(Free University of Berlin)
In the afterglow of Timurid Princely Culture:
Kashmir and the Early Mughals
68th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Bangkok 2026
This presentation is focusing on the Kashmir chapters in the chronicle Tarikh-i Rashidi by Mirza Muhammad Haydar Dughlat (1499/1500 – 1551). Written in Persian and later translated into Turki or Central Asian Turkish, this work is a unique source for the history of the Moghul (Eastern Chaghatay) khans from 1329 to 1533 (Book One, compiled 1544-1546). The larger Book Two (completed 1541) provides an autobiographical eye witness account of events nowhere else recorded, but also permits a rare insight into the personal lives and deaths of individuals as they are affected by the political. economic, ethnic and religious changes taking place in the territories formerly held by the Timurids and Chaghatayids.
Haydar’s account is similar in a way to Babur’s Memoirs that reflect an intense interest in the countries and peoples he encountered during his qazaqlïq wanderings and conquests, Haydar takes great pains to include in his chronicle detailed descriptions of the regions with which he became familiar during his adventurous life. He wrote several chapters each for Kashgharia (East Turkestan), Moghulistan, Tibet, and Kashmir, providing fascinating details and insights.
In this presentation, a closer look is taken at Mirza Haydar’s Kashmir chapters, a country where he lived for more than ten years (1540-1551) as deputy ruler for the early Mughals. His keen eye for geographical space, beauty of nature and particular aspects of the local population, such as architecture and crafts, seem to make him a realistic and trustworthy observer. His attitude towards the local Muslim and Hindu population was scrutinized by his contemporaries and modern research, resulting in judgements that need to be re-considered.