SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we Isaias such Books of the week as have not beam reserved for review U4 other forms.] When Sings Rode to Delhi. By Gabrielle Festing. (William Blackwood and Sons. 78. 6d. net.)—Anyone who is unacquainted. with the stories of the Mogul Emperors (and it is to be feared that the majority of English readers have but the haziest ideas of Indian history) cannot fail to be delighted by Mrs. Festing's sketches. Though nominally she is dealing with the history of Delhi, the greater part of her book is in reality a series of short biographies of the Moguls. For her facts she seems usually to have gone to good authorities, and, best of all, she relies largely upon Elliot's fascinating "History of India as Told by its Own Historians," to which source we should recommend readers of this volume to follow her. Mrs. Festing meets with no small success in her presentment of the characters of this extraordinary proces- sion of rulers. The gaily adventurous Babas, the broad-minded Akbar, and (certainly not least interesting) the darkly intolerant A.urangzib—these and the rest are faithfully portrayed. Readers of Elliot will be rather disappointed at Mrs. Festing's treatment of the romantic life of Jahangir's wife Nur-Jahan. She says nothing of the story that, after her first husband had been murdered at the. Emperor's instigation, Nur-Jahan refused for four years to marry, this Mohammedan David, and only consented when her mastery over him was completely assured. The value of the book is en- hanced by some excellent reproductions of portraits (some of them Holbeinesque in their realism) of the chief figures in the history. We are reminded, by the way, that an attempt was made to
assassinate Akbar as he was going in procession through Delhi, when an archer, standing on the roof of the mosque, shot an arrow which lodged deep in the Emperor's shoulder.
Previous page
