Emma Kalb

From the venue:

Emma Kolb, Bonn University, Postdoctoral Researcher;

The Dangers of Intimacy: Sex, Vulnerability, and Eunuch Slavery in Mughal South Asia

In Mughal South Asia, Persian sources include occasional accounts of sexual intimacy as well as sexual abuse between elite men and eunuch slaves (castrated, enslaved men referred to as khwāja sarā). Mughal eunuchs functioned as both menial servants and trusted servitors with sensitive roles in court, household, and further afield. The talk considers the intimate relationships which could arise in this context, and how their depiction was inflected by multiple normative modes of discussing sex and desire in this period.