Nur Jahan, the Great Mughal: The Story of an Uncrowned Empress
- Lecture
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall
Nur Jahan, holding a portrait of Emperor Jahangir (detail), c. 1627. Bishandas (Indian). Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 13.6 x 6.4 cm. Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, 2013.325.
About The Event
Nur Jahan, “Light of the World,” was the only woman ruler in the long dynasty of India’s great Mughals. She governed India with her husband, the emperor Jahangir, from 1614 to 1627, though only a generation earlier Akbar the Great had decreed queens and princesses be sequestered behind harem walls.
Ruby Lal, professor of South Asian studies at Emory University, discusses how the empress’s extraordinary strengths, the emperor’s lamentable weaknesses, and the twists and turns of 17th-century politics combined to defy a time and a culture that ought to have made the reign of Nur Jahan impossible.
Free; reservations recommended. Meet in the exhibition.