Abstract
In this book, Munis Faruqui studies the role played by princely households in the establishment of the Mughal Empire in South Asia. Specifically, Faruqui argues that the acrimonious nature of political competition, especially during the periods of succession, ‘actually helped spread, deepen, and mobilize Mughal power through an empire-wide network of friends and allies’. The book is divided into seven chapters plus an introduction and a conclusion. In the introduction, Faruqui reviews the relevant literature about the Mughal state and focuses on the recent trend of analysing the relationship between the state and society as exemplified by Farhat Hasan’s State and Locality in Mughal India. Chapter 1 provides an overview of Mughal succession practices from Babur to Aurangzeb, showing how the earlier tradition of shared sovereignty bolstered by territorial princely appanages gave way to a progressively narrower line of succession and more imperial control of the princely networks. Chapter 2 focuses on the early phase of this trajectory, from 1504 to 1556, and shows how the exercise of shared sovereignty competed with and proved unmanageable for the growing imperial project, especially under the second emperor Humayun. Chapter 3 reconstructs the princely household as an institution as it existed from the late Akbari period to the 1680s. This was where potential future emperors gained political and administrative experience and also learned how to prepare for a successful accession. Chapter 4 investigates the interactions between the princes and elite groups across the empire. This exchange created a space where a prince could strengthen his future bid for the throne, and also served as the means of attracting talent into imperial service. In Chapter 5, the author explores the oppositional behaviour of Mughal princes and explains how acts of rebellion by a prince and counter-rebellion by the emperor, far from weakening the empire, served as the means of recruitment, engagement and extension of patronage that rejuvenated and projected the Mughal system further across the subcontinent. Chapter 6 elaborates upon this argument by considering wars of succession, again showing how each succession process kept the Mughal state dynamic through the reshuffling of elites. Chapter 7 demonstrates that matters changed drastically in the last two decades of Aurangzeb’s reign. The financial problems of the jagir system undermined the ability of the princely households to function in the ways described above. The fading away of princely households strengthened the hands of powerful intermediaries and severed their bonds from one another. In the conclusion, Faruqui argues that finally in the first two decades of the eighteenth century, a new political system developed that witnessed the gradual disappearance of the imperial state as an effective political force. This was symbolised by the overthrow and blinding of the emperor Farrukhsiyar by nobles, and his replacement by two sickly cousins, both of whom died within months. In short, with the collapse of the princely household came the collapse of the empire.
Faruqui provides an important contribution to the field of Mughal political history. While the issue of Mughal succession has preoccupied a number of scholars for some time, no study has undertaken a systematic investigation of the household and its role in maintaining the power of the Mughal system over the two centuries of its effective rule. The author should also be commended for his solid knowledge of the historiography and his imaginative application of relevant new research in order to expand his argument. A good example of this is where Faruqui draws on Jos Gomman’s identification of five or six key zones in the subcontinent in order to illustrate how successful princely rebels were able to control at least one of these (either through ruling them as appanages or through conquering them) while successful emperors managed to hold on to two or more (pp. 217–25). Finally, Faruqui’s contention that rebellion actually strengthened the empire is inventive and counter-intuitive. It certainly solves the apparent paradox of violent succession struggles combined with imperial expansion.
I do think The Princes of the Mughal Empire could have given more space to the female members of the imperial household. Faruqui is very much aware of the important roles played by princesses such as Jahanara and queens such as Nur Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal and certainly discusses them in the book. A more detailed study of these individuals along with those who were not blood relatives of emperors such as the powerful Maham Anga (who orchestrated the overthrow of Bayram Khan) would have given us a more complete view of the household which we know was also very much a feminine space. Leslie Peirce’s Imperial Harem, referred to by Faruqui in the introduction and conclusion, could have served as a very good model for this task.
I also have some objections to the way the empire is conceptualised in its formative period. In the second chapter, ‘The Early Years, 1504–1556’, Faruqui attributes the high prestige offered to all male members of the imperial family (not just the emperor) to a ‘steppe political tradition’ that presumably was inherited by Babur and Humayun from Central Asia. This is of course problematic since the Timurid family had ruled during the whole length of the fifteenth century in urban and agrarian Khurasan and Transoxania and not on the steppes of Inner Asia. We cannot assume that the ‘Central Asian’ political tradition was static and unchanging in the face of different social conditions from that in which it was presumably first developed. Nor would it be appropriate to refer to the Timurid mīrzās (princes) as belonging to ‘clans’. They are actually members of important aristocratic lines, each commanding the loyalty of former retainers who had flocked to the new refugee kingdom of Kabul.
Such disagreements notwithstanding, The Princes of the Mughal Empire is a significant and welcome publication. It enriches our understanding of Mughal political history and will serve as the point of departure for future studies on the topic.