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

Sharma, Sunil

The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture. By ANNEMARIE SCHIMMEL. Translated by Corinne Attwood, edited by Burzine K. Waghmar. London: REAKTION BOOKS. 2004. Pp. 352, illus.

This book is a translation of Annemarie Schimmel's last work, Im Reich der Grossmoguln: Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur (2000). Although Schimmel's final book was the result of a lifetime of scholarship dedicated to Islamic studies, especially in the Indian context, it falls somewhere between an introduction to the Mughal period of Indian history and an encyclopedia of names and facts. It departs from the usual political or art historical approach to the subject, by taking more of a general cultural approach meant to introduce the high culture of the period to a non-specialised audience. The author's statement in the prologue that she wrote "a book on Islamic culture at the age of sixteen, which I illustrated with my own drawings, some showing the Taj Mahal and I'timad ad-daula's mausoleum, the portraits of twelve Mughal rulers" (p. 18) is reminiscent of a sixteen-year-old Jane Austen composing her illustrated "History of England." However, whereas Austen's work was a parody, Schimmel's lifelong fascination with the Mughals is meant to be imparted to the reader who will surely be infected by her enthusiasm for the subject. According to the editor, the translation from the German is enhanced in several ways: "factual inconsistencies embedded in the German original have also been rectified insofar as fundamental details are concerned" and what makes the book particularly attractive are the "[n]umerous illustrations of relatively lesser-known paintings and realia [that] have been added to complement those included in the original edition" and "the glossary and the map have been extensively revised" (p. 9).

Chapter one provides a historical introduction in the form of short biographical sketches and a survey of the reigns of the first six "great Mughals," along with their portraits, followed by an account of the "twilight" of the dynasty. Primary sources such as chronicles and memoirs, as well as the poetry of the period, are used to tell the story of the rise and fall of these legendary rulers in a lively manner. Chapter two deals with the Mughal court: its protocol, various offices, and the complexities of its movements, whether to Kashmir or from the Deccan. The routine of the emperor on a typical day, from morning prayers to the evening entertainment, is an approachable way to introduce the rhythms and practices of courtly life. The most commonly encountered technical terms (diwan, wakil, farman) are explained in the chapter, especially by quoting from the writings of European travelers. Chapter three, "The Empire." covers such topics as the ranks of the officers, war. punishment, economy, and trade. A discussion of the frequent famines, heavy taxation, and various forms of punishment provides a subaltern view of life in the vast realm of this polity. Chapter four, on religion, is by far the strongest section of the book, given the fact that the study of religions was a particular specialization of the author. Beginning with a cursory history of Islam in India as background, there is a discussion of both the prevailing Islamic currents of the time (Mahdawiyya, Raushaniyya, Nuqtawis, Shi'i sects, and Sufism) and interaction with other religious communities in India (Hindus, Jains, Parsis, Jews, Sikhs, and Christians), followed by a section on Muslim religious customs. Chapter five on Mughal women and chapter six on "The Imperial Household and Housekeeping" are particularly useful in their focus on the historically unprecedented female participation in so many areas of culture and politics during these centuries, as well as on the domestic sphere. The range of women introduced here, mostly female elites of the imperial family, but also others such as Chand Bibi and Tulsi Bai. may overwhelm readers, but the occasional focus on an individual life makes these people quite real, as in the judicious treatment of a remarkable Sufi initiate and patron, princess Jahanara. Textiles, jewellery, kitchens and cellars, drugs and alcohol, recreation and entertainment, perfumes, medicine, and the role of animals are the topics in chapter six, enhanced by generous illustrations, and of potential interest to all sorts of historians. Chapter seven, "The Life of a Mirza," is a three-page summary of the proper conduct of a "nobleman who moved in court circles." The fascinating figure of the Mughal dandy lived on until modern times, and he is of great interest to us for its social historical content. But one wonders how the definition and norms of mirzai behavior transformed over the Mughal centuries as the dynasty became more entrenched in the subcontinent. The author of the two seventeenth-century manuscripts of this text is not Aziz Ahmed, as implied by the author (p. 225), but two individuals, an anonymous author of one text and Mirza Kamran for the other; Ahmed is, of course, the modern scholar who wrote on this manual. Chapter eight deals with languages and literature, including Arabic, Turkish, Sanskrit-Hindi, Persian, Pashto, Sindhi, Punjabi, and Urdu; other languages used in the Mughal realm, such as Bengali, Kashmiri, and Gujarati, are absent here. Each of these sections is a brief survey of the major poets and genres of the respective literary traditions, but without a meaningful investigation of the interface and overlap of the literary cultures. The process by which multilingual communities were formed cannot be appreciated by viewing these literatures as isolated traditions. The author's sweeping views on the "fresh style" of poetry prevalent at this time ("The Indian style is less harmonious, and mixed metaphors and strange juxtapositions of words occur, not altogether pleasingly, to our taste," p. 244) reflects a prejudice that contemporary scholars such as Paul Losensky and M. Shafii-Kadkani have shown to be no longer viable through their masterful reading and critical analysis of poems of this period. Chapter nine, the concluding one, covers the arts. Beginning with a description of "the Ruler's library" that includes a useful introduction to Islamic calligraphy, there are also sections on painting, buildings (religious and secular), and gardens.

This book contains numerous infelicities of transliteration and translation, as well as factual errors, that will not go unnoticed by specialists. Some examples are; jauhar is the mass self-immolation of women (and sometimes men) inside a conquered fortification, not the burning of the fort (p. 166); "Urfi died in 1591, when he was barely sixty-three years old" (p. 247)--Urfi died when he was thirty-six; Zeb un-nisa was not Jahangir's niece but his great granddaughter and Jahanara's niece (p. 260); the female painter Nadira Banu is mentioned on p. 273, but on p. 158 there is a statement that "in the entire Mughal history there was only one notable female artist, Sahifa Banu"; and the confusing statement, "when Akbar first decided to found a large city. Fatehpur Sikri, the plans for the city only really began to take shape when Shah Jahan designed his new city in Delhi" (p. 286). The illustrations selected for the English translation, not present in the original version, include some pieces that are not usually reproduced in Mughal art historical studies and enhance the work greatly. However, they should have been matched more carefully with the text. It would have been useful to include those particular illustrations that the author discusses in some detail, but these were not chosen for reproduction. There are a minimal number of endnotes for each chapter; the bibliography is extensive, albeit not up-to-date on every topic. A useful addition at the end is a glossary of technical terms used in the Mughal context.

Overall this attractive volume is a general introduction to the world of the Mughals that will appeal to both general and specialist audiences, and marks the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship and teaching. However, the editor's claim that other than this book "no comprehensive treatment is currently available of daily life during the Mughal era" (p. 9) must be revised. This work with its focus on courtly culture, and often a romanticized and monolithic view of the dynasty, is comparable to the recently published volume of collected essays. The Magnificent Mughals (2002), edited by Zeenut Ziad. In some respects Harbans Mukhia's The Mughals of India (2004) in the series "Peoples of Asia" is much more of a balanced introduction on the subject. Given the vast body of writings on the Mughals, both scholarly and general, it is almost impossible for a single work to provide a comprehensive study on this topic. However, this one, despite its faults, is indeed a useful compendium of information and images, and could be a valuable reference source for a general audience. A revised edition would render it even more valuable.

SUNIL SHARMA

BOSTON UNIVERSITY