Against the Mughals: Dreams and Wars of Dattu Sarvani, a Sixteenth-Century Indo-Afghan Soldier
Contents: Preface. Historical Introduction. 1. The Lata’if-i Quddusi of Rukn al-Din: Translation of the Anecdotes of Dattu Sarvani. 2. Thirty Years On: Some Reflections on Dattu and the Sarvanis. Appendices: The Context and Implications of the Anecdotes. 1. The Kingdom of Bhatta and Muslim India. 2. The Chronology of Sikandar Lodi’s Reign. 3. An Old Pretender to the Throne of Dehli: Sultan ‘Ala’ al-Din ‘Alam Khan b. Sultan Buhlul and His Namesakes. 4. Humayun’s Campaign against Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat: Dattu’s Evidence Collated with Other Sources. 5. A Sketch of the Life of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Quddus. 6. The Cult of Salar Ma‘sud Ghazi. 7. Badi‘al-Din Madar and His Followers. Simon Digby: A Life by SIMON DIGBY, RICHARD HARRIS, AND DAVID LUNN. Bibliography. Index.
The Life and Works of Simon Digby is intended to bring most of Simon Digby’s publications, together with a large body of work left unpublished at his death, to new and wider audiences.
The series stands as testimony to his extraordinary scholarship. Publication of this series has been made possible by the Simon Digby Memorial Charity (SDMC). Registered in the Channel Island of Jersey where Digby was based, the SDMC was established to further the study of subjects that were of particular interest to Simon Digby. The SDMC has donated much of his collection to Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum and Bodleian Library, to the British Museum, and to other museums across the globe. It has funded the production of this series through a postdoctoral fellowship at SOAS University of London, aided in the publication of a volume on Digby’s historical method, and continues to fund projects in fields associated with his research.
The first book in the volume, Against the Mughals reconstructs the worldviews of Dattu Sarvani, 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 pir, ‘Abd al-Quddus Gangohi, 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 Dattu Sarvani—a unique source for the period—and uses them to illuminate the political and social worlds of the early sixteenth century, when invasions under Babur and Humayun 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.
