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Gendered 'Landscape': Jahanara Begum's Patronage, Piety and Self

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DISSERTATION Titel der Dissertation ―Gendered ‗Landscapes‘: Jahan Ara Begum‘s (1614-1681) Patronage, Piety and Self-Representation in 17th C Mughal India‖ Band 1 von 1 Verfasser Afshan Bokhari angestrebter akademischer Grad Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) Wien, 2009 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 092315 Dissertationsgebiet lt. Studienblatt: Kunstgeschichte Betreuerin/Betreuer: Univ. Prof. Dr. Ebba Koch TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page 0 Table of Contents 1-2 Curriculum Vitae 3-5 Acknowledgements 6-7 Abstract 8 List of Illustration 9-12 Introduction 13-24 Figures 313-358 Bibliography 359-372 Chapter One: 25-113 The Presence and Paradigm of The „Absent‟ Timurid-Mughal Female 1.1 Recent and Past Historiographies: Ruby Lal, Ignaz Goldziher, Leslie Pierce, Stephen Blake 1.2 Biographical Sketches: Timurid and Mughal Female Precedents: Domesticity and Politics 1.2.1 Timurid Women (14th-15th century) 1.2.2 Mughal Women (16th – 17th century) 1.2.3 Nur Jahan (1577-1645): A Prescient Feminist or Nemesis? 1.2.4 Jahan Ara Begum (1614-1681): Establishing Precedents and Political Propriety 1.2.5 The Body Politic: The Political and Commercial Negotiations of Jahan Ara‘s Well-Being 1.2.6 Imbuing the Poetic Landscape: Jahan Ara‘s Recovery 1.3 Conclusion Chapter Two: 114-191 „Visions‟ of Timurid Legacy: Jahan Ara Begum‟s Piety and „Self- Representation‟ 2.1 Risala-i-Sahibiyāh: Legacy-Building ‗Political‘ Piety and Sufi Realization 2.2 Galvanizing State to Household: Pietistic Imperatives Dynastic Legitimacy 2.3 Sufism, Its Gendered Dimensions and Jahan Ara‘s Spiritual Authority 2.4 Prescriptive vs. Practiced Islam and Divine Union with the ‗Beloved‘ 2.5 Qadriyāh, Chishtiyāh and Naqshbandiyāh: Shifting Spiritual Preferences 2.6 Authenticating Spiritual Authority 2.7 Light of the ‗Timuria‘: Sustaining Legacy and Legitimacy 2.8 Conclusion Chapter Three: 192-306 The „Reifications‟ of Jahan Ara Begum‟s „Persona‟ and Self-Representation 3.1 Recasting the Patriarchal Gaze: The Princess' Patronage and its Proximity 3.2 Asserting Authority in the harem and in European Writings 3.3 Nur Jahan‘s Precedents of Prolific Patronage and Extensions of the Imperial Harem 3.4 Gardens as a Loci and ‗Diagram‘ for Mughal Control and Prestige 1 3.5 Comparative Commissions and ‗Optical Politics‘: Jahan Ara vs. Nur Jahan 3.6 Agra Mosque (1648): ‗An Orchestrated Gaze‘ on an Imperial Stage 3.7 Imperial Precedents and Patterns in Mosque Design: Ajmeri (1637), Moti (1648- 55) Taj Mahal Mosque (1648) and Delhi Mosque (1656) 3.8 Mullah Shah Badakhshi Mosque and Khanaqah, Srinagar, Kashmir (1650). 3.9 Icons of Ideology and Imperial Authority: The Bangla Roof and its Precedents 3.9.1 Conclusion THESIS CONCLUSIONS: 307-312 2 Curriculum Vitae EDUCATION Wellesley College JUNE ‗88 Bachelor of Arts in Architecture Honors Thesis: ‘The Gothic Arch or an Islamic Icon?” Advisor: Peter Fergusson Harvard University JUNE ‗97 Masters in Design Studies Area: History, Theory and Criticism Thesis: „Architecture of Gordon Bunshaft: Locating „Asian‟ Aesthetic and Affinities‟ Advisors: Malcolm McCullough (Harvard) Boston University JUNE ‘05 Masters in Art History MA Thesis: „Memory, Nostalgia & the Islamic „Souvenir”: An aesthetic framework for the Venetian Landscape‟ Advisors: Jodi Cranston (Art History) University of Vienna Jan. ‗09 Institute of Fine Arts ABD/PhD Dissertation: “Gendered‟ Landscapes‟: Jahan Ara Begum‟s Patronage, Piety and Self-Representation in 17thC. Mughal India” Advisors: Ebba Koch (Univ. of Vienna Art History), Sunil Sharma (BU, Literature) TEACHING: SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY, Boston, MA SEPT. ‘05-Present Assistant Professor Art History I and II (Pre-historic to Contemporary) Court to Empire: Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Arts Contemporary Indian and Islamic Art: Framing and „Reclaiming‟ Identities Arts of the Silk Road Women in Art and Society: Eastern and Western Perspectives DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, Hanover, MA SEPT.‘06-‘08 Senior Lecturer-Art History Dept. Honors Thesis: Second Reader and Advisor (History Dept.): ―Perceptions and Personas of the Mughal Empress Nur Jahan, 17th C. India.‘ The „Sensual‟ in the Sacred and Secular: Female Agency in the Arts of IndiaThis course introduces Indian art and visual culture from the 1st to the 20th century. The primary objectives of the course is to see how the arts reflect and engage with Indian notions of gender and body politics, visions of love, and sexuality, power, and memory. Art History I & II WELLESLEY COLLEGE, Wellesley, MA SEPT. ‘03-JUNE ‗05 Visiting Lecturer- Art History Dept. Honors Thesis: Second Reader and Advisor (Art History Dept.): ―Objects of Veneration and Souvenirs of Christian Pilgrims: Enlisting Divine Aid and Memory in 11th and 12th C. Spain‖. 3 The Observed and the Envisioned: Female Identity in 16th-19th C. Rajput and Mughal Miniature Paintings Piety, Paradise and Palaces: Islamic Art and Architecture (650-1750) Court to Empire: Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Arts Art History I and II (Pre-historic to Contemporary) CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE HOOD MUSEUM, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH SEPT.‘06-AUG.08 Adjunct Curator Survey, catalogue and digitally document the diverse ‗connoisseur‘ collection of art and photographs from Iran, India and China dated pre-1945. Mellon grant submitted and awarded to develop exhibition, lectures and film series surrounding the collection show titled, "Artists and Gender Economy in Colonial India 18th-20th century Kashmiri shawl production‖. Developing the exhibition in collaboration with the History, Economics and Anthropology departments and the Dartmouth Cultural Center. DAVIS MUSEUM AND CULTURE CENTER, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA SEPT.‘03-‗05 Adjunct Curator Developed an exhibition and catalogue titled: ‗The Observed and the Envisioned: Representations of Mughal and Rajput Women –16th - 19th C. India‟, scheduled to open on March 9, 2005. The ―Observed and the Envisioned‖, examined traditional miniature paintings and considered how socio-religious ideology shaped and informed female identity under the male artist‘s gaze during the 16th- 19th century in India. The exhibition continued this discourse into the 21st century with a look at contemporary work by Pakistani artist Ambreen Butt whose work extends the tradition of miniature painting and its focus on women within a non-western context. The exhibition provokes important questions about representations of identity across social and religious boundaries, impacting the viewer‘s reading not only of persona, but also issues of gender, religion, place and body politics where issues of gender are reconsidered and, ‗reclaimed‘. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, Boston, MA JUNE‘01-APR. ‗02 Adjunct Curator- Using the classical national epic—Shahnameh (Book of Kings)- to interpret aesthetic and gender values in 16th C. Persian Textiles for exhibition, “Poetry of the Loom”. The 11th C. Persian poem, the Shahnameh was used to interpret the narrative ‗weave‘ of the iconography of sixteenth-century Persian textiles as fashion and function. PUBLICATIONS Marg Publications, Sept. ‟08. ―The ‗Light‘ of the Timuria: Jahan Ara Begum‘s Patronage, Piety and Poetry in 17th C. Mughal India‖, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Dec. 2007. Maham Anaga Fatima Jinaah Hurrem Sultana ABC-CLIO Publisher, Dec. 2007. ―Islam: Saints and Love‖, Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions, Davis Museum Journal Spring, 2005. ―The Observed and Envisioned: Female Identity in 16th – 19th century Indian Miniature Paintings‖, Wellesley College. 4 CONFERENCES American Association of Religion, Annual Conference Nov. „08: ‗Fathers and Daughters in Islam‖ University of Pennsylvania, History of Art Symposium Fall ‟08: “Visions of Legacy: Female Patronage in Mughal-Timurid Dynasties”. October ‘08. Dartmouth College. “Framing the Divine: The Poetic and Pious Discursive in Medieval Delhi, 17th C”. CAA/Historians of Islamic Art Associations, ―Reading Sufi Subtext: The Case of the Agra Mosque and Mullah Shah Mosque/Khanaqah, Srinagar, Kashmir. Feb. 2007 American Council of South Asian Arts: ―‗Gendered Landscapes‘: Jahan Ara Begum‘s Patronage and Piety in 17th C. Mughal India. March. 2007 Association of Asian Studies: ―From Shariah to Tariqah: The Passionate Piety of a Princess: 17th C. Risalah- i-Sahibiyah” March 2007. AWARDS: AICA-International Association of Art Critics MAY ‗06 Best Historic Museum Show for ‗The Observed & Envisioned: 16th to 19th Century Indian Miniature Paintings of Mughal and Rajput Women at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center. Mellon Grant for Asian Arts and Cultural Studies (Hood Museum) 2006 Fulbright Research Scholarship: Japanese Cultural Studies ‘94 – ‗96 LANGUAGES Persian, Arabic, Urdu, French and Japanese. AFFILIATIONS: Museum Council Steering Committee (MFA, Boston), Advisory Council for Asian Arts (Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston),HIAA, CAA, AAS, ACSAA. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the constant scholarly support, encouragement and advice of many individuals located across several continents. First and foremost I am grateful for my advisor, Professor Ebba Koch at the University of Vienna and the pivotal role she played from the beginning to the end of my dissertation. Professor Koch‘s scholarly dedication and passion of as well as compelling research on Mughal history has been infectious and provided the impetus to pursue my own research in this area. Professor Koch‘s lecture in 2004 on the Mughal Hunt at Harvard University allowed our first meeting where we discussed the possibilities of pursuing the
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