Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan

ISBN: 0300251270

Author: Lal, Ruby

Condition: New

A captivating biography of one of the worlds greatest adventurers, the itinerant Mughal Princess Gulbadan, based on her long-forgotten memoirLonglisted for the Cundill History Prize Finalist, Georgia Author of the Year Award Shortlisted for James Tait Black Prize in BiographyRuby Lal coaxes the remarkable Gulbadan out from the shadows of history.-Sara Wheeler, Wall Street JournalSituated in the early decades of the magnificent Mughal Empire, this first ever biography of Princess Gulbadan offers an enthralling portrait of a charismatic adventurer and unique pictures of the multicultural society in which she lived. Following a migratory childhood that spanned Kabul and north India, Gulbadan spent her middle years in a walled harem established by her nephew Akbar to showcase his authority as the Great Emperor. Gulbadan longed for the exuberant itinerant lifestyle shed known. With Akbars blessing, she led an unprecedented sailing and overland voyage and guided harem women on an extended pilgrimage in Arabia. Amid increasing political tensions, the womens un-Islamic behavior forced their return, lengthened by a dramatic shipwreck in the Red Sea.Gulbadan wrote a book upon her return, the only extant work of prose by a woman of the age. A portion of it is missing, either lost to history or redacted by officials who did not want the princess to have her say.Vagabond Princess contemplates the story of the missing pages and breathes new life into a daring historical figure. It offers a portal to a richly complex world, rife with movement and migration, where womens conviviality, adventure, and autonomies shine through.