The book traces the rise of Persianate culture in India during the eleventh century by dynasties based in eastern Afghanistan, this culture would become thoroughly indigenized by the time of the Delhi Sultans and great Mughals in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. This long-term process of cultural interaction and assimilation is reflected in India’s language, literature, cuisine, attire, religion, styles of rulership and warfare, science, art, music, architecture, and more.