This thesis discusses the question whether or not Indian historians between 1920 and 1940 saw the Mughal Empire as a foreign occupier or an indigenous empire, and if the political opinions of those...Show moreThis thesis discusses the question whether or not Indian historians between 1920 and 1940 saw the Mughal Empire as a foreign occupier or an indigenous empire, and if the political opinions of those decades influenced these opinions. Five historians, Sarkar, Mookerji and Vaidya, and Faruki and Jaffar represent three large branches within Indian historiography: Moderate nationalists (largely inspired by earlier British historians); Hindu-nationalists; and Muslim historians respectively. This thesis shows that the political leaning of the historians did influence them. The Hindu-nationalists reject the Muslim empire because to them its religion fundamentally clashes with the Indian identity. To the moderate nationalists India is a nation that absorbs and adopts new peoples, including the Mughals. To the Muslims historians it is the tolerance of the Islamic rulers that led the Mughal Emperors to adopt Indian culture and become Indian themselves.Show less
This thesis focuses on the acculturation of European mercenaries in the armies of Post-Mughal successor states at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. The thesis takes William...Show moreThis thesis focuses on the acculturation of European mercenaries in the armies of Post-Mughal successor states at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. The thesis takes William Dalrymple's "White Mughals" as a departure point and uses sources left behind by the mercenaries to test his hypothesis that these mercenaries generally acculturated into the societies of the post-Mughal successor states. However, through the analysis of these sources, this thesis argues that there was no acculturation to the degree Dalrymple argued present. Moreover, this thesis argues that there was an active segregation from Indians by most of the mercenaries, with an economic motive.Show less
This thesis examines the accommodation of European merchant communities ("nations") in the Ottoman and the Mughal Empire during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Particular attention is...Show moreThis thesis examines the accommodation of European merchant communities ("nations") in the Ottoman and the Mughal Empire during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Particular attention is paid to the legal aspects of this accommodation, and the differences between the texts and actual realities on the ground.Show less
The Tarikh-i Alfi or “History of One Thousand Years- a Millennium” was commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Akbar in the year 990/1582. The task was to compile a history of the world from the death...Show moreThe Tarikh-i Alfi or “History of One Thousand Years- a Millennium” was commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Akbar in the year 990/1582. The task was to compile a history of the world from the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632 C.E down to Akbar’s reign and it was undertaken by a group of well-known scholars of his court. The book was to commemorate the completion of the first Islamic millennium, which occurred in 1592. It was designed to be superior in scope and contents over all other historical works that had been ever compiled. It was planned to include the history of all Muslim rulers from the day the Prophet passed away, to analyzing reasons of their rise and fall. Nonetheless, it was not limited to Muslim rulers, but also encompassed all other people, who came in contact with them. Hence, this makes the book more than simply a history of Mughals, Muslim rulers, or a certain region, but rather the history of the world for the one thousand years from 632 till 1592.Show less
