Download PDF | (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization) Ruby Lal - Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World-Cambridge University Press (2005).
258 Pages
Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World In a fascinating and innovative study, 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, the author reveals a complex society where noble men and women negotiated their everyday life and public-political affairs in the "inner" chambers as well as the "outer" courts. Using Ottoman and Safavid histories as a counterpoint, she demonstrates the richness, ambiguity, and particularity of the Mughal haram, which was pivotal in the transition to institutionalization and imperial excellence. RUBY LAL is Assistant Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian studies at Emory University. Her research focuses on issues of gender relations in Islamic societies in the pre-colonial world.
Acknowledgments
Many different people and institutions have helped in the making of this book. Words cannot convey my gratitude fully, but they are a beginning. Academic debts: A very special thanks first to Stephen Dale. Afsaneh Najmabadi, Gyan Pandey. Tapan Raychaudhuri, Leslie Peirce, Romila Thapar, and Rita Costa-Gomes for their exacting criticism and unswerving support since the inception of this work. Conversations with colleagues in the US where I converted my D.Phil. thesis into this book have been challenging. critical, and enjoyable.
At the Johns Hopkins University, Toby Ditz. Gabrielle Spiegel, Judy Walkowitz, Jane Bennett, and William Connolly read and commented on multiple drafts of this book, or portions of it. Talal Asad, Gyan Prakash, Suzanne Rait, C. M. Naim, Muzaffar Alam, Kathryn Babayan. Veena Das, Naveeda Khan, Caitrin Lynch, and Colin Johnson read my work and moved me to thinking other possibilities in terms of the direction it could take. David Ludden, Barbara and Tom Metcalf, Barbara Ramusack, Nick Dirks, Peter Stearns, Peter Geschiere, Pamela Reynolds, Christine Stansell, Mary Ryan, Tobie-Meyer Fong. William Rowe, David Bell, David Nirenberg. George Fischer, Dina Siddiqi, Ajay Skaria, Sheldon Pollock, Ali Khan, and Hent de Vries were always supportive. I should also mention the unusual kindness and support of Amartya Sen. Homi Bhabha, Colin Lucas, Daniel Weiss, Mubarak Ali. Girish Karnad, Francis Robinson, and Peter Reeves.
And, not least, my students at the Johns Hopkins University over the last three years, who have read this book in various versions and made me think through its basics repeatedly by asking the most raw questions. In England, David Washbrook and Rosalind O'Hanlon provided early conversations and guidance. Homa Bazyar. my Persian tutor, made me hear and "love the sound of the [Persian] language." as she would repeatedly say in our weekly evening lessons. Tapan Raychaudhuri has been a consistent source of ideas, support, and encouragement. The inquiries that have led to this book began when I was a student in Delhi University, where Monica Juneja. Sunil Kumar. Nayanjot Lahiri, Chandrashekhar (for my first lessons in Persian) and Mahesh Rangarajan discussed and encouraged my work.
I larbans Mukhia. Saleem Kidwai. Sudhir Chandra. Irfan Habib; Qeyamuddin Ahmad and Imtiaz Ahmad (in Patna); and Gautam Bhadra (in Calcutta) gave much- needed guidance on archives. I owe thanks to the librarians and staff of the following libraries for their outstanding service: Indian Institute Library, the Oriental Reading Room and the Oriental Institute in Oxford; the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the National Museum, the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, New Delhi, the Khuda Bakhsh Library, Patna: the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, the Smithsonian Institute, Washington. D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: and the Milton- Eisenhower library of the Johns Hopkins University particularly to Andi Bartelstein and Sue Woodson, who were always ready to chase the most obscure references. For research assistance and technical support. I am thankful to Abigail Baim-Lance, Robert William Kirk, Becky Daniels, Lisa Goldstein, Ann Rose, and Daphne Klautky. A scholarship from the Inlaks Foundation, London, made possible my research and writing at the University of Oxford between 1996 and 2000. 1 thank them, as well as the Beit Fund, the Max Mueller Fund, the Radhakrishnan Bequest, the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, and not least my exceptionally hospitable college. St. Edmund Hall. for many kinds of support along the way.
I am grateful to Marigold Acland, my marvelous editor at Cambridge University Press for her support and astute suggestions; to Stephen Dale for recommending this book to Cambridge University Press; and to the two anonymous readers for their helpful comments. I am also thankful to Attilio Petruccioli, the British Library, and the Victoria and Albert Museum for giving me permission to reproduce three splendid Fatehpur-Sikri plans and several Mughal miniatures in this book. Parts of chapters 3 and 5 have appeared earlier in a different form. Chapter 3 as "Historicizing the Harem: the Challenge of a Princess's Memoir." Feminist Studies, 30, 3 (Fall Winter 2004), and chapter 5 as "The 'Domestic World of Peripatetic Kings: Babur and Humayun, c. 1494 1556," Medieval History Journal, 4, 1 (January-June 2001). Finally a few personal acknowledgments. Allan Sealy, that master of style. did me the honor of reading the manuscript, combing through it line by line. Sehr Jalal, wonderful practitioner of Modern Mughal miniature art, gener- ously gave me permission to reproduce her "Topkapi Doorway" on the cover. David Page and Ruth Kirk-Wilson have been my family in London and always provided the comfort of "home." Margaret Hardiman generously offered us her splendid cottage in Dorset (where I was meant to write!).
I can never forget Lyn and Rod Liddiard's hospitality in Italy, the unbeatable jazz trips with Anish and Susan Mathai in New York: and Mamet-Papet Unterreiner's endless supply of wine in St. Raphael. I cherish greatly my drives and conversations with Mrs. Lillian, my special friendship with Rita Costa-Gomes, as I do Richard Semba's mouth-watering delights. Hashi Dì's version of Mughal recipes, and Mrs. Kishore's doses of Shakespeare and bharva karela. I recall fondly my drinking sessions with John O'Doherty. Clare Hutton, Grant Lamond, Nilanjan Sarkar, Noelene Reeves, and Jon Wilson. To my parents. Prabha and Manmohan, who wanted us to be ourselves. and accepted differences with exceptional grace and equanimity. I dedicate this book in admiration.
I also dedicate this book to Gyan: thanks for your companionship, criticism, and all that "little" love. I want to acknowledge the unique friendship of my sisters Reena and Gudiya: I wouldn't have written this book without you. Thanks also to Prabhakar, who has celebrated my career and different "ways of being" over the last decade. My nieces. Faani and Aashna, were born during the last four years. They have already had to live with this book, and I hope they will critique and revisit its formulations soon. Chaiji is no more, but if she were, she would have been relieved to see "my studies complete." Thanks finally to Sri Kumari Pandey, Asavari, and Nishad for all their affection. Baltimore September 2004
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