India in the Persianate Age

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE

''Remarkable ... this brilliant book stands as an important monument to an almost forgotten world'' William Dalrymple, Spectator

A sweeping, magisterial new history of India from the middle ages to the arrival of the British

The Indian subcontinent might seem a self-contained world. Protected by vast mountains and seas, it has created its own religions, philosophies and social systems. And yet this ancient land experienced prolonged and intense interaction with the peoples and cultures of East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa and, especially, Central Asia and the Iranian plateau between the eleventh and eighteenth centuries.

Richard M. Eaton''s wonderful new book tells this extraordinary story with relish and originality. His major theme is the rise of ''Persianate'' culture - a many-faceted transregional world informed by a canon of texts that circulated through ever-widening