Rebel Sultans
Publisher: Juggernaut Books
Imprint: Juggernaut
Pages: 336
In 1707, when Emperor Aurangzeb went to his grave, the Mughal empire began to crack into a hundred fractured pieces. It was the lure of the Deccan that drained this conqueror's energies, putting him on a course of collision with his most threatening adversaries. The Deccan was a land that inspired wonder. A traveller here might encounter bands of European snipers available for military hire, or forbidding fortresses where African nobles scaled the heights of power. In its courts thrived Persians and Marathas, Portuguese and Georgians, presiding over a world of drama and betrayal. In Rebel Sultans, Manu S. Pillai narrates the story of the Deccan from the close of the thirteenth century to the dawn of the eighteenth. We witness the dramatic rise and fall of the Vijayanagar empire, even as we negotiate intrigues at the courts of the Bahmani kings and the Rebel Sultans who overthrew them. From Chand Bibi, a valorous queen stabbed to death, and Ibrahim II of Bijapur, a Muslim prince venerating Hindu gods, to Malik Ambar, the Ethiopian warlord, and Krishnadeva Raya on Vijayanagar's Diamond Throne, Rebel Sultans unravels a forgotten chapter in our medieval past - one that ended an empire and rewrote India's destiny.
