The Empire of the Great Mogol

This volume contains the English version of the famous Latin work De Imperio Magni Mogolis by De Laet, in two parts. The first part contains geographical, commercial and administrative details abstracted from various writings. The second part known as Broecke’s Fragmentum gives a consecutive history of the reigns of Akbar and Jahangir. The author is a pre-eminent compiler; and his compilations are learned and laborious. He has assiduously pieced together facts dug out of a host of writings and bear close resemblance to the original! Ptolemy and Texeira, Roe and Pelsaert, Terry and Finch, Writhington and Hawkins, Steele and Crowther, Benedict and Garcia are all largely drawn upon. It is a complete Gazetteer of Jahangir’s India and depicts the Empire and the Imperial administration with a realism of touch and a minuteness of detail which has made this book enduringly useful.