The first volume revolves around the story of Babur, heir to the ruler of Ferghana, Umar Shaikh. Ousted from his homeland, Babur forged his own destiny and became the master of an empire stretching from Kabul to Bengal.
Brothers at war
The second volume tells the story of Humayun, Babur's son and the second ruler of the Moghul Empire. Humayun is a well-meaning but dissolute ruler, prone to rash judgement and easily manipulated. Nonetheless Humayun successfully holds his father's empire for nearly ten years and conquers Gujarat before he suffers several setbacks that nearly cost him his throne. A combination of battlefield defeats from Bengali ruler Sher Shah and treachery from his half-brothers Kamran and Askari leave Humayun with only the Afghan portions of the empire. Humayun spends the next fifteen years rebuilding his strength, partly with Persian aid. Though merciful to his siblings, their recurrent treachery forces Humayun to exile Askari and Kamran via a hajj to Mecca, with Kamran being blinded on Humayun's orders. Eventually Humayun and his son Akbar reconquer Hindustan after the death of Islam Shah, the son of Sher Shah. Barely six months after rebuilding the Mughul Empire, Humayun breaks his neck when he tumbled down a flight of stairs.
Ruler of the World
, a bold ruler, faced many problems to control a vast kingdom. With many enemies, he had no one to trust, with his own milk-mother and brother planning to plot against him. He mercilessly crushed rebellions, entered into matrimonial alliances with the martial Rajputs, and controlled his son's ambitions to build the greatest kingdom of the subcontinent. He ranks among the greatest Moghuls.
Tainted throne
Newly crowned Jahangir has literally everything a king wants. But what could he do to stop his eldest son from committing the gravest mistake - rebelling? And to what lengths would he travel to get what he so earnestly wants - the one woman he unconditionally loves? And to what lengths would she herself go to ensure her position as the real power behind the throne?
The Serpent's Tooth
The fifth in a powerful and epic series of novels about the ruthless warrior emperors who ruled much of central Asia through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Moghul emperors are still bloodthirsty and entirely ruthless; they control a quarter of the world's population and have wealth beyond imagining. But this is the final flowering of a doomed empire and, while Shah Jahan mourns his dead wife and obsesses over the Taj Mahal, her monument, his son Aurangzeb is planning to take his father's throne, by any means necessary.
