Why read Unwanted Neighbours?

Book cover of Unwanted Neighbours: The Mughals, the Portuguese, and Their Frontier Zones

Book description

In December 1572 the Mughal emperor Akbar arrived in the port city of Khambayat. Having been raised in distant Kabul, Akbar, in his thirty years, had never been to the ocean. Presumably anxious with the news about the Mughal military campaign in Gujarat, several Portuguese merchants in Khambayat rushed to…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Unwanted Neighbours as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mark Dizon

Author

Unwanted Neighbours is a captivating look at the frontier interactions between the Mughals and the Portuguese.

I like how Flores breaks the typical division between maritime and overland empires. The Mughal Empire was as much maritime as it was territorial, and the Portuguese maritime empire had an overland side to it as well.

The stories of cross-cultural relations in the book give texture to the past and help readers imagine the complexities of the characters in Mughal India.

From Mark's list on The best books on borderland mobility.