ancestor in Nawab Aqil Khan. She married

Zain ud-Din Ahmed Khan Zain ud-Din Ahmad Khan, also known as Mirza Muhammad Hashim, was an aristocrat from the Nawab of Bengal family and the father of Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal. Early life and background Mirza Muhammad Hashim was the young ...

, who was appointed as the

Naib Nazim Subahdar, also known as Nazim, was one of the designations of a governor of a Subah (province) during the Khalji dynasty of Bengal, Mamluk dynasty, Khalji dynasty, Tughlaq dynasty, and the Mughal era who was alternately designated as Sahib-i-Su ...

(governor) of

Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

by her father, Nawab Alivardi Khan. They had two sons, Ikram ud-Daulah and

Later life

In contrast to her elder sister

Ghaseti Begum Mehar un-Nisa Begum (), better known as Ghaseti Begum (), was the eldest daughter of Alivardi Khan, Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, India, Orissa during 1740–1756. Early life Ghaseti Begum was the eldest daughter of Nawab Alivardi Khan, th ...

, Amina Begum was not very much involved in politics. In 1748, Amina was captured along with her two sons by the Afghan rebels of Mustafa Khan after they had killed her husband,

, in an attempt to take control of Bihar. They were rescued by her father, Nawab

, in 1751, who drove also drove out the Afghan rebels. After the death of her father in 1756, her son Siraj succeeded the throne as the next Nawab of Bengal. Siraj was defeated by the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

in the

Battle of Plassey The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company, under the leadership of Robert Clive, over the Nawab of Bengal and his French Indies Company, French allies on 23 June 1757. The victory was made possible by the de ...

in 1757 partly due to the treachery of Amina's maternal cousin

. Amina Begum was subsequently imprisoned along with her other family members including her mother, sister, and daughter-in-law. They were exiled from

Murshidabad Murshidabad (), is a town in the Indian States and territories of India, state of West Bengal. This town is the headquarters of Lalbag subdivision of Murshidabad district. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hooghly river, Bhagirathi Riv ...

on a boat travelling to Jahangirnagar (Dhaka) in 1758, and were kept confined in the

Jinjira Palace Zinzira Palace (), also spelt Jinjira Palace, is a late 17th century Mughal-era palace in Keraniganj, Bangladesh on the southern banks of the Old Ganges or Buriganga River. It was built by Ibrahim Khan II, Bengal's last ''subedar'' (provincial go ...

Death

Mir Miran, the son of

, later ordered for some of them to be released and recalled back to Murshidabad in 1760. On their way from Dhaka by boat, Amina Begum died when her boat was sunk on the orders of Miran. She was buried beside her family in Khoshbagh, Murshidabad.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Begum, Amina 1760 deaths Nawabs of Bengal Year of birth unknown Indian Shia Muslims People from Murshidabad district Indian princesses 18th-century Indian women