Excerpted and adapted with permission from Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan by Ruby Lal, published February 27, 2024 by Yale University Press. All rights reserved. On the banks of the River Ravi in the prosperous agrarian province of Punjab, India, the city of Lahore was earning a reputation as a grand Mughal city. In late 1585, the Mughal Emperor Akbar moved his government there. For over a decade, the fort of Lahore had been getting a facelift, rebuilt handsomely in kiln-burnt brick and stone, its 11th-century mud-brick foundations…
