For centuries, Chand Bibi has existed in the spaces between history and legend. Remembered as the queen who defended Ahmadnagar against Mughal forces, she has appeared in folklore, paintings, poetry, theatre and oral traditions across the Deccan. Yet despite her remarkable life as a military strategist, diplomat, regent and ruler, she remains largely absent from mainstream historical narratives.
In Chand Bibi: The Lives and Legends of a Warrior Queen, Hyderabad-born historian Dr Sarah Waheed brings this extraordinary sixteenth-century Muslim queen back into focus. Published by Penguin Random House India, the book traces not only Chand Bibi’s life but also the many ways she has been remembered, reimagined and celebrated across generations. In conversation with CE, Dr Sarah discusses Chand Bibi’s enduring legacy, and why recovering the stories of Deccan women matters more than ever.
Excerpts
What first drew you to the story of Chand Bibi?
Chand Bibi herself drew me into her world. I first heard of her through family stories and local lore, but years later, in Hyderabad, I came across an Urdu play called Chand Bibi Sultan in an old bookshop. I put it aside, only to return to it after a vivid dream about her. When I finally read it, I was astonished to find scenes that echoed my dream. That moment began a long quest into Chand Bibi’s many afterlives — in paintings, poems, folklore, and memory. I was fascinated by a powerful Muslim woman who defied Mughal expansion, was remembered as a ‘sultan’, and illuminated the history of the Deccan.
Chand Bibi appears in folklore, paintings, and oral histories. How did you separate myth from history?
I did not treat myth and history as opposites. The historical record itself is layered and contradictory. For example, there are three major accounts of Chand Bibi’s death — murder, suicide, and escape. Rather than choosing one as ‘true’, I asked what each version reveals about the people who preserved it. Folklore may not offer factual certainty, but it reveals the emotional and political life of the past. My task was not only to distinguish evidence from invention, but also to understand why certain stories endured for centuries.
What surprised you most during your research?
The sheer volume of material on powerful Muslim women in the medieval and early modern Deccan. Chand Bibi was remarkable, but she was not an exception. She belonged to a wider tradition of politically influential women, including figures such as Agha Nargis Banu and Hayat Bakshi Begum. Their stories have largely been absent from both scholarly and popular histories.
Why ‘Lives and Legends’?
Because Chand Bibi cannot be understood through a simple biography. There is the historical Chand Bibi — the regent, diplomat, and defender of Ahmadnagar. But there is also the Chand Bibi who lived on through Urdu poetry, Marathi plays, folklore, and visual culture. Women are often marginalised in official records, yet preserved in songs, paintings, and collective memory. Her legends are not distractions from history; they are part of her historical significance. They reveal how generations understood her courage, sovereignty, and refusal to surrender power.
How did travelling across the Deccan shape your understanding of her?
Travel changed everything. Walking through Ahmadnagar Fort, Bijapur, Gulbarga, and Hyderabad made me realise that Chand Bibi was not a solitary heroine but part of a mobile, cosmopolitan world. The Deccan is central to this story. Its forts, shrines, palaces, and marketplaces preserve traces of layered sovereignties and cultural exchanges. At the same time, these journeys revealed silences. Many places associated with women are neglected or forgotten. Historical erasure is not only textual, it is also spatial.
What were some of the biggest gaps in the historical record?
The most obvious gap is the absence of women’s own voices. We often know what men thought about women, but women’s ambitions, friendships, grief, and rivalries must be reconstructed indirectly. There is also silence around the women who surrounded rulers — guards, attendants, healers, performers, soldiers, and messengers. Records may name the queen but rarely acknowledge the wider network of women who helped shape political life.
Why is recovering Deccan histories so important?
The Deccan has long been overshadowed by narratives focused on Delhi, Agra, and the Mughal north. Yet between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries, it was a dynamic, multilingual, and politically sophisticated region shaped by Persian, African, Arab, Marathi, Telugu, and Dakhni influences. Chand Bibi defended not just a fort but Deccan sovereignty in a world of competing empires, maritime trade, and shifting alliances. Recovering women like her changes our understanding of India’s past. It reveals a more complex history of regional power, cultural exchange, and female leadership.
Did this project also reconnect you with your own heritage?
Very much so. I come from a Hyderabadi Muslim family and grew up hearing stories from women about bravery, loss, and survival. Researching Chand Bibi brought me back to Hyderabad with new questions. It helped me see how family memory and oral history often preserve what official archives overlook. The project became both a return to my roots and a reckoning with historical erasure.
Are there other women you hope to write about?
Absolutely. I am increasingly interested in unnamed women — attendants, guards, scribes, performers, and servants who moved through courts and camps. Some of the most important historical questions are not only about elite women, but about the social worlds that made their power possible.
If Chand Bibi were alive today, what kind of leader would she be?
She would be politically astute, courageous, and difficult to categorise. Chand Bibi knew how to work within power and against it. She navigated multiple worlds and identities with remarkable skill. I think she would resist narrow forms of nationalism and religious identity politics. She was a seasoned boundary-crosser, and that ability to navigate complexity is precisely what makes her so compelling today.