Studies in Medieval Indian Polity and Culture

Description

Mohammad Habib (1895–1971) was one of the foremost historians of medieval India. This volume presents a representative collection of his works, which in their time brought many innovative ideas to the study of the Delhi Sultanate. He examines not just the emperors—their campaigns, strategies, and political ideas—but also the conditions of peasants, artisans, weavers, and the mass of people of the Indian subcontinent during the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. The essays span the political history of the Sultanate period, including an evaluation of Mahmud Ghaznin’s campaigns, Ziya Barani’s description of the politico-economic and social contexts, study of Sufi records, and other contemporary sources. While presenting insights about every aspect of medieval Indian life, the historian and his thoughts themselves emerge as a subject for the study of national historiography and, later, the beginnings of Marxist historical analyses. Habib calls upon historians to reject the ‘bourgeois’ approach and focus instead on the history of the oppressed. Irfan Habib’s insightful introduction situates Mohammad Habib’s writings in the context not only of the development of Indian historiography, but also of the influences of the environment of his own time.