Chapter 4 examines one of the most prevalent genres of early modern Persian historical writing:the universal history, which was the most common type of history composed in the early stages of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal dynasties.The chapter focuses on accounts of Kayumars, considered the first human in the ancient Persian tradition. This chapter demonstrates how, while recording the unique aspects of whatever dynasty they were writing under at the end of their universal histories, the chroniclers were predominately narrating a shared past that predated the establishment of Islam. It also establishes that there is no single narrative version that is common to every history, as the chroniclers drew on a range of sources for their information. The choices they made in terms of their sources depended on factors such as regional loyalty and access or family ties.The chapter also demonstrates that many chroniclers looked to the Rawzat al-safa as a model source, and chroniclers writing under Akbar’s reign did not de-mythologize accounts of Kayumars like their Safavid counterparts. In many instances, chroniclers engaged in intertextual dialog as they updated, responded to, and modified their models.

This chapter focuses on the military/political leadership of the favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad, ‘A’isha, and her involvement in the Battle of the Camel. ‘A’isha’s actual presence on the battlefield leading the army caused neither unanimous dissent nor anxiety among her generals or the rank and file, though her military leadership was contested in the aftermath of her defeat. Though her religious authority is almost universally acknowledged, her political authority is contested and the subject of much hand-wringing and controversial commentary, invariably leading to the invocation of the alleged Prophetic hadith, “Never will succeed such a nation as makes a woman their ruler.” Conveniently ignoring the Queen of Sheba’s sovereignty, the male political/religious elite has historically upheld this hadith as a “sacred” principle against women’s political authority. In view of the actual leadership of some charismatic Muslim women in medieval or modern times, the question is how to interpret the incongruity between the Quranic revelations and the prophetic tradition regarding women’s political authority – one supporting, and the other opposing. I argue that it is dynastic power, the dynamics of the father-daughter relationship, and her own charisma that enables a woman to wear the crown.