The Shadow Sultan: Succession and Imposture in the Mughal Empire, 1628-1640

2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Subrahmanyam ◽  
Jorge Flores
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Mughal Empire

AbstractThis essay explores the problem of imposture in the Mughal empire, through the case of Sultan Dawar Bakhsh, or Bulaqi, who ruled briefly in the late 1620s. Though official Mughal histories had it that he was executed in January 1628 along with several other princes, various persons claiming his identity surfaced, first in India and then in Iran. We examine the views of Mughal, Portuguese, Iranian and other sources on these claimants, and also explore what forms of proof were sought by different early modern agents in order to satisfy themselves of the identity of a returning prince. Cette contribution examine le problème de l'imposture dans l'Empire moghol en étudiant le cas du Sultan Dawar Bakhsh ou Bulaqi, qui a régné pendant quelques mois en 1627-28. Selon les chroniques mogholes de l'époque, Bulaqi aurait été exécuté en janvier 1628 avec plusieurs autres princes. Mais l'on sait que pendant la décennie suivante, plusieurs personnages se sont manifestés, tout d'abord en Inde et ensuite en Iran, prétendant être le sultan disparu. En croisant les informations fournies par les textes et des documents d'archives assez variés, en provenance de l'Etat portugais des Indes, de l'Empire moghol et de l'Etat safavide, l'analyse suit pas à pas le parcours de ce Martin Guerre moghol pour apprécier les preuves apportées sur son identité.

Pirates and Pilgrims: The Plunder of the Ganj-i Sawai, the Hajj, and a Mughal Captain’s Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 93-122
Author(s):  
Tyler Joseph Kynn
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Mughal Empire ◽  
History Of

Abstract The pirate attack by Henry Every in 1695 on a Mughal ship carrying travelers returning from pilgrimage to Mecca has received some attention by historians trying to fit this incident into a larger history of European piracy using mainly the English sources related to the incident. Drawing from this literature the aim of the present paper is to combine it with the Mughal Persian material available to demonstrate what this incident reveals about the early modern hajj – which is to say, pilgrimage to Mecca – and the makeup of the Mughal-sponsored ship carrying pilgrims and goods between Mecca and Surat. A previously unstudied Mughal letter related to the incident, by the captain of the Mughal ship in question, reveals the ways in which the Mughal Empire understood this encounter with European piracy and provides evidence for why the Mughal Empire was so quick to place the blame for this attack upon the English and the East India Company.

How the East Was Won

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
East India Company ◽  
The West ◽  
Mughal Empire ◽  
British Raj ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Colonial Empire ◽  
English East India Company ◽  
India And China

How did upstart outsiders forge vast new empires in early modern Asia, laying the foundations for today's modern mega-states of India and China? In How the East Was Won, Andrew Phillips reveals the crucial parallels uniting the Mughal Empire, the Qing Dynasty and the British Raj. Vastly outnumbered and stigmatised as parvenus, the Mughals and Manchus pioneered similar strategies of cultural statecraft, first to build the multicultural coalitions necessary for conquest, and then to bind the indigenous collaborators needed to subsequently uphold imperial rule. The English East India Company later adapted the same 'define and conquer' and 'define and rule' strategies to carve out the West's biggest colonial empire in Asia. Refuting existing accounts of the 'rise of the West', this book foregrounds the profoundly imitative rather than innovative character of Western colonialism to advance a new explanation of how universal empires arise and endure.

Un Grand Dérangement: Dreaming an Indo-Persian Empire in South Asia, 1740-1800

2000 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 337-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Political System ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The West ◽  
Persian Empire ◽  
Mughal Empire ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Counterfactual State

AbstractThe essay proposes a counterfactual historical exercise centered around the conquest of the Mughal empire in nothern India in 1739 by Nadir Shah Afshar, ruler of Iran. This episode, which was of enormous significance for contemporaries, has largely been neglected by more recent historians. After a survey of Nadir Shah's career and of the politico-economic conditions of the period, I propose a scenario here wherein the ruler of Iran does not return to his country (as he did), but instead participates in the articulation of a new political system, which would (in my view) have obviously been far more resistant to European ambitions than the Mughal empire turned out to be. A sketch of this counterfactual state system is provided, and the essay concludes by considering the implications of such a view for standard narratives of the 'Rise of the West' in the early modern period.

Book Review: Lisa Balabanlilar, Imperial Identity in the Mughal Empire: Memory and Dynastic Politics in Early Modern South and Central Asia

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-236
Author(s):  
Shireen Moosvi
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Mughal Empire ◽  
Imperial Identity ◽  
Dynastic Politics

Lisa Balabanlilar, Imperial Identity in the Mughal Empire: Memory and Dynastic Politics in Early Modern South and Central Asia, Indian edition (New Delhi: Viva Books), 2013, xix + 216 pp., ₹1,895 (hardback).

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