The Baburnama

This memoir, written in Chagatai Turkic in the early sixteenth century, is the first-person record of Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, Timurid prince and founder of Mughal rule in India. It follows his youth in Ferghana, the loss and recovery of Samarkand, years of exile and raiding from Kabul, and the campaigns that take him into Hindustan, including the victory at Panipat. Between battles he notes gardens, fruit, birds, drinking, poetry, and the characters of allies and kin. The voice is frank and observational. The book is a prince's diary of war and place, not a later official chronicle of the Mughal empire.

Quarter bound in dark blue leather with gilt stamping on the spine and off-white Modigliani paper sides printed and blocked with a multicolour and gilt design by Neil Gower. Dark blue endleaves. Dark blue slipcase.