In the account attributed to Kulsum Zamani Begum, Bahadur Shah Zafar told his daughter to leave the Red Fort with her husband as Delhi fell in September 1857. She says their party slipped out before dawn in a bullock cart, sought shelter at Ijara, and eventually made its way toward Hyderabad. The story survives as a later recollection, not as an official record written during the events.
What kind of source tells Kulsum’s story?
The narrative appears in Begamat ke Aansu, a collection of survivor stories compiled by Khwaja Hasan Nizami and first published in 1922. The English translation is by Rana Safvi. Nizami’s introduction says the story came from Kulsum herself or from her daughter, Zainab Zamani Begum. That transmission chain matters: the account offers a reported memory of the escape, rather than contemporaneous documentation of every detail. Scroll’s translated account and introduction provide the narrative and its provenance.
Why did she leave the Red Fort?
In the translated account, the fort is under severe strain after months of fighting, and Kulsum’s young daughter is hungry. Zafar summons Kulsum and instructs her to go with her husband. The account gives his words as: “Go away immediately with your husband.” It presents the departure as a response to the danger and hardship inside the fort, not as a documented account of the emperor’s own later journey.
How did Kulsum’s party get out?
Kulsum says she left before dawn with her husband, Mirza Ziauddin, Mirza Umar Sultan, and other women. They travelled in a bullock cart. Their first reported attempt to find shelter was at Ijara, where they approached Mir Faiz Ali. He refused to take them in.
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The driver, Basti, continued to help the group. In the account’s later course, they eventually reached Hyderabad. A 2023 Dawn review of the translated collection adds that they were robbed near Kurali, later went to Makkah for pilgrimage, and eventually returned to Delhi. Those episodes, too, belong to the retrospective narrative tradition; they should not be mistaken for independently verified waypoints.
How certain are the details?
The broad outline—Zafar’s instruction, a pre-dawn departure by bullock cart, the failed request for shelter at Ijara, and Basti’s help onward—is what this particular translated account reports. Its dialogue, exact timing, and incidents are details of transmitted testimony, not facts independently confirmed here. Dawn notes contradictions among stories in the collection and suggests trauma and the interviewees’ age may help account for them.
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A scholarly discussion of early twentieth-century Urdu writing treats the farewell scene as later literary representation and considers its resonances with other commemorative traditions. This is useful context for reading the scene, but it does not independently establish the journey. The University of California eScholarship study discusses this kind of remembrance and retelling; its publication date is not established in the material cited here.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the account can—and cannot—establish
Read as a survivor story preserved decades after 1857, the narrative conveys how Kulsum’s family’s departure was remembered: a desperate exit from the fort, a failed appeal for refuge, and help from a driver who kept them moving. It does not by itself verify every exchange or travel detail, and it should not be merged with accounts of Bahadur Shah Zafar’s own departure from the Red Fort.
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