Last updated: 5 November 2026
Quick answer: No chronicler gives an exact number for Akbar’s wives. Three held the highest rank: Ruqaiya Sultan Begum, his cousin and chief consort; Salima Sultan Begum, Bairam Khan’s widow; and Mariam-uz-Zamani, the Rajput princess of Amber who was Jahangir’s mother. At least a dozen other marriages are recorded. “Jodha Bai” was not her name in any contemporary source.
Akbar’s wives were not a private matter. Each marriage was a treaty: with his own Timurid family, with the nobles who had put him on the throne, and above all with the Rajput kingdoms whose loyalty held his empire together. This page names the wives the sources actually record, explains why the number is so uncertain, and settles the Jodha Bai question.
How many wives did Akbar have?
The honest answer is that nobody knows. Abul Fazl’s Ain-i-Akbari says the imperial harem housed more than 5,000 women, but that figure includes mothers, aunts, daughters, attendants, guards and servants, not just wives. Popular websites often say Akbar had “36 wives” or “300 wives”; neither number comes from a contemporary source.
What we do know is that the number was large enough to cause a theological argument. Islamic law allows four wives by formal nikah. In the debates at his Ibadat Khana in the 1570s, Akbar asked the scholars how many freeborn women he could lawfully marry, and the historian Badauni records the long dispute over whether temporary (mut’a) marriages could cover the rest.
Akbar’s Wives at a Glance
| Wife | Family | Married | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruqaiya Sultan Begum | Daughter of Hindal Mirza, Humayun’s brother | Betrothed 1551; married 1556 | First wife and chief consort (Padshah Begum). Childless; raised Prince Khurram, the future Shah Jahan. Died 1626. |
| Salima Sultan Begum | Daughter of Gulrukh Begum, Babur’s daughter | 1561 | Widow of Akbar’s regent Bairam Khan. A Persian poet under the pen name Makhfi. Brokered Salim’s return to court. Died 1613. |
| Mariam-uz-Zamani | Daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber (Kachwaha Rajputs) | February 1562, at Sambhar | Mother of Jahangir. Kept her Hindu faith at court. Died 1623; tomb near Sikandra. |
| Daughter of Abdullah Khan Mughal | Mughal noble family | 1557 | One of Akbar’s earliest marriages. |
| Raj Kunwari | Royal house of Bikaner | 1570 | Rajput alliance with Bikaner. |
| Nathi Bai | Royal house of Jaisalmer | 1570 | Rajput alliance with Jaisalmer. |
| Bhakkari Begum | Daughter of Sultan Mahmud of Bhakkar, Sindh | 1570s | Alliance in Sindh. |
| Bibi Daulat Shad | Not recorded | Not recorded | Mother of the princesses Shakr-un-Nissa and Aram Banu. |
Ruqaiya Sultan Begum: the first wife
Ruqaiya was Akbar’s first cousin, the only daughter of his uncle Hindal, who died fighting for Humayun in 1551. Humayun arranged the betrothal when both children were about nine. As Akbar’s chief wife she outranked every other woman at court for half a century. She had no children of her own, but she raised Salim’s son Khurram, and the future Shah Jahan remained devoted to her.
Salima Sultan Begum: the poet and peacemaker
Salima, another cousin, was first married to Bairam Khan, the regent who won Akbar’s throne back at Panipat in 1556. After Bairam was murdered in 1561, Akbar married his widow and raised his son Abdul Rahim, who became the great poet-general Khan-i-Khanan. Salima was educated, wrote Persian verse and was trusted by both Akbar and Salim; in 1603 she travelled to Allahabad to talk the rebel prince into coming home.
Mariam-uz-Zamani: the Rajput queen
In 1562 Raja Bharmal of Amber offered his daughter to Akbar, the first great Rajput marriage alliance of the reign. She kept her religion, worshipped in her own quarters and became one of the most powerful women in the empire. After she gave birth to Salim in 1569, she was honoured with the title Mariam-uz-Zamani. She ran her own trading ships, and Jahangir built the Begum Shahi Mosque in Lahore in her name. She died in 1623.
Her personal name is uncertain. Later sources call her Harka Bai or Hira Kunwari; the Mughal chronicles use only her titles.
Was Jodha Bai Akbar’s wife?
Not by that name. No source from Akbar’s or Jahangir’s reign calls Mariam-uz-Zamani “Jodha Bai”. The name appears in British-era writing such as James Tod’s Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan (1829) and was fixed in the popular mind by the films Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Jodhaa Akbar (2008).
The confusion probably comes from a different marriage. Jahangir married Jagat Gosain, a princess of Jodhpur, who was called Jodh Bai. She was the mother of Shah Jahan. A “Jodha Bai” existed in the Mughal family, but she was Akbar’s daughter-in-law, not his wife.
Akbar’s children
- Hassan and Hussain (twins, born 1564), who died in infancy.
- Salim (1569–1627), son of Mariam-uz-Zamani, who became Jahangir.
- Murad (1570–1599) and Daniyal (1572–1605), both of whom died young of alcoholism.
- Daughters including Shahzada Khanum, Shakr-un-Nissa Begum and Aram Banu Begum.
See the full lineage in our Mughal family tree.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many wives did Akbar have?
No contemporary source gives an exact number. Three were of highest rank, and at least a dozen marriages are recorded. Figures like 36 or 300 are not from the sources.
Who was Akbar’s first wife?
Ruqaiya Sultan Begum, his cousin, daughter of Hindal Mirza.
Who was Akbar’s favourite wife?
The sources do not name a favourite. Ruqaiya held the highest rank, and Mariam-uz-Zamani, as the heir’s mother, held great influence.
What was the real name of Jodha Bai?
The woman called Jodha Bai in films was Mariam-uz-Zamani, a title. Later sources give her name as Harka Bai or Hira Kunwari.
Who was Jahangir’s mother?
Mariam-uz-Zamani, the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber.
How did Akbar die?
Of dysentery at Agra in October 1605. Read how Akbar died.
Sources and Further Reading
- Abul Fazl, Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari, translated by H. Beveridge and H. Blochmann.
- Abd al-Qadir Badauni, Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh.
- Ruby Lal, Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
- Ira Mukhoty, Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire (2018).
Related: How Did Akbar Die? · Mughal Family Tree · Mughal Empire History
Quiz: Akbar’s Wives
4 questions. Pick your answers, then check your score.
