The Mughal Throne: The Saga of India's Great Emperors

One of my top 10 books ever, and one of only two that i read then immediately re-read. Erlahy brings his cast to vibrant life, making the reader feel as if they know some of the emperors personally. I never imagined before I read this that I would ever have a 'favourite' Mughal emperor (I do now!), tho I found myself liking them all (until the last one, that is). A beautifully written and absorbing saga that I would recommend to anyone who likes their history colourful and their tales tall.

This book is must read for those who are interested in Mughal India. Mughals loved India. They have decorated India. If world is fasinated about the India it is mainly due to Mughals. I am in the middle of reading this book. It is like I am transported to Mughal era. All the glamour of empire as we know on the outset are inter woven with the pain and heart ache. None of Mughal Emperor faces plain sailing; they all went thru lots of emotions. Facts are not just stated but are back-up by the quotation from other scholars or from the scriptures found from that era. I would recommend this book without any reservation.

Great read.. expertly written. Thoroughly enjoyed it

A brilliant read. This really brings the age of the Mughals to life

This is a fascinating account of the Mughal Empire of India and spans almost three centuries from the late fifteenth to the early eighteenth centuries. The book charts the Empire's path from its humble beginnings under Babur, its meteoric rise under Akbar the Great, its splendid apogee under Shah Jahan and its subsequent decline under Aurangzeb. Prior to reading this book, I had virtually no prior knowledge of this period of Indian history, my interest being primarily concerned with the British Raj. This was no impediment to my enjoyment of this book, as the author writes with flare about the subject and never wavered in his ability to keep me interested. Mr Eraly recounts in detail the magnificent opulence of the Mughal court and also its decadence and corruption. He covers the incessant wars, rebellions and coups that made stability in the Empire an all too rare and fleeting occurrence and his descriptions of the battles, the conspiracies and the diplomacy are never dull. The book is populated with a wonderful cast of colourful characters ranging from the Emperors and their scheming families, to duplicitous Generals and ministers and Holy Men and Rebels. The book is enlivened with accounts of their deeds and misdeeds, their virtues and vices and he really does manage to bring the past to life. My only (minor) criticism of the book has nothing to do with Mr Eralys writing, but there is a complete absence of maps, which if included, would have made the progress of the campaigns he describes easier to follow. I feel that the book would also have benefited from the inclusion of some pictures to accompany the text; maybe a plate section of portraits of some of the main protagonists and perhaps some photographs of the surviving forts and palaces he describes would have resulted in me awarding an extra star. To summarise then, this is narrative history as it should be written, fast paced, informative, sometimes a little gory, but always entertaining. Even if you do not have a particular interest in this period or in Indian history in general, but like the tale to unfold at a breathtaking pace and the events described to sweep over a wide canvas, I would recommend this book to you.

Perhaps it should have been given away by the title 'The Mughal Throne' but this book has a monarchical focus that detracts from it's ability to maintain a readers interest, or from their ability to remember much about the book. Having read it, I can tell you the succession of different rulers, some of their policies, but mostly about the campaigns and rebellions they fought. Although a great deal of the book is talking about campaigns, I have little conceptual understanding of them because their is not a single map in the book, and my knowledge of Indian geography is not extensive enough that I understand what it is flee with an army from 'Random Indian Town X' to 'Random Indian Town Y'. And disappointingly I still have very little understanding of what life was like under the Mughals for the people living there. I don't really even have a sense of what it was like for people living in the court. All told, I wouldn't recommend this book, but I don't know any better ones about that period of Indian history either. I the upside, it has given me a better basis to begin reading around about Indian history: I understand who the key emporers were; why; and what the major changes during the reigns were. So that's the good bit.

Very interestingly put together. I must say this book is an eye opener. There is a lot this book can teach us today. All that mughals did was to safeguard their own interest. Mughals were indeed the pioneers in rapid urbanisation in otherwise a predominant rural India. From literrary advancement to the life sciences reasearches, gardens to the most stunning mosques,forts and the Taj their contribution to India is immense. Thogh not very popular with masses they do actualy represent India to the world even now. Abrahm Early is a gifted book writer.

The Mughal Empire, an accidental empire with a tentative start by exiles from Central Asia in the medieval era, reached unprecedented heights in India, ended with a whimper in the British hands in the modern era. What makes the Mughal Empire so fascinating is because it’s still rather recent and familiar history but it’s also colorful people in an exotic land. This book gave a good review of the emperors who had a hand in shaping it. Like all empires, it was founded by an ambitious man and reached the zenith with charged energy. Then tradition calcified the system and corruption became entrenched. Soon decline began and, finally, it collapsed under its own weight. It is difficult for a historian to be unbiased because personal preference always creeps in along with contemporary judgement. When a favorite personage used stratagem and would trust no one, he was prudent and wise. The same from a disliked personage would be treachery and paranoia. Flamboyant rulers are exciting so flaws are forgiven. Conservative rulers are boring so must be held accountable. When Akbar was lenient, he was magnanimous. When Aurangzeb did the same, he was weak. Fortunately, this book did a good job trying to balance the perspective and explain the differences between then and now. But there are still plenty of preaching from a modern point of view. I give this book 5 stars because it is well researched and well written. It is a digest and a catalogue. Anyone interested in any of these emperors can then proceed to more specific history of the individual emperor because Mughal emperors were big at having biographies and haliographies of themselves. Babur, the tiger cub descendant of Chingis and Tamerlane, spent most of his life running. Pushed out of Central Asia by the Uzbeks, he found a foothold in Kabul. When Uzbek expansion got too close, he headed for Hindustan to get further away. Much of what we know of him came from his own journal, the Baburama. History generally gave him a positive review because he was the poor orphan who made good. Humayun just wanted a life of leisure. Chased out of Hindustan by Sher Khan, he tried to take Kabul from his brother. When that failed, he sought refuge in Persia. But Persia would not have him and pushed him to return to recapture his patrimony. He then reneged on his promise to Persia for its help. His greatest contribution to history was fathering Akbar, the Great. Akbar was the golden boy of the Mughal Empire. Like Harun al Rashid and Suleiman the Magnificent, he was at the right place at the right time. As with Harun and Suleiman, the ground had been cleared and the stage prepared for him by able deputies. For a minority to rule over a majority, collusion and collaboration are necessary. Because of his liberal policies and wide conquests, his reign was hailed the Golden Age. But his contemporaries were not so happy with him and he faced stiff oppositions at home and had to put down endless rebellions. Even his son Salim tried to rebel. Being “the Great”, history forgave him his shortcomings as a typical conqueror and absolute ruler. Salim was a man of grandiose pretention. He took the grand title Jahangir, Conqueror of the World, for himself and named his favorite wife Nur Jahan, Light of the World. He later gave his favorite son Khurram the title Shah Jahan, Lord of the World. Like Humayun, he just wanted a life of pleasure and sent others to do the conquest for him. His ambitious wife gladly stepped in to rule in proxy. She was so powerful and influential a figure in the Jahangir reign, a whole chapter of this book was devoted to her. During his reign, Europeans began to make their presence felt in India. Instead of merely attempting to rebel, Jahangir’s sons openly rebelled. As Akbar’s conquests and Jahangir’s peace had filled the treasury, Shah Jahan transformed the Mughal court into magnificent splendor and showered favorites generously. The Mughal court had become so Persianized, few spoke Turki. Even Baburama had to be translated into Persian. Like father, like son. His sons also rebelled and he was imprisoned in his old age by his son Aurangzeb. But, he is now remembered mainly for his love of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, the Chosen One of the Palace. Like Nur Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal was also ambitious and never left Shah Jahan’s side. She also made sure she was the only one to bear him children. When she died, he built the Taj Mahal for her. The whole world loves a lover, especially a flamboyantly indulgent and magnificently sad one, so history is very kind to him. All the previous Mughal rulers were much loved favorite sons but Aurangzeb was decidedly not, and his reign reflected his disaffection. To outdo his father and grandfather, Aurangzeb took the ridiculous title Alamgir, Conqueror of the Universe. He tried to steer the Mughals to the straight and narrow and imposed strict Islamic laws. Even though he fulfilled his forefathers’ dream of conquering the whole of India, the glory days of the Mughal Empire were over. And Aurangzeb’s sons also rebelled against him as this had become the family tradition. Unlike Shah Jahan, he gave instructions that his tomb should be simple with only a slab of stone. As he was dull and religious, and as the Mughal Empire fell apart after him, history judged him very harshly. Even though the Mughal Empire went on for a while longer, this book ended at the death of Aurangzeb. After Aurangzeb, the warrior energy of the Mughals was spent and the empire went into decline. Shivaji rose from bandit to become the capi de tutti capi of the Maratha mafia. After the center collapsed and the old royal houses destroyed, bands of brigands ravaged the land. As the empire descended into chaos, the heads of the crime families carved up the empire and called themselves rajas. And the Mughals lost Kabul to the Afghans. In the meantime, the Europeans became more aggressive in their looting and piracy. The British, after pushing out the Portuguese and the Dutch, began its military occupation in the name of protecting trade. Under the policy of “divide and conquer”, Britain devoured India one raja at a time and finally deposed the last Mughal ruler and declared Queen Victoria the Empress of India. Ironically, it was then, the various people in the subcontinent forged a new identity as “Indians”. I wish the book had included a chronology chart of major Mughals, Uzbeks, Persians, Ottoman, and European events to show Mughal court’s place and relations in the world. And, instead of gripping about the Mughals and the Indians in hindsight in the Epilog, I wish the author had used it to discuss the second half of the Mughal Empire and give a brief account of the remaining emperors’ futile efforts which no one seems to want to talk about. The Incidental Data, however, have some charming stories. There is also a minor calculation error in the book. As Raushanara was born in 1617 and died in 1671, she would have been 54 instead of 47.

The presentation of this well researched history in a language that is engaging, witty and humorous is simply masterful. The book brings to life various parties to the political intrigues and drama of the times (e.g. the Pashtuns native to southern Afghanistan, courtiers emigrating from Iran, the Rajputs of Rajasthan, Portuguese traders active in Southern India, etc.) which enables easy understanding of the true context of the Mughal story. A great read!

Paced, interesting and novel like work...interesting details of first six mughal emperors included...overall, excellent work

This is the best book I have ever read on Mughul India. There are many dry and boring histories available on any period in history but this book brings history to life. Some may complain that there is too much emphasis on war - but that is what the period was all about. It would be like reading a book on the history Europe in the 1940's and saying that there is too much about war. War was a major part of life in the Medieval world and so it was in Mughal India. The book is entitled "The Mughal Throne" and that is precisely what the book is about. If you are interested in only the life of the Mughals you need to read "The Mughal World" by Eraly, which deals with that very subject and is also a fantastic read. Anyone who likes history will enjoy this book. It is well researched, there are numerous and repeated references to original sources. It flows well and keeps the reader interested to the end. It is the best book to read on this subject. As Dalrymple has stated, ".. a superbly readable narrative .."

Had to figure out titles & terms through context. Many place names could not be located on the map provided. I did find it informative & interesting.