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Full Description
Approaches the history of the Mughal Empire at the level of human experience, through a diverse group of autobiographical narratives.
Starting from 1526, the Mughals ruled over much of India for three centuries, perhaps the most important Islamic empire in the early modern world. This period saw the production of a fascinating variety of memoirs and autobiographies in which residents of the empire reflected on their own lives, on Islam in a Hindu context, and on the relationship of individual subjects to their new rulers. Those written by Mughal royalty—especially Babur and Jahangir—are well known. This book considers the less well-known writings of diverse others, from the poet laureate Faizi to those who were not part of elite society but a few notches below it, such as the lowly envoy Asad Beg and characters like Mirza Nathan and Abdul Latif, who lived dangerously on the Bengal frontier. Also considered are prolific Hindu writers, such as Bhimsen Saksena and the witty Anand Ram Mukhlis, who lived in Delhi through the turbulent 1730s and 1740s. Together, they offer an original and differently critical perspective on the empire—its religious, social, and political tensions, as well as its strategies for overcoming them.
Covering over two centuries of such materials, Mirrors of Empire is a work of cultural history that is also firmly rooted in social history. It incorporates extensive translations from Persian, including materials that are little-known even to historians and specialists, and shows the transformation of the empire from its difficult emergence, to its expansive height, to its phase of disintegration in the middle of the eighteenth century. Gracefully written, the book approaches the Mughal Empire at the level of human experience, rendering it accessible and not a mere abstraction.
Contents
A Note on Transliteration and Calendars
Abbreviations
Preface
1. Introduction: Self-narratives and Mughal History
2. Faizi's Way
3. Self-promoting Envoys
4. Of Visible Frontiers and Concealed Gardens
5. On Discovering the Familiar
6. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Maps
1. India in the Mughal period
2. The world of Zahir-ud-Din Babur
3. The itinerary of 'Abdul Latif Gujarati
4. Delhi and its environs in the eighteenth century
5. Anand Ram Mukhlis' itinerary to Bangarh
Illustrations
1.1 Babur and his warriors visiting the Hindu temple at Gor Khatri, the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Bābur Nāma (W.596.22B)
2.1 Akbar crosses the Ganges on an elephant, c. 1590-5, painters Jagan and Nand Gwaliyari, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Akbar Nāma, Accession No. IS.2: 58-1896
3.1 Bijapur Map (late seventeenth century), Archaeological Site Museum, Gol Gumbaz Complex, Bijapur
3.2 Portrait of Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II of Bijapur (c. 1590), Davids Samling, Copenhagen, Inventory No. 105/2007
3.3 Sultan Ibrahim 'Adil Shah in procession, school of 'Ali Riza 'Abbasi, Bijapur (1600-50), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Accession No. 2022.207
3.4 A Mughal prince, perhaps Daniyal, holding a sprig of flowers, c. 1580-90, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, 2013.293
4.1 The Great Mughal Jahangir's darbār (c. 1620), Davids Samling, Copenhagen, Inventory No. 20/1979
4.2 Portrait of Asaf Khan (1569-1641) by Bichitr (c. 1631), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Accession No. IM.26-1925
4.3 The emperor Aurangzeb-'Alamgir with a minister, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Accession No. 132: 11-1885
5.1 Posthumous portrait of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (r. 1719-48), holding a falcon, painter Muhammad Rizavi Hindi (active mid 1700s), the Cleveland Museum of Art, Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 2013.347
5.2 Prince Gauhar and his companion Khiradmand surviving the storm, by Govardhan II, 1734-9, Anand Ram Mukhlis, Kārnāma-yi 'ishq, British Library, London, Johnson Album 38, f. 42v
5.3 Scene of Mughal encampment, Anand Ram Mukhlis, Safar Nāma, Raza Library, Rampur
