Vagabond Princess : The Great Adventures of Gulbadan

Set in the early decades of the Mughal Empire | this first ever biography of Princess Gulbadan | the daughter of Emperor Babur | offers an enthralling portrait of a charismatic adventurer and the multicultural society in which she lived. Following a migratory childhood in Kabul and north India | Gulbadan spent her middle years in a walled harem established by her nephew Akbar. Longing for the exuberant itinerant lifestyle she had known | she led | with Akbar's blessing | an extended pilgrimage by harem women to Mecca and other parts of Arabia. Amid increasing political tensions | the women's "un-Islamic " behavior forced their return | which was lengthened by a dramatic shipwreck in the Red Sea. Gulbadan wrote a book upon her return | the only surviving work of prose by a woman of her times. A portion of it is missing | either lost to history or redacted by officials who did not want the princess to have her say. As she contemplates the story of the missing pages | Lal breathes new life into an extraordinary Mughal figure | and establishes her place in a history that has long been dominated by men's actions and words.