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Based on a critical study of a large number of contemporary Persian texts, court chronicles, epistolary collections, and biographies of sufi mystics, The Mughals and the Sufis examines the complexities in the relationship between Mughal political culture and the two dominant strains of Islam's Sufi traditions in South Asia: one centered around orthodoxy, the other focusing on a more accommodating and mystical spirituality. Muzaffar Alam analyses the interplay of these elements, their negotiation and struggle for resolution via conflict and coordination, and their longer-term outcomes as the empire followed its own political and cultural trajectory as it shifted from the more liberal outlook of Emperor Akbar "The Great" (r. 1556–1605) to the more rigid attitudes of his great-grandson, Aurangzeb 'Alamgir (r. 1658–1701). Alam brings to light many new and underutilized sources relevant to the religious and cultural history of the Mughals and reinterprets well-known sources from a new perspective to provide one of the most detailed and nuanced portraits of Indian Islam under the Mughal Empire available today.
Between the mid-sixteenth and early nineteenth century, the Mughal Empire was an Indo-Islamic dynasty that ruled as far as Bengal in the east and Kabul in the west, as high as Kashmir in the north and the Kaveri basin in the south. The Mughals constructed a sophisticated, complex system of government that facilitated an era of profound artistic and architectural achievement. They promoted the place of Persian culture in Indian society and set the groundwork for South Asia's future development. In this volume, two leading historians of early modern South Asia present nine major joint essays on the Mughal Empire, framed by an essential introductory reflection. Making creative use of materials ...
The collapse of the Mughal empire has often been characterized as a period of political fragmentation, social unrest, and economic decay. Contrasting two regions in north India--Awadh and the Punjab--Muzaffar Alam contends that even as the empire declined, there emerged a new, regionally-based political order, maintained and controlled by former Mughal rulers. From agrarian uprisings to the jagiardari system, the Sikhs to the Zamindars, this book presents a bold new interpretation of an important transition in Indian government.
The Mughal state, has, ever since its existence, exercised a compelling effect on observers. Debates have rage concerning its character and on the nature of the Mughal state. This book brings together some of the key interventions in these debates.
"This book shows the ways in which political Islam, from its establishment in medieval north India, adapted itself to a variety of indigenous contexts and became deeply Indianized." --book jacket.
In the backdrop of the decline of the Mughal empire, this book studies two contrasting regions in north India-Awadh and Punjab. It offers a bold new interpretation of the period by focussing on the agrarian uprisings, the jagirdari system, and the emergence of a new regionally-based political order. This edition includes a new introduction.
A study of Persian travel accounts, dealing with India, Iran and Central Asia between 1400 and 1800.
This book offers a much-needed alternative perspective (coming from Persian sources) on European constructions of India. It throws significant light on Indo-Persian culture and on the complex interaction between Europeans and Indians in the eighteenth century.
In this volume, the authors present essays on the Mughal Empire by intertwining political, cultural, and commercial themes while exploring diplomacy, state-formation, history-writing, religious debate, and political thought.
In this fascinating account of one of the least known parts of South Asia, Eaton recounts the history of the Deccan plateau in southern India from the fourteenth century to the rise of European colonialism. He does so, vividly, through the lives of eight Indians who lived at different times during this period, and who each represented something particular about the Deccan. In the first chapter, for example, the author describes the demise of the regional kingdom through the life of a maharaja. In the second, a Sufi sheikh illustrates Muslim piety and state authority. Other characters include a merchant, a general, a slave, a poet, a bandit and a female pawnbroker. Their stories are woven together into a rich narrative tapestry, which illumines the most important social processes of the Deccan across four centuries. This is a much-needed book by the most highly regarded scholar in the field.