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The Garden of the Eight Paradises: Babur and the Culture of Empire in Central Asia, Afghanistan and India (1483-1530). By Stephen F. Dale. Brill's Inner Asian Library, 10. Leiden: Brill, 2004. Pp. xiii + 520. $124.
Stephen Dale's study of Zahir al -Di ? Muhammad Bäbur (1483-1530), founder of the Mughal dynasty, constitutes a highly welcome addition to Mughal and Central Asian studies. Indeed, this volume is a model for any future scholarship in the field, and sets a new standard for biographical writing. The book consists of an introduction, eight chapters, an epilogue, bibliography, glossary, numerous color photos, and an index.
The 1995 publication of Eiji Mano' s critical edition of the Bäburnäma, Bäbur' s memoirs, made it possible for Dale to write this first critical biography of Bäbur. The Garden of the Eight Paradises is, in Dale's own words, a "commentary on Bäbur' s autobiography and poetry" (p. 4). But Dale has accomplished much more than this. Using a highly effective framework of interspersing chapters on the autobiography with thematic/chronological chapters on the larger context of that autobiography, Dale provides both an analysis of the Bäburnäma and a substantial biography of Bäbur.
Babur not only founded a dynasty, but he also authored one of the most important autobiographies of the early modern period. Dale's first three chapters, therefore, introduce Bäbur and his memoirs, placing Bäbur in the context of the highly complex late Timo rid political landscape and the memoirs in the context of Islamicate autobiographical writing. That the Bäburnäma is a unique text is obvious to anyone who has had the opportunity...