‘Aligarh: The City That Outlasted Empires’: A delightful montage running through the centuries
· Scroll
It is not uncommon for writers to write a book they wanted to read and could not, because of the minor problem of the book’s non-existence. Atif Syed, for instance, wanted to read a history of Aligarh that did not make the Aligarh Movement and the founding of Aligarh Muslim University its sole preoccupation. He could not find a volume to his satisfaction, and so wrote Aligarh: The City That Outlasted Empires. His work, comprehensive and rigorously researched, should sate the curiosity of a future reader too.
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From the age of Dor Rajputs to Qutbuddin Aibak’s conquest of the city and the subsequent passage of its administration through the upheavals of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, Maratha rule, and European adventurism, Syed carefully traces the city’s evolution through the centuries. The descriptions of various sieges and battles are rich with imagery and packed with action in the manner of a period drama without compromising on scholarly detail. So, when we read about Aibak’s attack on the fortress of Koil (Aligarh’s original name), we are also treated to the poetic description of the assault from Hasan Nizami’s Tajul Ma’athir, in which we see that “the ropes of the royal pavilion were tied to the halo round the...