Along the way, Dalrymple meets a variety of people, from Anglo-Indians who opted to stay in India after the British retreated to learned professors like Dr Jaffery. Dalrymple starts with something relatively recent – the partitioning of India and Pakistan, but we gradually move further and further back in time, to the Mughal empire and eventually to the mythological founding of the city itself. As we get to know Mr and Mrs Puri, his driver Valvinder Singh, and a few other people, we start to go into the history of Dehli. Dalrymple and his wife have moved to India for a year and rent a home from the eccentric but also very successful Mrs Puri. Subtitled: A Year in Dehli, City of Djinns is an exploration of the history and people of Dehli. If you know how to look, even the abandoned ruins of the past are alive.Here’s another book that has been on my TBR list for a while! I heard of William Dalrymple when This Nook Is For A Book posted about From the Holy Mountain, also by Dalrymple all the way back in 2020! I thought it sounded fascinating and finally borrowed City of Djinns from the library. What sustains it, apart from his erudite knowledge, is Dalrymple’s sense of historical adventure.
Pigeon fanciers, Sufi mystics, Muslim healers, musicians, calligraphers, philosophers and a guild of eunuchs all provide Dalrymple with entertaining insights… It is fine, entertaining, well written stuff, thoroughly researched but with none of the stern academic tone that so many historical profiles adopt. Format: paperback Publication Date: 20 September 1993 Publisher: HarperCollins ISBN: 978-0006375951 Buy Now Reviews and Quotes Jan Morris, Independent “Dalrymple has pulled it off again … in it we see the first fine rapture of In Xanadu deepening into a profounder dedication.” Trevor Fishlock, Sunday Telegraph “There are beautifully chiselled descriptions of a grand capital… but much of the book’s strength lies in Dalrymple’s skill in peeling the historical onion and showing how the New Delhi resonates with the old… A splendid tapestry.” Nicholas Wordsworth, Financial Times “A sympathetic and engaging portrait of this age old city… Pursuing his research through the narrow alleys, mosques, abandoned ruins and tombs of Delhi, Dalrymple encounters a range of folk who continues to give it its special character.
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