Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan

Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan

Lal, Ruby

Hardcover

Biographies GeneralGeneral Middle Eastern HistoryGeneral World History

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0300251270
ISBN13: 9780300251272
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: Feb 27 2024
Pages: 280
Weight: 1.22
Height: 1.05 Width: 6.40 Depth: 9.48
Language: English
A captivating biography of one of the world's greatest adventurers, the itinerant Mughal Princess Gulbadan, based on her long-forgotten memoir

Longlisted for the Cundill History Prize - Finalist, Georgia Author of the Year Award - Shortlisted for James Tait Black Prize in Biography

Ruby Lal coaxes the remarkable Gulbadan out from the shadows of history.--Sara Wheeler, Wall Street Journal

Situated in the early decades of the magnificent Mughal Empire, this first ever biography of Princess Gulbadan offers an enthralling portrait of a charismatic adventurer and unique pictures of the multicultural society in which she lived. Following a migratory childhood that spanned Kabul and north India, Gulbadan spent her middle years in a walled harem established by her nephew Akbar to showcase his authority as the Great Emperor. Gulbadan longed for the exuberant itinerant lifestyle she'd known. With Akbar's blessing, she led an unprecedented sailing and overland voyage and guided harem women on an extended pilgrimage in Arabia. Amid increasing political tensions, the women's un-Islamic behavior forced their return, lengthened by a dramatic shipwreck in the Red Sea.

Gulbadan wrote a book upon her return, the only extant work of prose by a woman of the age. A portion of it is missing, either lost to history or redacted by officials who did not want the princess to have her say.

Vagabond Princess contemplates the story of the missing pages and breathes new life into a daring historical figure. It offers a portal to a richly complex world, rife with movement and migration, where women's conviviality, adventure, and autonomies shine through.

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