An unusual book I recently leafed through is the Tuzk-e-Jahangiri, the autobiography of Emperor Jahangir, the 4th Mughal Emperor who presided over the world’s richest empire, 5 times larger than the contemporaneous Ottoman Empire and 10 times larger than the British empire in terms of its wealth. The book is vivid in its account of his times and a delightful, simple read both of the day-to-day matters of the empire and issues of strategic intent and interest. While we can debate the style and efficacy of his rule, one thing is certain….He wrote with the flair and delicacy of a novelist and the detail of a social scientist.
On the social front, I was struck by how openly the emperor talked about his addiction problem, how he was trying to handle it, and the corrosive impact it was having on him. He actually talks about what he was consuming and to what extent….it was both a double distilled spirit (arak) as well as a Portuguese red wine made from an ancestor of the Syrah grape mixed with a drop of rose syrup (the concoction appropriately named Arq-e-Gulabi).
Though the translation is from 1909 it is certainly worth a read to get an insight into the times.