04-01-2005, 03:22 AM
Book review in Telegraph, 1 April, 2005...
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->THE GREAT MUGHALSÂ
<b>Our understanding of Mughal history has been dominated by the researches of Irfan Habib and his colleagues at the Aligarh Muslim University.</b> What has deepened as a consequence is our understanding of the Mughal economy and the determining influence it had on Mughal court politics. This was a major breakthrough since it taught us to look beyond the narrative of the reigns of kings. <b>It had one adverse fallout. This was an overemphasis on the economy at the cost of neglecting other aspects of history. This grew out of the vulgar Marxism that Habib has made his hallmark.</b> Even Habibâs greatest admirer will admit that he is no Christopher Hill or E.P. Thompson, not even Eric Hobsbawm. In fact, those who claim Hill and Thompson to be Marxist historians cannot claim the same for Habib.
This preface on Habib is necessary because <b>Annemarie Schimmelâs outstanding book liberates us from the blinkers that the Aligarh school had put on our understanding of Mughal history.</b> Before attempting to present how, unwittingly, she does this, some words of introduction are in order. <b>Schimmel was born in Germany in 1922. From 1967 till her retirement in 1992, she taught at Harvard. She died in 2003. Her skill with languages put her in a unique position to study Mughal history. She knew Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu and Pashto. She also knew Greek and Latin and half a dozen modern European languages. </b>She wrote about 100 books and made poetry, culture and religion of the Muslim world her special area. At the very heart of her scholarship was Sufism.
To this book, published posthumously, Schimmel brought all her extraordinary erudition. <b>The book attempts to capture the Mughal period in all its aspects â from the reign of kings, to court life, to the economy and culture. It takes readers into the imperial household and recreates the life of the Mughal womenfolk, in court and within the household. </b>Her coverage and analysis of the various religious groups and sects in the Mughal empire is outstanding, as is her survey of languages, literature and the arts.
Apart from her reading of contemporary documents, Schimmel lights up aspects of the period through her very sensitive reading of Mughal paintings and minatures. She uses these representations to understand the structure of power relations within the court, how leisure was organized and of course, the life of women. This is done not at the cost of the available textual documentation but as a complement to what is known from those documents. <b>Her approach is not shackled by her association to any school of historiography. She is, in fact, fulsome in her praise of Habibâs contribution to Mughal economic history</b>.
This book is exemplary in that it demonstrates how a specialist can write, without diluting her scholarship, in a manner that is attractive and enjoyable for a non-specialist who wants to know about the Mughals.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->THE GREAT MUGHALSÂ
<b>Our understanding of Mughal history has been dominated by the researches of Irfan Habib and his colleagues at the Aligarh Muslim University.</b> What has deepened as a consequence is our understanding of the Mughal economy and the determining influence it had on Mughal court politics. This was a major breakthrough since it taught us to look beyond the narrative of the reigns of kings. <b>It had one adverse fallout. This was an overemphasis on the economy at the cost of neglecting other aspects of history. This grew out of the vulgar Marxism that Habib has made his hallmark.</b> Even Habibâs greatest admirer will admit that he is no Christopher Hill or E.P. Thompson, not even Eric Hobsbawm. In fact, those who claim Hill and Thompson to be Marxist historians cannot claim the same for Habib.
This preface on Habib is necessary because <b>Annemarie Schimmelâs outstanding book liberates us from the blinkers that the Aligarh school had put on our understanding of Mughal history.</b> Before attempting to present how, unwittingly, she does this, some words of introduction are in order. <b>Schimmel was born in Germany in 1922. From 1967 till her retirement in 1992, she taught at Harvard. She died in 2003. Her skill with languages put her in a unique position to study Mughal history. She knew Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu and Pashto. She also knew Greek and Latin and half a dozen modern European languages. </b>She wrote about 100 books and made poetry, culture and religion of the Muslim world her special area. At the very heart of her scholarship was Sufism.
To this book, published posthumously, Schimmel brought all her extraordinary erudition. <b>The book attempts to capture the Mughal period in all its aspects â from the reign of kings, to court life, to the economy and culture. It takes readers into the imperial household and recreates the life of the Mughal womenfolk, in court and within the household. </b>Her coverage and analysis of the various religious groups and sects in the Mughal empire is outstanding, as is her survey of languages, literature and the arts.
Apart from her reading of contemporary documents, Schimmel lights up aspects of the period through her very sensitive reading of Mughal paintings and minatures. She uses these representations to understand the structure of power relations within the court, how leisure was organized and of course, the life of women. This is done not at the cost of the available textual documentation but as a complement to what is known from those documents. <b>Her approach is not shackled by her association to any school of historiography. She is, in fact, fulsome in her praise of Habibâs contribution to Mughal economic history</b>.
This book is exemplary in that it demonstrates how a specialist can write, without diluting her scholarship, in a manner that is attractive and enjoyable for a non-specialist who wants to know about the Mughals.
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