Author(s)

Zehua Chen, Xubiao Yang

Corresponding Author

Zehua Chen

Abstract

Raziya was a female Sultan very rare in Indian history with excellent talent, who made many compelling political achievements in her ruling period. However, due to the long-lasting discrimination & prejudice to women in a patriarchal society, it was very difficult for her to have wide political support. Raziya's attempts of breaking the restrictions of some traditional views of the Islamic society caused severe dislike of some orthodox Muslims. What was more, Raziya's practice of enhancing monarchy power by restricting the nobles' power damaged the interests of the Turkic nobles taking the absolute majority in the royal court, causing their strong objection & retaliation, and Raziya's final failure after a short ruling period. The paper discusses whether the main cause of Raziya's failure is her female identity or a power game.

Keywords

Medieval India, Raziya, Female Identity, Power Game.