The Mughal Empire: A Captivating Guide to the Mughal Empire in South Asia and the Impact the Mughals Had on the History of India (Exploring India’s Past) Paperback – June 15, 2020

Anything that was written by Captivating History and Matt Clayton I highly suggest you buy and read. History is greatly researched and the content, no boredom with hundreds of pages of fluff.You are going to be seeing a lot of the same reviews from me but that is how highly I think of Captivating History and Matt Claytons' books are.You will not regret it, I have so many of their books, I do not remember the count.

This book is well written and easy to read although there is some "period jumping" that can throw off the rhythm of the book.There were several things I found particularly interesting. The Mughal Empire was one of the largest on the subcontinent of India for 300+ years. They rose to power quickly, dominated the area and fell just as quickly, even though the decline was stretched out over 100+ years. I found it interesting that the founder, Babur, was actually of Mongol decent. In fact, he was a direct descendent of Genghis (Chingis-sp?) Khan. The Taj Mahal was built during this period and for an extended period, creative art was a mainstay. Although the "ruling class" was predominantly Muslim, the more enlighten leaders allowed the empire to be inclusive of the Hindus, Sikhs and all other religions and ethnic groups. They encouraged a "melting pot" of beliefs, art, and cultures. This policy of openness and inclusivity helped the empire grow to one of the largest and wealthiest in the world. After these policies were changed to one of less tolerance, unfair taxation and governmental corruption became totally engrained, the empire started it's decline. This reversal of religious tolerance, in particular, ultimately led to the final split between the Muslin and Hindu populations and the creation of the two countries (three if Bangladesh is included) Pakistan and India after WW2. There are many good lessons we can learn from history.This is a good book well worth reading, particularly if you read some related book or tie it into modern Indian history.

The problem with short summaries of things like empires is that they rarely go into the depth necessary for one to truly appreciate the scope and magnitude of an empire like the Mughals. Separate chapters dealing with military matters, literature and poetry, and architecture, just to mention a few would have added a needed depth and flavor to the book.

the discovered The Mughal Empire a few years back. i never learned about this empire or civilization in high school nor college. a fascinating story of a civilization not known by many. the wars, the turmoil of its people, and the Taj Mahal are worth learning about.

Interesting Mughal history

Review of The Mughal Empire by Captivating HistoryReviewed by Richard PolirerIf one wants to learn about the early modern period in the history of South Asia, s/he would perforce have to learn about Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan? Well, yes, Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is the source of the great central Asian empire of what the Western World has termed the Mughals, who flourished from 1526 to 1720 before succumbing to decline and eventual fall by 1857. Theirs is the story of meteoric growth and overreach, of astounding military prowess and success, of decentralization and dismemberment, of opening lucrative trade with early European merchants in India – Portuguese, French, and eventually, British and Dutch – before being coopted by rival warlord cultures and finally replaced by the British Raj, which came to call India, the “Jewel of the Empire.” Wax and wane, decline and fall – such are the eddies of the Mughal Empire as presented superbly by Captivating History.We learned of this empire only tangentially in our college courses. Together with Safavid Persia and the Ottoman Empire, we classified it as one of the Islamic Gunpowder Empires that utilized modernized armaments like matchlocks and cannon to exert control over vast swaths of Central Asian territory in the early modern period. We called this one the Mogul at first, and later substituted the word Mughal (Persian translation), even though the leaders called themselves either the Timurid (after the Uzbek Mongol leader we call Tamerlane) or the Gurkani (literally, the sons-in-law in Persian translation, titled after Timur’s self-proclaimed lineage from Genghis Khan, after marrying a princess in the Great Khan’s line, thus becoming, as he himself saw himself, a son-in-law.). Though nominally Mongol and Turkic in origin, the rulers of the empire looked westward toward Persia and the Ottomans, rather than to the Chinese to the East, utilizing their trained military technicians as well as their own indigenous cavalry and infantry to establish their supremacy in the area. As the author aptly notes, “During their three-century rule in northern India, the Mughals transformed from a warrior tribe to one of the most sophisticated empires, developing court etiquettes and promoting the fine arts. The empire turned from fierce conquerors to becoming the center of the Indian world.”Captivating History presents the great men –and women – of the Mughals in their glory and warts. From the founder, the ferocious “tiger”, aka Babur, to his grandson, Akbar, to the last great ruler, nicknamed Aurangzeb, “Ornament of the Throne, each of these “Shah” – note the Persian influence here – brought wealth and territory to the empire. They are fascinating case studies in rulership and leadership, and they form a major portion of this short but significant study. Then, there is the lover of the arts (and his own “closer to the divine” self-image, too) Shah Jahan, or as he titled himself, Jahangir, “world conqueror”, who gave the world the Taj Mahal as a tomb for himself and his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. He occupies a pivotal moment in Mughal history, the opening of India to European trade.And it is the European trade, notably with the British East India Company, that sows the seeds of the Mughal demise. The Europeans first lusted for Indian textiles, among other things, and spent silver, mined in the Americas, to increase the Indian economy, also bringing American products like maize and tobacco to the subcontinent. Then, in the absence of strong rulers in the Mughal lands after the death of Aurangzeb, local chieftains and warlords usurped power and installed weaker Mughals as puppet figureheads, themselves only to be supplanted by the British, who finally ended the imperial charade and established their own hegemony over the area in the wake of the Sepoy Mutiny and War of 1857.There is something in this short book for everyone. Those who like to explore local culture will find this book chock-full. Those who prefer military history will be likewise aptly entertained. And those who wish to see the ebb and flow of global politics as the world entered the early modern era, will scratch their heads and exclaim, “So THAT’S how it happened.” This is a grand story of wars, the arts, and economics all rolled into one CAPTIVATING tale.

An informative read that deals with The Mughal Empire in India. This is a little discussed time period.

An interesting read about the Mughals with lots of facts. I enjoyed the book.

This book is a basic primer on the old Mughal (Mogul) period in India and Afghanistan and various territories stretching as far off as Persia. It is extensively researched and detailed with as much information, gleaned from the 16th and 17th centuries AD, as could be expected from a short treatise of those times. As there is no singular author, I expect that is was a combined effort of a team of scholars. A fascinating read.