This is a study of the activities and economic significance of the Indian merchant communities that traded in Iran, Central Asia and Russia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their role within the hegemonic trade diaspora of the period. The author has made use of Russian material, hitherto largely ignored, to highlight the importance of these mercantile communities, and to challenge the conventional view of world economic history in the early modern era. The book not only demonstrates the vitality of Indian mercantile capitalism at the time, but also offers a unique insight into...

This is a study of the activities and economic significance of the Indian merchant communities that traded in Iran, Central Asia and Russia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their role within the hegemonic trade diaspora of the period. The author has made use of Russian material, hitherto largely ignored, to highlight the importance of these mercantile communities, and to challenge the conventional view of world economic history in the early modern era. The book not only demonstrates the vitality of Indian mercantile capitalism at the time, but also offers a unique insight into...

This the first critical biography of Zahīr al-Dīn Muhammad Bābur, the founder of one of the great premodern Islamic empires, the Timurid-Mughul empire of India. It contains an original evaluation of his life and writings as well as fresh insights into both the nature of empire building and the character of the Timurid-Mughul state. Based upon recently published critical editions of Bābur's autobiography and poetry, the book examines Bābur's life from the time he inherited his father's authority in the Ferghanah valley, east of Samarqand, in 1494, until his death in...