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Sikandar Shan
(1675-77)

Biographical

When Sikandar Shan was born, he was given a pearl necklace by the emperor, and his father, Muhammad ‘Azam, a robe. His mother, Jahanzeb Banu Begu was given 10,000 rupees. A miniature bearing the title of 'Secander' in a gold inscription appears in Nicolò Manucci's Storia do Mogor. He goes on to write that he is Iskander, the son of Azam Shah and Begum, the daughter of Dara [Shikoh]. However, Muhammad Azam Shah's son by Jani Banu Begum died an infant. William Irvine's 1907 translation of Storia do Mogor, or Moghul India, vol. II, shows the same miniature, but refers to it as depicting 'Sultan Sikandar, son of Shah Shuja'. Shah Shuja, son of Emperor Shah Jahan I, had no son named Sikandar.