In a kingdom, there was an extraordinary princess named Jaigun. The sight of her beauty would dazzle everyone around her. Raised with much affection by her parents, Jaigun grew up surrounded by forty maidens. When she was ten years old, Jaigun developed an interest in learning wrestling. However, princesses are not taught wrestling, so she had to disguise herself as a man. Secretly, Jaigun trained in wrestling and horseback riding, showing remarkable strength. She could easily grab the trunk of a huge elephant and throw it if she wished.
No one could predict when Jaigun would return to the palace or when she would leave for the forest and jungle for hunting. Such was Jaigun’s intelligence. Thus, she spent another ten years involved in hunting, wrestling, and horseback riding. At that time, the king took notice of his daughter. He called the queen and raised the topic of Jaigun’s marriage. However, Jaigun placed a peculiar condition:
“Whoever can defeat me in a fight – Only they will be able to win my hand.”
Moreover, she declared that those who could not defeat her in battle would have to serve her as slaves, or she would not hesitate to kill them.
Such words from a princess—could they be fitting? The king was deeply troubled. However, he loved his daughter dearly and could not disregard her words. So, he sent out news to all the surrounding regions. Soon enough, the city of Erem was swarming with princes. They came with large, muscular bodies, along with their entourages, all for one purpose—to defeat Jaigun.
The sight of so many people made the king and queen nervous, but Jaigun remained unfazed. She, along with her forty handmaidens, prepared for battle. When she entered the field, many were terrified, their hearts trembling in fear. However, many stayed on, determined to protect their honor, while others quietly slipped away. The battles began one by one, with many losing their lives and others fleeing for safety. No one could withstand Jaigun for long. She captured some to serve as her slaves, while showing mercy to others and letting them go. In no time, the battlefield was in chaos, with Jaigun standing victorious, laughing her triumphant laugh.
Now, no one could stop Jaigun from going on hunts anymore. However, she always dressed as a man when she went out, fearing that people would trouble her if they mistook her for a woman. One day, while hunting in the forest, Jaigun encountered Abu Hanifa, another hunter. Seeing another hunter in her territory, Jaigun became furious and threatened him to leave the jungle immediately. But Abu Hanifa was not fooled like the others. He quickly realized that Jaigun was not a man, but the princess of Erem.
In the heat of the moment, a fight broke out between the two. Abu Hanifa, however, did not wish to raise his hand against a woman. Still, Jaigun continued to battle fiercely on her own. At one point during the fight, Hanifa deliberately held his breath, appearing to lose consciousness. God’s divine hand was upon him, and he relied on this spiritual power to feign defeat. Jaigun, unaware of this miracle, took it as her victory. In her triumph, she captured Hanifa’s two brothers—Jafar and Ahmad—and took them away as prisoners. Their other companion, the warrior Maqbul, managed to escape and save himself.
“None could match the princess in combat,
The brave Shahzadi had defeated Hanifa.”
For three long days and nights, Abu Hanifa lay beneath the mountain, without a single drop of food or water. Meanwhile, Maqbul—the lone warrior who had escaped—hid himself within the crags of the same mountain, keeping a close watch over Hanifa from afar. Once he was certain the danger had passed and the forest was quiet again, he approached Hanifa and gently helped him rise. Then the two set off for home.
But returning home did not bring peace. Abu Hanifa, filled with shame, couldn’t even meet anyone’s gaze. And to make things worse, even his own mother, Honufa Bibi, greeted him with stinging words and bitter scorn:
“Murtaza Ali’s own son, Abu Hanifa,
Whose name once echoed far with praise and pride—
If you couldn’t hold your own against a woman,
How could you bear the disgrace of being beaten by her hand?”
Hearing such harsh and humiliating words from his own mother, Hanifa could no longer bear to stay at home. That very night, his heart heavy with sorrow and shame, he left the house in silence.
The next morning, when Honufa Bibi realized her son was missing, regret flooded her heart. Desperation overtook her pride, and determined to find him, she disguised herself in men’s clothing and mounted a swift horse. With furious resolve, she galloped toward the land of Erem—so fast, in fact, that she arrived before Hanifa did.
At that very moment, Princess Jaigun was out hunting. Hearing the thunderous sound of hooves racing through her territory, her blood boiled. Who dared ride with such arrogance in her land? Who was this bold warrior?
Without waiting for answers, Jaigun rode out to confront the intruder. Thus began a fierce and fiery battle between the two formidable women. Honufa Bibi, though brave, was no match for the mighty Jaigun and soon lay defeated upon the ground.
Seeing his mother struck down, Abu Hanifa was overcome with rage and grief. No longer holding back, he charged into battle against Jaigun once more—this time, with the fury of a son fighting for honor, and the fire of a warrior unwilling to lose again. A storm of swords clashed as their duel erupted into a battle more intense than ever before.
**“Swords clash with ringing steel, spears resound with thunder—
Then begins the roaring battle.
Maces swing with fury, like lightning crashing down,
Their echoes are heard far and wide.”**
After such a fearsome battle, Jaigun’s strength, skills, and every weapon in her arsenal proved useless. It was Abu Hanifa who emerged victorious. Eventually, peace was made between the two, and Hanifa expressed his wish to marry Jaigun. With mutual understanding, they set off together on the journey toward Madinah.
However, Hanifa’s mother—Honufa Bibi—still harbored resentment toward Jaigun. After all, it was Jaigun who had once thrown her from horseback!
Honufa Bibi still didn’t trust Jaigun—so she was given a rope to hold onto, just in case. Meanwhile, Abu Hanifa had to return to Erem to continue his mission of spreading the word of faith. So from that point, he bid farewell and sent the two women—his mother and Jaigun—on their way toward Madinah.
But they hadn’t gone far when yet another challenge emerged.
They had just reached the roads of the distant kingdom of Kohkaf, when they encountered a foreign prince riding the same path. At the sight of Jaigun, mounted confidently on horseback, the prince was stunned. In an instant, he became obsessed.
**“The princess of Erem, her name is Jaigun—
At the mere sight of her, the foreign prince became a Majnun.”**
A mother never gives up her son’s entrusted one so easily—and certainly not to a stranger. So it didn’t take long before Honufa Bibi was locked in a fierce battle with the foreign prince.
Meanwhile, Jaigun was still bound by the rope—unable to move freely, unable to help. Her strength was useless in that moment.
At last, the archangel Jibra’il (Gabriel) was sent down to aid the wounded woman. In the blink of an eye, he carried Honufa Bibi away to safety.
Bloodied and bruised, her body torn and aching, she still had only one thing on her mind:
“What happened to Jaigun Bibi?”
Elsewhere, Jaigun and her forty handmaidens were desperately searching for Honufa Bibi. But under the spell of Jibra’il’s magic, the entire land had been cloaked in darkness. No one could see a thing—not the trees, not the path, not even the stars.
Jaigun’s forty loyal handmaidens quickly gathered around and freed her from the ropes that had bound her. No sooner was she free than the foreign prince summoned his massive army—
three hundred and forty-five thousand soldiers, marching with spears and shields, determined to defeat her.
But when Jaigun entered the battlefield, her sheer power and presence sent shockwaves through the enemy ranks. One by one, soldiers began to flee, realizing they were up against no ordinary warrior.
“With sword in hand she charged the army—
Like a tiger loosed among helpless goats.”
It didn’t take long for all to understand—no one could win against a warrior like her.
Not the prince.
Not his legions.
Not even fate itself.
“Those who dared to face the warrior queen—
None returned victorious.”
The foreign prince, realizing brute force could not win Jaigun, now turned to deceit and trickery.
“If not by war or strength,” he thought,
“perhaps with cunning and magic, I can still make her mine.”
He sent his vizier to deliver a secret message:
In the royal gardens, there lived an old flower-seller, a crone with the gift of sorcery.
“If anyone can bend Jaigun’s will,” the vizier whispered,
“it’s her.”
So the prince, greedy with hope, went with the vizier to the old enchantress.
And for a heap of gold and silver, the woman agreed:
“All the magic I know, though I be a wretched soul,
I’ll use it all, and bring Jaigun under your control.”
But before she could lift a single spell, the Prophet himself appeared to her in a dream, bathed in divine light.
With a voice full of mercy and fire, he warned:
“Harm not the warrior Jaigun—
Turn from evil, lest your own soul be lost.”
The old sorceress awoke with a shudder, her heart pounding.
Tears in her eyes, she realized the terrible mistake she had almost made.
At once, she rushed to Jaigun’s palace, trembling as she spoke the truth:
Every deceit, every scheme, every charm the prince had plotted—
She revealed it all.
The old sorceress, in a fit of rage and revenge, had a potion of poison hidden in her pouch. Quietly, she poured it into the prince’s milk. Within moments, the prince drank it, unaware of the deadly toxin within. The poison quickly took its toll, and soon, the prince was dead, his lifeless body lying in the palace.
“In the milk, there was poison, unknown to him—
Sitting in delight, he drank his doom.”
Meanwhile, Jaigun and her forty loyal companions set out to confront the prince’s army. They fought fiercely and were victorious in battle, sending the enemy scattering. Afterward, Jaigun commanded that the taxes be sent to the king in Medina and announced her next mission. She turned to the king and said:
“As for the kingdom, you rule it with might,
But I go in search of the great wrestler, Hanifa, tonight.”
Meanwhile, Abu Hanifa was not at peace either. On his way to Erem city, he had to pass through the kingdom of Jindal, the king of the jinn. Seeing Hanifa accompanied by his army, King Jindal thought it was an invasion from a foreign land. He immediately assumed Hanifa to be his enemy. However, Hanifa, unaware of the situation, went to rest under a tree in the garden.
At that moment, Kua Pari, the princess of Paristan, saved Hanifa’s life. She was the daughter of the queen of Paristan. Before Hanifa could leave for Erem, the Kua Pari advised him to go to the kingdom of Emran. The two warrior sisters of Emran were causing havoc in his land, and despite Emran’s efforts to stop them, they had imprisoned him in his own house, blocking the door with a massive stone. Kua Pari told Hanifa that the only way to free Emran was to go to his kingdom and defeat his sisters.
Listening to the advice of the Pari, Hanifa traveled to Emran’s kingdom. He first fought and defeated the two warrior sisters, freeing King Emran. Afterward, Hanifa spoke to everyone about peace and religion, and set out on his mission once more.
“Emran’s king, freed by Hanifa’s spear,
Told him, ‘Go to Medina, pay the due tribute there.’”
Now, the destination was Erem city, where Jaigun’s father sat on the throne. Meanwhile, Jaigun too had reached Erem in search of Hanifa. On the way to Erem, Hanifa stood on the mountain of Kohkaf Nagar and let out a mighty roar, which made the entire court of Erem’s king—including the king and his ministers—tremble with fear. Understanding that danger was near, the king sent a spy to gather information. Upon learning the truth, the spy returned with the news that the enemy was none other than the king’s own daughter, standing with the opposing forces.
In a fit of rage and sorrow, the king’s heart broke. He too set out with his army, determined to destroy the enemy. A fierce battle ensued between the two sides, though Hanifa’s forces easily overpowered the king’s army. Waves of soldiers fell one by one.
“How many warriors, losing their senses,
Lay unconscious on the ground, fallen.”
Since fighting wasn’t yielding results, the king’s vizier devised another plan. In the cover of night, they dug pits at various places. Hanifa tripped and fell into one such pit. Despite Jaigun’s best efforts to pull her out, she was in no condition to continue fighting. Realizing that danger was imminent, Jaigun took Hanifa to the kingdom of Emran and left her there, while he went to face the battle alone against the king of Erem.
During the battle, Jaigun struck the king’s chest with his sword—one that he had once loved dearly. After this, Jaigun didn’t look back at Erem. With his soldiers, elephants, and horses, he marched forward with unwavering determination.
Jaigun and Hanifa together went on to overthrow many kingdoms, bringing people towards the path of righteousness. Kua Pari often took Hanifa to Paristhan, but her heart could never settle there. She would always return to Jaigun’s side.