A European experience of the Mughal Orient : the Iʻjāz-i arsalānī (Persian letters 1773-1779) of Antoine-Louis Henri Polier

Translated from the Persian.
"The complex network of cultural interaction between Europeans and Indians in the eighteenth century generated a range of literature in both European as well as Indian languages, including Persian, which had long been the language of the political and cultural elite of India. While some of the European texts have been linked to larger issues of knowledge generation and the establishment of European rule, the Persian literature has remained relatively unintegrated. This has left the debate on the orientalist constructions of India skewed, if not incomplete." "This volume offers a free English translation of the first volume of one such Persian text, a set of letters - between a Franco-Swiss military officer in the service of the English East India Company, Major Polier and a range of Indians, from the emperor and the nobles at court to ordinary trade agents and artisans in the bazaar - written in the wake of critical transitions in north India."--Jacket.