The last Begum of a major princely state in British India. Sultan Jahan, the last Begum of Bhopal stamped her rule with her own powerful image that combined Muslim piety with ardent reform and thus became an international figure. She became the first president of the All India Conference on Education and the first chancellor of the Muslim University of Aligarh - and the first Indian woman to become a chancellor of an Indian university. Begum Sultan Jahan was a tireless worker for women's emancipation and education, publicly abandoning purdah two years before her death and travelled to Europe in 1911. She was the author of about 18 books. Begum Sultan Jahan was the mother of Muhammad Hamidullah Khan, the last Nawab-ruler of Bhopal, who gave financial support to Iqbal, the poet of the East, without whose mention the history of Urdu would be incomplete.