176 H. HOSTEN ON 



finally who insisted that Sikandar should marry his deceased wife's sister? 1 The 

 childless Queen may have been Akbar's first wife, Sultan Ruqaiyah Begam. What 

 interest had she in the matter of this marriage? Why should she have been so 

 partial in this affair as to prevail upon Akbar and Sikandar against the opposition of 

 the Jesuits ? Perhaps, as the Bourbon tradition, teste Col. Kincaid, has it, there was 

 in the harem another sister of Juliana's.' 2 Distinct from Sikandar senior's second 

 wife, she would have been Akbar's Christian concubine. This would explain how 

 BibI Juliana and her sister, and apparently too Domingo Pires' wife, moved freely 

 in and out of the palace, either as lady doctors or as friends and relatives. 



In those days, throughout the 17th century and even later, many Armenians or 

 Asiatic Christians, as well as many Europeans and their half-caste descendants, made 

 their way into the Court of the Moghul Emperors and other Indian Princes as doctors 

 and surgeons. In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed are kings. Even Zu-1- 

 Qarnain, if I remember well certain MS. letters, had some knowledge of medicine, based 

 probably on family traditions. For aught I know, he may be the Hakim Masihuzza- 

 man, who was summoned from Lahore in 1644 to help in curing Shah Jahan's 

 daughter, Princess Jahanara Begam 3 If Masihuzzaman means <c the Christian of the 

 age," the title would be applicable to him. However, I do not insist on this now. 4. 



If one of Akbar's queens was a Christian related to Lady Juliana, we understand 

 why the childless Queen and Akbar treated Zu-1-Qarnain and his brother as their 

 adopted children, and why the popular impression was that Zu-1-Qarnain was Akbar's 

 son by Juliana. The people saw Juliana move freely about at Court and out of it, 

 while the life of the Queen, her sister, was wrapped in the obscurity of the harem; 

 hence, it was easy to construe Akbar's predilection for Zu-1-Qarnain into some former 

 liaison between Akbar and Juliana. Again, if one of Akbar's queens was Juliana's 

 sister, we understand why Akbar should have raised Abdu-1-Hayy and Sikandar senior, 

 his father-in-law and brother-in-law, to such high rank; why he wrote to the Pope 

 to have Sikandar' s marriage with Juliana's sister legitimated; why Jahangir and Shah 

 Jahan looked upon Mirza Zu-1-Qarnain as one of the household, and maintained him 

 in his father's dignity. Yet, when all is said, there remains the sturdy fact that in 

 the many Jesuit letters of the period which we have seen (we have not seen them all, 

 however), we have not found any clearer intimation that Akbar had a Christian wife. 6 



" Mr. Fanthome in his Reminiscences of Agra } 2nd edition, 1895, maintains stoutly 

 the existence of a Christian wife called Mary (apart from Mariamu-z-zamani); he 

 says that the Mission of 1580 erected their chapel in Mary's kothl at Fathpur (pp. 13, 



1 Cf. F. GUERREIRO'S Relacam of 1605 — 06, fol. 152^-155^. s Cf. supra, p. 173. 3 Cf. J.A.S.B., 1912, pp. 119, 120. 



* There was a Muhammadan Hakim Masihuzzaman under Jahangir. Cf. Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri , transl., I. 155; 267; 

 374; II. 217 



6 The fact that this Queen had reared Sikandar's two sons in the Moorish aversion for pork could be explained by- 

 saying that, as pork would not have been allowed into the harem, and the children always heard it spoken of as unclean, 

 they had conceived a great loathing for it. 



The late W. Irvine, who was in communication with Fr. S. Noti, S.J., while Fr. Noti and myself were discussing these 

 matters, expressed it as his opinion that 'Abdu-1-Hayy was a Persian and had three daughters: one a concubine in the 

 harem ; another (BibI Juliana) one of its superintendents, who would have been given in marriage to Sikandar of Sambhar 

 fame; the third, who married Sikandar after Juliana's death. (Letter of Fr. S. Noti, S.J., July 31st, 1913.) To form 

 his judgment the reader is now in possession of fuller data. 



