Delhi in Transition, 1821 and Beyond

Description

Commissioned by the English East India Company to write about contemporary nineteenth-century Delhi, Mirza Sangin Beg walked around the city to capture its highly fascinating urban and suburban extravaganza. Laced with epigraphy and fascinating anecdotes, the city as ‘lived experience’ has an overwhelming presence in his work, Sair-ul Manazil. Interestingly, Beg made no attempt to ‘monumentalize’ buildings; instead, he explored them as spaces reflective of the socio-cultural milieu of the times.
Delhi in Transition is the first comprehensive English translation of Beg’s work, which was originally published in Persian. It is the only translation to compare the four known versions of Sair-ul Manazil, including the original manuscript located in Berlin, which is being consulted for the first time.
Shama Mitra Chenoy’s exhaustive introduction and extensive notes, along with the use of varied styles in the book to indicate the multiple sources of the text, contextualize Beg’s work for the reader and engage him with the debate concerning the different variants of this unique and eclectic work.

About the Translator and Editor

Shama Mitra Chenoy teaches history at Shivaji College, University of Delhi. She writes on medieval Delhi and its resonance in the modern city. Her earlier works include Shahjahanabad: A City of Delhi 1638–1857 (1998); Shahjahanabad Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Symphony Identities Plurality (2004); and a co-authored English translation of Muraqqa-e Dehli, The Mughal Capital in Muhammad Shah’s Time.

Table of contents

List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
The Narrative of the Manuscript and Its ‘Copies’, and the Saga of the Urdu Translations
A Note on the Translation
Style Key

Mirza Sangin Beg’s Sair-ul Manazil

Appendix 1: A Note on the Paintings
Appendix 2: Nili Chhatri
Appendix 3: Inscriptions
Glossary and Pronunciation
Bibliography
Index
About the Translator