The Age of Wrath A History of the Delhi Sultanate

Abraham Eraly

Viking, 460 pages, Rs699

The Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) is commonly portrayed as a period of chaos and violence—of rapacious, plundering kings, turbulent dynasties, and the aggressive imposition of Islam on India. But this was also the era that saw the creation of a pan-Indian kingdom on the foundations of which the Mughals and later the British built their own Indian empires. The encounter between Islam and Hinduism during this period transformed, among other things, India’s architecture, literature, music and food. Eraly brings this fascinating period vividly alive, presenting the many kings—mad, brilliant, astute, cruel—who ruled through these three hundred years.