Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir (1618–1707) was the last of the so- called ‘great’ Mughal emperors – and perhaps the most misunderstood. Over the past century, he has been largely defined as a religious bigot whose policies contributed to the collapse of the Mughal Empire. Munis D. Faruqui cuts through the many distortions to offer the most balanced and definitive account of the Mughal Emperor yet written.

Drawing on a rich archive, but especially the multi-volume Akhbarat or newsletters detailing events at and beyond the Mughal court – a source that no previous Mughal historian has mined in such depth – Faruqui brings the granular details of Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir’s world vividly alive: the tensions at court, the role of women and eunuchs within it, his fraught relationships with his father and brothers, his attempts to save the Empire, the fierce loyalty he inspired in those who served him, and his sense of personal failure at the end of his life.

On the question that has defined Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir’s reputation, Faruqui offers a revelatory reassessment. In his own time, Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir was regarded as a zinda pir – a living saint, revered by Hindus and Muslims alike. His faith was not a source of communal tension, and his actions towards his Hindu subjects were no different from those of the emperors who preceded him: largely pragmatic and long misread as ideological.

Magisterial yet intimate, outstanding in its scholarship yet written with remarkable accessibility, this is a marvel of archival research and a portrait that will permanently change how we see the most infamous of the Mughals..