Empire of the Moghul

Title: Empire of the Moghul – Raiders from the North

Author: Alex Rutherford

Publisher:  Headline Review, 2010 (First published 2009)

ISBN: 978-0-7553-5654-6

Pages: 493

Another novel on the most romantic of India’s dynasties – the Moghuls. This is the first book among a quintet that covers the entire dynasty. Alex Rutherford has strived much for this work, particularly doing good research and personally visiting the more important vistas where the events unfurled. With a judicious sense of selecting proper characters for the lead roles of the novel, she has displayed impressive workmanship. Poetic license grants authors immense freedom, but Rutherford prefers to lean more on the solid rock of history rather than the floating log of imagination. On the bedrock of historical fact, she paints a colourful saga of Babur, a small-time ruler of Ferghana and claiming blood links to Timur the Lame and Genghis Khan. Though the reader may want to differ on assigning on the young prince unquestionable greatness – as the author has indeed done – we may have to pardon her for embellishing the protagonist a bit too much.

Babur ascended the throne of Ferghana at the age of thirteen, upon the unexpected death of his father. Ferghana, Samarkand and Kabul were at that time ruled by princes of the House of Timur, Babur’s uncles and cousins. Internecine fratricidal warfare was a feature of the times. The lack of unity among the brothers helped their arch enemy, the Uzbek warlord Shaibani Khan forage into Samarkand and kill its ruler. The city was later given to Babur who was unable to retain it for long. Court intrigue denied him the throne of the magnificent city of Timur. Upon returning to Ferghana, he found that it was usurped by his half-brother. Having lost all he had, Babur lived as a brigand, skirmishing the outlying countryside and giving the rulers much discomfort. Return of Shaibani Khan at this stage succeeded in forging unity among the brothers and Babur was able to regain Samarkand for a short while. When Shaibani Khan returned with a greater force, Babur fleed, even surrendering his only sister to the conqueror’s lust. Luck was following him, as he neared Kabul, the local ruler died and the royal council invited him to take up the post. Uzbeks were not inclined to allow him to reign in peace, however. Shaibani Khan took Herat and marched ominously to Babur. Nevetheless, the Uzbeks were beaten by Persian Shah’s army who handed over the conquered kingdoms to Babur, on the condition that he and his subjects covert to Shiism, the official religion of Persia. Babur tactfully went on with the scheme, but his subjects at Samarkand threw the Shiite mullah out of the city and chased Babur through the streets. He fleed for a third time back to Kabul.

While licking his wounds among Afghans, and weary of warring against strong rulers to the North and West, he heard about the immense wealth of Hindustan and its weak rulers. He was made doubly fortunate in acquiring gun powder, cannon and matchlocks from the Ottoman Turks. Siege became a cake walk with the new weaponry. Babur moved south and met the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi on the battlefield at Panipat, handing a summary defeat and death to Lodi. With Delhi and Agra under him, his forces subdued the irreconcilable Rana Sanga of Mewar and paved the way for establishing his kingdom in India. On his death, his son, Humayun ascends the throne and the novel comes to end, with a strong hint of fratricidal jelousy which would soon consume the empire out of the land.

Being a work of fiction, there is no point in nitpicking historical accuracies in the plot. It is highly exaggerated, particularly the portions on Babur’s ‘tolerance’ to the Hindu belief system. A stout and fanatic believer of Islam, Babur was in fact, instrumental in destroying the peaceful cultural fabric of India. Seeds of discord and hate sown by him are still being reaped in the land. Obviously, it is unfair to judge a ruler with the enlightenment of a future age, but that is no excuse for portraying the medieval ruler with a petty mindset as a tolerant one! Any way, Babur was undoubtedly the most literate among his successors, probably with Aurangzeb exempted. He kept a diary of proceedings, which is reckoned as the first autobiography in history. Rutherford had relied heavily on it, for sure. The portrayal of Baburi, a handsome market boy referred as such in Baburnama as a larger than life figure and intimate friend of Babur is a case in point. Nonetheless, the name and circumstances make many historians attribute meaner motives – some even suggesting a hint of homosexuality which was practised by Turkish and Afghan noblemen.

The book lacks the imaginative spirit. What the readers feel is a mechanical narrative, pulled out from the leaves of a book on history. The author has miserably failed to carry the reader inside the minds of the protagonists and to marvel at the struggle going on inside the psyche of the celebrities. Even the narration of incidents is drool, unappealing and often feeling repetitive. The language is easy, which is expected from a book without much substance. Only those who want to have another view on Moghul history would like to pursue the remaining books in the quintet.

The book is not recommended.

Rating: 2 Star