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

• Author: Sharma, Sunil
• Position: Book review

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...