Empress
The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan
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Empress
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Narrated by:
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Suzanne Toren
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By:
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Ruby Lal
About this listen
In 1611, 34-year-old Nur Jahan, daughter of a Persian noble and widow of a subversive official, became the 20th and favorite wife of Emperor Jahangir, who ruled the vast Mughal Empire. An astute politician as well as a devoted partner, she issued imperial orders; coins of the realm bore her name. When Jahangir was imprisoned by a rebellious nobleman, the empress led troops into battle and ultimately rescued him.
The only woman to acquire the stature of empress in her male-dominated world, Nur was also a talented dress designer and innovative architect whose work inspired her stepson's Taj Mahal.
Nur's confident assertion of talent and power is revelatory; it far exceeded the authority of her female contemporaries in Renaissance Europe, including Elizabeth I. Here, she finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography that awakens us to a fascinating history.
©2018 Ruby Lal (P)2018 HighBridge CompanyListeners also enjoyed...
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- Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire
- By: Diana Preston, Michael Preston
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 152
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 119
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
While Galileo was suffering under house arrest at the hands of Pope Urban VIII, the 30 Years War was ruining Europe, and the Pilgrims were struggling to survive in the New World, work began on what would become one of the Seven Wonders of the World: the Taj Mahal. Built by the Moghul emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, its flawless symmetry and gleaming presence have for centuries dazzled all who have seen it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A broad perspective
- By Neil on 11-01-09
By: Diana Preston, and others
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Persians
- The Age of the Great Kings
- By: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Narrated by: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 163
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 146
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 148
The Achaemenid Persian kings ruled over the largest empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the steppes of Asia and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. In Persians, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the epic story of this dynasty and the world it ruled. Drawing on Iranian inscriptions, cuneiform tablets, art, and archaeology, he shows how the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the world’s first superpower—one built, despite its imperial ambition, on cooperation and tolerance. This is the definitive history of the Achaemenid dynasty and its legacies in modern-day Iran.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good History and Historiography
- By David A on 04-19-22
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Koh-i-Noor
- The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond
- By: Anita Anand, William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 113
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 112
On 29 March 1849, the 10-year-old Maharajah of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great Fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company in a formal act of submission not only swathes of the richest land in India but also arguably the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 07-08-17
By: Anita Anand, and others
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Isabella of Castile
- Europe's First Great Queen
- By: Giles Tremlett
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
In 1474, a 23-year-old woman ascended the throne of Castile, the largest and strongest kingdom in Spain. Ahead of her lay the considerable challenge not only of being a young female ruler in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world but also of reforming a major European kingdom that was riddled with crime, corruption, and violent political factionism. Her pivotal reign was long and transformative, uniting Spain and setting the stage for its golden era of global dominance.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Enlightening
- By Jean on 03-07-17
By: Giles Tremlett
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Isabella
- The Warrior Queen
- By: Kirstin Downey
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 21 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 648
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 585
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 588
An engrossing and revolutionary biography of Isabella of Castile, the controversial Queen of Spain who sponsored Christopher Columbus's journey to the New World, established the Spanish Inquisition, and became one of the most influential female rulers in history.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Poorly narrated
- By Amazon Customer on 02-23-15
By: Kirstin Downey
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Cleopatra
- A Life
- By: Stacy Schiff
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,604
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,105
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,116
Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Approach this book with caution
- By GolfZilla on 12-02-10
By: Stacy Schiff
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Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome
- By: Anthony Everitt
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 254
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 215
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 219
Acclaimed British historian Anthony Everitt delivers a compelling account of the former orphan who became Roman emperor in A.D. 117 after the death of his guardian Trajan. Hadrian strengthened Rome by ending territorial expansion and fortifying existing borders. And - except for the uprising he triggered in Judea - his strength-based diplomacy brought peace to the realm after a century of warfare.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A Biography "too tall for the height of the cella"
- By Darwin8u on 08-23-12
By: Anthony Everitt
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Marco Polo
- From Venice to Xanadu
- By: Laurence Bergreen
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 737
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 631
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 630
As the most celebrated European to explore Asia, Marco Polo was the original global traveler and the earliest bridge between East and West. A universal icon of adventure and discovery, he has inspired six centuries of popular fascination and spurious mythology. Now, from acclaimed author Laurence Bergreen, comes the first fully authoritative biography of one of the most enchanting figures in world history.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Educational and Entertaining but a bit repetitive
- By PETER on 01-02-13
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Daughters of Chivalry
- The Forgotten Princesses of King Edward Longshanks
- By: Kelcey Wilson-Lee
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
Virginal, chaste, humble, patiently waiting for rescue by brave knights and handsome princes: this idealized—and largely mythical—notion of the medieval noblewoman still lingers. Yet the reality was very different, as Kelcey Wilson-Lee shows in this vibrant account of the five daughters of Edward I, often known as Longshanks. The lives of these sisters—Eleanora, Joanna, Margaret, Mary, and Elizabeth—ran the gamut of experiences open to royal women in the Middle Ages.
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5 out of 5 stars
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fascinating!
- By Anne Keys on 02-11-23
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Augustus
- First Emperor of Rome
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,624
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,418
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,405
Caesar Augustus's story, one of the most riveting in western history, is filled with drama and contradiction, risky gambles and unexpected success. He began as a teenage warlord, whose only claim to power was as the heir of the murdered Julius Caesar. Mark Antony dubbed him "a boy who owes everything to a name," but in the years to come the youth outmaneuvered all the older and more experienced politicians and was the last man standing in 30 BC.
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5 out of 5 stars
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You know my name...say it.
- By Steven on 12-10-14
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The Medici
- Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance
- By: Paul Strathern
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,541
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,338
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,332
Against the background of an age that saw the rebirth of ancient and classical learning, Paul Strathern explores the intensely dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence as well as the Italian Renaissance, which they did so much to sponsor and encourage. Interwoven into the narrative are the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello as well as scientists like Galileo and Pico della Mirandola.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Fun Story Bad History
- By Elizabeth Barrett on 05-09-16
By: Paul Strathern
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Four Queens
- The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 267
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 149
Set against the backdrop of the turbulent 13th century, a time of chivalry and crusades, poetry, knights, and monarchs, comes the story of the four beautiful daughters of the count of Provence, whose brilliant marriages made them the queens of France, England, Germany, and Sicily.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting, informative
- By Eunice on 12-06-07
By: Nancy Goldstone
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The Dark Queens
- The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World
- By: Shelley Puhak
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 338
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 281
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 281
Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet - in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport - these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating & Long Overdue
- By Mary E Birdsong on 10-22-22
By: Shelley Puhak
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The Women of the Cousins' War
- The Duchess, the Queen and the King's Mother
- By: Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, Michael Jones
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 499
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 453
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 454
In her essay on Jacquetta, Philippa Gregory uses original documents, archaeology and histories of myth and witchcraft to create the first-ever biography of the young duchess who was to survive two reigns and two wars to become the first lady at two rival courts. David Baldwin, established author on the Wars of the Roses, tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the first commoner to marry a king of England for love, and Michael Jones, fellow of the Royal Historical Society, writes of Margaret Beaufort, the almost-unknown matriarch of the House of Tudor. The Women of the Cousins’ War will appeal to all.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great book
- By Stacey Wallace on 11-14-11
By: Philippa Gregory, and others
-
Jerusalem
- The Biography
- By: Simon Sebag Montefiore
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 25 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 879
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 767
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 770
Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilizations. From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of three thousand years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and coexistence. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem, and the only city that exists twice - in heaven and on earth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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In-depth and gripping history of 3,000 years
- By A reader on 12-16-11
-
The Secret History of the Mongol Queens
- How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 735
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 619
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 605
The Mongol queens of the thirteenth century ruled the greatest empire the world has ever known. Yet sometime near the end of the century, censors cut a section from The Secret History of the Mongols, leaving a single tantalizing quote from Genghis Khan: “Let us reward our female offspring.”
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5 out of 5 stars
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Mongol Queens
- By Jean on 10-02-10
By: Jack Weatherford
-
The Banished Immortal
- A Life of Li Bai (Li Po)
- By: Ha Jin
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 65
In his own time (701-762), Li Bai's poems - shaped by Daoist thought and characterized by their passion, romance, and lust for life - were never given their proper due by the official literary gatekeepers. Nonetheless, his lines rang out on the lips of court entertainers, tavern singers, soldiers, and writers throughout the Tang dynasty. The Banished Immortal is an extraordinary portrait of a poet who both transcended his time and was shaped by it and whose ability to live, love, and mourn without reservation produced some of the most enduring verses.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Bold and unstoppable, like an overflowing river
- By Joselo on 02-09-19
By: Ha Jin
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What listeners say about Empress
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- samina
- 05-01-24
Beautifully written and narrated
I keep hearing about Ruby Lal— suddenly she’s everywhere, authoring books, appearing in podcasts.. well I’m glad. This book is a fascinating story on the life of Nur Jahan and the political world in which she lived.
As a huge European history buff, I was deeply fascinated by this book. 5 stars!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- barry obrien
- 10-01-24
Excellent story about a remarkable woman
This is a little known story about a remarkable woman whose intelligence and skill enabled her to become the most powerful woman in India, and to rule for decades, overseeing a peaceful and flourishing century. Her love of art and architecture established an environment that would lead to the Taj Mahal and the Mugal style India is world renown for.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Katie
- 09-14-18
A Fascinating Life
I had heard of Jahanara, but if her father's stepmother Nur Jahan was included in the Royal Diaries series book based on the young Indian princess (and I now suppose the must have been), her role was not significant enough to have imprinted her name on my brain. I'm all the more pleased to have discovered this excellent, well-researched biography of Empress Nur Jahan, born while her parents were traveling as political refugees from Persia to India. Although remembered for her love story with Emperor Jahangir (her second marriage and his twentieth), she was also a profoundly capable stateswoman who rose to be co-sovereign with her husband, the first and last woman to lead the state of India until Indira Ghandi was elected Prime Minister over 300 year later. Nur Jahan designed gardens and clothes, shot tigers to protect her subjects, generously funded and arranged marriages for orphaned girls who wished to marry, issued imperial orders, led troops in battle, rescued the kidnapped emperor, and negotiated political alliances. I plan to read this book again and again so that my children will grow up hearing stories of Nur Jahan.
The narrator did an excellent job keeping the tone clear but lively, important with a nonfiction book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 06-03-23
A Must Read!
So good, I so appreciate the author's ability to quote so many varying sources while honoring the very real people at the heart of the story. I absolutely consumed this book.
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