This work – divided across three volumes - chronicles three decades of the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan (1628–1658). The first two volumes are by Abdul-Hamid Lahauri, and the third volume, available for the first time, is by Muhammad Waris. Since it is a court chronicle, the emphasis throughout is on the rise and fall of courtiers, governors, administrators, and military commanders and on incessant military campaigns in the Deccan, Bengal, and Afghanistan, but valuable details of life at court and the architecture of one of India’s most avid builders are also included. This is an indispensable resource for students and scholars of Mughal India as well as those interested in Persian and Iranian studies.
Chapter 1 The noble fathers and magnificent forefathers of the
vicegerent of time and space.
Chapter 2 The accession of the wearer of the
crown and adorner of the throne of the world of conquest and rule, the
paragon of wisdom and dignity, Abul-Muzaffar Shihabuddin Muhammad
Sahib-Qiran II Shahjahan Padshah Ghazi (may the days of his fortune be as
connected as the years of the world and the decades of his rule as unbroken
as the movements of the celestial sphere).
Chapter 3 The beginning of the
second felicitous year of the first decade of the reign.
Wheeler Thackston is a retired professor of Persian and other Near Eastern languages. He has translated the memoirs of Babur and Jahangir, several histories of Humayun, the Akbarnama, and Ghulam Husain Khans history of eighteenth-century India.
