ABSTRACT
The two centuries covered in this chapter witnessed a dynamic period of change in Muslim power and culture in India. Imperial politics gave way to regional politics, and Delhi’s political authority mattered less and less after the middle of the fourteenth century. Muslim polities and structures flourished in other Indian centres of power (Map 5.1). This centrifugal tendency continued almost unchecked until 1526 when Babur and, after him, his Mughal successors began a process of restoring power to the centre. Through all the political upheavals of this period, however, Islam continued to consolidate itself quietly and almost imperceptibly, while new and bold attempts at Indo-Islamic fusion in forms and styles were beginning to foreshadow the dawn of a unique cultural synthesis under the Mughals. From Timur to Babur, and the regional sultanates of the fifteenth century https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203095225/d8adedaa-3e07-4924-b6b6-04f37668655f/content/map5_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
