Description

This two-volume work by the Scots orientalist and historian William Erskine (1773-1852) was published posthumously by his son in 1854. It describes the history of India under the Mughal rulers Babur and his son Humayun, descendants of Taimur (Tamburlane), and is acknowledged as one of the earliest scholarly accounts of Mughal rulers in India. Erskine had also translated the Memoirs of Emperor Babar (1826) and completed John Malcolm's biography of Lord Clive (1836). Volume 1 tells the story of Babur's accession to his ancestral possessions in Central Asia, describes the rivalry and warfare which ended with him being expelled from his homeland, and ends with his death in 1531 as imperial ruler of Afghanistan and most of Northern India. Volume 2 describes Humayan's succession, his expulsion from India, exile in Persia, and return with Persian support, which had a profound influence on the language, art and culture of India.