ABSTRACT

The paper examines the Windsor Castle ‘Ishqnama, an autobiographical account of the amorous entanglements by the last king of Awadh, Wajid ‘Ali Shah (r. 1847–56), as one of the strategies for projecting an image of an ideal masculine ruler through the control over the bodies of “his” women—the paris (fairies) in his Parikhana, an establishment of women singers and dancers, many of whom were his mut‘a wives, and the women of his zenana. The ‘Ishqnama revealed the royal harem both visually and textually. The paper contextualises this strategic revealment by a tangential viewing of the harem of the contemporary Persian ruler, Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar, who similarly revealed the women of his harem by photographing them at a critical period when his image as an ideal ruler was being eroded. Discourse surrounding Wajid Ali Shah’s association with the “fairies” was diverse, with reactions ranging from adulatory accounts, to severe criticism. The paper highlights these polemic narratives by the British on the one hand and a Persian traveller, Waqar al-Mulk Tabrizi who visited Lucknow in the 1870s on the other, to examine culturally diverse perceptions about what constituted the “right” exhibition of sexuality by a ruler and how this exhibition underlined his ability to rule.

摘要

这篇论文考察了温莎城堡'Ishqnama，这是阿瓦德最后一位国王瓦吉德·阿里·沙阿（Wajid'Ali Shah，1847-56 年在位）的多情纠缠的自传式描述，作为通过以下方式投射理想男性统治者形象的策略之一对“他的”女人身体的控制——他的 Parikhana 中的巴黎（仙女），一个由女歌手和舞者组成的机构，其中许多是他的mut'a妻子，以及他的zenana的女人。该“Ishqnama从视觉上和文字上都揭示了皇家后宫。该论文通过对当代波斯统治者 Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar 的后宫的切线观察，将这一战略揭示置于背景之下，后者同样通过在他作为理想统治者的形象出现的关键时期拍摄她们的后宫女性侵蚀。围绕瓦吉德·阿里·沙阿与“仙女”的联系的讨论多种多样，反应从奉承的叙述到严厉的批评不等。该论文一方面强调了英国人的这些论战叙事，另一方面强调了 1870 年代访问勒克瑙的波斯旅行者 Waqar al-Mulk Tabrizi 的这些争论性叙述，以检查文化上对什么构成“正确”性行为的看法的不同看法。统治者以及这个展览如何强调他的统治能力。