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Gulrukh Begum ("The rose-cheeked princess") was a Mughal princess and a daughter of Emperor Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire and the first Mughal emperor. She was also the younger half-sister of the second Mughal emperor Humayun and an aunt of third Mughal emperor Akbar.

Gulrukh Begum was known for her beauty and accomplishments in the imperial household just like her daughter, Salima Sultan Begum.

Name Her name varies in different sources as she appears as Gul-rang, Gul-barg and Gul-rukh. As her mother was a full Turkoman or Turk by descent, she may have borne a Turki name, and that the various forms her name assumes in the Persian may have their origin in this.

Family and lineage Her maternal parentage is disputed. From the Ma'asir-i-rahimi, the following information is obtained: Pasha Begam Baharlu Turkoman married (873H., 1469) as her second husband, Sultan Mahmud Mirza Miran-shahi. By him she had three daughters and one son : Sultan Baysonqor Mirza (b. 882H., 1477). One daughter whose name was Salha-sultan Begam, married Babur and bore him a daughter, Gul-rukh (sic). Gulrukh married Nur-ud-din Muhammad Chaqaniani, and their daughter was Salima-sultan Begam who married first, Bairam Khan-i-Khanan and secondly, the Emperor Akbar.

It appears that Babur's marriage with Salha-sultan took place at a date which falls in a gap of his memoirs, i.e., from 1511 to 1519. This is the period which contains the exile from Kabul after the Mughal rebellion. Not only does Babur omit Salha-sultan's name and his marriage with her, but Gulbadan Begum is also silent as to name, marriage and child of Salha-sultan. This silence is remarkable as she enumerates her father's children and gives their mothers' names, and she enumerates some of his wives in more places than one in the Humayun-nama. From her lists a Timurid wife cannot have escaped, and especially one whose child became the mother of Gulbadan's associate Salima-sultan.

An explanation of Gulbadan's silence and also of a part of Babur's has suggested that it is conjectural merely and hypothetical. The absence of mention of Salha-sultan and of her child suggests that she appears under another name in Gulbadan's list of her father's children and their mothers. She may be Gulbadan's own mother, Dildar Begam without undue wresting of known circumstantial witness.

Marriage Abu'l Fazl states that Firdaus-makani [Babur] gave his daughter Gulbarg (sic), to Nuru-ud-din because a daughter of Mahmud and Pasha had been given to Nur-ud-din's grandfather Khwaja Hasan, known as Khwaja-zada Chaqaniani. He also states that Salima-sultan Begam was the issue of Gulbarg's marriage.

In the Baburnama, there is no mention of Salha-sultan nor of Nuru-ud-din's marriage with a daughter of Babur. Yet Abu'l Fazl states that Firdaus-makani arranged Gulbarg's marriage. The first omission is the more remarkable because Babur states that Pasha had three daughters. He does not give their names, and specifies the marriage of the eldest only. On the same page he tells of his marriage with Salha's half-sister Zainab Sultan Begum and of her death. The omission is remarkable and appears to have no good ground, since he chronicles his other Timurid marriages. Of Pasha's daughters it may be noted that one married Malik Muhammad Miran-shahi, another Khwaja Hasan Chaqaniani, and the third, Babur.

According to Annette Beveridge, the principal difficulty in the way of this identification is Abu'l Fazl's statement that Nur-ud-din's marriage was made by Firdaus-makani, whereas Gulbadan states that her father arranged two Chughtai marriages for her sisters. According to Beveridge, if one might read Jannat-ashyani [Humayun] for Firdaus-makani much would fall into place; the marriage with Nur-ud-din could be a remarriage of Gulchehra Begum who was widowed in 1533, and of whose remarriage nothing is recorded until her brief political

alliance with Abbas Uzbeg in 1549. It is probable that she remarried in the interval.

Death Gulrukh Begum died fourth months after giving birth to her daughter, Salima Sultan Begum in June 1539.