The Timurid Kings of India: Turco-Mongol Islamic Identity at the Mughal Imperial Court

Although the founders of the Mughal Empire of India were immigrants from Central Asia, few scholars acknowledge that their strong personal and dynastic ties to that region might have substantial relevance to our understanding of their imperial character. Mughal history for many scholars is considered to have begun with the eighth-century arrival of Umayyad Muslim armies of conquest and the establishment of a long line of indistinguishable “Indo- Muslim rulers—whether of foreign or Indian origin” over most of the subcontinent. Yet scholarship demanding one thousand years of Indo- Muslim continuity ignores the particular character of the Mughal Empire, which was dramatically distinct, culturally and politically, from the Turkish and Afghan dynasties which had preceded them as rulers of northern India. Among the Mughals themselves there was little question of cultural and political identity; for over two hundred years of rule in India the Mughals retained an obsessive commitment to their inherited and deeply charismatic Central Asian Turkish-Timurid imperial legacy. A close study of the memoirs of the royal family of India can assist us in locating and understanding the components of the evolving definition of the imperial identity--- particularly given the complex and at times even contradictory influences of an inherited Mongol and Islamic ruling tradition in the Indian imperial context. This paper is broadly comparative and trans-national, drawing on imperial traditions from central and south Asia to explain and understand the particular character of the Mughal royal court. My central research interest is the Mughal emperors and their Central Asian legacy, and how this is expressed in the South Asian context through a uniquely blended Central, West and South Asian imperial court culture.