Malikat Agha
Consort of the Timurid Empire From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Malikat Agha was a Mongol princess as well as one of the wives of Shah Rukh, ruler of the Timurid Empire.
| Malikat Agha | |
|---|---|
| Consort of the Timurid Empire | |
| Died | before 1447 |
| Burial | |
| Spouses | Umar Shaikh Mirza I Shah Rukh |
| Issue | Pir Muhammad Iskandar Bayqara Ahmad Soyughatmish |
| House | Borjigin (by birth) Timurid dynasty (by marriage) |
| Father | Khizr Khoja |
| Religion | Islam |
Life
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Malikat Agha was a daughter of the Khan of Moghulistan, Khizr Khoja. Like many other Mongol princesses, she was married into the Timurid dynasty as a means of legitimising the latter's rule. Her husband was Umar Shaikh Mirza I, the eldest son of Timur, while her sister, Tuman Agha, later became the wife of Timur himself.[1][2] Malikat and her husband had four sons: Pir Muhammad, Iskandar, Bayqara and Ahmad. Following Umar Shaikh's death in 1394, she was subsequently remarried to his younger brother Shah Rukh, through whom she had one further son, Soyughatmish.[3][4]
In spite of her exalted lineage, upon Shah Rukh's ascension to the throne, Malikat only acted as a junior wife, with the chief wife being the non-royal Gawhar Shad, the daughter of one of Timur's close followers.[5] As such, it is not clear that her influential match brought much advantage to her sons from her first marriage.[3] In fact, it may have been because of these elder sons, most of whom had rebelled in the early years of Shah Rukh's reign, that Malikat had a lower position. This subordinate role even extended to Soyughatmish, who, in comparison to the sons of Gawhar Shad, received a lower military posting from his father, serving in the relatively isolated governorship of Kabul.[4]
Like many Timurid royal women, Malikat had sponsored the construction of religious buildings, such as Sufi khanqahs.[6] One of the first madrassahs in Herat to specialise in teaching medicine was also established under her patronage,[7] alongside a similar institution in Balkh which further served as a caravansary.[8]
It was in this last structure that she was eventually buried, having predeceased her husband, but outliving several of her sons.[4][9]
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