ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book delves into issues of epistemological attitude, approach, method, and definition. It focuses on the historiography of Mughal and Persianate painting. The book evaluates the hermeneutic dimension of the Persian and Mughal texts referring to art. It reviews the citations and references in the historiography in order to unravel significant redundancies and poor critique. The book constitutes a set of propositions on which future investigations can rely and build to renew research on this fascinating topic. It offers a fresh chronicling and reading of the artistic events until the Akbari era, and a different interpretation of the Kabuli artifacts commissioned by Humayun. The book channels and deepens the ideas: Persian Paragons and Hyper-Dialectical Akbari Constructions, tackling other interrogations related to the Mughal Indo-Persian syncretism, which is characterized by an aesthetic of the hyper-dialectic.
