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Farzana: The Woman Who Saved an Empire
Amongst the riches of 19th century India, as the British fought their way across Mughal territory, an orphaned street-girl is brought to court to perform for the Emperor. That girl was Farzana, and she would become a courtesan, a leader of armies, a treasured defender of the last Mughal emperor and the head of one of the most legendary courts in history. In this beautifully written book, the author's last, Julia Keay weaves a story which spans the Indian continent and the end of a golden era in Indian history, the story of a nobody who became a teenage seductress and died one of the richest and most prominent woman of her age. Farzana rode into battle atop a stallion, though only 4 ½ feet tall, and led an army which defended a sickly Mughal empire. She dabbled in witchcraft while gaining favour with the Pope, and died a favourite of the British Raj. Farzana is an evocative and moving depiction of one of the most remarkable, and least-known, historical lives of the 19th century.
326 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 1, 2014
A very well-done nonfiction account of a part of Indian history that I previously knew very little about. In the late 1700s, though the Mughal Empire still held nominal control of most of north India, the emperors actually held extremely little actual power, whether political, military, or economic. The power vacuum this caused was filled by a multitude of competing groups: to the south, the Marathas, to the west, the Rajputs, and to the north, the Sikhs: all groups with a lot of military power but torn by internal divisions; to the north-west, Afghan leaders who occasionally would raid and pillage into India, but who had little interest in staying put; the former Mughal territories of Awadh, Bengal, Hyderbad and the independent Mysore, all city-states with a lot of political and cultural power within their boundaries, but all fairly small; and the new European trading powers, the main ones being the British in Calcutta and Madras and the French at Pondicherry and Chandernagore (and the two of them, of course, bringing into the chaos their own rivalry from various wars on other continents). It was basically a Dark Ages, with constant competition for more territory or wealth and little overarching law and order. Unsurprisingly, a number of mercenary companies sprang up, mostly composed of a mix of Indians, Europeans, and people of mixed race, who moved from ruler to ruler determined by who could pay and who had won the most recent battle.
All of this is just the background to Farzana's own life: she was born into an impoverished family, sold as a child to become a nautch girl (a sort of courtesan), moved up to become the concubine of the English leader of a mercenary band, took over the band in her own name after his death, ruled her own little state, became famous for riding into battle alongside her soldiers, and was eventually adopted as a daughter by the Mughal emperor himself. "Saved" the Empire is an exaggeration – "helped it to limp along for a few more decades before it was dismantled by the British in the 1850s" would be more accurate – but it's an exciting enough story that it hardly matters. Keay's style is easy to read and never becomes confusing, despite the multitude of names and groups to deal with. She tends to attribute emotions to people – Farzana "was reluctant", "she was impressed", "she was certainly in no mood to be courted", etc – although as far as I can tell, we have absolutely no way of knowing what Farzana felt about anything. That annoyed me, but it's a minor problem, and overall I highly recommend the book.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
All of this is just the background to Farzana's own life: she was born into an impoverished family, sold as a child to become a nautch girl (a sort of courtesan), moved up to become the concubine of the English leader of a mercenary band, took over the band in her own name after his death, ruled her own little state, became famous for riding into battle alongside her soldiers, and was eventually adopted as a daughter by the Mughal emperor himself. "Saved" the Empire is an exaggeration – "helped it to limp along for a few more decades before it was dismantled by the British in the 1850s" would be more accurate – but it's an exciting enough story that it hardly matters. Keay's style is easy to read and never becomes confusing, despite the multitude of names and groups to deal with. She tends to attribute emotions to people – Farzana "was reluctant", "she was impressed", "she was certainly in no mood to be courted", etc – although as far as I can tell, we have absolutely no way of knowing what Farzana felt about anything. That annoyed me, but it's a minor problem, and overall I highly recommend the book.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
December 20, 2016
One of the most interesting and unusual women in the history of India was Joanna Nobilis Samru, the half-Kashmiri dancing girl who rose to be not just a military commander, but also India’s only Catholic princess—as well as a woman held in so much esteem and affection by the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam that he gave her the title Farzand-e-Azizi, or ‘Beloved Daughter’. A woman who negotiated on behalf of empires, who led armies into battle, and built a basilica for the consecration of which—at her request—the Pope sent a papal legate.
A woman, then, who deserves to be much better known even in her native country than she is. And to be introduced to the rest of the world. Even if, when she was alive, she was like the Taj Mahal: you couldn't come to India and not pay a visit to see Begum Samru.
Julia Keay’s biography of Begum Samru is a carefully and deeply researched work, drawing from sources as varied as the accounts of Begum Samru’s contemporaries and the writings of well-respected historians like Jadunath Sarkar and Percival Spear. Beginning with the birth of ‘Farzana’ (Keay points out that nobody knows the lady’s birth name, and so uses the distortion of one of her titles, Farzand-e-Azizi, to refer to her, as was often done), the book traces her life through its meteoric rise, from a dancing girl in Delhi’s red light area, Chawri Bazaar, to the ‘wife’ of the Alsace-born mercenary Walter Reinhardt ‘Sombre’, through to the establishment of the Sardhana Brigade, the relationship with Shah Alam, and Begum Samru’s relationships, both professional and personal, with the leading lights of 18th and 19th century India.
Farzana: The Tempestuous Life and Times of Begum Sumru presents a very vivid picture of not just an unusually charismatic woman, but also of the era she lived in. An India in ferment, the English and the French trying to gain ground, the Mughals at their dying gasp, the Marathas, Sikhs, Rajputs and Jats struggling to gain supremacy—and the mercenaries who took advantage of the frequent wars to build up fortunes for themselves. The narrative ends up being several things: a history of Northern India in the late 1700s and before 1857; biographies of men like Walter Reinhardt and the ‘Raja from Tipperary’, George Thomas, who commanded the Sardhana Brigade and was Begum Samru’s lover for many years.
Most of all, though, it is a portrait, impressive and memorable, of the phenomenon that was Begum Samru, a woman whose name and memory still live on, not just in her one-time estate of Sardhana, but also in nearby Meerut (where Begum Pul was named for her), and in Delhi itself, where the electricals market of Bhagirath Palace is housed in what was once her mansion, where she entertained the who’s who of Delhi’s rich, famous, and powerful.
My only grouse with this book was that it tended to wander off too deep into discussions of the political scenario in India, even when it was only tangentially (sometimes not even that) connected to Begum Samru. These were the only times I found my attention wandering. Other than that, though, a fascinating book and definitely worth a read for anyone who’s interested in the history of Northern India around the time when Mughal rule gave way to British.
A woman, then, who deserves to be much better known even in her native country than she is. And to be introduced to the rest of the world. Even if, when she was alive, she was like the Taj Mahal: you couldn't come to India and not pay a visit to see Begum Samru.
Julia Keay’s biography of Begum Samru is a carefully and deeply researched work, drawing from sources as varied as the accounts of Begum Samru’s contemporaries and the writings of well-respected historians like Jadunath Sarkar and Percival Spear. Beginning with the birth of ‘Farzana’ (Keay points out that nobody knows the lady’s birth name, and so uses the distortion of one of her titles, Farzand-e-Azizi, to refer to her, as was often done), the book traces her life through its meteoric rise, from a dancing girl in Delhi’s red light area, Chawri Bazaar, to the ‘wife’ of the Alsace-born mercenary Walter Reinhardt ‘Sombre’, through to the establishment of the Sardhana Brigade, the relationship with Shah Alam, and Begum Samru’s relationships, both professional and personal, with the leading lights of 18th and 19th century India.
Farzana: The Tempestuous Life and Times of Begum Sumru presents a very vivid picture of not just an unusually charismatic woman, but also of the era she lived in. An India in ferment, the English and the French trying to gain ground, the Mughals at their dying gasp, the Marathas, Sikhs, Rajputs and Jats struggling to gain supremacy—and the mercenaries who took advantage of the frequent wars to build up fortunes for themselves. The narrative ends up being several things: a history of Northern India in the late 1700s and before 1857; biographies of men like Walter Reinhardt and the ‘Raja from Tipperary’, George Thomas, who commanded the Sardhana Brigade and was Begum Samru’s lover for many years.
Most of all, though, it is a portrait, impressive and memorable, of the phenomenon that was Begum Samru, a woman whose name and memory still live on, not just in her one-time estate of Sardhana, but also in nearby Meerut (where Begum Pul was named for her), and in Delhi itself, where the electricals market of Bhagirath Palace is housed in what was once her mansion, where she entertained the who’s who of Delhi’s rich, famous, and powerful.
My only grouse with this book was that it tended to wander off too deep into discussions of the political scenario in India, even when it was only tangentially (sometimes not even that) connected to Begum Samru. These were the only times I found my attention wandering. Other than that, though, a fascinating book and definitely worth a read for anyone who’s interested in the history of Northern India around the time when Mughal rule gave way to British.
July 29, 2024
I had come across the name of Begum Samru frequently when reading about Delhi in the days of the East India Company, but had no idea what her claim to fame was.
Then I came across this book by Julia Keay and was amazed as I followed the journey of a “nautch girl” from a kotha in Chauri Bazar in Delhi to the status of royalty during the twilight years of the Mughal era.
Farzana (1746-1836) was the daughter of a Kashmiri dancing girl and an Arab soldier. She herself became a nautch girl in Delhi's Chauri Bazar where she was spotted by a German mercenary, Walter Reinahrdt 'Sombre' (Indianised to Samru) who was then in the service of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam.
Samru was besotted by Farzana's beauty and took her as his 'bibi'. (Much like today's live-in couples, Europeans those days often had Indian bibis who were virtually their unwed wives as long as they were in India.) Farzana was 15 and Sombre 45.
Shah Alam felt much obliged to Sombre because of his military help and gave him, in reward, the jagir of Sardhana, a large estate of about 800 square miles in Haryana. As Samru's bibi, Farzana became known as Begum Samru.
Farzana was a spirited girl, and soon she was riding out with the troops on every sortie that Sombre led, getting close to the action and learning useful lessons on how to lead and how not to conduct a military campaign.
Within five years of leaving her kotha in Chauri Bazar, Farzana had grown into "an assertive twenty- year-old, as secure in Reinhardt's affections as in those of his men, party to all their decisions, and a respected member of the wider freelance fraternity. She rode with the best and jested with the least."
Farzana had occasion to meet Shah Alam as Reinhardt's bibi. She treated him with flattering deference, yet was not afraid to speak her mind; and he, like Reinhardt, came to value her judgement and delight in her company.
At Sardhana Farzana proved herself as an outstanding manager and soon European visitors were marvelling at the estate's productivity and prosperity.
In 1780, when Farzana was 34, Reinhardt died. Given her informal relationship with him, she faced a return to oblivion. But she was made of sterner stuff. To her "opportunities were there to be grasped, adversities to be defied."
She worked her charm on Pauli, Reinhardt's second-in-command of his military brigade and won him over. She then leveraged her rapport with Shah Alam who, ere long, not only confirmed the Begum in the charge of the Sardhana Brigade but also in possession of the jagir of Sardhana. Thus she became an independent ruling princess with an army of her own.
Just a year after Reinhardt's death, Farzana converted to Roman Catholicism. No explanation is available for this. But she was the only Roman Catholic ruler that India has ever had.
After Pauli, Farzana had another European lover in an English mercenary named George Thomas and later formally married a French soldier of fortune named Pierre Antoine Levassoult.
The Frenchman was much disliked by the brigade and the troops, once so loyal to the Begum, revolted. Levassoult was killed and Farzana herself lashed to a canon and left to perish in the hot sun. Unwilling to give up, she managed to send word to her estranged lover George Thomas who rushed to her rescue and effected a rapprochement between the Begum and her army.
By now Begum Samru had acquired legendary status. The musical soirees and dinners that she frequently hosted attracted the créme de la créme of Indian society. She was described as 'a Taj Mahal whom no foreign visitor could afford to miss'.
When Begum Samru died at age 90 in 1836, her funeral would have been the envy of any prince. But Farzana had died childless. She had adopted a son but the British went back on their written assurance to her, took over her estate, and very soon Begum Samru was all but forgotten
Then I came across this book by Julia Keay and was amazed as I followed the journey of a “nautch girl” from a kotha in Chauri Bazar in Delhi to the status of royalty during the twilight years of the Mughal era.
Farzana (1746-1836) was the daughter of a Kashmiri dancing girl and an Arab soldier. She herself became a nautch girl in Delhi's Chauri Bazar where she was spotted by a German mercenary, Walter Reinahrdt 'Sombre' (Indianised to Samru) who was then in the service of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam.
Samru was besotted by Farzana's beauty and took her as his 'bibi'. (Much like today's live-in couples, Europeans those days often had Indian bibis who were virtually their unwed wives as long as they were in India.) Farzana was 15 and Sombre 45.
Shah Alam felt much obliged to Sombre because of his military help and gave him, in reward, the jagir of Sardhana, a large estate of about 800 square miles in Haryana. As Samru's bibi, Farzana became known as Begum Samru.
Farzana was a spirited girl, and soon she was riding out with the troops on every sortie that Sombre led, getting close to the action and learning useful lessons on how to lead and how not to conduct a military campaign.
Within five years of leaving her kotha in Chauri Bazar, Farzana had grown into "an assertive twenty- year-old, as secure in Reinhardt's affections as in those of his men, party to all their decisions, and a respected member of the wider freelance fraternity. She rode with the best and jested with the least."
Farzana had occasion to meet Shah Alam as Reinhardt's bibi. She treated him with flattering deference, yet was not afraid to speak her mind; and he, like Reinhardt, came to value her judgement and delight in her company.
At Sardhana Farzana proved herself as an outstanding manager and soon European visitors were marvelling at the estate's productivity and prosperity.
In 1780, when Farzana was 34, Reinhardt died. Given her informal relationship with him, she faced a return to oblivion. But she was made of sterner stuff. To her "opportunities were there to be grasped, adversities to be defied."
She worked her charm on Pauli, Reinhardt's second-in-command of his military brigade and won him over. She then leveraged her rapport with Shah Alam who, ere long, not only confirmed the Begum in the charge of the Sardhana Brigade but also in possession of the jagir of Sardhana. Thus she became an independent ruling princess with an army of her own.
Just a year after Reinhardt's death, Farzana converted to Roman Catholicism. No explanation is available for this. But she was the only Roman Catholic ruler that India has ever had.
After Pauli, Farzana had another European lover in an English mercenary named George Thomas and later formally married a French soldier of fortune named Pierre Antoine Levassoult.
The Frenchman was much disliked by the brigade and the troops, once so loyal to the Begum, revolted. Levassoult was killed and Farzana herself lashed to a canon and left to perish in the hot sun. Unwilling to give up, she managed to send word to her estranged lover George Thomas who rushed to her rescue and effected a rapprochement between the Begum and her army.
By now Begum Samru had acquired legendary status. The musical soirees and dinners that she frequently hosted attracted the créme de la créme of Indian society. She was described as 'a Taj Mahal whom no foreign visitor could afford to miss'.
When Begum Samru died at age 90 in 1836, her funeral would have been the envy of any prince. But Farzana had died childless. She had adopted a son but the British went back on their written assurance to her, took over her estate, and very soon Begum Samru was all but forgotten
December 7, 2018
Fascinating story, if only Julia Keay had survived long enough to refine and further research it.
November 27, 2020
Well researched book
December 31, 2016
Fascinating account of a young Muslim girl in the last years of the Mughal Empire in India, who rose from the lowest depths to the highest of heights. Dancing girl, mercenary, ruler, christian, Begum Sumru was a tiny woman who lived a larger than life existance - and whose story is far more exciting than any novel could portray.
Faranza's story puts me in mind of that other notable Indian heroine, Phoolan Devi, and like Phoolan, her story is being made into a movie (still in production stage).
Compelling read - and not just for those interested in the Mughal Empire of India.
Faranza's story puts me in mind of that other notable Indian heroine, Phoolan Devi, and like Phoolan, her story is being made into a movie (still in production stage).
Compelling read - and not just for those interested in the Mughal Empire of India.
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Reviewed by The Independent (6 Nov 2014)
Reviewed by The Independent (6 Nov 2014)
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