When we read Indian history, the 16th century is almost always told through the story of the Mughals ruling from Delhi and Agra. The powerful kingdoms of Southern India- Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, and Golconda- are often treated as minor background details waiting to be conquered by Emperor Akbar.
In Chand Bibi: The Lives and Legends of a Warrior Queen, historian Dr Sarah Waheed turns this traditional narrative upside down. Highlighting her work, Siasat.com explores how Sarah reconstructs the world of this iconic warrior queen, showing that her endurance and sovereign authority went far beyond battlefield resistance. By telling the story of one of the region’s most formidable female rulers, Sarah brings the rich history of the Deccan back into the spotlight and challenges how history has long been written by male court scholars.
Beneath the surface of official history
The book follows the extraordinary life and lasting legacy of Chand Sultana (c. 1550–1600). It traces her journey from a princess of Ahmadnagar to regent of Bijapur, leading up to her famous military defence of the Ahmadnagar fort against the invading Mughal army. But instead of just listing dates and facts, Sarah Waheed digs deeper. She looks for hidden clues, what she calls “counter-archives”, including ruined palaces, defaced wall paintings, ancient water systems, local poetry, and crumbling shrines.
Through these clues, Sarah shatters the old stereotype that royal women back then were helpless figures locked away behind palace walls. Far from an exception, Chand Bibi belonged to a broader tradition of influential female rulers. Supported by elite armed female guard units (urdubegis) who managed internal court security and royal protection, she was a multi-faceted leader, a polyglot fluent in Persian, Arabic, Dakhni, Marathi, and Turkish, an accomplished sitar player, and a skilled artist.
Remarkably, she served as Queen Regent across two distinct powers: first in Bijapur following her husband Sultan Ali Adil Shah I’s death, and later returning to her birthplace of Ahmadnagar to lead its defence. Sarah also highlights how miniature art uniquely depicted her: she is the only pre-modern South Asian woman painted on horseback with a falcon perched on her wrist. In the Persianate world, falconry (shaheen) was a sport reserved exclusively for male monarchs. Depicting her with a falcon was a bold visual assertion of female sovereignty, physical mobility, and royal authority.
Beyond her personal talents, Chand Bibi was a master of political diplomacy and tactical defence. The Deccan Sultanates were perpetually fractured by bitter power struggles between three main court factions: the Dakhnis (local Muslims), the Afaqis (Persian and Central Asian immigrants), and the Habshis (elite African military leaders of Abyssinian descent, such as Malik Ambar). Chand Bibi was one of the few figures capable of building diplomatic bridges across these competing groups to forge a united front for regional independence. During siege warfare against the Mughals, she also demonstrated deep knowledge of local infrastructure, utilising the region’s complex underground karez water channels to manage vital resources, supply defender troops, and counter Mughal mining strategies.
Unlocking Chand Bibi’s truth through legend and memory
What truly sets this biography apart is that Sarah Waheed does not dismiss local legends or folklore as “fake history.” Instead, she treats old stories and historical facts as partners. When dealing with the mystery of Chand Bibi’s death, where conflicting reports claim she was murdered, committed suicide, or escaped through hidden tunnels, she doesn’t force a single answer. As she explained in an interview with The New Indian Express, “I did not treat myth and history as opposites… Folklore may not offer factual certainty, but it reveals the emotional and political life of the past.”
For Sarah, the stories everyday people passed down through folk songs, plays, and local tales are just as important as official records because they show how communities remembered a hero who stood up to an empire.
The book also stands out because Waheed avoids writing like a cold, distant academic. She explained her choice to include personal reflections and family histories alongside academic research on Scroll.in, “I didn’t want to reproduce the very erasure of women I was unsettled by.”
In the same interview, she also highlighted why restoring this region matters so deeply. “We remember the empires that tried to conquer the Deccan, but we forget that the Deccan itself was one of the great centres of political power in the early modern world.”
By mixing deep research with accessible storytelling, visual culture analysis, and personal travelogues, it reads effortlessly and avoids the dense, dry tone typical of standard academic history books, keeping you hooked from start to finish. Chand Bibi is more than just a biography. It is an inspiring, eye-opening look at how we can rediscover powerful women hidden in our past.
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