When Aurangzeb became the emperor after
Shah Jahan, Zeb-un-Nissa was 21 years old. Aurangzeb learnt of the talent and capacity of his daughter and began to discuss the political affairs of his Empire with her, listening to her opinions. It has been mentioned in some books that Aurangzeb sent all the royal princes for the reception of Zeb-un-Nissa each time she entered the court. Zeb-un-Nissa had four younger sisters:
Zeenat-un-Nissa,
Zubdat-un-Nissa,
Badr-un-Nissa and
Mihr-un-Nissa. Regarding her looks, "... she is described as being tall and slim, her face round and fair in colour, with two moles, or beauty-spots, on her left cheek. Her eyes and abundant hair were very black, and she had thin lips and small teeth. In
Lahore Museum is a contemporary portrait, which corresponds to this description... In dress she was simple and austere; in later life she always wore white, and her only ornament was a string of pearls round her neck." Also with the way she dressed comes about her making an invention. "Zeb-un-Nissa invented a woman garment known as
Angya Kurti. This was a modified form of the dress of the women of
Turkestan. The modification was done to suit Indian conditions". Zeb-un-Nissa lived in a period when many "great" poets were at the peak of their reputation; e.g. Mawlana
Abdul Qader Bedil,
Kalim Kashani, Saa'eb Tabrizi and
Ghani Kashmiri. There is a noticeable influence of
Hafez Sherazi's style on the poetry of Zeb-un-Nissa. However, she is considered as one of the poets of the Indian School of Poetry in
Persian. "Zebunnisa was trained in the serious study of religious doctrine and in matters in faith, and she was known as an excellent scholar in several academic areas and as a literary figure and patron of some renown. She sang well and composed songs and planted many of the gardens of her day." Zeb-un-Nissa selected "
Makhfi" (which means "
Hidden One" in Persian) as her pen-name in her poetry. In addition to her poetic book or collection of poems, called
Diwan, which contains approximately 5,000 verses, she also wrote the following books: ''Monis 'ul-Roh
, Zeb 'ul-Monsha’at
(زیب المنشآت / زيب المنشئات, "Literary Compositions of Zeb") and Zeb 'ul-Tafāsir
(زيب التفاسير, "Quranic Tafsirs of Zeb"), the first and only tafsir
written by a woman. In Makhzan 'ul-Ghaib'' (مخزن الغيب, "Store (or Treasure) of the Unseen"), the author writes that the poetic book of Zeb-un-Nissa contained 15,000 verses. Zeb-un-Nissa encouraged compilations and translations of various works also.
Later years, imprisonment and death . There are multiple conflicting accounts offering explanations for the circumstances which ultimately led to her imprisonment at
Salimgarh Fort, Delhi, at the edge of
Shahjahanabad (present
Old Delhi). In 1662, when Aurangzeb was taken ill and his physicians prescribed a change in the environment, he took his family and court with him to Lahore. At that time Akil Khan Razi, the son of his Vizier, was Governor of that city. In the following period, Akil Khan and Zeb-un-Nissa allegedly had a brief yet failed affair, after which Aurangzeb began to distrust her and later imprisoned her. Other theories suggest that she was imprisoned for being a poet and a musician (both anathema to Aurangzeb's austere, more orthodox and fundamental way of life and thinking). Yet another explanation points to her correspondence with her younger brother,
Muhammad Akbar. She supported the young prince in the inevitable ongoing conflict of succession, and was discovered to have written to him during the rebellion in 1681 AD (over the course of which, he had publicly accused Aurangzeb of transgressions against Islamic law). Her punishment was to have her accumulated wealth confiscated, her annual pension of 4 lakhs nullified, and that she was to be held prisoner at Salimgarh until her death. It was here, after 20 years of imprisonment, that Zeb-un-Nissa died after seven days of illness, still captive in Shahjahanabad while Aurangzeb was on a trip to the
Deccan. Conflicting sources state the date of her death alternately as 1701 AD and 1702 AD. Her tomb was in the garden of "Thirty thousand trees" (
Tees Hazari), outside of the
Kashmiri Darwaza, the north gate of the city. But when the railway line was laid out by the British at
Delhi, her tomb with its inscribed tombstone was shifted to
Akbar's mausoleum at
Sikandra, Agra. There is also a tomb in
Nawankot,
Lahore, Pakistan, but its authenticity is doubtful. Haroon Khalid infers that the apocryphal association of Zeb-un-Nissa with the tomb in Lahore came about after the defeat of rebel prince
Dara Shikoh in the Mughal war of succession (1657–1661), with the supporters of Shikoh (who had spent time in Lahore) transferring their aspirations to the rebellious princess by connecting her with the tomb even though she remained buried in Delhi and later at Agra. In 1724, years after her death, her scattered and extant writings were collected under the name
Diwan-i-Makhfi, literally, the Book of the Hidden One. It contained four hundred and twenty-one
ghazals and several
ruba'is. Subsequently, in 1730 other ghazals were added to the manuscript, which was also illuminated. ==Personal life==