{"product_id":"mirrors-of-empire-courtiers-diplomats-and-intellectuals-in-mughal-india-9798855805604","title":"Mirrors of Empire: Courtiers, Diplomats, and Intellectuals in Mughal India","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eApproaches the history of the Mughal Empire at the level of human experience, through a diverse group of autobiographical narratives.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStarting 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCovering over two centuries of such materials, \u003ci\u003eMirrors of Empire\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMuzaffar Alam\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor Emeritus in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He is the author of many books on the Mughal Empire, including \u003ci\u003eThe Mughals and the Sufis: Islam and Political Imagination in India, 1500-1750\u003c\/i\u003e, also published by SUNY Press. \u003cb\u003eSanjay Subrahmanyam\u003c\/b\u003e is Distinguished Professor of History and Irving \u0026amp; Jean Stone Chair in Social Sciences at UCLA. His previous books include \u003ci\u003eEmpires Between Islam and Christianity, 1500-1800\u003c\/i\u003e, also published by SUNY Press, and \u003ci\u003eAcross the Green Sea: Histories from the Western Indian Ocean, 1440-1640\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"State University of New York Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52179971735826,"sku":"9798855805604","price":146.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5c9a652c-9577-4918-9e3a-a3ac04d91db5.jpg?v=1775641302","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/mirrors-of-empire-courtiers-diplomats-and-intellectuals-in-mughal-india-9798855805604","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}