A Short History of Muslim Rule in India From the Conquest of Islam to the Death of Aurangzeb

Contents: 1. Origin and growth of Islam. 2. Pre-Muslim India. 3. The Arab invasion of Sindh. 4. The rise and fall of the Ghaznavides. 5. The conquest of Hindustan. 6. The slave dynasty. 7. Khilji imperialism. 8. The Tughluq dynasty. 9. Break-up of the empire. 10. An era of decline. 11. Society and culture in the middle ages. 12. India at the opening of the sixteenth century. 13. Foundation of the Mughal empire. 14. Humayun and Sher Shah. 15. Era of reconstruction. 16. The empire at its Zenith. 17. The Turn in the tide. 18. Society and culture in Mughal India. The purpose of the present book is to provide a. general history of Muhammadan rule in India up to the death of Aurangzeb for the use of teachers in secondary schools and students in Indian Colleges. The want of a book of this kind has long been felt The older histories of the middle ages by European writers have now become inadequate and out of date owing to the rapid progress of knowledge in recent times tytost of the errors based on imperfect acquaintance with the original sources are repeated in all text books, and the student of history who aims at precise knowledge, demands more than what is contained in Elphinstone, Lane Poole and Vincent Smith. Excellent as they are in their own way they are found sketchy in these days The author has kept the requirements of the modern student always in view and he hopes he has done his best to meet them. The earlier portion of the book is largely an abridge- ment of the author's History of Mediaeval India with which students of history are already familiar. The sketch of Mughal history which is new is fairly full and will be found useful by those will consult it whether for the purpose of passing an examination or acquiring a knowledge qf Indian history under the Mughals. The best authorities on the subject original as well as secondary have been utilised and no topic of importance has been omitted. Attempt has been made to awaken the critical faculty of students by discussing controver- sial matters and by presenting the views of different writers in regard to them. An important feature of the book is that the narrative is not confined merely to political history. r An attempt has been made to describe the social and economic condition of the people at different periods. The life of a people must be viewed as a whole and to enable the reader to understand it fully enough has been said about the growth of religion and literature. The interaction of political and cultural currents has been -explained with a view to liberalise the students concep- tion of history and to enable him to develop a sense of right perspective. Proper names have been generally spelt according to the method approved by the Royal Asiatic Society and diacritical marks have been placed over unfamiliar names and terms. (jacket)