Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-89) was one of the most renowned travelers of 17th century Europe. The son of a French Protestant who had fled Antwerp to escape religious persecution, Tavernier was a jewel merchant who between 1632 and 1668 made six voyages to the East. The countries he visited (most more than once) included present-day Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. In 1676 he published his two-volume Les six voyages de Jean Baptiste Tavernier (The six voyages of Jean Baptiste Tavernier). An abridged and very imperfect English translation of the book appeared in 1677. The first modern scholarly edition in English, presented here, was published in 1889, with translation, notes, and a biographical sketch of Tavernier by Dr. Valentine Ball (1843-95), a British civil servant with the Indian Geological Service. Among the most memorable chapters in the book are those that recount Tavernier's visits to the diamond mines of India and his inspection of the jewels of the Great Mogul. Tavernier was not a scholar or an educated linguist, and after his initial popularity in the 17th century his authority waned, as historians and others questioned the accuracy of his observations. In the 20th century, however, Tavernier's reputation rose, as such important historians as Lucien Febvre and Fernand Braudel used the detailed information he recorded about the prices and qualities of goods and about business and commercial practices in their pioneering studies of economic and social history. The book contains several appendices by Ball about famous diamonds (including the historic Koh-i-Noor Diamond now belonging to the British royal family), diamond mines in India and Borneo, ruby mines in Burma, and sapphire washings in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). A fold-out map shows Tavernier's voyages in India and the mines he visited.

Travels in the Mogul Empire is the first authoritative translation into English of François Bernier's Histoire de la dernière révolution des états du Grand Mogol, published in Paris in 1670-71. Bernier was born at Joué in the Loire, France, and educated in medicine at the University of Montpellier. Desiring to see the world, he traveled to Syria and Palestine in 1654. He returned to the Middle East in 1656, where he lived for a year in Cairo before sailing south through the Red Sea with the intent of making his way to Gondar (in present-day Ethiopia). Upon learning that conditions there were unsafe for travel, he embarked on a ship bound for the port of Surat on the west coast of India. He remained in India for some 12 years, from 1658 to 1669. He initially served as personal physician to Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and the emperor's designated successor, and later worked for Daneshmand Khan, a nobleman in the court of Emperor Aurangzeb. Bernier witnessed firsthand the bloody civil war and succession struggle of 1656-59 in which Aurangzeb, a younger brother of Dara Shikoh, seized the Mughal throne. In 1664 Bernier traveled with Aurangzeb to Kashmir, "commonly called the paradise of India," becoming most likely the first European to visit the province. Bernier wrote several long letters to correspondents in France, in which he gave detailed descriptions of economic conditions and religious and social customs in northern India, including one to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, finance minister to King Louis XIV. These letters form part of Travels in the Mogul Empire. Along with his compatriots Jean Chardin (1643-1713) and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-89), both of whom he met on his travels, Bernier was the source of most of what Europeans knew about India in the late 17th century-early 18th centuries. Bernier was a thinker as well as an adventurer, and the book is replete with excursions on a range of topics, for example, on the nature of atoms, the Lost Tribes of Israel, winds and currents, rains, and the Nile River. There is also an appendix on the history of travel to India. The book contains a preface by the translator, Irving Brock, an English merchant banker who had literary interests. It has illustrations of notable people and scenes and three fold-out maps.

This unusual study combines two books in one: the 1794 autobiographical travel narrative of an Indian, Dean Mahomet, recalling his years as camp-follower, servant, and subaltern officer in the East India Company's army (1769 to 1784); and Michael H. Fisher's portrayal of Mahomet's sojourn as an insider/outsider in India, Ireland, and England. Emigrating to Britain and living there for over half a century, Mahomet started what was probably the first Indian restaurant in England and then enjoyed a distinguished career as a practitioner of "oriental" medicine, i.e., therapeutic massage and herbal steam bath, in London and the seaside resort of Brighton. This is a fascinating account of life in late eighteenth-century India—the first book written in English by an Indian—framed by a mini-biography of a remarkably versatile entrepreneur. Travels presents an Indian's view of the British conquest of India and conveys the vital role taken by Indians in the colonial process, especially as they negotiated relations with Britons both in the colonial periphery and the imperial metropole. Connoisseurs of unusual travel narratives, historians of England, Ireland, and British India, as well as literary scholars of autobiography and colonial discourse will find much in this book. But it also offers an engaging biography of a resourceful, multidimensional individual.

A Revised And Enlarged Edition Based Upon Irving Brock`S.

Annemarie Schimmel has written extensively on India, Islam and poetry. In this comprehensive study she presents an overview of the cultural, economic, militaristic and artistic attributes of the great Mughal Empire from 1526 to 1857.

On the commercial activities in Surat, India, in 17th century and its role as a trade route and harbor of Mogul Empire; a study.

The true story of a fourteenth-century traveler, whose journeys through the Islamic world and beyond were extraordinary for his time. In 1325, when Ibn Battuta was just twenty-one, he bid farewell to his parents in Tangier, Morocco, and embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca. It was thirty years before he returned home, having seen much of the world. In this book he recalls his amazing journey and the fascinating people, cultures and places he encountered. After his pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Battuta was filled with a desire to see more of the world. He traveled extensively, throughout Islamic lands and beyond — from the Middle East to Africa to Europe to Asia. Travelers were uncommon in those days, and when Ibn Battuta arrived in a new city he would introduce himself to the governor or religious leaders, and they in turn would provide him with gifts, a place to stay and study, and sometimes they even gave him money to continue his journey. Some of the highlights of his travels included seeing the stunning Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem; witnessing the hundreds of women who gathered to pray at the mosque in Shiraz; visiting the public baths in Baghdad; and meeting the Mogul emperor of India, who made him a judge and eventually sent him to China as an ambassador. Ibn Battuta kept a diary of his travels, and even though he lost it many times and had to recall and rewrite what he had seen, he kept a remarkable record of his years away. His adventurous spirit, keen mind and meticulous observations, as retold here by Fatima Sharafeddine, give us a remarkable picture of what it was like to be a traveler nearly seven hundred years ago. The book is beautifully illustrated by Intelaq Mohammed Ali, with maps and travel routes forming the backdrop for many richly painted scenes. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.3 Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.