Cavils apart, this is an immersive novel, remarkable for the thoroughly Muslim world it creates
The Begum and the Dastan could have been titled ‘The Begum & Her Bluebeard’. Bluebeard has many wives Scheherazade, Jane Eyre, Rebecca and their stories are a disjointed, inverted version of the classic fairy tale: a hasty marriage, then a wooing, curiosity, secrets, and finally, a husband who’s revealed to be a monster. The Bluebeard in Tarana Husain Khan’s story is Nawab Shams Ali Khan, ruler of the princely state of Sherpur.
Like all the wives in the Bluebeard tales, the Nawab’s begum, Feroza, the beautiful blue-eyed daughter of Miya Jan Khan, a wealthy Rohilla Pathan, is an independent, curious soul. It is her curiosity that seals her doom.
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Women’s Day fiction: What a little girl learns about her great-grandmother’s life in a harem
An excerpt from ‘The Begum and the Dastan’, by Tarana Husain Khan. Author Tarana Husain Khan.
So, this is the story of Feroza Begum, my grandmother and your great-grandmother. May Allah forgive my tongue for any transgressions. The year was 1896 or 1897, the reign of Nawab Shams Ali Khan had just begun, and Feroza Begum desperately wanted to attend the sawani hosted by the Nawab at Benazir Palace to commemorate his twenty-first birthday.
Now, Feroza was a very wilful and headstrong girl, indulged by her father, Miya Jan Khan, who loved and despaired at her familial stubborn streak and her temper, so very like his own. She was his firstborn and the only one with his blue eyes. He had named her “Feroza” for her blue Feroza gemstone eyes. So, if Feroza wanted something, there could be no peace until she got her way.