'Spellbinding . . . a remarkable book'

JOSEPHINE QUINN, author of How the World Made the West

'A compelling, highly readable account'

NANDINI DAS, author of Courting India

Before the East India Company and the British Empire, England was a pariah state. Seeking better fortunes, 16th and 17th century merchants, pilgrims and outcasts ventured to the kingdom of the mighty Mughals, a land ruled from the palatial towers by women - Empress Nur Jahan Begim, the Queen Mother Maryam al-Zamani, and Princess Jahanara Begim.

Into this golden realm went Father Thomas Stephens, a Catholic fleeing his home; the merchant Ralph Fitch seeking jewels in the markets of Delhi; and John Mildenhall, an adventurer revelling in the highwire politics of the Mughal elite. This collision of worlds connected East and West, launching a tempestuous period of globalization from the Chinese opium trade to the slave trade in the Americas.

Drawing on rich, original sources, Lubaaba Al-Azami traces the origins of a relationship between two nations - one outsider and one superpower - whose cultures remain inextricably linked to this day.