Ruby Lal coaxes the remarkable Gulbadan out from the shadows of history…. Adrienne Rich… wrote about the necessity of ‘decoding difficult and complex messages left to us by women of the past.’ Ms. Lal has honored that mission.
—Sara Wheeler, Wall Street Journal, ‘Vagabond Princess’ Review: Gulbadan’s Journey to the West

“Gulbadan’s epic voyage challenges the notion that Mughal women were confined to seclusion and passivity. Her story highlights bravery, resilience, and a yearning for freedom in a society dominated by powerful men. By piecing together fragmented records and delving into various historical sources, Ruby Lal sheds light on a remarkable woman who defied societal norms and embarked on a daring pilgrimage.”
—Alice, Third Eye Analyst, The Inspiring Journey of Gulbadan Begum: A Tale of Bravery and Rebellion

Indian American Historian Ruby Lal’s New Book ‘Vagabond Princess’ Receives Critical Acclaim
—American Kahani

Historian Ruby Lal’s new Book ‘Vagabond Princess’ creating ripples
—The Indian EYE

Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan a “page turner” of 2024
—Telegraph India

Vagabond Princess

Situated in the early decades of the magnificent Mughal Empire, this first ever biography of Princess Gulbadan offers an enthralling portrait of a charismatic adventurer and unique pictures of the multicultural society in which she lived. Following a migratory childhood that spanned Kabul and north India, Gulbadan spent her middle years in a walled harem established by her nephew Akbar to showcase his authority as the Great Emperor. Gulbadan longed for the exuberant itinerant lifestyle she’d known. With Akbar’s blessing, she led an unprecedented sailing and overland voyage and guided harem women on an extended pilgrimage in Arabia. Amid increasing political tensions, the women’s “un-Islamic” behavior forced their return, lengthened by a dramatic shipwreck in the Red Sea.

Gulbadan wrote a book upon her return, the only extant work of prose by a woman of her times. A portion of it is missing, either lost to history or redacted by officials who did not want the princess to have her say.

Vagabond Princess contemplates the story of the missing pages and breathes new life into a daring historical figure. A portal to a richly complex world, rife with movement and migration, where women’s conviviality, adventure, and autonomies shine through.

Advance Praise for Vagabond Princess

An astonishing work by one of the most exciting historians writing today. Vagabond Princess is more than just a brilliant page-turner of a biography, narrating in vivid detail a story few people know. It is a passionate and compelling argument to place the extraordinary Gulbadan among the pantheon of great adventurers like Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo. I loved this book.

Reza Aslan, author of Zealot and An American Martyr in Persia

In Vagabond Princess, Ruby Lal brilliantly illuminates the remarkable life and talent of Princess Gulbadan Begum, daughter of Emperor Babur and historian of her own times. Lost and forgotten for many centuries, Begum and her work live again through Lal’s magisterial account of the 16th-century Mughal court.

Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Vagabond Princess is a deeply feminist text interrogating the making of archives, obsessed with imagining the spirit of freedom and love of learning in certain Mughal women, with a stunning buildup of the concept-metaphor of mujawir as ‘vagabond.’ A splendid teaching text, but also a reading text for sheer instructive pleasure; as we follow the epistemological performance of the making of the book with the book itself.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, author of Other Asias

A work of meticulous scholarship and brilliant storytelling, Vagabond Princess is both an epic historical tale and a compelling personal account of one of the most interesting women to have lived during the Mughal Empire.

Daniel H. Weiss, Homewood Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins and President Emeritus of The Met

Meticulous archival research combines with a strikingly imaginative evocation of the world inhabited by Mughal women in Ruby Lal’s writing. Whether set against the dust and grit of imperial caravans, salt-lashed sea voyages, or the manicured precision of Mughal gardens, her vagabond princess, Gulbadan, surprises us at every turn. A superb achievement.

Nandini Das, author of Courting India: Seventeenth-Century England, Mughal India, and the Origins of Empire

Ruby Lal delivers the twenty-ninth Emory Distinguished Faculty Lecture 2025

Tuesday, February 4 At 5PM in Convocation Hall, Room 208 – Emory University

Learn more

Awards for Vagabond Princess

Finalist, 61st Georgia Author of the Year Award in Biography

Georgia Author of the Year Awards finalist seal

Afghanistan and India are far away and the sixteenth-century was long ago, but Ruby Lal’s expertly-researched biography of Gulbadan transports readers to another place and time. With evocative details and a fast-paced plot, Lal guides us from Gulbadan’s childhood as a Mughal princess, to her young adulthood as a bold adventurer, to her pilgrimage to Mecca with other women of her harem, and finally to her old age when she became a memoirist and, as such, the only woman historian of the Empire. Along the way, readers get deeply acquainted with a remarkable figure who until now has been relegated to the shadows of historical scholarship. In Ruby Lal’s capable hands, Gulbadan is at last brought center stage and fully introduced to the world.
—Mark Beaver, judge, Georgia Author of the Year Award

Vagabond Princess shortlisted for The James Tait Black Prize in Biograhy 2025

Vagabond Princess longlisted for the prestigious Cundill History Prize

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Praise for the Book

“What a Mughal Princess Can Teach Us About Feminist History” – TIME

Gulbadan Begum The Mughal Jane Austen – BBC History

Ruby Lal and William Dalrymple – British Library, London

History Unplugged Podcast

“‘Vagabond Princess’ sheds light on extraordinary life of Mughal Empire Princess Gulbadan” – NPR

The Lede is up! – New Lines Magazine

Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan – KPFA 94.1

Listen – History Unplugged

Gulbadan Begum: princess, explorer, author – UK Podcasts

Listen – Women in the Rajput Royal Court – Episode 2 – Royal Ontario Museum

Tiger Slayer shortlisted for the Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2025

Junior Library Guild Selects Tiger Slayer.

Tiger Slayer

The dramatic and immersive story of an ambitious young empress who was the only woman to ever rule the Mughal Empire.

More than four centuries ago in India, a Muslim woman ruled a magnificent empire: Nur Jahan, whose name means “light of the world.” Nur led troops into battle atop an elephant, hunted tigers, designed public buildings, and issued coinage and royal decrees in her own name. In a world dominated by men, her astute handling of court politics and affairs of state propelled her to the position of co-sovereign of the vast Mughal empire—and made her mighty enemies who would plot to bring about her downfall.

“Nur would say: Ruby Lal is a fountain of light, Molly Crabapple the prism of the age.” — Irwin Allan Sealy

“Lal has directed the blaze of her intelligence, her academic rigour and her passion into researching and re-assessing the influence of … Mughal women. From her seminal debut work on the influence of the elite women of the early Mughal world to her biographies on Nur Jahan and Gulbadan Begum… Lal has been waging a relentless war against the erasure of the legacies of these formidable women… At a time when Mughal history itself is under assault, Lal brings the fascinating story of Nur Jahan to a new generation of readers.” — Ira Mukhoty, OPEN

Sometimes when creative souls come together for a project and pour their passion into it, the end result is a product that is utterly perfect. This is one of those rare gems — Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, Confessions of an Avid Bibliophile

At a time when the Mughals, who represent nearly 400 prosperous years of India’s history and are responsible for so many cultural touchstones in the nation, are being systematically removed from textbooks, Lal[s]… voice becomes all the more important for young readers — Farah Khatoon

…Historian Lal demonstrates exemplary historical methodology throughout as she traces the life of Nur Jahan… Crabapple’s full-color illustrations transform the pages into windows onto Mughal India’s opulent world… a product of Lal’s extensive research for her adult biography, lending additional credibility to an already well-documented narrative that successfully combines scholarly rigor with engaging storytelling. Sets a new standard for works celebrating overlooked historical figures — KIRKUS

Adulatory, deeply satisfying, well documented, and filled with strikingly gorgeous illustrations, this is a fitting tribute for an empress — Kathleen McBroom, BOOKLIST Advance Review

Lal parses story from fact but also takes on a folkloric tone in recounting both, aided by fluid, detailed art from illustrator Crabapple… This is a well-researched, visually engaging book that shows Nur as the literal translation of her name, “Light of the World.” — The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Charming, lively illustrations… For students interested in ancient history, this could be used for sparking discussions about gender roles in various cultures. — School Library Journal

Empress

The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan

In 1611, thirty-four-year-old Nur Jahan became the twentieth and favorite wife of the Emperor Jahangir, who ruled the vast Mughal Empire. An astute politician as well as a talented dress designer and innovative architect whose work inspired her stepson’s Taj Mahal, Nur was the only woman to acquire the stature of Empress in her male- dominated world. Here, she finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography that awakens us to a fascinating history.

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“A luminous biography… It is a captivating account, its depth of detail recreating a world whose constraints of lineage would seem to preclude the advance of an unknown, self-made, widowed queen… Lal’s book is an act of feminist historiography.”
– Rafia Zakaria, Guardian

Awards for Empress

Finalist, 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes in History;

Winner, 55th Georgia Author of the Year Award in Biography

‘Outstanding’—Simon Heffer, History Books of the Year 2018, Telegraph (UK)

‘Marvellous’—Prospect’s Books of 2018: History, Prospect

An enthralling biography of the most powerful Mughal woman in history

When it came to hunting, she was a master shot. As a dress designer, few could match. An ingenious architect, she innovated the use of marble in her parents’ mausoleum on the banks of the Yamuna, which inspired her stepson’s Taj Mahal. And she was both celebrated and reviled for her political acumen and diplomatic skill, which rivaled those of her female counterparts in Europe and beyond.

In 1611, Nur Jahan became the twentieth and most cherished wife of Emperor Jahangir. Soon she rose to be his co-sovereign and ruled the vast Mughal Empire alongside him. An astute politician and a devoted partner, Nur led troops into battle to free Jahangir when he was imprisoned by one of his officers. She signed and issued imperial orders, and coins of the realm bore her name.

Acclaimed historian Ruby Lal uncovers the rich life and world of Nur Jahan, rescuing this dazzling figure from clichés of romance and intrigue, while giving a new insight into the lives of women and girls during the Mughal era. In Empress, Nur Jahan finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography that awakens us to a fascinating history.

Praise for the Book

‘A luminous biography . . . A captivating account, its depth of detail recreating a world whose constraints of lineage would seem to preclude the advance of an unknown, self-made, widowed queen . . . Lal’s book is an act of feminist historiography’—Rafia Zakaria, The Guardian

‘The author’s descriptions of Agra are superb, and her detailed explanations of Nur’s upbringing reflect her long study, deep understanding, and modern take on a little-explored subject. . . . [Nur] must be held as one of history’s great independent, powerful women. A page-turning, eye-opening biography that shatters our impressions of India as established by the British Raj’—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

‘Lal makes clear her subject’s relevance . . . Closely researched and vividly written, this telling finds that the truth is as fantastic and fascinating as myth’—Publishers Weekly (starred)

More praise for Empress