This volume contains wide-ranging surveys of various aspects of the history of India’s medieval past. Based on a close scrutiny of the documents at the National Archives of India as well as private collections, the volume explores the Persian archival material, from the mid fourteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, highlighting important (but little known) aspects of our past. Sufi texts are scanned for original administrative documents of the Tughluq period. A manual for the treatment of birds, and ecclesiastical positions under Firoz Shah Tughluq are some other rare finds. These essays also explore Humayun’s wanderings around Kabul and the meticulous details of the preparation for the first Mughal expedition to Qandhar under Shahjahan. Some rare and unexplored material on the uprising of 1857 has also been included here for the first time.

The essays in the volume will be of immense significance to students of Medieval and early Modern Indian history. They have unearthed valuable information, generally missing from chronicles and other works of this period, thus providing a much needed corrective to much of current historical writing.