COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL INDIA: FROM TWELFTH TO THE MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Departing from the conventional accounts of the history of medieval India Salma Ahmed Farooqui’s A Comprehensive History of Medieval India presents a consolidated timeline from the pre-sultanate period to eighteenth century India by taking into account the period that marked the end of ancient India and focusing on the importance of the transitory centuries when Delhi, with its strategic location, had begun to surface as the new power centre. This book analyses the nature of social forces, complexity of causation and the interdependence of change and continuity in the light of the crucial transition from ancient to early medieval India, with the emergence of the Delhi Sultanate and the Vijayanagar–Bahmani kingdoms. Proceeding to detail the most effervescent period in Indian history the era of the great Mughals the text provides an insight into the ideological–philosophical basis of the times, focusing on the Sufi and Bhakti movements and culminates with the rise of the Marathas, the advent of European companies and the eventual establishment of the British in Bengal. Keeping in mind that the history of medieval India has not moved in a linear fashion and that much of the period saw phases of expansion and realignment of political attributes, this book contributes to a deeper understanding of the much misread period of Indian history with a view that takes into account the resultant interface between the political, social, economic, religious and cultural elements and devotes to this crucial period the attention it deserves.