AURANGZEB ALAMGIR AND THE MUGHAL EMPIRE : A History Retold - Hardback

A major new biography offering a fresh, deeply researched and accessible portrait of Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir—one of India's most powerful and most misunderstood Mughal emperors.

Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir (1618–1707), the last of the so-called “great” Mughal emperors, has long been portrayed as a religious bigot whose policies helped bring about the decline of the Mughal Empire.

In Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir and the Mughal Empire, historian Munis D. Faruqui challenges this familiar image, cutting through decades of distortion to offer a nuanced and comprehensive reassessment of the emperor and his world.

Drawing on a remarkable range of archival material—especially the multi-volume Akhbarat, or court newsletters—Faruqui reconstructs the daily realities of Mughal politics in extraordinary detail. He brings to life the tensions of the imperial court, the influence of women and eunuchs, Aurangzeb's troubled relationships with his father and brothers, his efforts to preserve the Empire, and the loyalty he inspired among those who served him.

The book also revisits the question that has most shaped Aurangzeb's modern reputation: his relationship with religion and his Hindu subjects. Faruqui examines the historical evidence to argue for a more complex picture, exploring how Aurangzeb's policies and actions have often been interpreted through later ideological frameworks rather than the political realities of his own time.

Magisterial yet intimate, scholarly yet highly readable, this is a richly detailed portrait of an emperor, his court and an empire in transformation—one that invites readers to reconsider one of the most debated figures in Indian history.