"... finding her entails peering around the towering figures of men ..."
Nur Jahan was one of the most powerful and influential women in Indian history. Born amid a caravan traveling from Teheran to India, she became the last (eighteenth or twentieth) wife of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. When he succumbed to the effects of alcohol and drugs, she effectively took control of the government (1611-1627). Her reign is said to have marked the highpoint of the Mughal empire, during the course of which she made great contributions to the arts, religion, and the nascent trade with Europe. Her rise was swift - her downfall swifter, and she was effectively written out of Mughal history by Shah Jahan.
Ruby Lal's book is one of two biographies on this woman - the other being Ellison Banks Findly's Nur Jahan - Empress of Mughal India (which I haven't read, though a comparison between the two would be interesting). Lal says she is a feminist historian who is determined to "... tell the stories of women and girls, which are largely missing from the precolonial and colonial history of South Asia ..." - and this biography is written from a feminist viewpoint (more on that later). Her background in the study of Mughal history and culture serves her well, for the prose is very descriptive, so much so, you get a sense of actually being there.
We learn of a young girl (Mehrunissa) who meets Prince Salim (Jahangir) and they fall in love. Circumstance see her married to another, and it is only when Salim rebels against his father that they are brought together - her husband Ali Gurli was one of Salim's supporters. Upon his accession Saiem, now Jahangir, rewards her family where they take up positions within the new court. Mehrunsissa learns a lot during this period as her husband is often absent for a great portion of her marriage. When Jahangir's son rebels (1606 - 1607), Mehrusinssa's family falls under suspicion as does her husband, who later dies. Both she and her daughter are brought before the Emperor.
The trouble is, like most women whose voices are dimmed, sometimes there is just not a lot to write about and so we tend to hear more about them from the context of the males in their lives. For instance, we still don't really know how she rose to become the favoured wife - one out of many harem women. Nor the circumstances that led to her marriage to Jahangir in 1611.
We are told that she used her influence though patronage and family connections - her family had been firmly placed at the court of Jahangir's father Akbar and of Jahangir himself; her daughter from her first marriage, Ladl Begum, was married to Shahryar (d.1628) one of Jahnagir's sons (though not his successor).
Following the deaths of both her parents Nur Jahan was left without a support network when another of Jahangir's sons - Khurram (Shah Jahan) - rebelled amid fears of being displaced in the line of succession (1622). Here, she is blamed for inciting sedition which resulted in the execution of Shahryar and a number of other princes. When Jahangir himself is captured (1626), it is Nur Jahan who engineers his rescue. However, her triumph was short-lived as Jahangir was dead the following year (1627) and Shah Jahan ascended the throne (1628). It is now that, despite her building works, that Nur Jahan fades from the pages of history (very similar situation to that of Hatshepsut of Egypt).
Lal is up front by claiming her biography of Nur Jahan is being written from a feminist viewpoint which essentially refers to the re-reading of history from a female perspective though sometimes interchangeable with feminist historiography, the restructuring of the history from the perspective of women. Why not just write a balanced (or as balanced as is possible) biography or history? Why the need for terms and labels?
This biography however, is observational rather than factual. And it comes down to the sources used, which Lal claims, have been neglected and ignored by others - specifically Jahangir's own memoirs (wherein Nur Jahan is mentioned over 30 times) and the memoirs of Gulbadan Begum, whose descriptions of court life were extrapolated into / onto the life of Nur Jahan. Lal says she also made use later court histories and of the writing of those who visited the court: artists, tradesmen, diplomats, visitors and curious observers who were often ".. observing and assessing though his own cultural lens ..". Though how they had access to the imperial harem is a questioned I would love answered!
With nothing written in her own hand or by another expressing her own words, we know very little about this woman, except through the eyes of others. And Nur Jahan is not alone in this; there are many authors today, trying to piece together the fragmentary lives of notable women, to retell their stories from, I guess, a more retrospective and understanding voice. Some succeeded - others haven't.
There was still so much I wanted to learn about Nur Jahan that wasn't really covered here as the information was just not there. What Lal's book does do is gives us a fairly decent introduction into this woman. Lal says "... I didn't undo the legends. But I distilled them..." (CS Monitor 27th June 2018) - and sometimes, that is all we can do.
I will be looking forward to new forthcoming book on Gulbadan Begum, daughter of Mughal Emperor Babur (d.1556). I am straying away from predominantly Euro-centric histories and seeking out more variety further afield. Funny thing is - the stories are similar just different settings. It really is a small world afterall.
Further reading:
Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire by Ira Mukhoty
Nur Jahan - Empress of Mughal India by Ellison Banks Findly
Private Life Of The Mughals Of India (1526-1803 A.D.) by R. Nath
Attendant Lords: Bairam Khan and Abdur Rahim, Courtiers and Poets in Mughal India by T.C.A. Raghavan
Baburnama by Zahiru’din Muhammad Babur Padshah Ghazi and trans. by Annette Susannah Beveridge
Akbar and The Rise of The Mughal Empire by GB Malleson
“Light of the World”: The Life and Legacy of Nur Jahan (1577−1645) by Maggie Schuster
Nur Jahan (wikipedia)
Novels:
The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan (also: Feast of Roses and Shadow Princess)
Nur Jahan's Daughter by Tanushree Podder
Queen & Emperor: A Novel of the Mughal Empire by Tony Raosto
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