The Last Mughal, published in 2006, follows Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the elderly Mughal emperor whose authority barely extended beyond the walls of the Red Fort, and the Delhi he presided over: a city of poets, Sufi mystics, calligraphers and courtly ritual living uneasily alongside the growing power of the East India Company.
When sepoys from Meerut rebelled in May 1857 and rode to Delhi, they made Zafar the reluctant figurehead of the uprising. Dalrymple uses Persian and Urdu documents from the National Archives, many never before used, to show the siege from inside the city: the chaos, the shortages, the quarrels among rebel commanders, and the views of ordinary residents. He also follows the British besiegers and their brutal retribution.
The book argues that the uprising was also widely understood as a religious war, and that its suppression ended a composite Indo-Islamic culture in Delhi. Rich in detail and vividly written, it won the Duff Cooper Prize. It reads as both a gripping narrative and an elegy for the poet Ghalib's world.
Book details
| Author | William Dalrymple |
|---|---|
| First published | 2006 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | History |
| Type | Non-fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 580 |
| Setting | Delhi, mainly 1857 |
| Awards | Duff Cooper Prize |
Themes
- 1857 uprising
- End of the Mughal dynasty
- Colonial violence
- Delhi's composite culture
- Religion and rebellion
Who should read it
History lovers who want an immersive, archive-rich account of 1857 seen from inside Delhi.