Dr. Sarah Waheed Historian • Author • Scholar
New Release • Penguin Random House India (2026)

Uncovering the Lives & Legends of India's Medieval Warrior Queen

Dr. Sarah Waheed is a cultural historian of South Asia, specializing in pre-modern Persianate courts, modern secularism, and Muslim female sovereignty across the India-Pakistan divide.

Her fresh trade history book, Chand Bibi: The Lives and Legends of a Warrior Queen, recovers the forgotten story of the 16th-century Deccan queen who defended Ahmadnagar Fort against Mughal imperial armies—and explores how legends of female power survive in collective memory.

Explore Chand Bibi Press & Interviews
Chand Bibi: The Lives and Legends of a Warrior Queen by Sarah Waheed

Available for pre-order across major South Asian & global retailers.

About Dr. Sarah Waheed

Assistant Professor of History, McCausland College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Carolina

Sarah Waheed is a specialist of South Asian history, teaching medieval, early modern, and modern South Asian history. She is a cultural historian who specializes in South Asian Islam in global and local contexts across the India-Pakistan divide. Her approach to the past is transregional and comparative, speaking to critical issues of religion and secularism, colonialism and nationalism, and gender and memory.

She received her Ph.D. from Tufts University in 2011, her M.A. from the University of Chicago, and her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. She has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships, including a Mellon Foundation Dissertation Research Fellowship by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and a Fulbright Scholar award for field research in the Deccan.

At the University of South Carolina, she teaches introductory and advanced courses on South Asian history, the Indian Ocean world, and the Partition of India.

Academic Appointments & Education

  • Current Position: Assistant Professor of History, University of South Carolina
  • Ph.D. in History: Tufts University (2011)
  • M.A. in History: University of Chicago
  • B.A.: Bryn Mawr College
  • Key Honors: Fulbright Scholar, Mellon Foundation CLIR Fellow
  • Contact Email: [email protected]

Published & Forthcoming Books

Monographs spanning colonial literary culture and pre-modern Deccan sovereignty.

New Release • Penguin India 2026

Chand Bibi: The Lives and Legends of a Warrior Queen

In 1595, Chand Bibi (1550–1600) of the Deccan sultanates in southern India defeated the most powerful forces of her time: the Mughal imperial armies of Emperor Akbar. By turning to the Deccan region, this monograph challenges the north-centric perspective of Mughal imperial development and problematizes modern ideas of Muslim women existing only on the margins.

"A timely and profoundly exciting work... questioning historiography and the erasure of South Asian female Muslim voices." — Ira Mukhoty, author of Daughters of the Sun
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Cambridge University Press • 2022

Hidden Histories of Pakistan: Censorship, Literature, and Secularism

A ground-breaking examination of the cultural politics of the Left in late colonial India and the Pakistan movement. The book demonstrates how progressive Muslim intellectuals engaged with socialism and communism through their distinctive ethical and literary past, complicating conventional binaries between 'religion' and 'the secular'.

"Provides a fresh perspective on the creation of Pakistan and South Asian modernity through blasphemy trials, censorship, and feminist writing." — Cambridge University Press Review
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Selected Essays & Public Scholarship

Recent popular writings, podcast features, and visual art critiques.

The News Minute • Khidki Collective

Chand Bibi, a Queen from the Multi-Ethnic Medieval Deccan

An essay exploring 18th-century Deccan paintings, falconry iconography, and the pluralistic political landscape of Ahmadnagar and Bijapur.

Read Overview →
Critical Collective

Falconry, Feminine Power and Women’s Mobility

An art historical analysis of miniature paintings depicting Chand Bibi on horseback alongside her female armed retinue, the Urdubegis.

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What'sHerName Podcast

The Warrior Queen: Chand Bibi

Audio feature discussing Chand Bibi's military campaigns, the legends of her death, and how historians separate myth from archival records.

Listen & Media Links →