>SalamAlayka at 16:54, 22 June 2021

2021-06-22T16:54:46Z

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{{Infobox royalty
| name = Amina Begum
| title = [[Princess|Nawabzadi]] of [[Bengal Subah]]
| image = File:AminaBegum.jpg
| caption = Amina Begum's tomb at [[Khushbagh]]
| succession =
| reign =
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| death_date = November 1760
| death_place = [[Jahangirnagar]], [[Bengal Subah]] (now [[Old Dhaka]], [[Bangladesh]])
| consort =
| spouse = [[Zain ud-Din Ahmed Khan]]
| issue = [[Ikram ud-Daulah]]<br> [[Siraj ud-Daulah]]
| full name =
| house = Afshar (by birth)
| father = [[Alivardi Khan|Nawab Alivardi Khan]]
| mother = Sharf-un-Nisa (sister of Sayyid Ahmed Najafi and daughter of Sayyid Hussain Najafi)
| religion = [[Islam]]
| burial_place = [[Khushbagh]], [[Murshidabad]], [[Bengal Subah]] (presently in [[West Bengal]], [[India]])
| burial_date = c. 1760
| signature =
}}
'''Amina Begum''' ({{lang-bn|আমীনা বেগম}}, {{lang-fa|{{Nastaliq|امینه بیگم}}}}) was a Bengali aristocrat from the [[Nawab of Bengal|Nawab family of Bengal]] and mother of [[Siraj ud-Daulah]], the last independent Nawab of Bengal.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Khan|first1=Abdul Majed|title=The Transition in Bengal, 1756-75: A Study of Saiyid Muhammad Reza Khan|date=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521049825|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZL38wll43-MC&pg=PA20&dq=Amina+Begum+nawab&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjv2PaikKvXAhWKhJAKHfYiBX0Q6AEIMzAC#v=onepage&q=Amina%20Begum%20nawab&f=false|language=en}}</ref>

==Early life and background==
Amina Begum was the youngest daughter of Nawab [[Alivardi Khan]], the [[Nawab of Bengal]], and Princess Sharfunnisa, the paternal aunt of [[Mir Jafar]]. Her paternal grandfather was Mirza Muhammad Madani, who was of either [[Arabs|Arab]] or [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] descent, the son of a foster-brother of the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] emperor [[Aurangzeb]]; Madani himself began his career as a [[cup-bearer]] under the latter's son [[Muhammad Azam Shah|Azam Shah]].<ref name="Sarkar1948">{{cite book|last=Sarkar|first=Jadunath|author-link=Jadunath Sarkar|title=The History of Bengal|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283729/page/n447/mode/2up|volume=II|year=1948|publisher=University of Dhaka|location=Dhaka|isbn=978-81-7646-239-6|page=436}}</ref><ref name="Sensarma1977">{{cite book|author=P. Sensarma|title=The Military History of Bengal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l8ABAAAAMAAJ|year=1977|publisher=Darbari Udjog|location=Kolkata|page=172}}</ref> Her paternal grandmother belonged to the Turkic [[Afshar (tribe)|Afshar]] tribe of [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]]. Through her, she was a niece of [[Shuja-ud-Din Muhammad Khan]], the two having shared a common ancestor in Nawab Aqil Khan.<ref name="Sarkar1948"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Subhan|first=Abdus|title=Early Career of Nawab Ali Vardi Khan of Bengal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=js8VAQAAMAAJ|journal=Journal of Indian History|volume=XLVIII|issue=III|year=1970|publisher=University of Kerala|location=Trivandrum|page=536}}</ref>

She married [[Zain ud-Din Ahmed Khan]], who was appointed as the [[Naib Nazim]] (governor) of [[Patna]] by her father, Nawab Alivardi Khan.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Chaudhury|first1=Sushil|title=Trade, Politics and Society: The Indian Milieu in the Early Modern Era|date=2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781351997287|page=252|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pTUlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA252&dq=Amina+Begum+nawab&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjv2PaikKvXAhWKhJAKHfYiBX0Q6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=Amina%20Begum%20nawab&f=false|access-date=6 November 2017|language=en}}</ref> They had two sons, [[Ikram ud-Daulah]] and [[Siraj ud-Daulah]].<ref name="abb">{{cite Banglapedia|author=Karim, KM|article=Amina Begum}}</ref>

==Later life==
In contrast to her elder sister [[Ghaseti Begum]], 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, [[Zain ud-Din Ahmed Khan]], in an attempt to take control of Bihar. They were rescued by her father, Nawab [[Alivardi Khan]], in 1751, who drove also drove out the Afghan rebels.

After the death of her father in 1756, her son [[Siraj ud-Daulah|Siraj]] succeeded the throne as the next Nawab of Bengal. Siraj was defeated by the [[British East India Company]] in the [[Battle of Plassey]] in 1757 partly due to the treachery of Amina's maternal cousin [[Mir Jafar]]. Amina Begum was subsequently imprisoned along with her other family members including her mother, sister, and daughter-in-law. They were exiled from [[Murshidabad]] on a boat travelling to [[Dhaka|Jahangirnagar (Dhaka)]] in 1758, and were kept confined in the [[Jinjira Palace]].<ref name="abb" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Jinjira Palace: A tale lost in time|url=http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/128057/Jinjira-Palace-A-tale-lost-in-time|work=Prothom Alo|access-date=6 November 2017|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107060532/http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/128057/Jinjira-Palace-A-tale-lost-in-time|archive-date=7 November 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Death==
Mir Miran, the son of [[Mir Jafar]], 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.<ref name="abb" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Sengupta|first1=Nitish K.|title=Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to Mujib|date=2011|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=9780143416784|page=176|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kVSh_TyJ0YoC&pg=PA176&dq=Amina+Begum+nawab&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjv2PaikKvXAhWKhJAKHfYiBX0Q6AEIPTAE#v=onepage&q=Amina%20Begum%20nawab&f=false|access-date=6 November 2017|language=en}}</ref> She was buried beside her family in Khoshbagh, Murshidabad.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Tombs of Murshidabad|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-26573|work=The Daily Star|access-date=6 November 2017|language=en|date=8 March 2008}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

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

Amina Begum - Revision history

>SalamAlayka at 16:54, 22 June 2021