The Moghul Read online

  Produced by Al Haines

  ==============================================================

  This work is licensed under a

  Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License,

  https://creativecommons.org/

  ==============================================================

  THE MOGHUL

  Based on real people (ca. 1620) - THE MOGHUL begins in a rip-roaringsea battle north of Bombay in which the vastly out-gunned adventurer,Brian Hawksworth, ship's captain and emissary of King James, blowsaway a flotilla of Portuguese galleons to gain access to an Indianport. He's come to open trade for "barbaric" England and squeeze outthe Portuguese, who try to kill him at every turn. But once on land,he's captive: the beauty and romance of the exquisite Moghul Empireseduce him from his material goals to a new quest - of supremesensuality in music, visions, and sacred lovemaking.

  India, ruled by the son of great Akbar, is about to pass to one of hissons. Hawksworth must choose sides, but will he choose right? Thefuture of England, and of India, depend on it. Assailed by intrigueand assassination, tormented by a forbidden love, enthralled by amystic poet, Hawksworth engages war elephants, tiger hunts, the haremof the Red Fort of Agra, the Rajput warriors at Udaipur, becomesintimate champion to Shah Jahan, (builder of the Taj Mahal), and, inhis supreme test, plays the sitar with a touch that elicits from thegreat Shah - "Finally, my English friend - you understand."

  THE MOGHUL was immediately a European bestseller, optioned by Indianproducers who commissioned a six-hour mini-series, then Canadianproducers with the BBC.

  THE MOGHUL

  A SWEEPING ADVENTURE THAT SWEPT THE CRITICS!

  "IF YOU ENJOYED THE FAR PAVILIONS OR SHO-GUN, YOU SHOULD OBTAIN THOMASHOOVER'S NEW NOVEL ABOUT INDIA . . . ROBUST . . . ROUSING ...ROLLICKING ADVENTURE . . . JUST ABOUT PERFECT'

  --Fort Worth Star-Telegram

  "HIGH ACTION . . . SPRAWLING"

  --San Diego Union

  "THOMAS HOOVER CAPTURES THE SOUNDS AND SMELLS AND ATMOSPHERE OF THETIME, FROM THE MYSTERIESOFTHE HAREM TOTHE BATTLES BETWEEN MASSEDELEPHANTS"

  --Milwaukee Journal

  "ROUSING"

  --Publishers Weekly

  "GOOD ENTERTAINMENT ... I WOULD NOT HESITATE TO RECOMMEND THE MOGHUL TOANYONE WHO ENJOYS ROBUST HISTORICAL ADVENTURE AND ROMANCE"

  -- Omaha World-Herald

  "PLENTY OF ACTION . . . FASCINATING ... A VIVIDLY TOLD TALE"

  -- Wichita Falls Times

  BOOKS BY THOMAS HOOVER

  Nonfiction

  Zen Culture

  The Zen Experience

  Fiction

  The Moghul

  Caribbee

  Wall Street Samurai

  (The Samurai Strategy)

  Project Daedalus

  Project Cyclops

  Life Blood

  Syndrome

  All free as e-books at

  www.thomashoover.info

  ZEBRA BOOKS are published by Kensington Publishing Corp. 475 ParkAvenue South New York, N.Y. 10016

  Copyright (C) 1983 by Thomas Hoover

  Reprinted by arrangement with Doubleday & Co., Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any formor by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher,excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  First Zebra Books printing: October 1984 Printed in the United Statesof America

  Key Words

  Author: Thomas Hoover

  Title: The Moghul

  Moghul, India, Shah Jahan, British India, Taj Mahal, Portuguese India,India, Shah Jahan, India History, Agra, Raj, Seventeenth-Century India

  AUTHOR'S NOTE