This much-anticipated collection of fourteen essays discusses individual eighteenth-century Indo-Persianate albums (muraqqaʿs) and the paintings and calligraphic pieces therein. It expands our knowledge of the production, collecting practices and audiences of these albums by providing in-depth discussions and new insights.

List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors 1 Introduction: Problems and Challenges in the Study of Eighteenth-Century Indian Albums  Friederike Weis Part 1 Albums Commissioned by Mughal Elites: Contents and Compilation Strategies 2 The Indian Paintings from the Collection of Archibald Swinton, Formerly at Kimmerghame House, Berwickshire  A Report by J.P. Losty, edited by Malini Roy and Friederike Weis 3 Obvious Narratives and Hidden Messages in the Large Clive Album  Axel Langer 4 Two Late Mughal Albums in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle: Further Evidence for the Collections of Nawab Asaf al-Dawla  Emily Hannam 5 Mughal Art on Its own Terms: Reflections on an Album Folio  Laura Parodi Part 2 Albums of Foreign Elites: Changes and Challenges 6 Three Albums of Seigneur Gentil and Colonel Polier: Cultural Exchanges in Late Eighteenth-Century India  Susan Stronge 7 To Be Viewed from Both Ends: The Surviving Polier Albums  Friederike Weis 8 A Newly Identified Muraqqaʿ Assembled for Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier in the British Museum  Malini Roy with a contribution by Jake Benson 9 Like a Garden Bedecked: Floral Margins in the Muraqqaʿs of Antoine Polier  Isabelle Imbert Part 3 Masters of Calligraphy and Painting: Between Historicism and Innovation 10 The Earlier Calligraphies in the Berlin Albums: Reflections on their Origins and Purpose in a Muraqqaʿ  Claus-Peter Haase 11 Polier’s Posterior Album: Rylands Persian MS10  Jake Benson 12 Expanding the Canon: Mir Muhammad Husayn ʿAta Khan and the Polier Albums  Will Kwiatkowski 13 Mihr Chand’s Copies and Adaptations of Earlier Mughal Paintings  John Seyller Part 4 Spaces and Gazes: Reading Imagined Worlds 14 The Spaces in Between: A Yogini of Lucknow for Antoine Polier  Molly Aitken 15 Building Worlds: Reading Spatiality, Power, and Gaze in Eighteenth-Century Paintings  Parul Singh Appendix: Inscriptions and Seal Impressions in the Berlin AlbumsI. 4589, I. 4591, I. 4592, I5001, and I. 4600  Will Kwiatkowski and Friederike Weis Credits Bibliography Index of Persons Index of Places (Other than Places of Collections) Index of Albums, Letters, Manuscripts, Works, and Calligraphic Styles