Daniel Majchrowicz, "A Journey to Mecca and London: The Travels of an Indian Muslim Woman, 1909–1910" (Indiana UP, 2025)

August 10, 2026

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5 min read

In 1909, an aristocratic Indian Muslim woman named Akhtar al-Nisa Begum Nawab Sarbuland Jang set out on a four-month journey from Hyderabad to Mecca for the Hajj, then through the Ottoman Empire to Istanbul, and finally to London, where she had tea with the future king and queen of England. She kept a private diary of the trip, publishing it decades later in Urdu under the title The World in a Woman’s Eyes. Only three copies of the original are known to survive. Daniel Majchrowicz, a scholar of South Asian literature and culture at Northwestern University, has now produced the first full English translation of this diary—A Journey to Mecca and London—along with a new edition of the Urdu original. The book offers a rare, unpolished, and deeply personal view of the world through the eyes of a Muslim woman at a moment of rising Western influence and hardening religious identities.

Who She Was and How She Named Herself

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What you'll learn

1 (01:34) **Introduction: Host and Guest** - Nicole Carreri welcomes Daniel Majchrowicz back to the show to discuss his new translation of a travel diary.
2 (03:39) **Origin of the Project: A Passion for the Text** - Majchrowicz explains how this translation emerged from his previous research.
3 (07:05) **Uncovering the Author’s Name and Identity** - The guest details the detective work involved in learning the author's actual name.
4 (10:56) **The "Rising Tide of Westernization" and the Book’s Purpose** - The preface reveals the author's frame for reading the diary.
5 (16:50) **Blurring Confessional Lines: Shia and Sunni Practices** - The author’s devotional life does not fit modern sectarian categories.
6 (20:42) **A Self-Conscious Muslim Identity and Encounters with Christians** - The author’s expectations about the Middle East are challenged.
7 (27:50) **The Unsung Hero: Servant Amina Bee** - The diary provides a rare glimpse into the experience of a traveling servant.

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Show Notes

Descended from Mughal nobility, Akhtar al-Nisa Begum Nawab Sarbuland Jung grew up in Hyderabad in southern India, where she lived a quiet, private, and privileged life at the heart of the state's royal court. In 1896, at the age of 20, she married Nawab Muhammad Hamidullah Khan Sarbuland Jung, a prominent lawyer and the scion of a leading Muslim reformist movement. In 1909, the wealthy couple embarked on a four-month journey through the Middle East and Europe, performing the hajj in Mecca and sitting for tea with the future king and queen of England.

A Journey to Mecca and London: The Travels of an Indian Muslim Woman, 1909–1910 (Indiana University Press, 2025) provides the first full English translation of Begum Sarbuland's Urdu travel diary from this journey, of which only three original copies remain. Originally intended for circulation among friends and family and later published, her informal entries not only reveal the everyday practices of an Indian woman of her time, but also detail her impressions and reactions as she explored the world alongside her husband. As Begum Sarbuland encountered other women and Muslims during her travels, those encounters shaped her reassessment of her own identity as a Muslim woman. Her observations hold continued significance for readers interested in critical questions about gender, Islam, and identity. Daniel Majchrowicz has thoroughly annotated his translation and paired it with rich appendices, including a biographical sketch of Begum Sarbuland and excerpts from Hamidullah Khan's own accounts of their journey.

Engagingly written and enriched with years of original research, archival work, and family interviews, A Journey to Mecca and London restores the nearly forgotten narrative of one of India's first Muslim women travel writers to its rightful place in Indian and Islamic history.

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