Writing someone’s life history is no mean feat. Writing a biography of a historical figure is an even tougher task for two reasons. First, you have to be accurate about the facts, figures and situations that assumed, or had the potential to assume, historic proportions. Second, the account must not be penned in a manner that can only be appreciated and understood by individuals who are students of history. After all, no one can detach him or herself from the events of the past.

Fergus Nicoll is a journalist who specialises in current affairs reporting as well as a historian. In Shah Jahan: The rise and fall of the Mughal emperor, he explores the Mughal king’s life from when he was a young prince till he was a monarch with a merciless political streak. In between, he is an ardent lover. The work is accompanied by maps and beautiful reproductions of Mughal miniatures.

Nicoll begins the book with Shah Jahan’s, then the prince of the “Mughal realm”, return to the city of his birth, Lahore. The writer mentions at the outset that Sultan Khurram would one day become Shah Jahan and thus doesn’t exactly take the regular route of beginning from the beginning. The book opens with a line which suggests that the story might not progress in a matter-of-fact fashion and apart from a chronological recollection would be a linguistic treat as well: “The baked-brick imperial fortress towered over the sweltering landscape as the royal convoy drew slowly nearer to the Ravi River.” However, this was not to be.

It is a bit disconcerting that throughout the 14 or so chapters, it is the facts that make one read the book and not the language in which they are recounted. The narrative is stodgy and lacks the fluidity that makes a historical account easy to read. It is one thing to be dispassionate while writing someone’s life story but quite another to be creatively blasé, which is what Nicoll turns out to be.

The progression is linear and reflects studiousness, painstaking research and hard work in compiling and putting together facts. Nicoll touches upon not only the political upheavals and palace intrigues (as you expect of all royal tales) but also effectively narrates the familial frictions that existed between members of the royal family. And, of course, how can you not discuss Shah Jahan’s inordinate love for his second wife, which the following passage aptly highlights:

“Kandahari Begum had borne just one daughter, Purhunar Banu, now 17 years old; Shah Jahan’s third wife had managed one son, Jahan Afroz, who had died in his infancy. Any accidental children, by-blows of dalliances with harem concubines, were to be ignored… As for Queen Nur Jahan, she was confined to her quarters, her only remaining role in life the construction of Jahangir’s tomb outside Lahore and her own most modest mausoleum not far away. The official message was clear: there was only one queen, Mumtaz Mahal, and one ruling family, the offspring of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal.”

With subject matter so fascinating, one wishes Nicoll had written the book in a manner more likely to hook readers.

The reviewer is features writer at Dawn

“The taming of Shah Jahan should have brought lasting peace to the Mughal kingdom and satisfaction to its reigning emperor and queen. But there was no respite from the intense plotting and counter-plotting over the succession and peace proved elusive for the now chronically ailing Jahangir ... With Shah Jahan roving the western fringes of empire, disgraced and effectively removed as a plausible candidate, it might have appeared that the last serious obstacle to Nur Jahan’s plans for Shahriyar’s succession had been removed … Mughal politics, however, were rarely so simple: there were other causes to be championed. The man with the highest profile was an unlikely figure, the previously negligible Pervez. Thanks to the military genius of Mahabat Khan, Jahangir’s new Commander-in-Chief, the 25-year-old prince had achieved rank far beyond expectations and celebrity to go with it. More significantly, he owed nothing to Nur Jahan.”— Excerpt from the book

Shah Jahan: The rise and fall of the Mughal emperor(HISTORY) By Fergus NicollPenguin Books, IndiaISBN 0-670-08303-9332pp. Indian Rs899