Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women

When thinking of intrepid travelers from past centuries, we don't usually put Muslim women at the top of the list. And yet, the stunning firsthand accounts in this collection completely upend preconceived notions of who was exploring the world.

Editors Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Daniel Majchrowicz, and Sunil Sharma recover, translate, annotate, and provide historical and cultural context for the 17th- to 20th-century writings of Muslim women travelers in ten different languages. Queens and captives, pilgrims and provocateurs, these women are diverse. Their connection to Islam is wide-ranging as well, from the devout to those who distanced themselves from religion. What unites these adventurers is a concern for other women they encounter, their willingness to record their experiences, and the constant thoughts they cast homeward even as they traveled a world that was not always prepared to welcome them.

Perfect for readers interested in gender, Islam, travel writing, and global history, Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women provides invaluable insight into how these daring women experienced the world-in their own voices.

Acknowledgments
A Note on Translation, Transliteration and Syntax
Introduction: Muslim Women, Travel Writing and Cultures of Mobility, by Siobhan Lambert-Hurley and Daniel Majchrowicz
Part I: Travel as Pilgrimage
1. The Widow of Mirza Khalil: A Bereaved Wife Seeks Solace
2. Nawab Sikander Begum: A Queen's Impressions of Mecca
3. Mehrmah Khanom: Adventures on the Road to Iraq
4. Hajiyeh Khanom Alaviya Kermani: Iran to Mecca by Way of Bombay
5. Sakineh Soltan Khanom Esfahani Kuchak: Iraq Diary
6. Nawab Sultan Jahan Begum: The Long March to Medina
7. Ummat al-Ghani Nur al-Nisa: Notes from Mecca and the Levant
8. Begum Sarbuland Jang: Seeking Sisterhood in Damascus
9. Rahil Begum Shervaniya: Life Aboard a Pilgrim Ship
10. Nur Begum: Poems from a Punjabi Pilgrim
11. Zainab Cobbold: At Home in the Hijaz with a British Convert
12. Fatima Begum: An Indian Haji Observes her Fellow Pilgrims
13. Qaisari Begum: The Long Road to Mecca
14. Begum Hasrat Mohani: Letters from a Pilgrimage to Iraq
15. Mahmooda Rizvi: Three Months in Iraq
Part II: Travel as Emancipation and Politics
16. Melek Hanim: A Turk among the Greeks
17. Huda Shaarawi: A European Summer on the Eve of War
18. Zeyneb Hanoum: A Turkish Désenchantée in Europe
19. Selma Ekrem: Alone in New York City
20. Şükûfe Nihal Başar: Three Days in Finland
21. Halide Édib: A Turkish Nationalist in Colonial India
22. Amina Said: An Egyptian Feminist at an Indian Conference
23. Shareefah Hamid Ali: Representing India at the United Nations
24. Suharti Suwarto: Ten Indonesian Women in the Soviet Union
Part III: Travel as Education
25. Atiya Fyzee: Living and Learning in London
26. Maimoona Sultan: To Turkey by Train through a Child's Eyes
27. Sediqeh Dowlatabadi: An Iranian Feminist Travails in France
28. Begum Habibullah: With Three Boys at an English Boarding School
29. Iqbalunnisa Hussain: At the University of Leeds
30. Muhammadi Begum: Oxford Diary
31. Herawati Diah: A Journalist in the Making
32. Mehr al-Nisa: An Indian Nurse in Ohio
33. Zaib-un-nissa Hamidullah: Sixty Days in America
Part IV: Travel as Obligation and Pleasure
34. Princess Jahanara: Mystical Meetings in Kashmir
35. Dilshad: A Prisoner is Taken to Khoqand
36. Sayyida Salamah bint Said/Emily Ruete: A Lover's Flight from Zanzibar
37. Taj al-Saltanah: Life and Death in Qajar Iran
38. Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain: A Pleasure Trip to the Himalaya
39. Nazli Begum: On Grand Tour with the Nawab of Janjira
40. Safia Jabir Ali: Touring Europe on Business
41. Sughra Humayun Mirza: Meeting the Caliph in Switzerland
42. Sughra Sabzvari: An Indian Family in Iran
43. Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah: Life in England on the Brink of War
44. Shams Pahlavi: A Shah's Daughter in Exile
45. Nyonya Aulia-Salim: An Indonesian Tours America by Motor
Glossary
Contributors
Index

Siobhan Lambert-Hurley is Professor of Global History at the University of Sheffield. She is author of Elusive Lives: Gender, Autobiography, and the Self in Muslim South Asia; (with Sunil Sharma) Atiya's Journeys: A Muslim Woman from Colonial Bombay to Edwardian Britain; and Muslim Women, Reform and Princely Patronage: Nawab Sultan Jahan Begam of Bhopal. She is editor (with Anshu Malhotra) of Speaking of the Self: Gender, Performance, and Autobiography in South Asia and of A Princess's Pilgrimage: Nawab Sikandar Begum's A Pilgrimage to Mecca.

Daniel Majchrowicz is Assistant Professor of South Asian Literature and Culture at Northwestern University. His work appears in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies and Journal of Urdu Studies, as well as several edited volumes. He is author of a forthcoming book on the history of travel writing in South Asia. 

Sunil Sharma is Professor of Persianate and Comparative Literature at Boston University. He is author of Mughal Arcadia: Persian Literature in an Indian Court; Amir Khusraw: The Poet of Sultans and Sufis; Persian Poetry at the Indian Frontier: Mas'ud Sa'd Salman of Lahore, and (with Siobhan Lambert-Hurley) Atiya's Journeys: A Muslim Woman from Colonial Bombay to Edwardian Britain. He is editor (with Roberta Micallef) of On the Wonders of Land and Sea: Persianate Travel Writing.

Compiled by editors Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Daniel Majchrowicz and Sunil Sharma, Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women showcases writings from 45 Muslim women — acquired through an extensive selection of writings in 10 languages, including Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Punjabi, Indonesian, English and others. . . . What emerges is a group of women writers who were not afraid to voice their thoughts in the presence of authority figures and unfavourable circumstances. Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women Writers is an enduring testament to just a few of the countless fascinating stories documented by women travellers throughout the ages.

This anthology will be of interest to anyone working on travel, colonial history, Muslim women, and comparative literature, Islamic Studies. It will also be an excellent resource in many courses that cover a range of topics be it religious piety, feminism, travel, travel writing, and much more.

The amount of work that has gone into uncovering these sources should not be understated. Lambert-Hurley and her team researched the book over seven years, collaborating with experts in Arabic sources and visiting private collections in rural Punjab. Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women is all the more valuable for rendering visible a previously unwritten history of Muslim women travellers. It deserves a place on your bookshelf!

This anthology will interest scholars and general readers wanting to know more about travel writing, gender, Muslim women, Islamic studies, colonial history and global history. It is also a good resource for many undergraduate and graduate courses.

Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women fills important gaps in the history of Islam and the Islamicate cultures....Among the merits of this collection is that it can be read at multiple levels. It appeals to students of Islamic history because it offers important insights about family structures and social habits, including some interesting ethno-graphic notes that are otherwise under looked in texts that are more focused on the history of the Islamic institutions. It is an important tool for students who have an interest in gender and women studies especially as it contributes to decentring Europe and the West and shifting the focus on the Muslim world.

This timely scholarly intervention provides a much-needed counternarrative to the stereotypical conceptions and notions of what it meant—or means—to be a Muslim woman . . . Going through the narratives in Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women, one is touched by their authenticity. In speaking of traditionally feminine concerns, none of the women seem to be relinquishing power, but rather exerting it, usually in a quiet, confident, and rather subversive manner. The excerpts contained in the book suggest that a much larger and richer body of work is available for translation to provide alternative, authentic narratives of the Muslim woman's experience.

'Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women', edited by Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Daniel Majchrowicz, and Sunil Sharma, disrupts this narrative in a groundbreaking way. It's a meticulously curated collection of firsthand accounts of Muslim women travellers, spanning ten different languages across the 17th to the 20th centuries. This book is more than just a travelogue; it's an act of historical reclamation that unearths the voices of intrepid women who ventured out into the world, defying the stereotypes of female seclusion often associated with Muslim societies.