Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India

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This is the story of one of the most powerful and influential women in Indian history, Nur Jahan. Born on a caravan traveling form Teheran to India, she went on to rule the Mughal empire- in fact if not in name-when she became the eighteenth and last wife of Emperor Jahangir.

Growing up among noble families of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, given in marriage to a Turkish soldier of fortune, later widowed with a small daughter, Nur Jahan was noticed four years later by the emperor at a bazaar. She and opium, she immediately ascended into the vacuum of power.

Nur Jahan had a decisive influence on religious policy, artistic and architectural development, foreign trade, gardening, and the opening up of Kashmir. Barred from long-term power at Jahangir's death by her brother and stepson, Nur Jahan spent the last two decades of her life in exile in Lahore.

An intriguing, elegantly written account of Nur Jahan's life and times, this book not only revises the legends that portray her as a power-hungry and malicious woman, but also investigates the paths to power available to women in Islam and Hinduism.

About the Author:

Ellison Banks Findly is Associate Professor of Religion and Asian Studies at Trinity College. She has degrees from Wellesley, Columbia, and Yale, has aught at Mt. Holyoke College, and has served as a visiting curator at the Worcester Art Museum.