The Mughal Harem: Inside the Zenana of the Mughal Empire
Inside the Mughal harem, more than five thousand women lived behind guarded walls: wives, slave girls, princesses, and the eunuchs who watched them. This is what the records show about life in the Mughal Empire's most secret world.
At its height under Emperor Akbar, the Mughal harem was governed by a strict hierarchy and was far more than a house of pleasure. It was a seat of political power run by royal women, filled by conquest and the slave markets of medieval India, and a place where succession itself was decided. This documentary goes inside the zenana: the ranks beneath the emperor's mother, the blindfolded physicians, the Persian, Rajput, Georgian and Turkish women, the princesses forbidden to marry, and Empress Nur Jahan, who struck coins in her own name.
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:48 The fall
01:38 What is the harem
03:25 The law of desire
06:19 No way out
08:12 Behind the veil of night
Read the full essay
The Mughal Harem: Gilded Cage, Silent Empire, with full sources.
