Delhi in Transition, 1821 and Beyond Mirza Sangin Beg's Sair-ul Manazil

This work is an annotated translation of Mirza Sangin Beg's Sair-ul Manazil which is one of the last works on Delhi written in Persian. The editor introduces the text to the readers and then proceeds with the translation on the basis of comparison of the four existing copies of the text including the Berlin manuscript which is being consulted for the first time. It depicts the early nineteenth-century Delhi as a city in transition. The original work was commissioned by the English East India Company between 1818 and 1820 and it documents the layout of the city and the author's observations regarding the buildings, habitations, bazars, localities, residences, individuals, as well as anecdotes of city life and expressions of rich local cultures.

Shama Mitra Chenoy is Associate Professor, Department of History of Shivaji College, University of Delhi. She is the author of the book Shahjahanabad: A City of Delhi 1638-1857 published by Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. in 2015.