Francisco Pelasert (1595-1630) was a Dutch businessman and a representative of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He travelled in different parts of Mughal India, and stayed in Agra for seven years before departing to Java. He was also the commander of VOC-owned ship Batavia.

Jahangir was the fourth of the six “Great Mughals,” the oldest son of Akbar the Great, who extended the Mughal Empire across the Indian Subcontinent, and the father of Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal. Although an alcoholic and opium addict, his reputation marred by rebellion against his father, once enthroned the Emperor Jahangir proved to be an adept politician. He was also a thoughtful and reflective memoirist and a generous patron of the arts, responsible for an innovative golden age in Mughal painting. Through a close study of the seventeenth century Mughal court chronicles, The Emperor Jahangir sheds new light on this remarkable historical figure, exploring Jahangir's struggle for power and defense of kingship, his addictions and insecurities, his relationship with his favourite wife, the Empress Nur Jahan, and with his sons, whose own failed rebellions bookended his reign.

In The Mughal Padshah Jorge Flores offers both a lucid English translation and the Portuguese original of a previously unknown account of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627). Probably penned by the Jesuit priest Jerónimo Xavier in 1610-11, the Treatise of the Court and Household of Jahangir Padshah King of the Mughals reads quite differently than the usual missionary report. Surviving in four different versions, this text reveals intriguing insights on Jahangir and his family, the Mughal court and its political rituals, as well as the imperial elite and its military and economic strength. A comprehensive introduction situates the Treatise in the ‘disputed’ landscape of European accounts on Mughal India, as well as illuminates the actual conditions of production and readership of such a text between South Asia and the Iberian Peninsula.

This volume depicts the life and times of the Mughal emperor Jahangir in the light of his memoirs, Jahangirnama, popularly known as Tuzuk-i Jahangiri. With its fresh treatment of source material and a vivid account of historical events, the book tells the history of Jahangir’s India through his intimate and confessional memoirs incorporated in the genre of Mughal manuscript painting. The work is noteworthy for its historical portraits as well as Jahangir’s visual realism, his remarkable knowledge of natural history, and the perceptive and detailed descriptions of the world around him. Moving away from conventional historical writing, the book is a psychological study of an individual, his innate qualities, behavioural moves and instinctive affinities. Jahangir’s memoirs reveal deeper facets of him as a person as well as a poet, aesthete, connoisseur of painting and a keen observer of nature, both human and that of the natural world. The author also includes other contemporary literature of the period that narrate Jahangir’s life, such as Akbarnama, Ma’asir-i Jahangiri, Iqbalnama-i Jahangiri, Intikhab-i Jahangiri, Tatimma-i Waqi’at-i Jahangiri and Zakhirat-ul Khwanin, as well as Jesuits accounts and travelogues. He further analyses the influence of European Renaissance art on the history of Mughal paintings. A first of its kind, this book will greatly interest scholars and researchers of medieval history, Indian history, Mughal history, art history, popular culture and South Asian studies, as well as the general reader.

Wheeler Thackstons lively new translation ofThe Jahangirnama, co-published with the Freer/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, presents an engaging portrait of an intriguing emperor and his flourishing empire. The Emperor Jahangir is probably best know in the West as being the father of Shahjahan, who built the Taj Mahal. His reign was one of great prosperity, and his passion for art and nature encouraged a flowering that some say rivaled European art during the rule of the Medicis. In penning his memoirs, Jahangir followed a tradition begun by his great-grandfather, the Emperor Babur. Jahangirs memoirs, however, provide not only the history of his reign, but also his reflections on art, politics, and private details about his familyincluding the suicide of one of his wivesand selections of poetry written by members of his harem. One of Jahangirs stories describes his astonishment at witnessing the fall of a meteorite, an event that so amazed him that he ordered that a dagger be made from its metal. This book includes a selection of exquisite full-color paintings, drawings, and objects that specifically illustrate the passages they accompany--including a photograph of the Emperors treasured dagger. A lover of jewels, nature, hunting, drinking, and opiates, Jahangir carried the Mughal empire to artistic and political heights. Refreshingly candid and frank, this splendidly illustrated edition of Jahangirs memoirs is a thoroughly absorbing profile of an emperor and the zenith of his empire.