A Venetian at the Mughal Court: The Life and Adventures of Nicolò Manucci

by Marco Moneta, Elisabetta Gnecchi Ruscone (Translator)

Its a Hardcover Book

Genres: History, India, Nonfiction

276 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Yuva Ranjini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the anecdotes of Nicolo Manucci’s sojourn and his stay in India, spanning the years 1656 to 1720, through the author’s research is a pure delight. I loved every bit of it. Right from witnessing the sophisticated level of ancient development of India among the rest to the encounters of civilisations and the list gets us to see how Manucci emerged from being an artilleryman to the capacity of intervening.

Through Manucci's experiences with kings and travels to search for more opportunities, this nonfiction explores the arc between cultural mediation and historical sequences, at the most and throws up questions on East and west settlement at the least.

The wholesomeness of bringing passages from the writings of Manucci, and thereby, to understand the transcends of historical rendition of what he saw, amounts to extraordinary work. In that sense, this book goes back in time and recall the Mughal period in general – of their rivalries with Europeans and Marathas and Of the challenges he faced in the foreign land.

A Venetian at the Mughal Court is more or like a comparative representation of different centuries of missionaries to learn about various personalities, (that mostly kept undermined) which would suffice the quest for buffs. Especially when it lets the reader explore and observe the east & west viewpoints better.

What makes this stand out from other travel literature is this book presents the events in their original form with sharp analysis. As that might go wrong at some point, when the extensive profile and historical based assertions and ideas do its talking – thus kind of making it hybrid.

But Moneta kept everything at bay easily. Despite the complexity and richness of India’s history & characters, this reading was quite fascinating and fun, given the chronological texts and sources- Moneta emphasised. I have started reading this book expecting a heavy heap, but this reads like a movie.

A convenient read with curious incidents!

[Akankshya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was keen on reading this book because the title reminded me of Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence in which a fictional woman travels from the East to the West. Translated from the Italian by Elisabetta Gnecchi Ruscone, A Ventian At The Mughal Court by Marco Moneta describes the adventures of a 18yo Venetian boy who sneaks into a ship travelling to the East. The boy, Nicolo Manucci, is hugely favoured by luck and his connections formed during the travels to spend his whole life, rather unplanned, in India.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part showcases Manucci’s journey as a young boy who wanted to see the world becoming a witness to the happenings of Mughal court up and close. Though he spends his entire life under the reign of Aurangzeb, his loyalty was with Aurangzeb’s brother Dara Sukoh and his son Shah Alam. Marco Moneta adds life to Manucci’s adventures across the subcontinent with his brilliant and vivid storytelling – it almost feels like the reader is travelling across India along with Manucci in 1600s, riding horses, in palanquins. The description that stood out for me was that of Goa. It was amusing to read it as a place filled with diseases and people who had no values for another life.

Firangi that Manucci was in India, he rose to a position of influence not only in the Mughal court but also took his fate into his own hands when he decided to become a physician through self-study and quite a bit of luck. From being an artilleryman to a renowned physician to becoming a bridge between the Indians and Europeans, he left no stone unturned. He longed to return to Venice, to be with his own people, but seeing no way of return he settled in the British town of Madras – which forms the second part of the book. Despite learning the cultures, food habits, and languages of the place, Manucci at heart remains a Christian and obligated more towards the English than the Muslims, Hindus or even Portuguese.

It is a thoroughly researched account of Manucci’s life, bringing in the present-day criticism towards his Eurocentric views as well questioning the authenticity of his primary and secondary sources – leaving it to the reader to investigate more into history. Also, making a statement that while we can attempt to interpret history, there are multiple lenses to look at it.

Rating: 3.5stars

[Surbhi Sinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until this very point in my life I had absolutely no clue who Nicolò Manucci was. Let me introduce him to you in case this is a first for you too.

He was a 14 year old who left his home, in Venice with ‘a passionate desire to see the world’. He was a teenage boy who had no idea of the magnificent life he was about to have on his one way ticket to India.

Manucci is often referred to as the diplomat doctor, but long before attaining such a status for himself, he started out as an artillery man, then a physician & finally one could say a diplomat. His capacity to adapt into various diplomatic roles – translation, mediation & even negotiation – came from his willingness to observe & learn from a very young age.

The book is a fine piece of work, although it is non-fiction it easily flows like any fictional story for which I’d like to commend the author as well as the translator.

The book’s divided into two parts: the first part covering Manucci’s life while serving various Mughal prince’s & the second part talks of his life after settling down in Madras and Pondicherry.

The author has brilliantly presented his observation about Manucci without being biased. I liked that he helps the reader get a better understanding of Manucci’s personality by referencing many passages from his book Storia do Mogor – which is an account of his experiences in the Mughal Empire.

Through this book one doesn’t only JUST read about Manucci but one also learns a tremendously of Hindustan’s rich culture, one learns in detail of the time when Aurangzeb was the emperor, one learns the point of view of Europeans.

Manucci while trying to find and maintain an identity for himself was also the man who understood the Indian culture. This helped him get opportunities which would’ve been unattainable for any illiterate teenager, he was in the middle of history & sometimes even responsible for it.

Nicolò Manucci didn’t settle for mere survival, but determinedly emerged from the masses.

I’d also like to thank Penguin India and Vivek Tejuja for sending across a review copy of the book.

[Ojas Chahal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book written by Maro Marco Moneta which is quite fitting as the story is about a Italian only from Venice to be precise. Thankfully Elisabetta Gnecchi Ruscone helped us English speaking folks by translating it !!
Also I will firstly recommend to this to everyone as it's lightweight and easy to read book and can be a good reading partner during a drive or a journey.
Manucci Wanted to be remembered thus he wrote those Storia via which this fascinating Book was created and I guess by reading this book you are fulfilling this dead man wish too !!
Now coming back to our Hero Mr. Manucci... He's a guy from Venice a 18 year old who was from a poor family and trying to to find a way get out he found himself on a Ship which eventually led him to Persia first and finally to the Port of Surat. From there a fascinating journey of his life begins from working from Dara Shukoh , then to Shah Alam , his journey in Portuguese Goa which unlike today's travellers apparently he did not liked that place at all Haha !! He had meeting with Jai Singh ,Shivaji and you name it !!
A artillery commander to a Doctor and also acting as a diplomat and a interlocutor too for. Then eventually in the end he settled in English Madras and also French Pondicherry.
The stories and his various encounters and his description of people and his personal opinion of them forms the basis of this book .
A boy with nothing became , saw and was part of so many historical stories and occurrences is unbelievable. The real human stories that we get gives a vivid description of those happenings a time we only see via a lense of Wars and politics normally...This book infact truly gives a Pan Indian Politico situation of those times without actually trying to do it !!
In the end these are very fun , engaging and real stories of his life which is really worth a read once !!

[Shubhra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Marco Moneta’s historical biography of Nicolo Manucci’s extraordinary life in two nights flat. The book draws for the most part from Storia de Mogor (translated: the story of the Mughals) - Manucci’s own detailed chronicle of his fascinating life and times (from the age of 18 to 82) in 17th century Hindustan.
The book, more a time machine than a tome, draws you into another time, another world – from the very first page. The set-up is meticulous without being tiresome. One gets lost in a fascinating account of a tempestuous, significant time in the history of India – the fall of the great Mughal empire, and the rise of European powers, through the eyes of a fascinating firangi who often finds himself in the company of people significant to the times. We go from Shah Jahan’s court to Dara Sekhon’s army to Shah Alam’s private quarters in breathless spurts, having our own little private audience into the past as important historical realities are unpacked for us. The book is unputdownable in parts – indeed fact seeming often more dramatic than fiction, but what make this retelling truly worthy of a read is that it is accessible - an easy, compelling read even for the most non-academic reader with only a cursory interest in history – a virtue often lost in the telling of historical accounts.

[Shaurya Verma · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been years since I last read a history non-fiction narrative. 'A Venetian At the Mughal Court' by Marco Moneta was refreshing. It almost felt like reading a fictional adaptation of the life and adventurous of Nicolo Manucci. The book is translated from the Italian by Elisabetta Gnecchi Ruscone.

It begins with a very young Manucci who travels all the way to India where he discovers the subcontinent equal in wealth and abundance to Europe. His travels, discoveries, sixty-year stay in India, the political and social shifts in the subcontinent during his life and so on. The book is a result of in-depth historical research, loosely based on his autobiography penned by Manucci himself. It starts with a prologue that is explanatory, not only in terms of how Manucci's life began outside of Venice but also in terms of it subtly draws a similarity between Europeans and Indians in cultural, technological and social aspects while also again, very subtly drawing a line of difference between the 'primitives' and the former. This comparison and similarity sets the foreground for what the book holds ahead of itself; a depiction of India's riches and fertility.
This is one of a kind non-fiction that draws the reader in and manages to hold their attention. From the very beginning, the narrative comes off as fictional, using his etiquettes to gain him a place in the Mughal courts from being a nobody in an unknown land.

The narrative, being about the life of Manucci is interlaced with the highlights of shifts in the Mughal empire, with Manucci joining Shah Jahan's son's Dara Shikoh’s army as an artilleryman and ending his working years being a pharmacist and facilitating negotiations between European settlements. The narrative is chronological, clear and descriptive diving alongside deep into a vivid understanding of the Indian livelihood. The author provides a crisp yet descriptive understanding of the late 17th to early 18th century, also giving Manucci's autobiographical accounts into the history of Mughal reign which adds to the overall delight in reading the book.

I have a keen interest in the history of the Mughal empire but always shied away from reading the history books, which use heavy vocabulary and quite difficult to comprehend terminology both of which this book overcomes. Like said earlier, a delightful narrative for both non-fiction lovers and those who only seek fictional narratives (like me). The translation is perfect, easy, accessible and comprehensive.

Also, I would love to talk a little bit about the cover. Gorgeous and colorful as it is, like the narrative, it is sort of self-revelatory in that the front cover shows a young Manucci and the back cover shows an old Manucci —doing his physician's work.

[Susma Sharma Gurumayum · Rating 5 out of 5]

'A Venetian at the Mughal Court' by Marco Moneta tr. from Italian to English by Elisabetta Gnecchi Ruscone is Nicolo Manucci's biography, especially about his 'life and adventures' in the Indian subcontinent. 

Manucci's travelogue, 'Storia do Mogor' is a primary source for the reconstruction and studying Mediaval Indian History of the Mughal period spanning the time of Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb and little after the later. 

Reading about Manucci and not reading Manucci was a happy change for me as a reader. Reading about this personality as a hero is a text was fun! I wish this book came out sometime around 2018 or earlier, during my research days.

Manucci was a young Venetian traveller who came to India during the reign of Shah Jahan in the 17th century. He found himself under the mentorship of Shah Jahan's eldest son and hier apparent, Dara Sukoh. His account of the War of succession in which Dara was defeated, humiliated and killed; Shah Jahan was imprisoned for life and Aurangzeb became the Emperor of Mughal India - is considered as one of the most important sources for the same. 

After Dara's death, whom Manucci speaks highly of, he left the Mughal Court and went to other parts of India, all the while gathering stories of places and people he met. This adventurer became a physician as well, a sought after one at that.

Apart form the tracing Manucci's life and relating the important political events of 17th and early 18th century India, the book gives an idea about the general living conditions and culture of the place during that time. For example when Manucci first came to India, he saw that people  " "spat red', as if they 'were bleeding'." Before someone "explained betel chewing to him, he imagined this to be 'some strange and very common disease'." 

When he was nearing his 80s, he desired to go back to Europe which was not encouraged beacuse of his age and how cumbersome travelling was during those times. It is assumed that he died in Madras or Pondicherry in his octogenarian years but "no trace has been found of his grave in Madras or Pondicherry".

Apart from Manucci's 'Storia Do Mogor, Marco Moneta has consulted other reliable primary and secondary sources like Bernier, Catrou, Asher, Mukhia, J.N. Sarkar and others, which is enough to give this book a stamp of authenticity while tagging it a scholarly book on Mediaval Indian History, as is a good book on adventure and general reading.

[Prasenjit Basu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous book telling a true story that is more improbable than any good historical novel. Niccolao Manucci escaped Venice as a stowaway on a trading ship. He was about to be offloaded when an English nobleman took a shine to him, and made him his servant. This was a time when England was fleetingly a Republic (led by Oliver Cromwell), and Manucci’s boss was an envoy from Charles II (pretender to the English throne) carrying a letter for Shah Abbas II of Persia (Iran) requesting assistance (and repayment of a ‘loan’ supposedly made by the English crown).

While the Shah provides little help, Manucci uses his time in Persia (including Ispahan) to learn Farsi, which becomes very useful to him when he and his boss arrive in Mughal India, where Farsi is the court language. Upon his English boss’s death in Agra, 18 year old Manucci is suddenly confronted with the need to fend for himself.

And he does so with elan. First, the crown prince at Shah Jahan’s court, Dara Shukoh, takes an instant liking for him, and enrols him as an artillery officer in his army. But Manucci also begins to learn the rudiments of medicine from other Europeans living in Agra and Delhi. This eventually endears him to many nobles, princes and princesses. and eventually enables him to live a life of luxury, mixing with the high and mighty across the Indian subcontinent.

When Dara Shukoh loses the war of succession to Aurangzeb, Manucci chooses not to enter the service of the bigoted new emperor, instead travelling east to Bengal. Before long, he is back in the Mughal capital, and travelling with the army of Mirza Raja Jai Singh to try and bring the Maratha rebel Shivaji into the Mughal fold, and gets to chat with Shivaji during the signing of the Treaty of Purandar. He later enters the service of Shah Alam I, then a prince but later to be emperor Bahadur Shah I.

In his dealings with the Europeans, Manucci is scathing about the duplicity of the Portuguese in Goa, while finding the French in Pondicherry much more conducive. But it is Thomas Pitt, British governor of Madras (now Chennai) who engages his services most, especially in dealing with Nawab Daud Khan Panni of the Carnatic (an ancestor of English cricketer Nasser Hussain) and the realms of Vyankoji (half brother of Shivaji) in and around Tanjore. Thomas Pitt used his decade in Madras to amass a huge fortune, using it to buy a couple of seats in the House of Commons, one of which propelled his grandson William Pitt the Elder all the way to the prime ministership of the UK. This Pitt ruled the UK at the time of Plassey, but his son Pitt the Younger became one of the longest serving PMs of the UK (taking office in 1805).

Manucci’s story is brilliantly and colourfully told in this utterly fascinating book. The penultimate chapter about Aurangzeb is particularly perspicacious. Manucci's verdict is damning: "The emperor of the Mogul country has exerted himself to the utmost during twenty-six years to destroy his enemy Shiva Ji without having been able to do him any damage". (Of course, Aurangzeb only arrived personally in the Deccan the year after Shivaji's death in 1680, but did spend the next 26 years there trying to finish the Marathas, but failed: ultimately, it was Shivaji's daughter-in-law Tarabai who led the Marathas during the final 7 years of Aurangzeb's career, and defeated him). Aurangzeb, although frustrated in his goal of finishing the Marathas, consoles himself that he had done all he could "to destroy the enemies of the Mahomedan faith".

The extraordinary thing about Manucci's memoirs is that he had to dictate them (as he could speak Farsi, Urdu, Turkish, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, but could neither read or write any of them). The transcribers were Jesuit or Capuchin priests, who sometimes insinuated their own opinions into the text, especially when it came to destroying Indian customs and beliefs. But the scholar Moneta (who has written this book) is meticulous in sifting wheat from chaff in those writings, and does a brilliant job in interpreting Manucci's words for the modern reader.