Aisha Dad

Anarkali, an Orientalised persona assigned to the harem of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, is also the lover of Akbar's son, Salim, the future Mughal Emperor Jahangir. Her body and narrative occupy the liminal and contentious space between Akbar and Salim, especially as construed under the male gaze of seventeenth-century European travellers. But while both Akbar and Salim are historically attested...