Description
Book SynopsisFrom the author of the Samuel Johnson prize-shortlisted Return of a King', 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 S
Trade Review‘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
