‘If Only That Pitiless Blade Had Pierced My Own Heart and Eyes’: Mughal Royal Women’s Grief as a Form of Political Rhetoric

Abstract

Royal Mughal women have been acknowledged as powerful historical figures in the early modern Persianate world. This article provides a more concrete understanding of the extent and nuances of their power by carrying out a close reading of Mughal princess Gulbadan Begum’s the Humayunnamah, specifically her recollection of the different ways in which royal Mughal women from the sixteenth century used grief as a form of political rhetoric to undergird and even contest power within the imperial family. The Humayunnamah emerges as a pivotal text inviting a re-evaluation of the early Mughal empire as an integrated matriarchy, while also advocating for a deeper exploration of the history of emotions in the early modern Persianate context, particularly from a female-centred perspective.