Aurangzeb 'Alamgir and the Mughal Empire

Munis D. Faruqui is Professor of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504–1719 (2012).

• List of maps; Note on translations, transliterations, and dates; Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. 1. The making of a king, 1618–1657; 2. The limits of a king; Part II. 3. Harem Raj; 4. All the emperor's eunuchs; Part III. 5. End of days; 6. Memorializing 'Alamgir; Conclusion; Appendix A; Appendix B.

'A landmark of patient archival scholarship and an utterly remarkable book, the product of thirty years hard labour in far-flung archives, dredging up a massive cache of previously unread and neglected primary sources. Munis Faruqui has written a calm, considered and beautifully nuanced reassessment of the most controversial and polarising figure in South Asian history, and he has succeeded in bringing a much-caricatured figure to life in a way no previous study has ever managed to do. It is ultimately a study in profound failure: by the end of his life, Alamgir Aurangzeb had undermined the military reputation of the Mughal Empire and brought the whole edifice to the point of political collapse. He regarded himself on his deathbed as abandoned by God. How a prince once known as a talented administrator, a pragmatic politician and remarkable general brought himself to this pass is made wonderfully clear by Faruqui's patient scholarship and the pellucid clarity of his writing. The result is a rich, learned and complex book, full of fresh insights. It is unquestionably one of the most important works on Indian history produced this century.' William Dalrymple, author of The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World