Indo-Persian Elite in the Late Eighteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century

This book explores the intellectual and literary engagements of the Indo-Persianate intelligentsia from the late-Mughal era to the early colonial period. It situates the writings of the Indo-Islamic elite within the broader context of the Mughal empire’s gradual decline and the British colonial ascendancy. Additionally, it examines Indian agency in shaping the Orientalist tradition. Two dedicated chapters explore British Romantic writers’ fascination with the poetics of ^Hafi]z Shirazi and the modern critical reception of Indo-Persian poet Amir Khusraw Dehlavi. The book also presents ?Abd al-Karim Khan Jhajjari’s impressions of mid-nineteenth-century Britain by analyzing his Urdu travelogue, Siyahatnama (Book of Travels), and his Persian universal history, Mir‘at-i-gitinuma (World Reflecting Mirror), both housed in the British Library.