Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World

by Ruby Lal

Ruby Lal explores domestic life and the place of women in the Mughal court of the sixteenth century. Challenging traditional, orientalist interpretations of the haram that have portrayed a domestic world of seclusion and sexual exploitation, she reveals a complex society where noble men and women negotiated their everyday life and public-political affairs. Combining Ottoman and Safavid histories, she demonstrates the richness as well as ambiguity of the Mughal haram, which was pivotal in the transition to institutionalization and imperial excellence.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, India

260 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2005

About the author

Ruby Lal is professor of South Asian history at Emory University. She is the author of Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World, and Coming of Age in Nineteenth Century India: The Girl-Child and the Art of Playfulness.

Reviews

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruby Lal writes against received histories of "the harem," which portray it as a timeless, universal, den of eroticism entirely separate from the public world of politics. Her work is part of a larger feminist historiographical critique of the "public/private" dichotomy. In her book she examines the changes in the domestic world of the Mughals from the first peripatetic Emperor Babur to the establishment of a much more stable empire with Emperor Akbar. She shows that even when the harem comes to be institutionalized in Akbar's reign, which brings with it a much greater degree of invisibility of women, women continue to be active in the so-called public sphere. In particular she discusses the power wielded by Hamideh Banu Begum, Akbar's mother,and the Royal Women's Hajj organized by Gulbedan Banu Begum, his aunt. She argues that these women should not be marginalized as "exceptional" but rather that the represent the powerful roles occupied by elder royal women.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Focused on the first 3 Mughal emperors and how they organized the world around them to reflect their power and influence. Women and their positions in the world are mostly controlled in public, but that does not mean they didn't have powerful private positions.

Lal doesn't find new sources; she goes back to the ones we already have and focuses on new ways of looking at them. She also examines the art, looking at the placement of the women in minuatures.

[Navya DSouza · Rating 4 out of 5]

An academic paper that examines the domestic world of the early Mughals. It is great to explore history from the perspective of Mughal women and their role in upholding and expanding an empire. This makes for a great foundation to take that leap into women's perspectives of the era.

[Rhyma · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting read.