Kingdom, household and body history, gender and imperial service under Akbar

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 41, Issue 5, 2007, Pages 889-923

  O'Hanlon, Rosalind ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GENDER ROLE; HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURE; IMPERIALISM; POLITICAL HISTORY; SOVEREIGNTY;

ASIA; EURASIA; INDIA; SOUTH ASIA;

EID: 34548260763     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: 14698099     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X06002654     Document Type: Article

References (147)

1. There is a very large literature on the construction of Mughal imperial power. For an overview, see Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (eds), The Mughal State 1526-1750, Delhi: Oxford University Press 1998.
2. See also Catherine B. Asher and Cynthia Talbot, India Before Europe Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2006.
3. John Richards,'The formulation of imperial authority under Akbar and Jahangir' in John F. Richards (ed.), Kingship and Authoriy in South Asia, Madison 1978
4. 'Norms of Comportment among Imperial Mughal Officers'in Barbara Daly Metcalf (ed.), Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in South Asian Islam, University of California Press 1984.
5. See Stephen P. Blake, Shahjahanabad: The Sovereign Ciy in Mughal India 1639-1739, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1991,
6. and 'The Patrimonial-Bureaucratic Empire of the Mughals' in Hermann Kulke (ed.), The State in India, Delhi: Oxford University Press 1995.
7. M. Athar Ali, The Apparatus of Empire: Awards of Ranks, Offices and Titles to the Mughal Nobiliy 1574-1658, Delhi: Oxford University Press 1985.
8. Michael Brand and Glenn D. Lowry, Akbar's India: Art from the Mughal City of Victory, New York 1985,
9. and Milo Cleveland Beach, The Imperial Image. Paintings for the Mughal Court, Freer Gallery of Art: Washington, DC, 1981.
10. S.A.A. Rizvi, Religious and Intellectual History of the Muslims in Akbar's Reign, New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal 1975
11. Peter Hardy, 'Abul Fazl's Portrait of the Perfect Padshah', in Christian Troll (ed.), Islam in India: Studies and Commentaries. vol ii: Religion and Religious Education, Delhi 1985.
12. Abu'l Fazl, Akbar-Nāma, edited by Agha Ahmad Ali and Abdur Rahim, Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica, 1873-1887.
13. Muzaffar Alam, The Languages of Political Islam. India 1200-1800, Hurst and Company, London 2004. For the longer term significance of akhlāqī thought on Indian political ethics,
14. see C.A. Bayly, Origins of Nationaliy in South Asia: Patriotism and Ethical Government in the Making of Modern India, Delhi: Oxford University Press 1998, 13-17.
15. For the history of akhlāqī literature, see J.H.Kramers et al (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden 1954-, vol. i, 325-9.
16. Muzaffar Alam, The Languages of Political Islam, 46-80.
17. For these themes in Tūsīs work, see 228-30.
18. The literature on Abu'l Fazl as a historian is large, but of variable quality. In addition to Rizvi, see N. Siddiqi, 'Shaikh Abul Fazl' in M. Hasan (ed.), Historians of Medieval India, NewDelhi: Oxford UniversityPress 1968
19. Harbans Mukhia, Historians and Historiography during the Reign of Akbar, New Delhi: Vikas 1976,
20. and K.A. Nizami, On the History and Historians of Medieval India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press 1983.
21. M. Minuvi and A.R. Heydari,Akhlāq-i Nāsirī, Tehran 1977,45.Tūsī's work is also published in translation by G.M. Wickens, The Nasirean Ethics, London: George Allen 1964.
22. Akhlāq-i Nāsirī, 102.
23. ibid., 145.
24. For the internal structure of other akhlāqī works, see Muzaffar Alam, The Languages of Political Islam, 52.
25. See also Ruby Lal, Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal Wolrd Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005. This important study of the Mughal harem was published after the present article was written, and so it has not been possible to engage with its arguments here.
26. ibid., 61.
27. Abu'l Fazl, Ā'in-i Akbar̄i, edited by H. Blochmann, Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica 1872, i, ā'in tasv̄irkhāne, 115.
28. This circular is reproduced in Mansura Haidar (ed.), Mukātabāt-i Allāmī (Inshā'i Abu'l Fazl Daftar 1, New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal 1998, 79.
29. Michael Brand and Glenn D. Lowry, Akbar's India, 124.
30. Riazul Islam, A Calendar of Documents on Indo-Persian Relations (1500-1750) i, Tehran: Iranian Culture Foundation, 1979, 115.
31. Akhlāq-i Nāsir̄i, 58.
32. ibid., 109.
33. ibid., 71.
34. ibid., 149-154.
35. ibid., 56.
36. ibid., 108-9.
37. ibid., 218.
38. ibid., 200-214.
39. Ā'in-i Akbar̄i, iii, 251.
40. There are two known major illustrated manuscripts of the Akbar-Nāma, both incomplete. The earlier, presented to the emperor in 1596, is in the Victorian and Albert Museum, London; the second, probably initiated in 1597, is in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. Milo Cleveland Beach, The Imperial Image, 83-4.
41. K.A. Nizami, Akbar and Religion, Delhi: IAD Oriental 1989, 185.
42. See, for example, Victoria and Albert Museum Akbar-Nāma, IS 2:70/71-1896 for Akbar hunting at Palam in 1868; IS 2:21/2-1986 for Akbar's adventure on the elephant Hawa'i in 1561, and IS 2:17/18-1896 for Akbar's tiger hunt in Gwalior in 1561.
43. V and A Akbar-Nāma, IS 2:84-1896.
44. V and A Akbar-Nāma, IS 2:77-896 for the pilgrimage to Ajmer; IS 2:91-1896 for the construction of Fatehpur-Sikri, and the later Akbar-Nāma in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, for Akbar's discussions with clerics and divines and for his shipboard expedition to the eastern provinces.
45. See, for example, the descriptions in Akbar-Nāma i, 5, and ii, 285.
46. Ā'in-i Akbar̄i, i, 2.
47. ibid., 3.
48. ibid., 3-4.
49. ibid., ā'in manzil ābād̄i, 8-9.
50. ibid., ā'in-i shabistanān-i iqbāl, 40.
51. John Richards, The Mughal Empire, 148-9.
52. Akbar-Nāma iii, 166.
53. ibid., i, 365.
54. Stephen Blake, Shahjahanabad, 96-7.
55. John Richards, 'The formulation of imperial authority under Akbar and Jahangir', 275.
56. For a general discussion of hunting in Mughal court culture, see M.N. Pearson, 'Recreation in Mughal India', British Journal of Sports History, December 1984.
57. Akbar-Nāma, iii, 241.
58. ibid., 44-5.
59. ibid., ii, 150.
60. ibid, 348-9.
61. ibid., iii, 241-3.
62. Akbar-Nāma, ii, 62.
63. See, for example, V and A Akbar-Nāma IS 2:115-1896.
64. Akbar-Nāma, ii, 72.
65. ibid., iii, 87.
66. ibid., ii, 73-4.
67. ibid., ii, 45.
68. Akbar-Nāma, iii, 31.
69. ibid., ii, 22.
70. Mukātabāt-i Allāmī (Inshā'i Abu'l Fazl), 79-87.
71. Akbar's role as spiritual guide, rah-namūn̄i, is set out in ā'in rah-namūn̄i, Ā'in-i Akbar̄i, i, 158-161.
72. For an analysis, see K.A. Nizami, Akbar and Religion, 132-49.
73. Ā'in-i Akbar̄i, i, 160
74. for the numbers mentioned in Abu'l Fazl and Badauni, see Blochmann's translation of the Ā'in-i Akbar̄i, 1994 reprint, i, 218-9.
75. Ā'in-i Akbar̄i, 160.
76. ibid., i, 161.
77. ibid., i, 4.
78. ibid., ii, ā'in-i sipah-sālār, 282.
79. Ziya al-Din Barani, Tār̄ikh Fīirūz Shāh̄i edited by Shaikh Abdur Rashid, Aligharh: Aligharh Muslim University 1957.
80. N.B. Roy (ed.), 'The victories of Sultan Firuz Shah of Tughluq Dynasty', Islamic Culture 15, 1941.
81. The Persian text is reprinted in N.B. Roy, ' Futūhāt-i-F̄irūzshāh̄i', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, VII, 1941, 61-89.
82. Iqtidar Hussain Siddiqui, Waqi'at-e-Mushtaqui of Shaikh Rizq Ullah Mushtaqui, New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research 1993, 17-19.
83. Richard C. Folz, Mughal India and Central Asia, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2001, 21-8.
84. W. Davy (ed), Institutes of Timur, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1783, 175 and 253, Persian and English text.
85. M.M. Sharif, A History of Muslim Philosophy, i, 581-642.
86. Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexualiy in Islam, London: Saqi Books 1988, 56.
87. Satish Chandra, Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals. New Delhi: Haranand Publications 1997, 75-113.
88. Peter Jackson, The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1999, 242-53.
89. 'Abd al-Qadir Badauni, Muntakhab al-Tawār̄ikh, ed. W.N. Lees and Ahmad Ali, Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica 1865, iii, 393-5.
90. For examples of these approaches, see Muhammad Mujeeb, 'Badauni', in M. Hasan (ed.), Historians of Medieval India
91. Harbans Mukhia, Historians and Historiography, pp. 89-131
92. and Fauzia Zareen Abbas, Abdul Qadir Badauni, Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli 1987.
93. Norman P. Ziegler, 'Some Notes on Rajput Loyalties during the Mughal Period' in J.F. Richards (ed.) Kingship and Authoriy in South Asia University of Wisconsin, Madison 1981.
94. Ā'in-i Akbarī, i, Book 2, ā'in-i kad-khudā'ī, 201.
95. Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh ii, 391.
96. ibid., 207-10.
97. ibid., 302.
98. ibid., 303.
99. Muntakhab al-Tawār̄ikh, ii, 305.
100. For more modern explorations of these significances of semen in the Indian setting, see G.M. Carstairs, The Twice-Born: A Study of a Community of High Caste Hindus, London 1957
101. James W. Edwards, 'Semen anxiety in South Asian Cultures' in Medical Anthropology, Summer 1983
102. Joseph Alter, The Wrestler's Body: Identity and Ideology in North India, University of California Press, Berkeley 1992.
103. ibid., iii, 300.
104. ibid., ii, 376.
105. G. Obeyesekere, Medusa's Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience, Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1981, 33-8.
106. Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexualiy in Islam, 34.
107. See, for example, Willian Irvine, 'Jangnamah of Farrukhsiyar and Jahandar Shah' in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1900, 46.
108. Abdul Halim Sharar, Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture Tr. E.S. Harcourt and Fakhir Hussain, Oxford University Press 1994, 190.
109. Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh, ii, 404.
110. ibid., ii, 303.
111. H. Beveridge 'Memoirs of Bāyazīd (Bajazet) Bīyāt', Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, LXVII, pt 1, 1898, 312.
112. Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh, ii, 303.
113. Tasneem Ahmad tr, Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Medieval India, Mirat-ul-Istilah Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan, 1993, 234.
114. Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, Akbar: The Architect of the Mughal Empire, Delhi: IAD Press, 1978, 163.
115. Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh ii, 391.
116. ibid., ii, 356.
117. Ā'in-i Akbarī, i, Book 2, ā'in-i kad-khudā'ī, 201
118. Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh ii, 391.
119. 100 See, for example, the early seventeenth century Mughal military commander Mirza Nathan's account of his affection for the eunuch Khwaja Mina. His eunuch Sa'adat Khan was also his 'boon companion' and trusted military commander. See M.I. Borah (ed. and tr.), Baharistan-i-Ghaybi Gauhati, 1936, 228.
120. See Hidayat Husain, 'The Mirza Nama (The Book of the Perfect Gentleman), of Mirza Kamran', in Journal of the Asiatic Socicy of Bengal, 1913.
121. Muntakhab al-Tawār maikh, iii, 8.
122. ibid., ii, 296-8.
123. See Jeffrey Weeks, Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800, Longman, London 1981.
124. Major Charles Stewart (ed.) The Malfuzat Timury or Autobiographical Memoirs of the Mogul Emperor Timur, Oriental Translation Committee, London 1830, 22.
125. Wheeler M. Thackston ed., The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1996, 113.
126. ibid., 60.
127. For a general discussion of these tensions, see Stephen O Murray and Will Roscoe, Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History and Literature New York: New York University Press 1997.
128. Akbar-Nāma, ii, 79.
129. Shah Quli Khan, formerly a retainer of Akbar's regent Bairam Khan, acquired his title of mahram, 'one who has access to the harem', after Akbar had favoured him with admission to his women's apartments. After this visit, he informed Akbar that he had had himself castrated, so that he might continue to enjoy this special access. Ziyaud-din A. Desai, (ed. and trans), The Dhakhirat ul-Khawanin of Shaikh Farid Bhakkari, Delhi 1993, vol. 1, p. 132.
130. See Blochmann's biographical notes in A'in i, 319-20.
131. Akbar-Nāma, ii, 83
132. Akbar-Nāma, ii, 68.
133. This episode is described in very similar terms in other contemporary accounts: See Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh ii, 21,
134. and Brajendra Nath De and Baini Prasad (eds), The Tabaqat-i-Akbari, Khwaja Nizamuddin Ahmad, Delhi 1992, ii, 225.
135. Akbar-Nāma, ii, 271.
136. ibid., 186.
137. Richard C. Folz, Mughal India and Central Asia, 43.
138. Muntakhab al- Tawārīkh, ii, 21.
139. Brajendra Nath De and Baini Prasad (eds), The Tabaqat-i-Akbari, Khwaja Nizamuddin Ahmad, Delhi 1992, ii, 226.
140. Richard C. Folz, Mughal India and Central Asia, 113.
141. W. Davy (ed), Institutes of Timur, 86, Persian and English text.
142. For these stereotypes see also Richard C. Folz, Mughal India and Central Asia, 40-1.
143. John Richards, The Mughal Empire, 18.
144. For an example of this kind of negotiation, see R. O'Hanlon, 'Issues of Masculinity in north Indian History: The Bangash Nawabs of Farrukhabad' in Indian Journal of Gender Studies 4. 1. 1997.
145. These emphases emerge very clearly in the genre of Persian 'conduct books' that emerged from the mid-seventeenth century. See, for example, Hidayat Husain, 'The Mirza Nama', and Aziz Ahmad, 'The British Museum Mirzanama and the seventeenth century Mirza in India' in Iran 1975. For an analaysis of later seventeenth century developments, see R. O'Hanlon, 'Manliness and Imperial Service in Mughal North India' in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 42, 1, 1999.
146. I am grateful to Chris Bayly for this suggestion.
147. John Richards, 'Norms of Comportment', 286-9.