The warrior who defeated the mighty Mughals - Stephanie Honchell Smith
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In 1624, Mughal Emperor Jahangir received word of yet another defeat at the hands of his greatest enemy: Malik Ambar. Jahangir was so obsessed with defeating his rival, he commissioned a painting of himself shooting an arrow at Ambar’s skull. So, who was this brilliant tactician? And how did he come into power? Stephanie Honchell Smith shares Ambar's rise from enslaved youth to kingmaker.
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Additional Resources for you to Explore
To learn more about Malik Ambar’s life and the world he lived in, see Omar H. Ali’s book, Malik Ambar: Power and Slavery Across the Indian Ocean, which he discusses in this video and which you can find reviewed here.
People of African descent in South Asia are known as Habshis or Sidis, and many rose to elite positions in the early modern period, as discussed in this book edited by Kenneth X. Robbins and John McLeod and this book edited by Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya and Jean-Pierre Angenot. Their descendants are still found across South Asia today.
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Meet The Creators
- Educator
- Stephanie H. Smith
- Director
- Layron DeJarnette, Gumboyo
- Narrator
- Alexandra Panzer
- Composer
- Salil Bhayani, cAMP Studio
- Sound Designer
- Amanda P.H. Bennett, cAMP Studio
