In which city did ‘Malika-ai-Jamani’ degree-holder die?

Concept

Mughal emperors bestowed honorific titles (laqab) on royal women to mark their status at court — for example, ‘Malika-e-Zamani’ (‘Queen of the Age’) — and a title-holders biography, including the city where she died, is a standard identification fact in medieval Indian history.

Application

Shah Jahan conferred the title ‘Malika-e-Zamani’ on his wife Arjumand Banu Begum, better known as Mumtaz Mahal. In 1631, while accompanying Shah Jahan on his Deccan military campaign, she died in Burhanpur — a Mughal military and administrative base on the Tapti river in the Nimar/Khandesh region — while giving birth to her fourteenth child.

Cross-Check

Her body was first interred in a garden at Burhanpur before being moved to Agra, where Shah Jahan later built the Taj Mahal as her permanent mausoleum. Burhanpur is therefore the city of her death, distinct from Agra, which is the city of her burial and memorial.