Intended Audience
Join the departments of History, Asian Studies and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies for a presentation on the fascinating warrior queen of the Deccan, Chand Bibi!
The Warrior Queen Who Died Thrice: Gender, Sovereignty, and Islam in Precolonial India
In 1595 the Muslim warrior queen Chand Bibi of the southwestern region of India known as the Deccan, successfully defended her realm—Ahmadnagar Sultanate—from the most powerful emperor of her time. Who was this queen? And what kind of world made her possible? This talk, based on a book in progress, takes up the inadequately studied subject of “Muslim female power” in precolonial India. Chand Bibi (1550-1600) barely exists in male-centric historical narratives of South Asia, and frequently rendered as a minor figure. Yet, a close look at her life and world allows us to ask universal questions about historical methodology as well as specific questions pertinent to South Asia’s past.
Sarah Waheed is assistant professor of history at University of South Carolina, where she teaches courses in South Asian history. She holds a PhD from Tufts University, and an MA from University of Chicago. Professor Waheed’s scholarly expertise is on the history of South Asian Islam and Muslim communities. Her first book, Hidden Histories of Pakistan: Censorship, Literature, and Secular Nationalism in Late Colonial India was published with Cambridge University Press in January 2022. Last year, she traveled to India on a Fulbright, undertaking research towards her second book about Chand Bibi and other female protagonists of the medieval and early modern Deccan tentatively titled, In Search of Chand Bibi: Warrior Queen of India.