Both an official chronicle and the highly personal memoir of the emperor Babur (1483–1530), The Baburnama presents a vivid and extraordinarily detailed picture of life in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India during the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. Babur’s honest and intimate chronicle is the first autobiography in Islamic literature, written at a time when there was no historical precedent for a personal narrative—now in a sparkling new translation by Islamic scholar Wheeler Thackston. This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition includes notes, indices, maps, and illustrations. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Annemarie Schimmel has written extensively on India, Islam and poetry. In this comprehensive study she presents an overview of the cultural, economic, militaristic and artistic attributes of the great Mughal Empire from 1526 to 1857.

A Stirring Account Of One Of The World S Greatest Empires In December 1525, Zahir-Ud-Din Babur, Descended From Chengiz Khan And Timur Lenk, Crossed The Indus River Into The Punjab With A Modest Army And Some Cannon. At Panipat, Five Months Later, He Fought The Most Important Battle Of His Life And Routed The Mammoth Army Of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, The Afghan Ruler Of Hindustan. Mughal Rule In India Had Begun. It Was To Continue For Over Three Centuries, Shaping India For All Time. In This Definitive Biography Of The Great Mughals, Abraham Eraly Reclaims The Right To Set Down History As A Chronicle Of Flesh-And-Blood People. Bringing To His Task The Objectivity Of A Scholar And The High Imagination Of A Master Storyteller, He Recreates The Lives Of Babur, The Intrepid Pioneer; The Dreamer Humayun; Akbar, The Greatest And Most Enigmatic Of The Mughals; The Aesthetes Jehangir And Shah Jahan; And The Dour And Determined Aurangzeb.

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.