Nur Jahan and Religious Policy

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Ellison Banks Findly

Published:

1993

Publisher:

Oxford University PressNew York, NY

Abstract By reputation, Nur Jahan was not an especially religious woman, but like Jahangir she was fond of charitable acts. Whether her charity was the result of her own generous benevolence or of her intuitions about policy best befitting the government may not ever be clear, but it is apparent that she took a decided interest in religious matters at the court, both by way of the administration and of the functionaries who appeared before her from time to time. What is crucial to discern here is the nature of the influence she exerted over Jahangir: was she responsible, for example, for an increasing religious conservatism in the regime, for a movement away from her father-in-law Akbar’s universalist sentiment to a more narrow, exclusivistic view consonant with her Shia background? Or did she exercise a somewhat liberal influence, judging that as a minority she and her fellow corcligionists would benefit more from a tolerant, open-ended policy?

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