Harem of the Mughals

The Mughal Harem – Sphere of Women, Men Prohibited

The Mughal Harem had been the harem of Mughal emperors of South Asia and the term was initiated with the Near East which meant a `forbidden place, sacrosanct, sanctum and was etymologically linked to the Arabic harim – a sacred inviolable place, female members of the family and forbidden, sacred. It meant the sphere of women which is generally a polygynous household and their set apart quarters were prohibited to men. Harems comprised of wives, female relatives, concubines and male infants.

Harems were not only a place where the women folklived; there were babies as well as children who grew up there. Within the confines of the harem, there were bazaars, markets, laundries, kitchens, school, playgrounds and baths. The harem had a hierarchy and its chief authorities were the wives and female relatives of the emperor and after them were the concubines and scullery slaves.

The mothers, step-mothers, grandmothers, aunts, step-sisters, sisters, daughters and the other female relatives also lived in the harem. The confines of this absolute city of women was so large that the lowest of these slave never lay eyes on the emperor Besides these, there were the ladies-in-waiting, maids, servants, cooks, women official and guards.

Guarded by Three Lines of Defence

The harem of the Mughal Empire is said to be guarded by three lines of defence, namely the trained Tatar and Uzbek women deadly with spears and bows and then the eunuchs who maintained discipline in the harem. Some of the eunuchs had been recruited as children locally or received as gifts from Ottoman and North African kings.

Several of the women in the Mughal Harem were the native girls from South Asia. Most of the local rulers belonging to vassal states had sent their daughters to the Mughal Harem to strengthen political relations with the Mughal Empire. Central Asian, Afghani and Persian girls were preferred by the Mughals who were the chief wives and concubine while the Persian girls included Georgian and Armenian girls who had been part of Persian Safavid dynasty.

The lives of the harem ladies were administered by strict rules of purdah and the ladies generally did not have the freedom of moving out of the harem as they desired. If they would go out, their face had to be covered behind a veil.

Lived in Great Comfort/Luxury/Materialist Pleasure

However, within the harem they could move around as they pleased. Moreover they were also provided with different kinds of luxuries and comfort and they life in the harem was full of fun and laughter. The image portrayed by foreigners like Bernier and Manucci who had the opportunity of accessing the harem as physicians showed that they lived in great comfort, luxury with materialistic pleasure.

 The ladies resided in grand apartments which were luxuriously furnished together with beautiful gardens, fountains, tanks and water channels attached. They were attired in expensive clothing made from the finest material, adorning themselves with jewellery from head to toe.

 They seldom went out and when they did go out, most of the high ranked ladies travelled in style and comfort in richly decorated howdahs on elephant backs and palanquins. Their daily requirements of the emperor as well as his harem inmates were satisfied by the royal departments

The slumdog Princess: Descendant of India's Last Emperor

Descendants of India’s Last Emperor – Confined to Life in a Slum (Kolkata)

The descendant of India’s last emperor would have lived in luxurious palaces when they ruled over a huge and wealthy kingdom. However the lifestyle of Sultana Begum is far from the luxuries enjoyed by the rulers during the Mughal times.

It is said that Sultana Begum has been confined to a life in a slum which is on the outskirts of Kolkata and the 60 year old is the great grand daughter-in-law of the last emperor of India, Bahadur Shah Zafar. She had to face difficulties to make ends meet on her basic pension inspite of her royal heritage. Since the death of her husband Prince in 1980, Mirza Bedar Bukht has been leading a life of poverty.

 This Mughal heiress has been compelled to reside in a miniature two-room hut in Howrah which is a slum area in Kolkata and shares a kitchen with her neighbour, washing in the street, utilising the water coming from public taps. Inspite of the fact that she is related to the 19th century royal family, she goes about her daily life on the pension of just about £60 each month. She has informed that her other daughters and husbands being poor are unable to help them.

Contributed to Architectural Legacy to Indian

The £60, according to Indian currency amounts to 6,000, by way of pension covers the expenses for herself, her six children, five daughters and a son. Her predicament, in recent years has been emphasized by several campaigners who had pushed authorities in providing more care for India’s royal descendants, most of which were left in the lurch after the British rule had ended the Mughal dynasty.

 Sultana has descended from the Mughal dynasty which had contributed to a great extent the architectural legacy to the Indian sub-continent from the 16th, 17th and the 18th centuries. The Taj Mahal is one such example of some of the finest monuments built by the Muslim emperors, though the Mughals had also built the Red Fort, the Agra Fort and the Lahore Shalimar Gardens most of which are listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

It is said that Sultana had spent years, appealing to the central and state government for help for basic living provision and a pension but till date the government has only provided her grand-daughter Roshan Ara with a job and a salary of £150.

1858 - Exiled to Rangoon

However, the other members of the household who seemed to be illiterate had failed the basic government test when they had been offered jobs. Sultana had spent several years running a tea stall before it was closed down and she then focused her attention in producing clothing for ladies. Sultana narrates that she is grateful to some who had come forward to support her.

Her husband, the late Muhammad Bedar Bakht, the son of Jamshid Bakht and the grandson of Jawan Bakht had informed her that they had come from respectable royal families who had never begged for a living. She stated that she had always asked governments to provide her with what her family deserves.

In 1837, the great grandfather of Sultana’s husband, Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar had been placed on the throne and was the last of the Mughal emperors who had ruled India for three centuries. Towards 1857, when the Indian soldiers had amalgamated and rebelled against their British master, Bahadur Shah Zafar was their commander-in-chief. In 1858, when the revolution was crushed by the British, he was exiled to Rangoon, where he lived there for five years till his death at the age of 87.

He had been accompanied by his wife, Zeenat Mahal during his exile together with some of the remaining family members. He had died in exile on 7th November 1862 in Rangoon, presently Yangon, and the capital of Burma.

Mughal Empire – Dominant Power In Indian Subcontinent

He was buried at the site which was later known as Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah. Towards 1991, in the event of a restoration work-out, the original brick-lined graved was identified and he was honoured as a saint by the Burmese Muslims natives. Zeenat Mahal, his wife who died in 1886 and the granddaughter Raunaq Zamani were also buried alongside his burial. Though several of the children and grandchildren of Bahadur Shah had been killed as a result of the failed Indian Rebellion in 1857, the descendants of his surviving children had lived in Detroit Michigan in the United States and in various areas of India and Pakistan. The Mughal Empire which originated in Persia was the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent in the mid-16th century and the early 18th century. It ruled at its highest point, for around a quarter of the population of the world. Under the Mughals, the Indian economy was prosperous due to the development of road system and a uniform currency as well as with the union of the country. Town and cities grew under the Mughals, though for most part, the military and political centres had not been dedicated to commerce or industry.

Naachtun- A Lost City of the Maya

Ancient City of Naachtun – Heart of the Maya Region

Mayan civilization of Central America was very much advanced and flourishing during the period when Europe was yet in the dark ages. Some suggest that the climate changes could have been responsible for the collapse of the Mayas though several experts tend to disagree.

The Maya of the Classic period started around 250 AD and lived in the area in the Guatemala, Chiapas and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, towards the western area of Honduras, Belize and El Salvador. The ancient city of Naachtun is located in the heart of the Maya region, a kilometre south of the Mexican border towards the far northern area of Guatemala.

This Naachtun city was rediscovered by the western archaeologist Sylvanus Morley of the Carnegie Institution Washington on May 3 in 1922 and is one of the most remote sites of Maya location. Morley had heard of the site from a chiclero, one who collects sap that is used in making chewing gum from chicle trees, by the name Alfonso Ovando.

 He was the first who saw the site in 1916. Morley together with Filipino photographers, Juan Sopena had spent around seven days at the site wherein they explored several of the standing buildings and discovered 19 of the Naachtun’s 40 plus stelae.

Calakmul/Tikal – Superpowers of Classic Maya World

The city has also been the subject of only a few fleeting visits for the past 80 years. Inspite of its current isolation, Naachtun seems to be very much in the thick of things during the Classic era where the site lie around 44 km south-south-east of Calakmul and 65 km north if Tikal. These are the two superpowers of the classic Maya world.

Located directly between these two powerful entities, Naachtun besides holding a strategic position was also vulnerable during the frequent wars of that time and control of the city had been seen as an essential prologue to any effort by Tikal or Calakmul to attack the other.

Morley had named the huge Maya city Naachtun due to the site’s dangerous unapproachability where naach means `far’ and tun means `stone’ in Mayan. Naachtun till date is one of the most remote sites in the Yucatan peninsula as well as one of the least known among all the major Classic Maya centres.

Next Western Visitor – Cyprus Lundell

Cyrus Lundell was the next western visitorto Naachtun, who had reached the site on January 5 and spent three days mapping and exploring it with Garcia, a chiclero guide. In the process he also discovered eight new stelae and though Morley and company had reached Naachtun form the south, Lundell had reached it form the north and had mistakenly presumed that he had found a new site of around 20 km north of the Mexico-Guatemala border.

 He had named the apparently new site as `Nohoxna’. Towards 1933, presuming that Lundell had found a new site, the Carnegie Institution of Washington had sent an expedition to southern Mexico to find and document the same with members comprising of Karl Ruppert, John H. Denison Jr. and JP O’Neill who spent 12 days in May 1933.

 They discovered several new stelae together with other new buildings. O’Neill completed the map of the site which is being utilised till date. When Ruppert, Denison and O’Neill returned from their field and had compared their photos with those of Morley’s earlier expedition, did they realise that Nohoxna and Naachtun were one and the same place.

The Hessdalen Lights

The Hessdalen Phenomenon – Unusual Lights

Hovering above a valley in central Norway, the presence of strange balls of lights has surprised scientists for years. It is known as Hessdalen Phenomenon, wherein the flashing orbs is considered to be as large as cars having drawn the attention from ufologist.

However, scientists now consider that the unusual lights could have be formed by natural battery which could be buried deep beneath the ground, and created by metallic minerals reacting with sulphurous river running through it. Should the theory be proved to be true, it could open up new way of storing energy.

New Science has reported that some of the lights tend to drift gradually through the sky for around two hours, while the others tend to flash white or blue, flashing through the valley and disappears within seconds.

Looking for the physics of the natural phenomenon since 1982, was Erling Strand, a computer engineer from Ostfold University in Norway, when the recurrent light showed up, it captured the attention of the press and scientists.It was revealed that the lights made no sound, appeared to be cool with no trace of any scorch marking on the ground unlike ball lightning.

Geology Forms Electromagnetic Arena Lines

Moreover, it did not sterilise an area on contact, killing the soil microbes. From the Institute of Radio Astronomy in Medicina, Italy, Jader Monari had researched the Hessdalen site since 1996 and observed that rocks in the valley were rich in zinc and iron on one area of the river running through it and on the other side were rich in copper.

He commented that if there is sulphur in the water in the midst, it would make a perfect battery. Accompanied with a colleague from the University of Bologna, they used rock samples to develop a small valley and submerged them in river sediment and found that electricity flowed between the two rocks and this could help in lighting a lamp.

Dr Monari was of the belief that bubbles of ionised gas tend to develop when sulphurous fumes from the River Hesja react with the air which is humid in the valley. The geology also tends to form electromagnetic arena lines in the valley which provides the answer as to why the orbs of light seem to move around.

Various Theories – Light Being Formed

Dr Monari informed Caroline Williams that this electrical field tend to develop a path which could be the main way of the lights within the valley. An electrical engineer at Ostfold University, Bjorn Gitle Hauge, believes that the energy required to make the clouds glow, would be possible due to the charge built up. Some of the experts are of the opinion that some sort of plasma tends to cause light when a gas ionises it, creates a cloud of ions and electrons, plasma which produces light.

Plasmas could be cool to the touch and could also kill microbes, but they need extremely high temperatures with a huge amount of energy to be produced. Others were of the belief that the lights were a type of ball lightning since identical balls of light was spotted and analysed in China indicating that they were formed of silicon, iron and calcium that are seen in the Hessdalen light together with the addition of element known as scandium.

 However, the Hessdalen lights do not seem to appear where there is lightning, which has lead Dr Hauge to recommend another indication. Besides these, there are various other theories with regards to the light being formed though the battery theory seems to be the possibility based on the present evidence.

Archimedes and the Burning Mirror

Archimedes – Turned His Skills on Invaders, Holding them at Bay

It was during the Second Punic War when the city of Syracuse in Sicily had made the serious mistake of supporting the Carthaginians against Rome and in 216 BC the huge Roman fleet set out to lay siege to Syracuse and capture it. It would have been a simple task for the well-drilled Romans though they had not figured out on the intervention of a 70 year old man, Archimedes, who was the greatest Greek technologist, a born and bred Syracusian.

Though he detested violence, having no interest absolutely in military campaigns, in the hour of need in his home town, he turned his skill on the invaders, helping in holding them at bay for almost four years. The Roman had not seen some of the war machines that were released on them.

A large pair of forceps had appeared from the city walls and had grasped the hull of the ship between its jaws, shook it and had sent it crashing in ruins in the sea. Giant catapults had hurled showers of heavy spears and stones on the vessels at anchor a few distances from the shore. However, there was one weapon which Archimedes is said to have used that defied integrity.

Comprehended Reflection

One of the writers worth mentioning was Plutarch who had an interest in making Greek brains far superior to the Romans. As per Plutarch, Archimedes redirected the Sun’s rays on to the Roman galleys setting them ablaze. This incident is not known whether it is true or not, but seemed too good for the medieval chroniclers over thousands of years later to resist.

Some of the later writers state that Archimedes used the published round shields of the Greek troops to reflect the sunlight while others claim that he had focused the rays with a giant single mirror, A Byzantine historian of the 12th century, Joannes Zonaras wrote that, at last in an incredible manner, he burned up the whole Roman fleet by tilting a kind of mirror, he ignited the air from the beam and kindled a great flame, he directed at the ships at anchors in the path of the fire till he consumed them all. Zonaras, obviously had only a weak grasp on the principles of optics but Archimedes on the other hand comprehended reflection as well as anyone till the time of Newton and even he would have struggled to exploit it as an combustible weapon.

Mirrors Used As Anti-Personnel Weapons

Possibly, mirrors might have been used as anti-personnel weapons. For instance, fifty mirrors, precisely trained on the steersman of a Roman galley could have given him a horrible burn but the scene of the total fleet being disabled in this way seems to be a bit unconvincing.

The ability of mirrors to concentrate the sun in obtaining high temperature is well-known. It is easy to envisage focusing the mirrors on a wooden ship rather than the tower to set it ablaze. The goal at the top of the tower could reach temperatures more than 1,000 Fahrenheit, about the auto-ignition point of most wood. But each of the installed mirrors were massive and could have been around 2000 of them, probably which Archimedes may have not arranged considering the technology during that time.

Probably the account of Archimedes together with his military mirrors could be the result of distraught imagination. The actual destruction of the Roman ships as claimed by Thucydides and Aeneas Tacitus was that they could have been due to burning gobbets of sulphur, pitch and charcoal tossed from shore-based catapults and this could have inspired the legend.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine – Powerful/Enthralling Personalities

Eleanor of Aquitaine was considered to be the most powerful as well as enthralling personalities of feudal Europe. She was a major figure in the middle ages as well as a prominent personality in women’s history.

She was the eldest daughter of William, Duke of Aquitaine and had married Louis VII, King of France at the age of 15 bringing with the union, her enormous possessions from the River Loire to the Pyrenees. At 19, she knelt in the cathedral of Vezelay before the celebrated Abbe Bernard of Clairvaux and offered him thousands of her vassals for the Second Crusade.

Queen Eleanor had appeared at Vezelay in the attire of an Amazon galloping through the crowd on a white horse, advising them to join the crusades. Though it is said that the church may have been delighted in receiving her thousand fighting vassals, they were not happy when they learned that Eleanor had along with 300 of her ladies planned to help and tend to the wounded. Her presence together with the ladies and wagons of female servants was disapproved by commentators throughout her adventure. Dressed in armour and carrying lances, the women did not fight.

Eleanor’s Announcement - Marriage Invalid

When they reached the city of Antioch, Eleanor was in deep renewed friendship with Raymond her uncle who had been appointed prince of the city. Raymond was only a few years older than Eleanor and was handsome and far more interesting than her husband, Louis.

Eleanor supported his views when he had decided that the best strategic objective of the Crusade was to recapture Edessa and protect the Western presence in the Holy Land. Louis however was more engrossed in reaching Jerusalem which seemed a less sound goal and demanded Eleanor to follow him to Jerusalem.

Eleanor furious, announced to all that their marriage did not seem to be valid in the eyes of God since they were related through some family links to the extent which was prohibited by the Church. Nonetheless Louis compelled Eleanor to honour her marriage vows and ride with him. The expedition resulted in failure and a defeated Louis and Eleanor returned to France in separate ships.

1152 – Officially Divorced – Married Henry of Anjou

During the Second Crusade, her relationship with her husband worsened and in 1152, they were officially divorced. Thereafter she married Henry of Anjou and over the next thirteen years, the royal couple had eight children, five sons and three daughters. Queen Eleanor was very much occupied in the ruling of King Henry II’s huge empire in France and England.

However Henry and Eleanor finally separated and Henry had her imprisoned in 1173 for supporting her son who had revolted against Henry and was not released till 7 July 1189 when Henry died. Their son ascended the English throne as Richard I. Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade when on his return he was captured and held a prisoner.

Eleanor lived well into the reigns of her son John, who was the youngest.By the time of her death she had outlived all her children except for King John and Queen Eleanor of Castile.Bestowed with intelligence, creative energy together with remarkably long life, she played a major role in the 12th century, an inspiring achievement since medieval women had been considered as nothing more than chattel.

As the queen partner of King Louis VII of France and of King Henry II of England and as the mother of King Richard I and King John, she was in the limelight exercising power over the most important men of her time.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Epic of Gilgamesh – Surprised Update

One of the oldest chronicles in the world, the Epic of Gilgamesh has recently got a surprised update when the Sulaymaniyah Museum in the Kurdistan region of Iraq reported that it had discovered 20 new line of the Babylonian Era poem of mortals, gods and monsters. Since the poem had prevailed in fragments from the 18th century BC, there has constantly been the likelihood of more turning up.

However the one which we seem to be familiar with was in 1853 in Ninevehand does not differ much over recent times. The text seems to be equally fixed which is till the fall of Baghdad in 2003 and the forceful pillaging that followed generated in something new.

 It is reported that an Assyriologist at the University of London – ULC had discovered a stolen clay tablet with inscription of ancient cuneiform text which was recently obtained by a museum in Iraq, comprising of 20 earlier unknown lines to the epic story of Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh is the oldest known epic poem which is widely observed as the first great work of literature that was ever created. Though the precise origin of the tablet is not known, the style of the script as well as the circumstance of acquiring it has lead experts in believing that it was unearthed at Babylonian site and could date back as far as the Old Babylonian period.

Fascinating New Details – V Tablet

When the text seemed to be translated by a professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East at UCL, Farouk Al-Rawi, together with the help of Andrew George, associate dean of languages and culture at UCL, they discovered that it comprised of fascinating new details to the fifth tablet in the Epic of Gilgamesh. This discovery provided new information with regards to Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk and Enkidu, a wild man created by the gods to freed Gilgamesh of his haughtiness, while they are travelling to the Cedar Forest, the home of the gods, in order to defeat Humbaba, the monstrous giant.

The Cedar Forest is the magnificent dominion of the gods of Mesopotamian mythology which is described in Tablets 4 – 6 of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The forest which is guarded by the demigod Humbaba was presumed to be a quiet as well as a reflective space, but the new segment of Tablet 5 which was translated by Al-Rawi, provides a totally diverse perspective

Humbaba Not a Barbarian Ogre – A Foreign Ruler Entertained with Music

Al-Rawi and George writes in their paper `Back to the Cedar Forest: The Beginning and End of Tablet V of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, that more surprising was the revelation of the Cedar Forest which was in the Babylonian literary imagination, a dense jungle inhabited by unusual and noisy fauna.

The chatter of the monkeys, chorus of cicada and squawking of several types of birds created a symphony or cacophony which entertains the forest’s guardian, Humbaba, daily.Humbaba has emerged not as a barbarian ogre but as a foreign ruler entertained with music at court, like Babylonian kings but the music is of a more unusual type which is played by a band of equally unusual musicians.

According to Live Science, the tablet tends to measure 11 cm x 9.5 cm and was purchased in 2011 by Sulaymaniyah Museum in Slemani, Iraq.

 It was purchased from a known smuggler of Mesopotamian antiquities. Though such a move seems controversial and feed the black market with antiquities dealing, the museum debates that it is the only option of regaining some of the treasured artifacts that had been seized from historical sites in Iraq.