Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King Paperback – 16 May 2017

A great insight into the time the place and Aurangzeb himself.Highly recommended a fantastic book much respect to Audrey Truschke.

I am extremely sceptical in taking Muslim history from Western authors due to the misrepresentation of history by Western orientalists. However, this book is a fair reflection/analysis of the life of Aurangzeb. It is well researched and shows that Aurangzeb was not a zealot as most right-wing Hindu extremists and many Westerners who distort history have portrayed him. He was a fair king, under his rule there was no religious suppression and Hindus were more than well represented in administration, more than in Akbar’s time. Aurangzeb only destroyed 12 temples – due to extremists plotting against the government and storing weapons in these places. He restored and replenished temples and gave full religious rights to the citizens of India. He was a pious man and who did not take from the state and earned his own living by knitting and selling caps and writing calligraphy.The author at the start of the books fails to encapsulate the humility of Aurangzeb, when the author quotes “He saw his life as failure.” Every pious Muslim will see their life as failure as a pious Muslim seeks the Mercy of God – Mercy of God is sought through humbleness; all human beings make mistakes and he is asking God to forgive him.

A Good good book all in all. Well researched and easy to read. More an analysis of the life of Emperor Aurengzaib (looking at different aspects of his reign) than a traditional chronological biography but gives a good overview of the man and his times .I have to say I was disappointed with the length of the book for the price , the biography was less than 100 pages. for a guy who live 80+ years and half a century as the leader of the most powerful empire perhaps anywhere on earth at the time I feel more could have been written . But it does give a reader a glimpse in to the different facets of his life. Much needed to counter the bigoted nationalist pseudoscholarsip that often surrounds the man. I would also recommend watching lectures given on the subject by the author Audrey Truschke on youtube.Finally a minor point, in the book the author suggest that Aurengzaib was not a devout orthodox Muslim but he was a Sufi. It's surprising with someone of that level of scholarship to be unaware that in historic India (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) and more generally across the Muslim world , being Sufi is the default orthodox Muslim position, and at the time of Aurengzaib this was the case even more so.

Hindutva fascists and even Sikh hardliners often use Aurengzeb as subtle avenue to express Islamaphobia - painting Muslims as invaders, forcing Islamic conversions of locals, love jihad and mass killings of locals. Audrey present solid, grounded arguments that quash these bigoted views. A must read for anyone interested in history without bias. An awesome book by a very talented historian !

Excellent and very interesting read with a more nuanced approach

Great read. I found it extremely accessible for the non-academic reader, while at the same time being well referenced.This book is needed now more than ever, ok what has been an oft misunderstood topic

i can see easily how one can look at Aronzeb with a envious eye-looking from a nuetral point of view the slurs und slanders seem to be unjustified for such a merciful man that Aronzeb was clearly a warrior unsurpassed for thousands of years simliar to a prophet but not the same. clearly Aronzeb never claimed to be a prophet so i will not falsely idolise him.

This book starts with a beguiling notion, namely that 'everything you think you know is wrong'. Any student of Indian history, knows that Indian history is dogged by romanticism, over-simplification, political narratives and expedient political biases. Could the reviled, almost pantomime-villian that is Aurangzeb in fact be a now maligned but benign King - or at the very least should we reassess his character ?This book is an unconvincing defence of Aurangzeb, his character and his actions. It claims not be a defence, it claims to be a objective assessment of the man. It is anything but objective, it is a very determined attempt to recover his character.Truschke's teeing of the story of the execution of the ninth Sikh Guru in Delhi by Aurangzeb is totally whitewashed. Truschke doesn't even assess contemporary Sikh sources to refute her version of events. This isn't negligence, its an abdication of her responsibility as an academic.