The Life and Works of Simon Digby is intended to bring most of Simon Digby’s publications, together with a large body of work left unpublished at his death, to new and wider audiences. The series stands as testimony to his extraordinary scholarship. Publication of this series has been made possible by the Simon Digby Memorial Charity (SDMC). Registered in the Channel Island of Jersey where Digby was based, the SDMC was established to further the study of subjects that were of particular interest to Simon Digby. The SDMC has donated much of his collection to Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum and Bodleian Library, to the British Museum, and to other museums across the globe. It has funded the production of this series through a postdoctoral fellowship at SOAS University of London, aided in the publication of a volume on Digby’s historical method, and continues to fund projects in fields associated with his research. The first book in the volume, Against the Mughals reconstructs the worldviews of Dattū Sarvānī, an Indo-Afghan soldier who believed in the power of dreams: to predict, warn, guide and inform. He also believed in the ability of his Sufi pīr, ‘Abd al-Quddūs Gangohī, both to appear in his dreams, and to change the course of history through his spiritual power and authority. In this first volume of ‘The Life and Works of Simon Digby’, the author translates the dreams of Dattū Sarvānī—a unique source for the period—and uses them to illuminate the political and social worlds of the early sixteenth century, when invasions under Bābur and Hum�... See more
The Life and Works of Simon Digby is intended to bring most of Simon Digby’s publications, together with a large body of work left unpublished at his death, to new and wider audiences. The series stands as testimony to his extraordinary scholarship. Publication of this series has been made possible by the Simon Digby Memorial Charity (SDMC). Registered in the Channel Island of Jersey where Digby was based, the SDMC was established to further the study of subjects that were of particular interest to Simon Digby. The SDMC has donated much of his collection to Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum and Bodleian Library, to the British Museum, and to other museums across the globe. It has funded the production of this series through a postdoctoral fellowship at SOAS University of London, aided in the publication of a volume on Digby’s historical method, and continues to fund projects in fields associated with his research. The first book in the volume, Against the Mughals reconstructs the worldviews of Dattū Sarvānī, an Indo-Afghan soldier who believed in the power of dreams: to predict, warn, guide and inform. He also believed in the ability of his Sufi pīr, ‘Abd al-Quddūs Gangohī, both to appear in his dreams, and to change the course of history through his spiritual power and authority. In this first volume of ‘The Life and Works of Simon Digby’, the author translates the dreams of Dattū Sarvānī—a unique source for the period—and uses them to illuminate the political and social worlds of the early sixteenth century, when invasions under Bābur and Humāyūn led to the downfall of the north Indian sultanates and the establishment of the Mughal Empire. Drawing on a vast array of primary and secondary material, with meticulous close readings and a wide-ranging historical lens, Digby weaves accounts of military campaigns, Sufi devotion, and daily family life together in a rich analytical tapestry. Sultans, shaykhs and soldiers play their various roles, and the vital though oft-neglected world of pre-Mughal north India comes alive before the readers’ eyes.
