Mughal Courts: Interpreting 16th and 17th Century Historical Texts

How do historians reconstruct the politics and society of long-gone empires? The written accounts commissioned by the Mughal Emperors themselves offer a direct, yet complex, view into their world. This course provides a foundational understanding of the Mughal Empire's political history from the 15th to the 17th century. You will gain the critical skills necessary to approach historical texts, identifying the context, biases, and key information contained within these invaluable royal chronicles. What you'll learn: * Understand the foundational political and administrative structures of the Mughal Empire. * Analyze major royal chronicles as historical evidence, focusing on authorship, narrative choices, and context. * Practice source criticism to identify inherent biases and political motivations embedded in primary historical texts. * Explore key themes in Mughal court politics, including succession, diplomacy, and imperial expansion during the 16th and 17th centuries. * Apply historical methods to differentiate between courtly perspectives and verifiable political events recorded in the texts. The course begins by defining the key periods and concepts of Mughal history before moving into detailed analyses of selected primary source excerpts and the methods used to interpret them. We focus entirely on reading and understanding the written records that shape our knowledge of this era. This course is designed for absolute beginners with no prior knowledge of South Asian history or formal historical analysis techniques. Start reading the history of the Mughal Empire today.