Historian revives story of Deccan queen Chand Bibi
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Historian Sarah Waheed began researching Chand Bibi, a 16th-century queen from the Deccan region of India, after finding a book about her in a used bookstore in Hyderabad. Waheed’s research revealed Chand Bibi ruled as queen regent in Bijapur and Ahmadnagar, skillfully negotiated with foreign powers, and commanded armies that resisted the Mughal emperor Akbar.
Waheed argues that the Deccan region has been overlooked in Indian historical narratives because its power challenged a North-centric, imperial view of history.
The Bahmani Sultanate, and its successor states, controlled a vast territory, approximately 700,000 square kilometers by 1600, based on agriculture, trade, and diamond mines, making the Deccan a significant political and economic center. Her book, Chand Bibi: The Lives and Legends of a Warrior Queen, demonstrates that Chand Bibi was part of a larger tradition of female leadership in the Deccan. Women like Khunza Humayun, Hayat Bakshi Begum, Rudramma Devi, and Nayanika previously held sovereign power in the region.
Chand Bibi’s authority extended to the royal household, which Waheed describes as a crucial center for political activity, not merely a private space. The circumstances of Chand Bibi’s death during a siege in 1600 remain uncertain, accounts vary between murder, suicide, and escape, but Waheed focuses on how different versions of the story reflect the interests of those who preserved them.
She also included stories of women in her own family in the book, to counter the historical erasure of women’s roles.
