In December of 1557, at the age of eighteen, Salima Begum was married to the considerably older Bairam Khan, (who was in his fifties) at Jalandhar, Punjab.[5] Bairam was the Military Commander of the Mughal Empire and a powerful statesman at the Mughal Court. It is said that the marriage excited great interest at Court. It united two streams of descent from Ali Shukr Beg, i.e. the Blacksheep Turkomans from Bairam Khan's side and Timur from Salima's side as Salima was a Timurid through her maternal grandfather, Emperor Babur, and through Mahmud, one of her great-grandfathers.[6] Salima had been betrothed to Bairam Khan by her maternal uncle, Emperor Humayun, during his reign.[7] Salima became Bairam's second wife, after the daughter of Jamal Khan of Mewat, who was the mother to his son, Abdul Rahim. Salima and Bairam Khan's short-lived marriage did not produce any children.