Gulbadan Begum: the Mughal Jane Austen

Gulbadan Begum was meant to live a quiet life in the confines of a Mughal harem. Instead she made her mark on history twice: first, embarking on a pioneering pilgrimage to Islam’s holy cities; second, writing a remarkable history of her dynasty. Ruby Lal tells her story

A c1800 depiction of Gulbadan Begum smoking while seated on a throne-like armchair.

Published: October 3, 2024 at 9:05 AM

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It all began in early 1576. Princess Gulbadan Begum sat opposite her nephew, the Mughal emperor Akbar, waiting for her turn to speak. The princess was of medium height, with distinctive straight eyebrows over penetrating eyes. She was dressed in a flowing long top over loose trousers, her chest covered with a stole thrown casually over her shoulders and head. Ruby and pearl necklaces adorned her neck.

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Gulbadan dressed and carried herself like a woman of great standing. And why shouldn’t she? She was, after all, the daughter of Babur, the revered warrior-king who had conquered Delhi in 1526 and in doing so laid the foundations for the Mughal empire. Bearing the wisdom of the decades she had spent on the move across Afghanistan and India, Gulbadan was now a key matriarch in Akbar’s harem. As for the emperor, he was fully cognisant of her status as a powerful elder. But he hadn’t granted his aunt an audience just to pay his respects to her. Gulbadan had asked for the meeting without revealing the topic.

And when Gulbadan began to speak, she presented something even Akbar couldn’t fathom. She wished to embark on a journey across the seas to the Muslim holy cities, she informed him. That way – through the act of pilgrimage – she would fulfil her pledge to God.

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Ruby Lal explores the life of Gulbadan Begum, princess, explorer and author of an extraordinary account of the rise of the Mughal empire Listen now

What Gulbadan was proposing was extraordinary. The harem where Gulbadan and other women of the Mughal court were living was fundamental to Akbar’s plan to broadcast his image as an invincible sovereign. Since ascending the Mughal throne in 1556, Akbar had extended Babur’s realm through a mixture of war and canny diplomacy. Now he was determined to have all of India at his feet. Decreeing that all women attached to the Mughal dynasty must move into their designated harem apartments in the new capital of Fatehpur Sikri was central to that design. No more wandering the lands as his forefathers and their women had done. The women were now to be fully settled, mysterious and invisible. This was how Akbar advertised the grandeur and awe of his glory.

As ambassadors and peacemakers, elder women like Gulbadan were key to the political affairs of the Mughal empire

What Gulbadan was requesting of the emperor therefore represented a complete reversal of policy. Yet instead of dismissing her out of hand, Akbar listened to his aunt’s proposal. He knew she was enormously powerful. As ambassadors, peacemakers and councillors, elder women were key to the political affairs of the empire. It would serve the emperor’s interests if he had Gulbadan on his side.

Although the aunt and the nephew sat talking about the hajj (pilgrimage), in fact they each had a different predicament. Gulbadan was a vagabond princess. Adventure was at the core of her being. She was born into a long line of itinerant rulers that went all the way back to Genghis Khan, and had not always lived in palaces. In fact, for most of her life, she had resided, often happily, in tents, citadels and gardens.

Gulbadan’s travels had begun at the age of six when Babur had decreed that all Mughal women and children in his stronghold of Kabul were to migrate to Hindustan to cultivate deeper relations in the areas that he had conquered in 1526. And so Gulbadan became the first Mughal girl to travel in a caravan across the Khyber Pass and the massive Indus river en route to being reunited with her father. With migration came a new land, new languages, new relationships, many points of view. Movement was part of her universe, and now she sought a new adventure.

The sacred cosmos

Gulbadan knew that, although the majority of pilgrims were devout, the hajj was not just about piety. Trade, politics and religion intertwined in the holy city of Mecca, a mercantile republic on the Red Sea. Seekers and mystics travelled there simply to absorb the aura of the desert land where many prophets were given revelations. Sojourners, or mujawirs, spent years learning, wandering and living in the sacred Arabian cosmos. Scholars went to gain expertise in the traditions (hadith) of the life and times of Prophet Muhammad in some of the finest schools in the holy cities.

Akbar, meanwhile, had dreams of being the head of the Islamic world. As a godlike king, he would be the final arbiter of law, gaining utmost power within the framework of Islam to prevent any further challenge to his authority. To achieve this, he needed the support of women like Gulbadan.

And so, when Gulbadan proposed the hajj, Akbar accepted the idea, even though the difficulties of navigating the waters to the holy cities nestled upon the Red Sea were mammoth. Pirates regularly attacked pilgrim ships. He’d have to negotiate with the Portuguese, who controlled the sea lanes to western Arabia, and acquire the cartaz, a mandatory travel pass.

Once she had Akbar’s consent, Gulbadan began to work on the details of her journey. Her party would consist of 11 close female relatives and associates as well as reliable servants. The court leader of the hajj and three other men were to accompany the convoy, along with a Turkish artillery officer (who would serve as an interpreter), and scores of soldiers, attendants, cooks and other staff.

And so, at the ripe age of 52, Gulbadan led a group of harem women across the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Gulbadan was away for four years and performed the rites of pilgrimage on four occasions. According to the court historian Abd-al Qadir Badayuni, her party even travelled overland to the holy cities of Iran, such as Mashhad.

This was the first time that a large party of Mughal women had undertaken the pilgrimage – and it wasn’t long before their presence in the holy cities was causing a stir. Contemporary reports suggest that crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of the women around mosques, fountains and markets. Their practice of giving alms to the poor only increased their celebrity.

Yet not everyone was impressed by the women’s generosity. Ottoman sultan Murad III viewed this Mughal party’s incursion into his territory as a threat; he simply could not allow a group of women to violate his authority through their munificence. And so he declared their presence indecorous, accused them of creating ‘fitna’ (chaos), and ordered their eviction from the holy place. There was not a word from Akbar in response to Murad’s charges, even though the Red Sea and the Indian coast were closely knit and in constant contact. And so Gulbadan was forced to return home.

Gulbadan penned in exceptional detail the ragged and robust lives of the people of her dynasty

Five years after her return, Gulbadan began another astonishing journey, this time from behind the parapets of the harem in Mughal Lahore. Around 1587, Akbar made an announcement that would transform the idea of record-keeping in Mughal history. He commissioned the first official history of his empire and asked esteemed servants and state officers, all male, to record their memories as a source for his grand work. Akbar also approached one venerable woman: his accomplished Aunt Gulbadan, now aged 63.

What Gulbadan delivered was no simple memoir of an elderly lady. She penned in exceptional detail the ragged and robust lives of the people of her dynasty – ambitious men, subversive women, brilliant eunuchs and devoted nurses – and, in doing so, became the first woman to write a prose chronicle in the Islamic world. As an author, she was a pioneer – a Jane Austen for her times – committed to recording Mughal daily life, women’s point of view, the places where they lived, what they thought, said and did.

Housed today in the British Library, the lone surviving copy of Gulbadan’s memoir cuts off abruptly mid-sentence. The final portion of it has vanished. Where are the remaining pages? Why is there just one copy of this book when it was the Mughal tradition to create several copies of all important works?

The fate of the final section of Gulbadan’s extraordinary memoir is shrouded in mystery. Yet, 500 years after she walked the Mughal world, nothing can hide the brilliance of its brave, audacious and adventurous author.

Ruby Lal is an award-winning historian of India and professor of south Asian history at Emory University. Her latest book, Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan, was published by Yale in February

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This article was first published in the July 2024 issue of BBC History Magazine

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