Abdul Rahim was the son of Bairam Khan, Akbar's trusted guardian and mentor, who was of Turkic ancestry. When Humayun returned to India from his exile, he asked his nobles to forge matrimonial alliances with various zamindars and feudal lords across the nation. Humayun married the elder daughter of Khanzada Jamal Khan of Mewat and he asked Bairam Khan to marry the younger daughter. Gazetteer of Ulwur states: Khanzadahs, the royal family of Muslim Jadon Rajputs, converted to Islam after Islamic conquest of northern India. Khanzadah, the Persian form of the Indic word 'Rajput'. Khanzadas were believed to have converted from a branch of Hindu Rajputs. They were the Mewatti Chiefs of the Persian historians, who were the representatives of the ancient Lords of Mewat State. Abdul Rahim was born in Delhi to Bairam Khan and the daughter of Jamal Khan of Mewat of modern-day Haryana. After Bairam Khan was murdered in Patan, Gujarat, his first wife and young Rahim were brought safely from Delhi to Ahmedabad and presented at the royal court of Akbar, who gave him the title of 'Mirza Khan', and subsequently married him to Mah Banusister of Mirza Aziz Kokah, son of Ataga Khan, a noted Mughal noble. Later, Bairam Khan's second wife, Salima Sultan Begum married her cousin, Akbar, which made Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khan also his stepson, and later he became one of his nine prominent ministers, the Navaratnas, or nine gems. Abdul Rahim was known for his strange manner of giving alms to the poor. He never looked at the person he was giving alms to, keeping his gaze downwards in all humility. When Tulsidas heard about Rahim's behaviour when giving alms, he promptly wrote a couplet and sent it to Rahim:- "ऐसी देनी देंन ज्यूँ, कित सीखे हो सैन ज्यों ज्यों कर ऊंच्यो करो, त्यों त्यों निचे नैन" "Why give alms like this? Where did you learn that? Your hands are as high as your eyes are low" Realizing that Tulsidas was well aware of the reasons behind his actions, and was merely giving him an opportunity to say a few lines in reply, he wrote to Tulsidas saying:- "देनहार कोई और है, भेजत जो दिन रैन लोग भरम हम पर करे, तासो निचे नैन" "The Giver is someone else, giving day and night. But the world gives me the credit, so I lower my eyes." His two sons were killed by Akbar's son Jehangir because they were not in favour of Jehangir's accession to the throne at Akbar's death. He is considered a Persophile.
His tomb is situated in Nizamuddin East on the Mathura road near Humayun's Tomb in New Delhi. It was built by him for his wife in 1598, and his body was placed in it in 1627. In 1753-4, marble and sandstone from this tomb was used in the construction of Safdarjung's Tomb, also in New Delhi. In 2014, InterGlobe Foundation and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture announced a project to conserve and restore Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan's tomb. Popularly known as Rahim and immortalised through his dohas or couplets, Rahim was among the most important ministers in Akbar's court. He was one of the Navratnas and continued to serve Salim after his accession to the throne as Emperor Jahangir. Along with taking up restoration work at the monument, AKTC also commissioned a book on Rahim titled Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan: Kavya, Saundrya & Sarthakta. It is edited by Harish Trivedi, with a foreword by poet-lyricist Gulzar and Urdu scholar Gopichand Narang, it has essays by academics such as Ramchandra Shukla, Namvar Singh, Uday Shankar Dubey, Sadanand Sahi, Deepa Gupta and Pratap Kumar Mishra, among others. The tomb sits prominently along the Mathura Road, formerly the Mughal Grand Trunk Road, and lies close to the Dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya and Humayun's Tomb.
