Common People and the Founding of the Mughal Empire: Timurid Practices of Wartime Justice and Tyranny over Local Populaces, 1494-1556 Paperback – July 24, 2013

This is not really a book, but a fairly short 'booklet' or essay which perhaps originates in a masters thesis. The author reads the classical texts regarding Babur (i.e. the Baburnama) and his son Humayun, along with a fairly extended bibliography, with the objective of understanding when and in what circumstances the two applied the ideal of Persian/Iranian kingship with its insistence on 'justice', and when instead they were forced to or decided to use violent measures to extract surplus or to control rebellious populations.The material considered is well known, although the very strong focus -- on the model of kingship for sedentary and urban populations versus nomadic violence -- allows the reader to concentrate on that one theme, which is important and also of interest for comparison with the contemporary situation in western not to say eastern Europe.The English is often original, and at times simply wrong. The interested reader might find it stimulating, but also disappointing, because of its limited length and scope. Let us hope that the author will give us a more complex and better edited volume in the future.