Zainab Sultan Begum
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| Zainab Sultan Begum | |
|---|---|
| Timurid princess Queen consort of the Ferghana Valley Queen consort of the Kabul | |
| Died | c. 1506–07 |
| Spouse | |
| House | Timurid (by birth) |
| Father | Sultan Mahmud Mirza |
| Mother | Khanzada Begum |
| Religion | Islam |
Zainab Sultan Begum was Queen consort of Ferghana Valley and Kabul as the second wife of Emperor Babur. Like two of her husband's other wives, Aisha Sultan Begum and Masuma Sultan Begum, she was a first cousin of Babur.[1]
She was one of the first Mughal cousins to marry among the own family, which later became a common practice, which would be especially be followed by Humayun, the second Mughal emperor who succeeded Babur after his death in 1530.[2]
Zainab Sultan Begum was born a Timurid princess and was the fifth daughter of Sultan Mahmud Mirza, who was Babur's paternal uncle. Her mother was the granddaughter of Mir Buzurg, and the daughter of a brother of Khanzada Begum, her father's first wife. Her father was a son of Abu Sa'id Mirza, the Emperor of the Timurid Empire.
Zainab's paternal uncles included Umar Sheikh Mirza, the ruler of Ferghana Valley, who later became her father-in-law as well while her first cousins included her future husband, Babur, and his elder sister, Khanzada Begum. Her sister Ai Begum, who was married to Babur's brother Jahangir Mirza, became her sister-in-law.