Couplets of Raheem

Abdur Raheem Khankhana (1556-1627) the warrior, the poet and a courtisan in the royal family of Akbar and Jahangeer was a unique character of rare virtues and versatile personality. Son of Bairam Khan, the celebrated army general of Emperor Humayun. Abdur Raheem had the distinction of adorning several military commands and collecting rare awards and honours for his imperial exploits. As a member of the Royal Court, he served his masters with devotion in the midst of conspiracies and controversies and paid a very heavy price for his loyalty to the imperial throne. His wife died at a very young age. One of his sons-in-law was brutally murdered. He was presented with the beheaded skulls of two of his sons as a gift of water melons from the angry emperor. The eccentric ways of Emperor Jahangeer and his Begum Noor Jahan stripped him of his Jageers, titles and even jobs several times but the valiant Khankhana stood by the empire with unflinching dedication till he breathed his last in the year 1627 at the age of seventy two.