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Book Cover for: Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, Ruby Lal

Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan

Ruby Lal

Paperback
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Four centuries ago, a Muslim woman ruled an empire. Nur Jahan, daughter of a Persian noble and widow of a subversive official, became the twentieth and most cherished wife of the Emperor Jahangir. Nur ruled the vast Mughal Empire alongside her husband, leading troops into battle, signing imperial orders, and astutely handling matters of the state.

Acclaimed historian Ruby Lal uncovers the rich life and world of Nur Jahan, rescuing this dazzling figure from patriarchal and Orientalist clichés of romance and intrigue, and giving new insight into the lives of women and girls in the Mughal Empire. In Empress, Nur Jahan finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography that awakens us to a fascinating history.

Book Details

  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
  • Publish Date: Apr 28th, 2020
  • Pages: 336
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.10in - 5.40in - 1.00in - 0.60lb
  • EAN: 9780393357677
  • Categories: • Royalty• Women• Asia - South - General

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About the Author

Lal, Ruby: - Ruby Lal is an award-winning historian of India and professor of South Asian history at Emory University whose writing has appeared in Time, BBC History, and Literary Hub. She is the author of Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her most recent book, Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan, was longlisted for the prestigious Cundill History Prize and received praise from the BBC, Wall Street Journal, and Times Literary Supplement, among others. She divides her time between Atlanta, Georgia, and Delhi, India.

More books by Ruby Lal

Book Cover for: Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan, Ruby Lal
Book Cover for: Tiger Slayer: The Extraordinary Story of Nur Jahan, Empress of India, Ruby Lal
Book Cover for: Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World, Ruby Lal
Book Cover for: Coming of Age in Nineteenth-Century India, Ruby Lal

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Asian Review of Books
Asian Review of Books
@BookReviewsAsia
1 year

The Asian Review of Books is a dedicated pan-Asia book review publication. (Tweets of other publications' reviews/articles and retweets are for interest only.)

List incl: Europe’s India / Sanjay Subrahmanyam https://t.co/NIo7DO6RJJ; India in the Persianate Age / Richard M Eaton https://t.co/71ZOhJUfKX; Empress: Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan / Ruby Lal https://t.co/4R8dEA2L2E; The Anarchy / William Dalrymple https://t.co/mbqJJqF2jW

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Brannon Ingram
Brannon Ingram
@brannoningram
3 years

Associate Prof of Religious Studies @NorthwesternU | Islam in South Asia, colonialism, modernity | married to @lindsay_utz | girl dad | he/him/his

Just finished Ruby Lal's Empress. Currently listening to Wendy Doniger's The Hindus. Next on my list is Stranger in the Shogun's City by my colleague @astanley711. What are you listening to? Especially grateful to tips/leads on Islam and/or South Asia related books.

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Rana Safvi رعنا राना
Rana Safvi رعنا राना
@iamrana
2 years

founder #shair| Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb| author~translator| latest book - In Search of the Divine: Living Histories of Sufism in India

In Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan,Ruby Lal describes Nur Jahan as a co-sovereign based on her fine reading of historical sources. Nur Jahan is again of those who are portrayed as scheming or taking advantage of a drunkard husband. This books lays those doubts to rest

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Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

Intriguing, inspiring, and relevant to us today in twenty-first-century America.--Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran
This is an outstanding book, not only incredibly important but also a fabulous piece of writing. Here, India's greatest empress is reborn in all her fascinating glory in a luminescent account of her life and times. Ruby Lal has written a classic--one of the best biographies to come out this year and certainly the best ever of Nur Jahan.--Amanda Foreman, author of The World Made by Women
Nur Jahan emerges from this biography as a spirited, brilliant, and gifted leader. Nur's story weaves into Lal's gorgeous, nuanced portrait of the glittering splendour of the Mughal Empire and how its political, military, and cultural destinies were shaped by this remarkable refugee-turned-empress--Gareth Russell, author of Young and Damned and Fair
In filling in the details of Nur Jahan's life, Ms. Lal has not only written a revisionist feminist biography; she has also provided a vivid picture of the Mughal court, with its luxuries, beauties, intrigues and horrors.-- "Economist"
Lal's intriguing biography, with its chronology of her relatively swift rise to power and even swifter descent, restores Nur Jahan to her full splendour.--Jane Ciabattari "BBC"
Despite the spare record she has to work with, Lal paints richly detailed scenes from Nur's life.... Lal ably guides the reader through the rich drama and intrigue of Nur's later life with Jahangir, whom she married after Quli was killed.... Lal has done a service to readers interested in the Mughal period and the many forgotten or poorly remembered women of Indian history. She has helped shine a little light on an enigmatic character many think they know but few actually understand.--Vikas Bajaj "New York Times Book Review"
Ruby Lal, professor of South Asian studies at Emory University, challenges the well-worn fictions of Nur Jahan's life and legacy.... A cross between Princess Diana, Mother Teresa and Annie Oakley, her Empress is scarcely human.--Maxwell Carter "Wall Street Journal"
An absorbing portrait of a remarkable woman, but also offers a stylish reconstruction of a fascinating slice of Mughal life.--Sameer Rahim "Telegraph"
Lal shows that [Nur's] reign had a lasting effect on female empowerment, enabling royal wives to issue an array of orders beyond the harem.-- "The New Yorker"
Lal... paints rich multisensory tapestries... providing context and evidence to show that due to Nur's surroundings, history, and contemporaries, she was probably a progressive, worldly, multitalented, forward-thinking woman warrior from the outset.... Lal releases Nur from the condescending ways in which previous commentators have trivialized, belittled, and diminished her accomplishments.--Gary Singh "Los Angeles Review of Books"

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Asian Review of Books
Asian Review of Books
@BookReviewsAsia
1 year

The Asian Review of Books is a dedicated pan-Asia book review publication. (Tweets of other publications' reviews/articles and retweets are for interest only.)

List incl: Europe’s India / Sanjay Subrahmanyam https://t.co/NIo7DO6RJJ; India in the Persianate Age / Richard M Eaton https://t.co/71ZOhJUfKX; Empress: Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan / Ruby Lal https://t.co/4R8dEA2L2E; The Anarchy / William Dalrymple https://t.co/mbqJJqF2jW

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Brannon Ingram
Brannon Ingram
@brannoningram
3 years

Associate Prof of Religious Studies @NorthwesternU | Islam in South Asia, colonialism, modernity | married to @lindsay_utz | girl dad | he/him/his

Just finished Ruby Lal's Empress. Currently listening to Wendy Doniger's The Hindus. Next on my list is Stranger in the Shogun's City by my colleague @astanley711. What are you listening to? Especially grateful to tips/leads on Islam and/or South Asia related books.

twitter.com
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