Mistress of the Throne

1631. The Empress of India - Mumtaz Mahal - has died. Yet,rather than anoint one of his several other wives to take her placeas Empress of India, Mughal King Shah Jahan anoints hisseventeen-year-old daughter Jahanara as the next Queen of India.Bearing an almost identical resemblance to her mother,Jahanara is the first ever daughter of a sitting Mughal King to beanointed queen. She is reluctant to accept this title, but does so inhopes of averting the storm approaching her family and MughalIndia. Her younger siblings harbor extreme personalities - from aliberal multiculturalist (who views religion as an agent of evil) toan orthodox Muslim (who views razing non-Muslim buildings asdivine will).Meanwhile, Jahanara struggles to come to terms with her owndark reality: as the daughter of a sitting King, she is forbidden tomarry. Thus, while she lives in the shadow of her parents' unflinching love story, she is devastatedby the harsh reality that she is forbidden to share such a romance with another.Mistress of the Throne narrates the powerful story of one of India's most opulent and turbulenttimes through the eyes of an unsuspecting character: a Muslim queen. It uses actual historicalfigures to illuminate the complexity of an era that has often been called India's Golden Age.