The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture

by Annemarie Schimmel, Corinne Attwood (Translator), Burzine K. Waghmar (Editor)

The Empire of the Great Mughals explores the political, military and economic rise of the Mughals in the early sixteenth century, their system of rule, the remarkable unfolding of their power and splendour, and their gradual collapse, until they were finally supplanted by the British colonial empire in 1857.

Genres: History, India, Nonfiction, Art, Islam, Pakistan, Art History

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

(Arabic: آنا ماري شيمل)

was a well known and very influential German Orientalist and scholar, who wrote extensively on Islam and Sufism. She was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992.
..
مستشرقة المانية ولدت في مدينة إرفورت بوسط ألمانيا لعائلة بروتستانتية تنتمي إلى الطبقة الوسطى..في عام 1939 نزحت مع الأسرة إلى برلين وفيها بدأت دراستها الجامعية للأستشراق. وبعد عام واحد بدأت العمل على رسالتها للدكتوراة حول مكانة علماء الدين في المجتمع المملوكى تحت إشراف ريشارد هارتمان وقد انتهت منها في نوفمبر 1941 وهى في التاسعة عشر من عمرها ونشرتها عام 1943 في مجلة "عالم الإسلام" تحت عنوان "الخليفة والقاضى في مصر في العصور الوسطى المتأخرة".
وفى نوفمبر من عام 1941 عملت كمترجمة عن التركية في وزارة الخارجية الألمانية. وفى وقت الفراغ واصلت اهتمامها العلمى بتاريخ المماليك حتى تمكنت من عمل فهارس لتاريخ ابن إياس. وفى مارس 1945، قبيل نهاية الحرب العالمية الثانية بقليل، انتهت من رسالة الدكتوراه في جامعة برلين عن الطبقة العسكرية المملوكية.
وقد احرزت،، في عام 1995 وكأول مستشرقة ودارسة للإسلام جائزة السلام الألمانية التي يمنحها اتحاد الناشرين الألمان ويسلمها رئيس الدولة الألمانى.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

I was delighted to find this book in a local library, I did not know much about the Mughals and it would have been a sin to resist such an attractively illustrated volume.

Having read the book I still find it a gorgeous object but as a book about the Mughals it seems rather like the egg rich cake removed from the oven too quickly - it slumps in the middle. Perhaps I was simply in my customary bad mood, but the text seemed to be the weak point of the book, the language was a bit awkward in places - maybe a side effect of the translation, the pictures are not integrated with the text - here no doubt I have been spoiled by the World of Art books and titles by Neil McGregor, so suddenly it was very strange to find Schimmel discuss specific objects and not to see them illustrated. Maybe she conceived of her ideal reader having catalogues of Mughal Art to hand to consult while reading her book - by why then illustrate it at all? It is also repetitive, twice she tells us that a Jain composed 128 verses in Sanskrit in praise of Akbar, twice of the Pashtun leader who asked that he be buried where he could not hear the sound of the hooves of Mughal horses, twice that Akbar had the Ramayana, Mababharata and parts of the Upanishads translated into Persian, twice (and this the most egregious) that the Mughals mostly they were not always consistently precise in their observation of Islamic law, most extravagantly so when it came to alcohol did not have vessels made from gold because it was forbidden by Islamic law - twice within four pages! This reminded me of the days when I was reading internally inconsistent contract documents - in both cases a sign that no-one had read the whole thing through before going to press fortunately it seemed that no one else apart from me ever read them through either.

I wondered a bit about her style she had some sweeping statements about the habits and customs of oriental countries, maybe justified, maybe not - I have not had the late Madame Schimmel's years of experience and travel, but it came across as at least somewhat prejudiced (maybe again an effect of the translation translation is a thankless task).

In mentioning the Mughal economy she says simply that there are various opinions and theories which all reflect the ideologies and concerns of the historians involved, which no doubt is true, and as a Grand Dame of the field she was fully entitled to make such a statement and then withdraw from considering the question any further - as she does, but even as a lowly reader I still wants what I wants, particularly as the Mughals imploded in an extremely thorough manner and were transformed from regional superpower to squabbling mess within a few years, indeed elsewhere she says herself that the structure of the society was rotten and unsound even before the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 (after which the Mughals bumbled along for another 150 years until perfidious Albion shipped the last Mughal to Burma). Political turbulence - succession struggles and rebellions complicated the situation but since the Empire had endured such throughout its history and bounced back many times, the mind inclines to look for some socio-economic change(s) which the author refuses to look for.

I found the structure of the book neither good nor bad, perhaps it is best characterised as lumpy, it is by and large a book about the Mughals and their courtly lives with a few other bits added on - the structure and title tries to hide this, but I felt it might have been a better book if i had been out and proud as a book with a narrower focus than attempting and failing to be a book with a broader focus - so there is a chapter on the history of the Mughgals from Babur (descendent of Timur/Tamberlane and on his mother's side Genghis Khan) to Bahadur Shah Zafer (the last Mughal), the Court, the Empire, Religion, Women at Court (so the Court again), the Imperial Household (more about the Court), a very brief chapter about the daily life of a Mirza (a grand nobleman), Languages & Literature (in good part about the Court) , and the Arts (again mostly about the court). None of that is bad - apart from the repetitions which give the impression that the August author doesn't have enough to say - but it is mostly about the Mughal Court and courtly life with a few other bits nailed on like lean-tos on a grand and stately building.

However that stately building is magnificent, intriguing, evocative, and puzzling. The fantastic variety of miniatures reproduced in the book and the author's discussion of Art and illustration reminded me of My name is Red, and indeed we are in a related world both the Ottoman Turks and the Turkic Mughals were drawing on Central Asian and Persian traditions, combining these with local styles and producing incredible works, later western European Art was added to the mix - Mughal artists adapted and used subjects and ideas from the Polygot Bible produced for the Spanish Hapsburgs, did their own versions of Flemish paintings with Mughal twists (such as adding kittens) and played with using perspective. This was a two way traffic west European Artists and Artisans were inspired by Art works coming from Mughal India too.

The politics, goodness, leaves the wars of the Roses looking like a child's game and was much as set out in The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane, the Mughals maintained a certain Steppe political style and seem to have avoided the development of strong institutions in favour of a highly personalised and public form of politics much like Louis XIV in France, except with more wives, innumerable children for the first time I felt what a mercy it was that the Ottomans put all but one of the Sultan's sons to death, and powerful, astute Grandmothers Grandma, what big ears you have! All the better to hear everyone plotting against you my dear....

An incredible and fascinating topic. Schimmel holds that opium and alcohol abuse was the principle cause of death for Mughal rulers, there is a lot about elephants (Jahangir was so soft hearted about his elephants that he could not bear to think of them being washed in cold water so he had water heated for them so they could have warm baths instead he was somewhat less tender in relating to two legged animals), and people rewarded in their own weight in gold or silver (not so good for a slim person). If you were not an Imperial elephant or a great multi-lingual poet, life was not all warm baths and attar of Roses, but this book does not have much to say about that.

[Kalliope · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating subject and therefore it had to be a fascinating book. It helps that it is written by the extraordinarily knowledgeable Annemarie Schimmel. As a prodigy who finished her Doctorate at 19, and as a polyglot who could speak and lecture in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Turkish etc…, Schimmel´s account had to be interesting. Unsurprisingly, she became the first Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture at Harvard. I have particularly liked her accounts of life at the courts and her broader approach to cultural life.

Things that could be better in this book: the translation (several ambiguous sentences), maps (only one with only the obvious places indicated), and a greater sensitivity to the neophyte reader. Schimmel is so comfortable in her command of the subject that she moves backwards and forwards through history assuming we can follow her with ease.

[Rick Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book by Annemarie Schimmel gives an excellent outline on Culture of Mughals, Religion and ethos of Kings. I really enjoyed this book, because I learnt interesting details about the Mughals. I learnt more on the conflicts between various sects within Islam. It's a quick read.

It seems that the Mughals were extremely wealthy, And had rich literary history. I wonder why it has been brushed aside? I keep asking myself, how did they finance such wealth and people? It takes approx 300 rupees to maintain an elephant per month, 2 rupees for a soldier. You can imagine the opulence.

They seemed to enjoy hunting, poetry expanding their territory and loved artists. I do not see this legacy in the current ethos of Indian culture. However, we must learn from earlier generation to re-invent ourselves.

You will learn more about Indian culture, Muslim legacy. This book doesn't talk about administrative details, financial details. It doesn't talk about the core values of Mughal empire, but you can figure that out from learning the Quran.

But will help you get a broad outline by Mughal Empire. Keep reading, push forward, share your knowledge with like-minded people.

--Deus Vult
Gottfried

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I'm ranking this based on the text I'd give it 3 stars. It focuses a lot on the Mughals themselves, ie the royal families, nobility, etc. After all, those are the people who commissioned art and this is a book which focuses on art history. Everything revolves around that. There isn't as much discussion of folk art, or regional art as I'd have liked. As I said-- this book is about *the Mughals* fairly exclusively, not so much their empire. But the book! The book itself kicks it up to 4 stars. So many beautiful images and laminated pages, oh boy. The author is incredibly knowledgable about her subject, specialized as it is. Pretty sure she is dead now, but she was *the* leading scholar in the field when she was alive. It also gives you plenty to go google on your own, because unless this was going to be a full blown coffee table book, it cant contain the full number of images which she references. And there is a lot in here which isn't written much about elsewhere outside of academic literature. Its not just a gloss.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I approached this book with great curiosity. I'd read a little bit about India under the British, and I'd heard the names Jinghiz (Genghis) and Timur (Tamerlane) and seen pictures of the Taj Mahal, but up until recently I had trouble distinguishing the Mughals from the Mongols--and the idea that Muslims had ruled India was not something my education had imparted to me!

On the one hand, then, this introduction to the Mughal empire was very helpful to me. I now know the broad strokes of the dynastic history, and the tension between mystical/universalistic Muslim emperors and more orthodox/nationalistic ones. I have a sense of the ranks of the nobility and the army and an appreciation for the influence that noble women played, up to and including being the power behind--or even next to--the throne.

On the other hand, the book was both too broad and too narrow. It covered many different topics in a way that shows the author's erudition but doesn't synthesize them in a memorable way. It also seemed sometimes to assume the reader already knew what I was trying to learn: in particular, the timeline and the glossary left out some of the most important names and terms, and the map omits some of the important places.

And it is clearly court history. Everything relates to six Mughal emperors, their families and their rivals (sometimes, one and the same). There is no sense how they looked to the common Muslim, let alone to the Hindu majority or the several other groups (including Jains, Sikhs, Jews, and others) who lived under their rule.

I would have liked this book better if I had a more educated eye for art. The paintings reproduced in the book were gorgeous, but often I could not tell what was going on at all, even with the title in the caption. That is my weakness and not the book's.

[Osama Siddique]

The first chapter provides brief sketches of the six great Mughals and also the subsequent much lesser ones. It reads like a melange of some autobiographical facts, a few interesting episodes, some overarching themes and preoccupations, and some exquisite miniatures & paintings. It is difficult to make a lot of sense of this vast and complex span of history from this text unless one has a background in Mughal history. While understandably it is meant to be just an introductory text to independent later chapters on Mughal culture and art one wishes that it had more form and some overarching themes to convey a more distinct flavor of the grand Mughals. This edition also has some errors that ought to have been avoided.

The second chapter 'At Court' is where the orientalist scholar's vast repertoire and expertise in Islamic cultures and thought comes to the fore as she engaging describes the method, sophistication, organizational structure of the Mughal Court, the imperial routine, the roles of various officeholders, court etiquette, and the magnificence of it all, including the scale and splendor of the traveling Court as the Mughal made longer distances with veritable mobile cities, especially during annual late winter trips to spend spring and celebrate Nauroze in Kashmir.

[Naim Peress · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this overview of Mughal history, culture and society. The author, the late Professor Annemarie Schimmel, really illuminated the past. This is a great book for those interested in Indian history. Professor Schimmel was fascinating in her own right. She was a German who learned Arabic, Urdu and Pashto. She taught in Turkey, Germany and the United States. In her book, she provides the history of the rise and fall of the Mughal Empire in India and then describes the art, economy, religion and even the military of that era. I’m well-versed in Indian history but I learned a great deal from this book. Highly recommended.

[Kaustubh Verma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loaded with facts and just too much data. It becomes too dry after a point of time with facts after facts after facts! I quite enjoyed the opening chapters and the section on women of the empire but the sections on House keeping and religion and languages are overloaded with information written in a monotonous style.

[Revanth Ukkalam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine overview of the texture and times of the Mughal Emperors and primarily the Great Emperors. A question to all Mughal books - why is the end of the Mughal Empire so detached from the history of the Mughals in general? Why is the former pushed forward for modern historians to deal with?

[Eve McCloud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read and good, concise history of the Mughal empire. Definite keeper for understanding the Islamic Dynasty

[Sush Krishnamoorthy]

Very informative book, a pleasure to read. But the Historical perspective put forth in this book may now seem outdated and somewhat questionable in light of the historical revision of Mughal History.