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Akbar, the Great had three wives namely Ruqaiyya Begum, Salima Sultan and Mariam-uz-Zamani. His third wife Mariam-uz-Zamani is famously also known as Jodha Bai in the modern age. It is said that Akbar had a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian wife. Mariam-uz-Zamani or Jodha Bai was the Hindu Rajput princess with whom he married for political advantage.
 The idea behind marriage alliances: Akbar had marriage alliances with a various royal families. And he thought it as a way of expanding his empire. These alliances provided him a lot if political advantages that were not easy to calculate. It is said that Akbar had more than 300 wives and the actual number of women in his harem was almost 5,000.
The Harem: The harem consisted mainly older women but virgins were used to enter as servant girls or Amazons of Russia or Abyssinia as armed guards but the status they used to have was only of slaves. And these were the women who used to act as concubines of Emperor Akbar if he wished.
Akbar's 300 Wives: Akbar, technically, had almost three hundred wives and he wanted to have the religious acceptance for all these 300 wives even though the Koran limits the number of wives a man can have to four. But as per the Persian Shia explanation of Muslim scriptures, a Muslim can have a 'Mutta' marriage with a free woman of other religion. A 'Mutta' marriage won’t have any ceremony, and it is a private agreement between a man and a woman for, 'a limited period time,’ as short as one night. As per Shia laws, 'Mutta' was a legal Muslim marriage. Akbar tried to use 'Mutta' principle to justify his 300 wives. But the Sunni Ulemma, Islamic scholars, in his court did not agree to that. Akbar dismissed his highest sunni officer and replaced him with a Shia who did agree with his idea!
Akbar’s First and Second Wives: Akbar's first wife was Ruqaiyya Begum, the widow of his care taker and general, Bairam Khan and his second wife was Salima Sultan. Both were childless.
Marium-Uz-Zamani, Akbar's third wife: Akbar married a Hindu Rajput princess of Amber, Harka Bai in 1562 A.D. She was the third wife of Akbar and mother of Jahangir. She was called Marium-Uz-Zamani. She was given this name after the birth of her son Jahangir as a Muslim ruler had to be born by a Muslim mother.
She was also known as Jodha Bai. But, there are arguments about the truth of the name ‘Jodha Bai’ as many historians consider Emperor Jahangir had a wife called ‘Jodha Bai’, the daughter of Mota Raja Udai Singh of Jodhpur, so she is Akbar’s daughter-in-law and not wife.
It is said that, her position in the royal household was not significant and she was not assigned any important place either in Agra or Delhi. Instead she was allowed to live in a small village of Barah near Bayana in the Bharatpur district and she stayed there till her death. But some historians claim that she had the power to issue Farmans etc.
A mosque was built in her honor by Jahangir in Lahore in Pakistan and it is called Mariam-Uz-Zamani mosque.
Other Rajput Princesses: Akbar also married daughter of Raja of Jaisalmer and also the niece of Raja of Bikaner, both Hindu Rajput princesses. It is said that he allowed his wives to practice their belief.
Akbar didn’t like the idea of his wives name becoming public. He preferred to give titles to them and he wanted everyone to know them by their titles and not by their names.
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