Against the Mughals

Against the Mughals reconstructs the worldviews of Dattū Sarvānī, an Indo-Afghan soldier who believed in the power of dreams: to predict, warn, guide and inform. He also believed in the ability of his Sufi pīr, 'Abd al-Quddūs Gangohī, both to appear in his dreams, and to change the course of history through his spiritual power and authority.

In this first volume of 'The Life and Works of Simon Digby', the author translates the dreams of Dattū Sarvānī-a unique source for the period-and uses them to illuminate the political and social worlds of the early sixteenth century, when invasions under Bābur and Humāyūn led to the downfall of the north Indian sultanates and the establishment of the Mughal Empire. Drawing on a vast array of primary and secondary material, with meticulous close readings and a wide-ranging historical lens, Digby weaves accounts of military campaigns, Sufi devotion, and daily family life together in a rich analytical tapestry. Sultans, shaykhs and soldiers play their various roles, and the vital though oft-neglected world of pre-Mughal north India comes alive before the readers' eyes.

Simon Digby (1932-2010) was one of the foremost scholars on pre-Mughal India as well as a prolific writer, translator and collector. He was Honorary Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, curator in the Department of Eastern Art of the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford, and a member of the Oriental Institute of the university. His contribution to the study of Indian history can be seen by a glance through his bibliography, which demonstrates his wide-ranging research into disparate fields. Throughout his illustrious career, he wrote several books that are considered path-breaking in their field, including Wonder Tales of South Asia and War-Horse and Elephant in the Delhi Sultanate. David Lunn was the Simon Digby Postdoctoral Fellow at SOAS (2015-18) and is currently an independent scholar. He taught extensively at SOAS in the fields of South Asian, postcolonial, cultural and gender studies (2007-23) and was, latterly, branch secretary of the UCU trade union. He has published on Hindi-Urdu and Hindu-Muslim relations in pre-Independence India, early Hindustani cinema, a unique Malay poetic account of Muharram in nineteenth-century Singapore, the poetry of Emperor Shāh 'Ālam II, and the queer satire of the Indo-Irish author Aubrey Menen.

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