History · A guide to the archive
Read provincial government, Persian professional life, imperial courts and architecture through their different evidence.
Begin with the province and the work of administration, then compare courtly records with paintings and buildings. These entries use sources with different purposes: an account of professional life, an authored historical interpretation, a museum object record and an architectural description. Keep an object’s date and place attribution visible, and distinguish royal patronage from the work of provincial officials. The city record offers a final change of scale.
An intentional selection
The province was a changing administrative territory. Official appointments and courtly networks show why its history requires more than a map of Lahore city.
Administrative records and a secretary’s advice reveal the practical and literary skills behind Persian government in Mughal Punjab.
Punjab was important to Akbar’s political career and to the later Lahore court. Administrative scholarship and a surviving manuscript folio illuminate different sides of that connection.
A mobile imperial household and a tomb complex give different routes into Jahangir’s Punjab connections. The historical account and the surviving architecture answer different questions.
Lahore’s palaces, gardens and a governor’s mosque show different forms of building under Shah Jahan. Architectural research helps connect plans, materials and patronage.
Lahore’s history is visible in royal monuments, domestic streets and the work of conservation. Begin with the Walled City, while keeping this historic urban core distinct from the larger modern metropolis.
How we use sources, explain uncertainty and correct mistakes.
Your browser could not save your reading list. It will be lost when you leave this page.