Travellers in the golden realm : how Mughal India connected England to the world /Lubaaba Al-Azami.

"Before the East India Company and before the British Empire, England was a pariah state. Seeking better fortunes, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century merchants, pilgrims and outcasts ventured to the kingdom of the mighty Mughals, attempting to sell coarse woollen broadcloth along the silk roads; playing courtiers in the Mughal palaces in pursuit of love; or simply touring the sub-continent in search of an elephant to ride. Into this golden realm went Father Thomas Stephens, a Catholic fleeing his home; the merchant Ralph Fitch looking for jewels in the markets of Delhi; and John Mildenhall, an adventurer revelling in the highwire politics of the Mughal elite. It was a land ruled from the palatial towers by women: the formidable Empress Nur Jahan Begim, the enterprising Queen Mother Maryam al-Zamani and the intrepid Princess Jahanara Begim. The collision of worlds helped connect East and West, launching a tempestuous period of globalisation from the Chinese opium trade to the slave trade in the Americas. Drawing on rich sources, Lubaaba Al-Azami traces the origins of a relationship between two nations - one outsider and one superpower - whose cultures remain inextricably linked to this day."--