Book description
'White Mughals' is the romantic and ultimately tragic tale of a
passionate love affair that transcended all the cultural, religious and
political boundaries of its time.
James Achilles Kirkpatrick was the British Resident at the court of
Hyderabad when he met Khair un-Nissa - 'Most Excellent among Women' -
the great-niece of the Prime Minister of Hyderabad. He fell in love with
her and overcame many obstacles to marry her, converting to Islam and,
according to Indian sources, becoming a double-agent working against the
East India Company.
It is a remarkable story, but such things were not unknown: from the
early sixteenth century to the eve of the Indian Mutiny, the 'white
Mughals' who wore local dress and adopted Indian ways were a source of
embarrassment to successive colonial administrations. Dalrymple unearths
such colourful figures as 'Hindoo Stuart', who travelled with his own
team of Brahmins to maintain his temple of idols, and Sir David
Auchterlony, who took all 13 of his Indian wives out for evening
promenades, each on the back of her own elephant.
In 'White Mughals', William Dalrymple discovers a world almost entirely
unexplored by history, and places at its centre a compelling tale of
seduction and betrayal. 'William Dalrymple is that rarity, a scholar
of history who can really write. This is a brilliant and compulsively
readable book' Salman Rushdie
'Destined to become an instant classic' Amanda Foreman
'A bravura display of scholarship, writing and insight. Dalrymple
manages the incredible feat of outpointing most historians and most
novelists in one go. This is quite simply a stunning achievement'
Independent on Sunday
'Gorgeous, spellbinding and important, [a] tapestry of magnificent
set-pieces' Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times
'Enthralling … brilliant, as exhaustively researched as it is
brilliantly written' Mail on Sunday William Dalrymple's first book, In
Xanadu, won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award. His second, City
of Djinns, won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times
Young British Writer of the Year Award. His third, From the Holy
Mountain, was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the Thomas Cook
Award. A collection of his pieces about India, The Age of Kali, was
published in 1998.
