Aligarh: The City That Outlasted Empires

Atif Syed

‘An excellent example of a book that tells the history of a place while also inspiring readers to explore the heritage that has survived.’ — SWAPNA LIDDLE, historian, and author of The Broken Script and Chandni Chowk

‘[R]estores Aligarh’s rightful place in South Asian urban history.’ — RANA SAFVI, historian, and author of In Search of the Divine, City of My Heart and Tears of the Begum

‘The book painstakingly reconstructs nearly a millennium of the city's rich and layered history’ — ANIL MAHESHWARI, veteran Hindustan Times journalist and co-author of AMU: Institution of Learning or Identity

Aligarh, formerly known as Koil, has long stood at the intersection of the Subcontinent’s key historical currents. In this sweeping, meticulously researched narrative, Atif Syed traces the layered story of the city. His exploration moves from Aligarh’s origin under the Dor Rajputs, through Qutbuddin Aibak’s conquest, which marked a dramatic transformation under the Delhi Sultanate, to the Mughal era. It then turns to the stormy years of European intervention, which gave way to the founding of the Aligarh Muslim University in the wake of the 1857 Indian uprising. At the heart of these findings, however, are stories about ordinary citizens who adapted and rebuilt with each change of power, and the powerful whose ambitions reshaped Aligarh’s course.

Drawing on rare photographs and neglected books and documents, Syed brings temples and mosques, tombs and forts into his scholarly purview, offering a panoramic biography of Aligarh and underlining a past far richer than conventional accounts have allowed.