Jahan Ara Begum 1614-1681 - by Nausheen Jaffery (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

An Indian princess left behind contributions to a varied legacy which is still a vibrant part of our lives. It can be seen in the Chandni Chowk bazaar-street of Delhi, the commercial port-city of Surat in Gujarat, the gardens of Kashmir, the Jama Masjid of Agra, and in her poetry and scholarly works on Sufi saints. Nausheen Jaffery brings to us the story of the remarkable Jahan Ara Begum (1614-1681). Entrusted with responsibilities at a very young age, her artistic and literary accomplishments, power and piety have ensured her a place in history.
In the absence of comprehensive archives, research on early modern India tended to hover around the old staples of administration, commerce and political intrigue. The individuals holding the strings were seldom three-dimensional. Only in the last two decades has this changed and women actors have been identified, mostly by women authors. We now get to know of highly educated and confident Mughal women, equally at home in administration and in negotiating commercial deals, in visualizing noble architecture and gardens.

Nausheen Jaffery's is one of the earliest biographical studies of Jahan Ara, and an all-encompassing one with Jahan Ara in all her avatars. In her, we see Babur's love for gardens, Shahjahan's love for architecture, Akbar's eclectic spiritualism, Akbar's and Jehangir's interest in the world beyond India, and Humayun's fascination with mysticism. In her we see Gulbadan's literary flair, Nur Jahan's political astuteness, Mumtaz Mahal's masterful domestic management.

About the Author

Nausheen Jaffrey (1972-2004) came from a family of Farsi scholars. Her mentor was Dr Yunus Jaffery and she continued his tradition of helping scholars with translations. After a BA in history from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi and an MA in medieval history from Jamia Millia Islamia, Nausheen went on to complete an MPhil degree, writing her dissertation on Jahan Ara Begum. During her college years, she translated Sangin Beg's Sair-ul-Manazil from Persian, and Urdu texts for scholars like Margrit Pernau and William Dalrymple. She completed a diploma in Farsi with distinction.

Tragically, Nausheen's career was cut short and her life claimed by cancer in 2004, but her work lives on after her. Sangin Beg: Sair-ul-Manazil, edited by Swapna Liddle, was published by Tulika Books in 2017, twenty years after Nausheen had translated it. The present book, edited by Shailaja Kathuria, is an updated version of her MPhil dissertation, a biographical sketch of the Mughal princess Jahan Ara, which was first published in 2011.

Shailaja Kathuria works on the sustainability of traditional knowledge and skills with marginalised communities, and on the relevance of history and heritage. Her research specialisation has been nineteenth-century Agra.