War-Horse and Elephant in the Dehli Sultanate is a detailed and nuanced work of revisionist military history. Through a careful examination of the available sources, Simon Digby makes wholly original arguments concerning the importance of war-horses and elephants in the conduct of medieval warfare. He also accounts, in novel ways, for the military ascendancy of the Dehli Sultanate. This was Digby’s first monograph, which he printed privately in 1971 and largely distributed himself. Since then, it has always been particularly difficult to find. Digby was engaged in preparing a revised edition for publication in India before his death; this volume brings that vision to completion.

The main text is supplemented by an essay on the Arabian and Gulf horse in medieval India, as well as three of his pieces on the Sultanate period for the original Cambridge Economic History of India. This volume also includes his previously unpublished, annotated translation of the Jawahir-nama or ‘Book of Jewels’ on the trade of gemstones in late Sultanate/early Mughal India. Altogether, this is an indispensable volume for anyone interested in trade and military history in the medieval period.