This year I am on an asian history role. After reading about the Ottomans and Genghis Khan, I decided to read about the south asian Mughals. Dirk Collier's "The Great Mughals and Their India" is about the descendants of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan who ruled India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan between 1526 and 1761. The book filled in a hole I had about Indian history.
As I was reading this, rather tragic, story I realized the three history books I read had something in common. Each of these empires start out religiously tolerant. Their governments were a mix of nationalities and different religions. All three empires declined as they adopted a single religion and persecuted or abused other religions.
I can't help seeing a parallel here in America. Anti-Semitism. Anti-Muslim. Anti-anything not Christian. America is moving towards religious intolerance and this is leading us to authoritarianism. This rarely ends in a good way.
I gave this book four stars out of five on Goodreads. It was well written, filled in more holes in my education, and taught me a lot.
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