Imperial identity in the Mughal Empire : memory and dynastic politics in early modern South and Central Asia / Lisa Balabanlilar.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [192]-209) and index.

Timurid political charisma and the ideology of rule -- Babur and the Timurid exile -- Dynastic memory and the genealogical cult -- The peripatetic court and the Timurid-Mughal landscape -- Legitimacy, restless princes and the imperial succession -- Imagining Kingship.

Having monopolized Central Asian politics and culture for over a century, the Timurid ruling elite was forced from its ancestral homeland in Transoxiana at the turn of the sixteenth century by an invading Uzbek tribal confederation. The Timurids travelled south: establishing themselves as the new rulers of a region roughly comprising modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India, and founding what would become the Mughal Empire (1526-1857). The last survivors of the House of Timur, the Mughals drew invaluable political capital from their lineage, which was recognized for its charismatic genealogy and court culture - the features of which are examined here. By identifying Mughal loyalty to Turco-Mongol institutions and traditions, Lisa Balabanlilar here positions the Mughal dynasty at the centre of the early modern Islamic world as the direct successors of a powerful political and religious tradition.