Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/615

Rh principal omrahs, who made him his secretary; and his ability and diligence being remarked by the emperor, he soon rose to be high-treasurer of the empire.

The daughter who had been born to him in the desert, received, soon after his arrival at Lahore, the name of Mher-ul-Nissa, or the sun of women. She had some right to the appellation; for in beauty she excelled all the ladies of the East. She was educated with the utmost care and attention. In music, in dancing, poetry, and painting, she had no equal among her sex. Her disposition was volatile, her wit lively and satirical, her spirit lofty and uncontrouled. Selim, the prince royal, visited her father one day, and the ambitious Mher-ul-Nissa aspired to captivate him. The ladies, according to custom, being introduced after the public entertainment was over, she sung and displayed all her accomplishments. The prince was in raptures; and, her veil dropping, the sight of her face completed the conquest.

She had been betrothed by her father to Shere Afkun, a Turcomanian nobleman of great renown. The prince applied to his father, who refused to commit an act of injustice, though in favour of the heir of his throne, and she became the wife of Afkun. During the life of the emperor, the prince durst make no open attack upon his fortunate rival; but the courtiers worshipped the rising sun: Shere Afkun became disgusted, and retired into the province of Bengal, where he obtained from the suba of that country the superintendance of the district of Burdwan. From thence, however, he was recalled on the death of Akber. Selim was afraid to deprive the omrah forcibly of his wife; and Shere, inflexible in his determination to retain her. Naturally high spirited and proud, and of uncommon valour, having