‘Dalrymple’s India is as vivid as Naipaul’s’ –Simon Jenkins, The Times.

White Mughals is the romantic and ultimately tragic tale of a passionate love affair that transcended all the cultural, religious and political boundaries of its time.

James Achilles Kirkpatrick was the British Resident at the court of Hyderabad when he met Khair-un-Nissa – ‘Most Excellent among Women’ – the great- niece of the principal governor of Hyderabad. He fell in love with her and overcame many obstacles to marry her, converting to Islam and, according to Indian sources, becoming a double-agent working against the East India Company.

It is a remarkable story, involving secret assignations, court intrigue, harem politics, religious and family disputes. But such things were not unknown; from the early 16th century, when the Inquisition banned the Portuguese in Goa from wearing the dhoti, to the eve of the Indian Mutiny, the ‘white Mughals’ who wore local dress and adopted Indian ways were a source of embarrassment to successive colonial administrations. William Dalrymple unearths such colourful figures as ‘Hindoo Stuart’, who travelled with his own team of Brahmins to maintain his vast collection of idols; and Sir David Auchterlony, who took all 13 of his Indian wives out for evening promenades, each on the back of their own elephant.

In White Mughals, William Dalrymple discovers a world almost entirely unexplored by history, and places at its centre a compelling tale of seduction and betrayal. The product of five years research and writing, triumphantly confirms Dalrymple s reputation as one of the finest writers at work today.

"Dalrymple unrolls a fascinating historical panorama. Painstakingly researched, written with clarity and an energetic sense of time and place... The book is a major literary achievement... If the sign of a successful book is a sense of disappointment when you reach the final sentence, then White Mughals must be a triumph." - The Christchurch Press