Munis D. Faruqui

A new interpretation of the Mughal Empire explores Mughal state formation through the pivotal role of its princes.

The Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504-1719

Vasudha Dalmia

Popular knowledge generally operates with the notion that "Hindu" and "Muslim" as polarized religious identities have existed from the moment Muslims entered northern India in the eleventh century. The essays for this volume interrogate this idea. They focus on Islamicate traditions in their interaction with coterminous Hindu ones in the three centuries between 1500 and 1800. They examine a wide tableau of sites and modes of interchanges, allowing the texts to speak in their own languages, whether these are assimilative, antagonistic, or indifferent. Given the charged nature of Hindi-Muslim relations today, a fresh study of these relations in their regional and temporal specificity along with a renewed attempt to closely interrogate the language in which we talk about them is absolutely vital in order to contest powerful and contemporary "clash of civilizations" narratives in South Asia as well as elsewhere.

Religious Interactions in Mughal India

For more than 200 years, the Mughal emperors ruled supreme in northern India. How was it possible that a Muslim, ethnically Turkish, Persian-speaking dynasty established itself in the Indian subcontinent to become one of the largest and most dynamic empires on earth? In this rigorous new interpretation of the period, Munis D. Faruqui explores Mughal state formation through the pivotal role of the Mughal princes. In a challenge to previous scholarship, the book suggests that far from undermining the foundations of empire, the court intrigues and political backbiting that were features of Mughal political life - and that frequently resulted in rebellions and wars of succession - actually helped spread, deepen and mobilise Mughal power through an empire-wide network of friends and allies. This engaging book, which uses a vast archive of European and Persian sources, takes the reader from the founding of the empire under Babur to its decline in the 1700s.

The Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504–1719

For more than 200 years, the Mughal emperors ruled supreme in northern India. How was it possible that a Muslim, ethnically Turkish, Persian-speaking dynasty established itself in the Indian subcontinent to become one of the largest and most dynamic empires on earth? In this rigorous new interpretation of the period, Munis D. Faruqui explores Mughal state formation through the pivotal role of the Mughal princes. In a challenge to previous scholarship, the book suggests that far from undermining the foundations of empire, the court intrigues and political backbiting that were features of Mughal political life - and that frequently resulted in rebellions and wars of succession - actually helped spread, deepen, and mobilize Mughal power through an empire-wide network of friends and allies. This engaging book, which trawls a vast archive of European and Persian sources, takes the reader from the founding of the empire under Babur to its decline in the 1700s. When the princely institution atrophied, so too did the Mughal Empire.

Richard M. Eaton

Sunil Kumar

David Gilmartin

"The essays focus on 'frontiers' in multiple contexts, all relating to John F. Richards's work: frontiers and state building, frontiers and environmental change, cultural frontiers, frontiers and trade and drugs, and frontiers and world history"--Provided by publisher.

Munis D. Faruqui

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