The Last Mughal

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The Last Mughal

Author : William Dalrymple
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1408806886
Total Pages : 580 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis The Last Mughal by : William Dalrymple

Download or read book The Last Mughal written by William Dalrymple and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2009-08-17 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE DUFF COOPER MEMORIAL PRIZE | LONGLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 'Indispensable reading on both India and the Empire' Daily Telegraph 'Brims with life, colour and complexity . . . outstanding' Evening Standard 'A compulsively readable masterpiece' Brian Urquhart, The New York Review of Books A stunning and bloody history of nineteenth-century India and the reign of the Last Mughal. In May 1857 India's flourishing capital became the centre of the bloodiest rebellion the British Empire had ever faced. Once a city of cultural brilliance and learning, Delhi was reduced to a battered, empty ruin, and its ruler – Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last of the Great Mughals – was thrown into exile. The Siege of Delhi was the Raj's Stalingrad: a fight to the death between two powers, neither of whom could retreat. The Last Mughal tells the story of the doomed Mughal capital, its tragic destruction, and the individuals caught up in one of the most terrible upheavals in history, as an army mutiny was transformed into the largest anti-colonial uprising to take place anywhere in the world in the entire course of the nineteenth century.

The Company Quartet

Author : William Dalrymple
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1526633426
Total Pages : 2084 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (266 download)

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Book Synopsis The Company Quartet by : William Dalrymple

Download or read book The Company Quartet written by William Dalrymple and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-19 with total page 2084 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Gorgeous, spellbinding and important' Sunday Times 'Rampaging, brilliant, passionate history' Wall Street Journal 'Magnificent ... Dalrymple has uncovered sources never used before' Guardian 'Vivid ... unmatched ... revolutionary ... humane' Sunday Telegraph ____________________________ From multi-award-winning and bestselling historian William Dalrymple, a four-book collection chronicling the extraordinary story of the rise and fall of the East India Company. We still talk about the British conquering India, but that phrase disguises a much more sinister reality. For it was not the British government that began seizing chunks of India in the mid-eighteenth century, but a dangerously unregulated private company headquartered in one small office, five windows wide, in the city of London. Bringing together two decades of meticulous research and masterful narration, 'The Company Quartet' tells the remarkable story of how the Mughal empire, which then generated just under half the world's wealth, disintegrated and came to be replaced by the first global corporate power: the East India Company. William Dalrymple's epic, bestselling and multi-award-winning histories are now available in this magnificent paperback box set, presented in a stylish slipcase. Comprised of four individual books – The Anarchy, White Mughals, Return of a King and The Last Mughal – this essential collection spans over two hundred years of tumultuous colonial history, covert political machinations and bloody resistance. PRIZES & AWARDS: Winner of the Wolfson Prize for History Winner of the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize Winner of the Hemingway Prize Winner of the Ryzard Kapuscinski Prize Winner of the Vodafone/Crossword Book award Winner of the Scottish Book of the Year Prize Winner of the Arthur Ross Medal of the Council on Foreign Relations. Three times longlisted and once shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Winner of the Sykes Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society Winner of the President's Medal of the British Academy Finalist for the Cundil Prize for History

The Life & Poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar

Author : Aslam Parvez
Publisher : Hay House, Inc
ISBN 13 : 9385827480
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (858 download)

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Book Synopsis The Life & Poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar by : Aslam Parvez

Download or read book The Life & Poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar written by Aslam Parvez and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An absorbing, authentic and exemplary chronicle – studded with rare nuggets of information and enthralling anecdotes – of one of the most tragic figures of history who was witness to the end of a glorious dynasty First published in Urdu in 1986, this ‘labour of love’ brings alive the life and poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775 to 1862), the last Mughal Emperor. Zafar presided over a crucial period in Indian history when the country was subjugated and became a colony of the fast-expanding British Empire. Aslam Parvez’s account – with its wealth of detail – stands out in the manner in which it weaves together the strands of the political, the personal, the cultural and the literary aspects of a bygone era. This work is as much about the 1857 Rebellion as it is about Bahadur Shah Zafar, the reluctant leader of the rebels. The pages also evoke the captivating ambience of a period when formidable poets such as Mirza Ghalib, Sheikh Muhammad Ibrahim Zauq and Momin Khan Momin, apart from Zafar himself, came up with one creative gem after another. The author also provides a vivid and fascinating picture of Delhi during the last days of its cultural and literary splendour as the Mughal capital and as a custodian of Urdu literature and poetry. Finally, he recounts, in a touching manner, how Zafar spent his last days in Rangoon (where he had been exiled by the British) – a lonely and forgotten individual – far away from his beloved Delhi and from the trappings of his empire.

The Mughal World

Author : Abraham Eraly
Publisher : Penguin Books India
ISBN 13 : 9780143102625
Total Pages : 440 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis The Mughal World by : Abraham Eraly

Download or read book The Mughal World written by Abraham Eraly and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2007 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It Is Hard To Imagine Anyone Succeeding More Gracefully In Producing A Balanced Overview Than Abraham Eraly William Dalrymple, Sunday Times, London In The Mughal World Abraham Eraly Continues His Fascinating Chronicle Of The Grand Saga Of The Mughal Empire. In Emperors Of The Peacock Throne He Gave Us The Story Of The Lives And Achievements Of The Great Mughal Emperors; In This Book, He Looks Beyond The Momentous Historical Events To Portray, In Precise And Vivid Detail, The Agony And Ecstasy Of Life In Mughal India. Combining Scholarly Objectivity With Artful Storytelling The Author Presents A Lively Panorama Of The Mughal World Emperors And Nobles At Work And Play; Harem Life; The Profligacy And Extravagance Of The Ruling Class Juxtaposed With The Stark Wretchedness Of The Common People. Meticulously Researched And Lucidly Narrated The Mughal World Offers Rare Insights Into The State Of The Empire S Economy, Religious Policies, The Mughal Army And Its Tactics, And The Glories Of Mughal Art, Architecture, Literature And Music.

Last Spring

Author : Abraham Eraly
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 9351181286
Total Pages : 962 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (511 download)

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Book Synopsis Last Spring by : Abraham Eraly

Download or read book Last Spring written by Abraham Eraly and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2000-10-14 with total page 962 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In December 1525, Zahir-Ud-Din Babur, Descended From Chengiz Khan And Timur Lenk, Crossed The Indus River Into The Punjab With A Modest Army And Some Cannon. At Panipat, Five Months Later He Fought The Most Important Battle Of His Life And Routed The Mammoth Army Of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, The Afghan Ruler Of Hindustan. Mughal Rule In India Had Begun. It Was To Continue For Over Three Centuries, Shaping India For All Time. In This Monumental And Definitive Biography Of The Great Mughals, Abraham Eraly Reclaims The Right To Set Down History As A Chronicle Of Flesh-And-Blood People. Bringing To His Task The Objectivity Of A Master Scholar And The High Imagination Of A Master Story-Teller, He Recreates The Lives Of Babur, The Intrepid Pioneer; The Dreamer Humayun; Akbar, The Greatest And Most Enigmatic Of The Mughal Emperors; Jehangir And Shah Jahan, The Aesthetes; And The Dour And Determined Aurangzeb. Because Of Their Charisma And Leadership The Mughal Empire Survived And Grew Despite The Chaos And Contradictions It Carried Within Itself-The Tumult Of Unending Wars, The Baffling Opulence Of The Ruling Elite And The Desperate Misery Of The Masses, The Brutal Feuds In The Royal Families, As Also The Flowering Of Art And Culture. Without Ever Sacrificing Authenticity And Academic Accuracy, Eraly Has Written A Stirring And Vivid Account Of One Of The World S Greatest Empires That Will Be Savoured By The General Reader And The Serious Scholar Alike For Years To Come.

The Lives of the Mughal Emperors

Author : John Reeve
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780712358873
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (588 download)

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Book Synopsis The Lives of the Mughal Emperors by : John Reeve

Download or read book The Lives of the Mughal Emperors written by John Reeve and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the Mughal's rich legacy of art and architecture, and using many first-hand accounts from the time, this book reveals the lives of the Mughals, exploring how their individual characters differed and how between them they came to build, and lose, a great empire. It tells the remarkable story of the 300-year Mughal dynasty in India.

The Last Gathering

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9788194969150
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (691 download)

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Book Synopsis The Last Gathering by :

Download or read book The Last Gathering written by and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

White Mughals

Author : William Dalrymple
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101098120
Total Pages : 540 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis White Mughals by : William Dalrymple

Download or read book White Mughals written by William Dalrymple and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-04-27 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White Mughals is the romantic and ultimately tragic tale of a passionate love affair that crossed and transcended all the cultural, religious and political boundaries of its time. James Achilles Kirkpatrick was the British Resident at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad when in 1798 he glimpsed Kahir un-Nissa—'Most excellent among Women'—the great-niece of the Nizam's Prime Minister and a descendant of the Prophet. Kirkpatrick had gone out to India as an ambitious soldier in the army of the East India Company, eager to make his name in the conquest and subjection of the subcontinent. Instead, he fell in love with Khair and overcame many obstacles to marry her—not least of which was the fact that she was locked away in purdah and engaged to a local nobleman. Eventually, while remaining Resident, Kirkpatrick converted to Islam, and according to Indian sources even became a double-agent working for the Hyderabadis against the East India Company. It is a remarkable story, involving secret assignations, court intrigue, harem politics, religious and family disputes. But such things were not unknown; from the early sixteenth century, when the Inquisition banned the Portuguese in Goa from wearing the dhoti, to the eve of the Indian mutiny, the 'white Mughals' who wore local dress and adopted Indian ways were a source of embarrassments to successive colonial administrations. William Dalrymple unearths such colourful figures as 'Hindoo Stuart', who travelled with his own team of Brahmins to maintain his temple of idols, and who spent many years trying to persuade the memsahibs of Calcutta to adopt the sari; and Sir David Ochterlony, Kirkpatrick's counterpart in Delhi, who took all thirteen of his wives out for evening promenades, each on the back of their own elephant. In White Mughals, William Dalrymple discovers a world almost entirely unexplored by history, and places at its centre a compelling tale of love, seduction and betrayal. It possesses all the sweep and resonance of a great nineteenth-century novel, set against a background of shifting alliances and the manoeuvring of the great powers, the mercantile ambitions of the British and the imperial dreams of Napoleon. White Mughals, the product of five years' writing and research, triumphantly confirms Dalrymple's reputation as one of the finest writers at work today.

The Last Mughal

Author : William Dalrymple
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 1400078334
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Last Mughal by : William Dalrymple

Download or read book The Last Mughal written by William Dalrymple and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2008-03-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this evocative study of the fall of the Mughal Empire and the beginning of the Raj, award-winning historian William Dalrymple uses previously undiscovered sources to investigate a pivotal moment in history. The last Mughal emperor, Zafar, came to the throne when the political power of the Mughals was already in steep decline. Nonetheless, Zafar—a mystic, poet, and calligrapher of great accomplishment—created a court of unparalleled brilliance, and gave rise to perhaps the greatest literary renaissance in modern Indian history. All the while, the British were progressively taking over the Emperor's power. When, in May 1857, Zafar was declared the leader of an uprising against the British, he was powerless to resist though he strongly suspected that the action was doomed. Four months later, the British took Delhi, the capital, with catastrophic results. With an unsurpassed understanding of British and Indian history, Dalrymple crafts a provocative, revelatory account of one the bloodiest upheavals in history.

Begums, Thugs and Englishmen

Author : Fanny Parkes Parlby
Publisher : Penguin Books India
ISBN 13 : 9780143029885
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (298 download)

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Book Synopsis Begums, Thugs and Englishmen by : Fanny Parkes Parlby

Download or read book Begums, Thugs and Englishmen written by Fanny Parkes Parlby and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2003 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fanny Parkes, Who Lived In India Between 1822 And 1846, Was The Ideal Travel Writer Courageous, Indefatigably Curious And Determinedly Independent. Her Delightful Journal Traces Her Journey From Prim Memsahib, Married To A Minor Civil Servant Of The Raj, To Eccentric Sitar-Playing Indophile, Fluent In Urdu, Critical Of British Rule And Passionate In Her Appreciation Of Indian Culture. Fanny Is Fascinated By Everything, From The Trial Of The Thugs And The Efficacy Of Opium On Headaches To The Adorning Of A Hindu Bride. To Read Her Is To Get As Close As One Can To A True Picture Of Early Colonial India The Sacred And The Profane, The Violent And The Beautiful, The Straight-Laced Sahibs And The More Eccentric White Mughals Who Fell In Love With India And Did Their Best, Like Fanny, To Build Bridges Across Cultures.

The Anarchy

Author : William Dalrymple
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1526634015
Total Pages : 577 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (266 download)

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Book Synopsis The Anarchy by : William Dalrymple

Download or read book The Anarchy written by William Dalrymple and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 THE TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR FINALIST FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2020 LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019 A FINANCIAL TIMES, OBSERVER, DAILY TELEGRAPH, WALL STREET JOURNAL AND TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Dalrymple is a superb historian with a visceral understanding of India ... A book of beauty' – Gerard DeGroot, The Times In August 1765 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish a new administration in his richest provinces. Run by English merchants who collected taxes using a ruthless private army, this new regime saw the East India Company transform itself from an international trading corporation into something much more unusual: an aggressive colonial power in the guise of a multinational business. William Dalrymple tells the remarkable story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.

Shah Jahan

Author : Fergus Nicoll
Publisher : Penguin Books India
ISBN 13 : 0670083038
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Shah Jahan by : Fergus Nicoll

Download or read book Shah Jahan written by Fergus Nicoll and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2009 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Khurram Shah Jahan, a title meaning King of the World , ruled the Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1659. His reign marked the cultural zenith of the Mughal dynasty: a period of multiculturalism, poetry, fine art and stupendous architecture. His legacy in stone embraces not only the Taj Mahal the tomb of his beloved second wife, Anjumand Mumtaz Mahal but fortresses, mosques, gardens, carvanserais and schools. But Shah Jahan was also a ruthless political operator, who only achieved power by ordering the murder of two brothers and at least six other relatives, one of them the legitimately crowned Emperor Dawar Baksh. This is the story of an enlightened despot, a king who dispensed largesse to favoured courtiers but ignored plague in the countryside. Fergus Nicholl has reconstructed this intriguing tale from contemporary biographies, edicts and correspondence. He has also traveled widely through India and Pakistan to follow in Shah Jahan's footsteps and put together an original portrait that challenges many established legends to bring the man and the emperor to life.

A Short History of the Mughal Empire

Author : Michael Fisher
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0857729764
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (577 download)

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Book Synopsis A Short History of the Mughal Empire by : Michael Fisher

Download or read book A Short History of the Mughal Empire written by Michael Fisher and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mughal Empire dominated India politically, culturally, socially, economically and environmentally, from its foundation by Babur, a Central Asian adventurer, in 1526 to the final trial and exile of the last emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar at the hands of the British in 1858. Throughout the empire's three centuries of rise, preeminence and decline, it remained a dynamic and complex entity within and against which diverse peoples and interests conflicted. The empire's significance continues to be controversial among scholars and politicians with fresh and exciting new insights, theories and interpretations being put forward in recent years. This book engages students and general readers with a clear, lively and informed narrative of the core political events, the struggles and interactions of key individuals, groups and cultures, and of the contending historiographical arguments surrounding the Mughal Empire.

The Great Mughals and their India

Author : Dirk Collier
Publisher : Hay House, Inc
ISBN 13 : 9384544981
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (845 download)

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Book Synopsis The Great Mughals and their India by : Dirk Collier

Download or read book The Great Mughals and their India written by Dirk Collier and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A definitive, comprehensive and engrossing chronicle of one of the greatest dynasties of the world – the Mughal – from its founder Babur to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last of the clan The magnificent Mughal legacy – the world-famous Taj Mahal being the most prominent among countless other examples – is an inexhaustible source of inspiration to historians, writers, moviemakers, artists and ordinary mortals alike. Mughal history abounds with all the ingredients of classical drama: ambition and frustration, hope and despair, grandeur and decline, love and hate, and loyalty and betrayal. In other words: it is great to read and offers ample food for thought on the human condition. Much more importantly, Mughal history deserves to be widely read and reflected upon, because of its lasting cultural and socio-political relevance to today’s world in general and the Indian subcontinent in particular. The Mughals have left us with a legacy that cannot be erased. With regard to the eventful reigns of Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb and their successors, crucial questions arise: Where did they succeed? Where did they fail? And more importantly, what should we learn from their triumphs and failures? The author believes that history books should be accurate, informative and entertaining. In The Great Mughals and Their India, he has kept these objectives in mind in an attempt to narrate Mughal history from their perspective. At the same time, he does not shy away from dealing with controversial issues. Here is a fascinating and riveting saga that brings alive a spectacular bygone era – authentically and convincingly.

Indian Summer

Author : Alex Von Tunzelmann
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780312428112
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (281 download)

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Book Synopsis Indian Summer by : Alex Von Tunzelmann

Download or read book Indian Summer written by Alex Von Tunzelmann and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-09-30 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An extraordinary story of romance, history, and divided loyalties--set against the backdrop of one of the most dramatic events of the 20th century--"Indian Summer" reveals how Britain ceased to be a superpower after it lost India as a colony.

Nine Lives

Author : William Dalrymple
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1408801248
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis Nine Lives by : William Dalrymple

Download or read book Nine Lives written by William Dalrymple and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2010-06-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasion of Tibet - then spends the rest of his life trying to atone for the violence by hand printing the best prayer flags in India. A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment as she watches her best friend ritually starve herself to death. Nine people, nine lives; each one taking a different religious path, each one an unforgettable story. William Dalrymple delves deep into the heart of a nation torn between the relentless onslaught of modernity and the ancient traditions that endure to this day. LONGLISTED FOR THE BBC SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE

Return of a King

Author : William Dalrymple
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307958299
Total Pages : 494 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (79 download)

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Book Synopsis Return of a King by : William Dalrymple

Download or read book Return of a King written by William Dalrymple and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From William Dalrymple—award-winning historian, journalist and travel writer—a masterly retelling of what was perhaps the West’s greatest imperial disaster in the East, and an important parable of neocolonial ambition, folly and hubris that has striking relevance to our own time. With access to newly discovered primary sources from archives in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and India—including a series of previously untranslated Afghan epic poems and biographies—the author gives us the most immediate and comprehensive account yet of the spectacular first battle for Afghanistan: the British invasion of the remote kingdom in 1839. Led by lancers in scarlet cloaks and plumed helmets, and facing little resistance, nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the mountain passes from India into Afghanistan in order to reestablish Shah Shuja ul-Mulk on the throne, and as their puppet. But after little more than two years, the Afghans rose in answer to the call for jihad and the country exploded into rebellion. This First Anglo-Afghan War ended with an entire army of what was then the most powerful military nation in the world ambushed and destroyed in snowbound mountain passes by simply equipped Afghan tribesmen. Only one British man made it through. But Dalrymple takes us beyond the bare outline of this infamous battle, and with penetrating, balanced insight illuminates the uncanny similarities between the West’s first disastrous entanglement with Afghanistan and the situation today. He delineates the straightforward facts: Shah Shuja and President Hamid Karzai share the same tribal heritage; the Shah’s principal opponents were the Ghilzai tribe, who today make up the bulk of the Taliban’s foot soldiers; the same cities garrisoned by the British are today garrisoned by foreign troops, attacked from the same rings of hills and high passes from which the British faced attack. Dalryrmple also makes clear the byzantine complexity of Afghanistan’s age-old tribal rivalries, the stranglehold they have on the politics of the nation and the ways in which they ensnared both the British in the nineteenth century and NATO forces in the twenty-first. Informed by the author’s decades-long firsthand knowledge of Afghanistan, and superbly shaped by his hallmark gifts as a narrative historian and his singular eye for the evocation of place and culture, The Return of a King is both the definitive analysis of the First Anglo-Afghan War and a work of stunning topicality.