Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/99

CHAP. IV.] tabad, on 15th February, 1638, died at Delhi on 26th May, 1702, buried in the garden of 'Thirty Thousand Trees', outside the Kabuli gate. Her tomb was demolished to make room for a railway. But her coffin and inscribed tomb-stone are now in Akbar's mausoleum at Sikandra, where the epitaph can still be read.

She seems to have inherited her father's keenness of intellect and literary tastes. Educated by a lady named Hafiza Mariam she committed the Quran to memory, for which she received a reward of 30,000 gold-pieces from her delighted father. A mistress of Persian and Arabic, she wrote different kinds of hand with neatness and grace. Her library surpassed all other private collections, and she employed many scholars on liberal salaries to produce literary works at her bidding or to copy manuscripts for her. As Aurangzib disliked poetry, her liberality compensated for the lack of Court patronage, and most of the poets of the age sought refuge with her. Supported by her bounty, Mulla Safiuddin Ardbeli translated the Arabic Great Commentary under the title of Zeb-ut-tafasir, the authorship of which is vulgarly ascribed to his patroness. Other tracts and works also unjustly bear her