Birth
Nur Jahan was born on May 31 1577 in Kandahar (now in Afghanistan) to traveling Persian, Mirza Ghiyas Beg from Tehran (now in Iran). Her Persian-born grandfather, who was in the service of Shah Tahmasp I, died in Yazd, laden with honours. His heirs, however, soon fell upon hard times. His son Mirza Ghias Beg (known as Itmad-ud-Daulah, "Pillar of the State", a title conferred on him by Akbar) travelled to South Asia with his family where he rose to become an administrative official in the Mughal court. For their journey, Ghias Beg and his wife, Asmat Begum, joined a caravan travelling southward under the leadership of a merchant noble named Malik Masud. While still in Persian territory, less than half the way to their destination, Ghias Beg's party was attacked by robbers and the family lost almost everything it owned. Left with only two mules, Ghias Beg, his expectant wife, their children, Muhammad Sharif, Abdul Hasan Asaf Khan, and one daughter, took turns riding on the backs of the animals. When the group reached Kandahar, Asmat Begum gave birth to her fourth child and second daughter, Mehr-un-Nisaa.
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“Heaven does not permit the birth of useless people.”
—Chinese proverb.
“They do not live in the world,
Are not in time and space.
From birth to death hurled
No word do they have, not one
To plant a foot upon,
Were never in any place.”
—Edwin Muir (1887–1959)