Zinat-un-Nissa Begum
Shahzadi of theMughal Empire
Zinat and her sisters
Padshah Begum
Tenure	1681 – 7 May 1721
Predecessor	Jahanara Begum
Successor	Badshah Begum
Born	(1643-10-05)5 October 1643 Aurangabad,Mughal Empire, NowChhatrapati Sambhajinagar
Died	7 May 1721(1721-05-07) (aged 77) Delhi, Mughal Empire
Burial	Zeenat-ul-Masajid, Delhi
House	Timurid
Father	Aurangzeb
Mother	Dilras Banu Begum
Religion	Sunni Islam

Zinat-un-Nissa Begum (Persian:زینت النساء بیگم; 5 October 1643 – 7 May 1721) was aMughal princess and the second daughter of EmperorAurangzeb and his Chief consortDilras Banu Begum. Her father had conferred upon her the honorable title ofPadshah Begum.^{[1][2]: 14, 318}

Zinat-un-Nissa Begum ("Jewel among Women") was born on 5 October 1643, probably in Aurangabad , to Dilras Banu Begum, Aurangzeb's first wife and chief consort. Her mother was a princess of the prominentSafavid dynasty ofPersia and was a daughter ofMirza Badi-uz-Zaman Safavi, theViceroy ofGujarat.^[3] Her paternal grandfather was the fifth Mughal emperorShah Jahan during whose reign she was born. Zinat-un-Nissa had in-depth knowledge of the doctrines ofIslam, just like her elder sister, PrincessZeb-un-Nisa and her younger sister, PrincessZubdat-un-Nissa Begum.^[4] She was educated by private tutors and scholars, and refused to marry, choosing to remain single her entire life.

Zinat was a partisan of her youngest half-brother,Muhammad Kam Bakhsh, for whom she gained pardon from her father on several occasions. Though her full brother,Azam Shah, had a strong disliking for him.^[5] She was her father's sole companion during the later part of his reign, along with his concubineUdaipuri Mahal. She was the superintendent of her father's household in theDeccan for a quarter of a century till his death in 1707. She survived him many years, enjoying the respect of his successors as the living memorial of a great age.^[2]: 282

Zinat-un-Nissa is known to have built fourteencaravanserais. At the age of thirty-seven, she undertook a project to construct a number of inns of the highway linking Awadh with Bengal. This effort of hers earned her the praise of her father.^[6] She also had theZeenat-ul-Masajid ("Ornament of Mosques") constructed at her expense in c.1700 by the riverside wall of theRed Fort inDelhi, where she was buried.^[7] Tradition goes that she demanded the amount of her dowry from her father, and spent it in building the mosque.^[6]

Zinat-un-Nissa Begum died atDelhi on 18 May 1721 at the age of 77 years.^[8]

• She was portrayed byDiana Penty in the 2025 Hindi filmChhaava.

• Zeenat Mahal

• 1643 births
• 1721 deaths
• Mughal princesses
• 18th-century Indian Muslims
• People from Aurangabad, Maharashtra
• People from Marathwada
• 17th-century Indian women
• 17th-century Mughal Empire people
• 18th-century Indian women
• Daughters of emperors
• 18th-century Mughal Empire people

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