Sher Afghan Khan
Nobility of the Mughal Empire
Ali Quli Istajlu, commonly known as Sherafghan Khan (Persian: شيرافگن خان), initially served as the safarchi (lit. 'table-attendant') of Safavids, and later became a Mughal courtier, becoming the jagirdar of Burdwan in West Bengal (1605–1607). He was also the first husband of Nur Jahan (Mehrunissa), who later married Jahangir after Ali Quli Khan's death and became Empress of India and the power behind the emperor.
He was given the title Sherafghan Khan (lit. 'tiger grappler') by Prince Salim, Jahangir after his meritorious actions during a war with the Rana of Mewar. Ali Quli Khan Istajlu was educated under the instructions of Shah Ismail II of the Safavid dynasty in Iran. Like his wife, Sher Afghan was also an immigrant from Persia, who fled from Iran to Kandahar, then in India.
He was the father of a daughter called Mihr-un-nissa Begum, after she married Prince Shahryar, the fifth and youngest son of Jahangir and rival to Shah Jahan.
Biography
Life
Ali Quli Khan Istajlu was a member of the Turkoman Ustajlu tribe, and was the safarchi (table-attendant) of Ismail II, the third Safavid king (shah) of Iran (1576–78). After the Shah's death, Ali Quli came to Kandahar, and at Multan he met Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan who made him a royal employee while in the field.
Later, on Khan-i-Khanan's recommendation, Ali Quli received a mansab, Thatta (in present-day Pakistan). During the following years he rendered distinguished services to Akbar, and moved to the royal courts at Lahore.
The public source identifies “Sher Afghan Khan” as nobility of the Mughal Empire. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sher, Afghan and Khan.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1247204. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1605, 1607 and 1576.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sher Afghan Khan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.