"Richards's volume fills an important gap. Until now there has been no basic narrative, political history of the Mughal empire....Richards's approach has the virtue of integrating a great deal of the newest research into a familiar framework....His clear and concise synthesis of the new scholarship on the Mughal empire in India provides a context for the student and a point of departure for all subsequent scholarly work in the field." American Historical Review

"...a clearly written, intelligent synthesis of scholarship on a major topic of the history of the Indian subcontinent. The volume will, without doubt, become the textbook of choice for this subject." Barbara D. Metcalf, Asian Thought and Society

"...a readable, expanded narrative history of the Mughal Empire from its foundation in 1526 to the onset of its decline in the early eighteenth century. It is written and organized in the familiar Cambridge History style, and will serve as a suitable standard reference for general Mughal political history." Richard Foltz, Harvard Middle East and Islamic Review