mughal empire

Akbar, renowned for being the most benevolent of the Mughal rulers, and a ruler who lead by example, was concerned for the trans community of his kingdom. Thus, he appointed trans people, who he considered to be incredibly resourceful and fiercely loyal, to several important administrative and managerial positions in his court. Akbar appointed Itibar Khan, a close confidant of his grandfather Babur, to the position of governor of the capital city Delhi. Trans people were also part of a select group of people who could freely traverse the private and public sectors of Mughal society. As such, they were chosen as the primary agents of disseminating relevant information and propaganda among the public by the rulers, leading to them being labeled as gossip mongers and the public being a little wary of their words. They were also appointed as tax collectors because of this ability to cross between sectors. However, Akbar was still discriminatory against trans people at times. Khwaja Hilali was made to give up on his beloved home by Akbar because a cisgender noble took a liking to it. Aitmad Khan, a trans noble was stabbed by a common foot soldier because of his rude attitude

Akbar also appointed those of them who were castrated to guard his harem of wives at all times. While this is a significant role that was played by trans people, since only those who were completely trusted were tasked with something as important as guarding the emperor’s wives, historians tend to focus only on this aspect of the various roles trans people played in the Mughal court. Supervisors in charge of the security of the harem were called nazairs and their subordinates were called khwajasaras. They were intelligent, resourceful and skilled in combat. They were tasked with keeping men and objects of sexual pleasure away from the harem. Some writings state that members of the harem sometime sought sexual favors from the khwajasaras or nazairs, however the Emperor wasn’t usually privy to these exchanges.

Akbar’s son Jahangir continued his father’s practices and allowed trans people to retain the positions they held in the court and as protectors of his harem. Jahangir instructed Abdullah Khan, an amir or noble from his court to send his Khwajasara Wafdar to govern the province of Gujarat, a location of great strategic significance on the west coast of India. When Jahangir’s reign was under the threat of being overthrown by his son, the rebellious prince Shah Jahan, one of Jahangir’s closest confidants Itibar Khan Khwajasara assumed control of the city of Agra and and defended it from Shah Jahan’s siege, directly opposing a member of the royal bloodline.

It is important to remember that despite trans people enjoying equal rights and high positions in the Mughal court, they were still a marginalized community who made up an incredibly tiny amount of the population. Several trans people lamented their status and wished they had been born male or female without any sort of gender dysphoria. Aurangzeb, the grandson of Jahangir, was decidedly less tolerant than his ancestors when regarding trans people. When his sister Raushana Begum helped two men sneak into his harem, Aurangzeb decided that the nazair of his harem was to bear the brunt of responsibility and dismissed him from his position. Some years later, it was found that one of the women in Aurangzeb’s court had an affair with one of the khwajasaras and the khwajasara in question was executed to atone for his sin of making love to a woman.