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What Gulbadan Begum says happened
The principal account appears in the English translation of Gulbadan Begum’s Humayun-nama, translated by Annette S. Beveridge. Gulbadan was Humayun’s half-sister, and her memoir is the source for the negotiation and dialogue—not an omniscient transcript of every exchange.
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In Gulbadan’s telling, Humayun wanted to marry Hamida Banu, but she repeatedly declined or resisted the approaches. The memoir reports a prolonged effort, then describes Dildar Begum appealing to Hamida to accept the match. It presents persuasion as a series of approaches and family mediation, rather than a single romantic declaration that changed Hamida’s mind.
Hamida Banu’s reported reply
Gulbadan records Dildar Begum asking Hamida why she would not agree to marry Humayun. Hamida’s answer, in Beveridge’s translation, is: “Yes, but let me be given to someone whose collar my hand can reach, rather than that I be given to a man, whose skirt, as I know well, my hand will not reach.”
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The image is a pointed joke about the difference in their standing: Humayun was a king, while Hamida was not of comparable rank. It is best read as the memoir’s reported wording, not as a verbatim recording of a conversation. The Packard Humanities Institute’s Humāyūn-nāmah archive provides further context on the text and its figures.
How the memoir says the match was arranged
The translated memoir reports forty days of effort and coaxing before Dildar Begum’s appeal. It also records Humayun responding to the news that Hamida would not come: “If she is a stranger (na-mahram), we will [marry her to] make her accessible (mahram)!” The bracketed words are translator clarifications in the English rendering. The account does not supply Hamida’s inner thoughts beyond the words attributed to her.
Gulbadan’s narrative then turns to the wedding arrangements. Humayun used an astrolabe to choose a propitious hour and summoned Mir Abu’l Baqa to conduct the marriage rites. The translated text places the ceremony at Pāt in Jumada I 948 AH, with its note giving the corresponding Gregorian range as 23 August–21 September 1541. That is the source’s date range; it does not establish a single day.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What “the love of his life” can—and cannot—mean
The episode supports a specific claim: Humayun pursued the marriage, Hamida resisted, and Dildar Begum intervened before Hamida agreed. It does not establish the modern headline’s claim that Hamida was the love of Humayun’s life. Nor does the passage describe a mutual love story or explain Hamida’s feelings beyond her reported retort.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsA 2017 Scroll.in retelling uses that romantic framing, but the account’s key details are better attributed to Gulbadan’s memoir. The distinction matters: a memoir preserves a valuable historical account, while its dialogue and interpretation still come through its author and, here, a later translator.
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