Both an official chronicle and the highly personal memoir of the emperor Babur (1483–1530), The Baburnama presents a vivid and extraor...
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Jul 26, 2010
Rowland
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In 1494, op de leeftijd van 12, Babur toegetreden tot een onzekere positie als een kleine heerser in Fergana, in Centraal-Azië, bij zijn dood in 1530 bedwong hij een groot deel van het noorden van India, heeft opgericht wat zou de 'Mughal' rijk geworden. Alsmede voor het dekken belangrijke historische gebeurtenissen, zijn levensverhaal, de Baburnama, biedt een fascinerend beeld van gewone (aristocratische) leven in de islamitische Midden-en Zuid-Azië rond 1500. Het is misschien niet het beste ui
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Nov 21, 2009
Jonathan
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The Baburnama isn't something you read from beginning to end. Rather, it's a book you dip into at random, slowly building up a patchwork view of life in what is today Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, as seen through the eyes of the first Mughal emperor, Babur (1483-1530). Now you read about Babur's impressions of India (he hates it, apart from the gold, and mangoes); now about his private life (his mother has to force him to visit his wife, but he has no hesitation in declaring his love for a da
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Dec 19, 2009
Sandybanks
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Long before Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal for his beloved, there was a Great Moghul who began it all: Babur, a descendant of both Genghis Khan and Tamerlane who first established Mughal rule over India. His claim to fame rests on three things: the story of his death, the controversy over the mosque that he built, and the Baburnama, the first and only autobiography in Islamic literature until the 19th century. It is a vast, complex narrative of an extraordinarily eventful life, full of battles a
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Apr 14, 2009
Robert
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This is an excellent translation of a most compelling book, the autobiography of the founder of the Moghul empire. If you ever wondered how feudalism actually works, this is the book for you. Far from leading a life soley devoted to luxury and dancing girls, Babur is busy keeping his retinue in line and ensuring that the various challenges to his power are properly responded to.
The book is disarmingly honest, reporting drinking parties and drug taking as well as battles and disloyalty by t More...
The book is disarmingly honest, reporting drinking parties and drug taking as well as battles and disloyalty by t More...
May 01, 2010
Bubba
rated it:
According to translator/grand old man of Persian and various other languages Wheeler Thackston, "Babur's memoirs were the first--and until relatively recent times, the only--true autobiography in Islamic literature." No one knows why this Timurid/Chingisid heir from Andijan (in what is now Uzbekistan's portion of the Ferghana Valley) decided to write a candid history of his life. Modern, especially western readers, used to centuries of self-examination in print might not grasp the magn
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Jul 03, 2009
The babur awards go to...
Best incarnation of babur - The one that got high all the time and would gallop home asleep because he was so drunk
Most tiresome Babur - hyper-Islamic Babur
Best Name - Quite the pool to choose from, but Muhammed Ali Jang-Jang takes this one home
Best Son - Obviously Humayoon, because he did not care a whit about the rest
Worst place, as voted by the author - Hindustan
Best incarnation of babur - The one that got high all the time and would gallop home asleep because he was so drunk
Most tiresome Babur - hyper-Islamic Babur
Best Name - Quite the pool to choose from, but Muhammed Ali Jang-Jang takes this one home
Best Son - Obviously Humayoon, because he did not care a whit about the rest
Worst place, as voted by the author - Hindustan
Mar 02, 2008
bridget
rated it:
i had to read this for my world lit class. it was ok. we only had to read parts from it so it got a little confusing. it is basically the story of babur who is a mughal ruler who is a barbarian with a heart of gold.
i am writing a paper on babur about his being a compassionate yet brutal ruler. prior to reading this book i had never heard of the mughal empire. they are very interesting people, brutal people. this is something that i might end up reading once i am done with school. i More...
i am writing a paper on babur about his being a compassionate yet brutal ruler. prior to reading this book i had never heard of the mughal empire. they are very interesting people, brutal people. this is something that i might end up reading once i am done with school. i More...
Jul 30, 2011
Really great read and many of the places he visited are still important in contempory foreign affairs such as Kandahar and Kabul.
Nov 02, 2011
اویس
rated it:
I remember buying this book in Peshawar.The excitment I experianced on my way home as I finally had in my hands what I wanted to read for so long.I remember reading his description of Peshawar and it was like I was looking through his eyes at the scene..This book was soothing, a consolation for me for it provided me with peace while my city was going through a very difficult period in its history.babur writes from the heart.He is frank and well read ( as when he quotes from Nizami) and his own v
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Jul 17, 2007
Jairam
rated it:
if you can avoid the parts where he names everybody he meets and their fathers and grandfathers and dogs and cats, this is an excellent read.
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