I had to make a spreadsheet to keep track of all the children of Prince Salim. He had five boys and ten girls. All five boys lived to adulthood. According to Jahangir’s autobiography, only one girl lived to adulthood. Why did most of the baby girls not survive? Birth Order Mother of Child Child’s Given […]
What happened to the prince’s daughters? Read More »
As a blog from the Chughtai Museum states, there is a lot of confusion regarding historical incidents and figures from the 16th century – especially regarding the women of the time. This piece is a perfect example. This is a miniature painting dated in the late 16th or early 17th century. Prince Salim is shown
The Sick Princess – who is that?? Read More »
Writing The Mumtaz Chronicles has always been about telling a story that seems to be missing from the history books. Since most of what women said and did during the Mughal Era was not documented, there seems to be a treasure trove of undocumented stories to tell. Since nothing was documented, the stories have to
The Power in the Breast Milk Read More »
Who can write about the most powerful women of the Mughal Empire and leave out the Dowager Queens? Emperor Akbar’s mother Dowager Queen Hamida Born around 1527. Died 8/29/1604. Emperor Akbar’s aunt Princess Gulbadan (Rosebody) Born around 1523. Died 2/7/1603.
The Dowager Queens Read More »
What would a castle where thousands of women lived, be like? How would meals work? Who would handle the laundry? How would you keep the queens underwear from getting mixed up with her Lady-in-Waiting’s? What if there were 50 queens, each with 5-10 maids? The Akbarnama details the existence of this place, but nothing has
How to do laundry for 1,000 women Read More »
In the beginning, this was going to be the title of the novel – The Badass Women of the Mughal Empire. But then I thought more of it, and it became a series of novellas called The Mumtaz Chronicles. I call her Queen Salimeh. Born in 1539. Died in 1613. She is, by far, the
The Badass Women of the Mughal Empire Read More »
History tells us Mehr al-Nesa met Muhammad Salim when she was a middle-aged widower with a pre-teen daughter. He was the fourth emperor of the Mughal Empire with 19 wives (more, some say). Apparently, at the age of 42, he saw her, fell in love with her, and married this 34 year old woman. By
How did Mehr meet Prince Salim? Read More »
When I heard there were women working as guards in the Royal Harem, I reacted much like the main character, Mehr al-Nesa in Book 1. Completely surprised. I fell for the stereotypical belief that all the women in the harems were meek, protected things that had to be guarded by men (or in this case
16th Century Female Guards? How cool is that?! Read More »
When I was trying to think of a cover for the first book in The Mumtaz Chronicles series, I knew nothing about book covers. The series is about various women that lived during the Mughal Empire. What should appear on the cover? I watched a series of videos I found online about how to pick
How do you pick a cover for a book? Read More »
