Delhi Sultanate: Urbanization and Social Change

Breaking the conventional belief that urbanization was shaped solely by economic factors, Delhi Sultanate seeks to highlight social and cultural processes that accompanied economic changes, thereby transforming little-known trading towns into full-fledged centres of learning and culture. I.H. Siddiqui draws on a rich corpus of Persian sources to establish links between economic change and changes in language, literature, teaching, book trade and even pyrotechnics. Delving into unconventional markers of change like food makes the work interesting and informative. The case study of the city of Kalpi is valuable, for it outlines the political, social and cultural ramifications brought by its transformation into an urban city.