Review by Choice Review
In this deeply layered history of 16th- through 18th-century Ottoman and Mughal society, Faroqhi, a renowned Ottoman historian, takes as an unexpected and intriguing starting point the problematic nature of source-use that confronts any comparative exercise, to examine similarities and differences of all manner of life in these two "World Empires." The result is a sympathetic portrait of the merchants, agricultural and urban laborers, soldiers, slaves, rulers, and courtiers who, together, constituted these multifaceted social entities. By demonstrating that the close analysis of ordinary subjects' daily lives by no means precludes narratives of polities--like the Ottoman and Mughal states--as intersecting parts of a global system, the book challenges conventional wisdom that comparative history is an either-or proposition: either concentrate on micro-historical actors or address broader, global arrangements. Instead, Faroqhi demonstrates that neither approach is effective without the other--be the historian's interest the organization of women performing artists, the negotiations of tax assessors, or the military labor market. This is a carefully wrought and unexpected combination of detailed social study, global systems analysis, critical historiography, and comparative history. An indispensable read for specialists in the field. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Ruth Austin Miller, emerita, University of Massachusetts Boston
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
