A Tale of a Lost City: The Resurrection of Mughal Capital City Fatehpur Sikri in The Enchantress of the Florence

Abstract

This paper examines Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence as a literary reconstruction of the lost Mughal capital, Fatehpur Sikri. The argument is: Rushdie reimagines the historical city founded by Emperor Akbar in the sixteenth century and transforms it into a vibrant fictional city and through the text the reader can relive the times of the Akbar the Great. In this work, history and imagination meet through magical realism. Based on the historical figures, political developments, and architectural grandeur, the novel recreates the cultural and intellectual world of the Mughal court while reshaping it through the techniques of magic realism. The study analyzes Rushdie’s portrayal of Akbar the Great, his policies of religious tolerance, the artistic flourishing of his court, and the syncretic ethos of Hindustan. It further investigates how the narrative constructs a parallel between Mughal India and Renaissance Florence, thereby expanding the historical views beyond geographical boundaries through fiction. Through a close reading of selected passages, this research highlights how Rushdie revitalizes an abandoned city and converts history into narrative and through it gives the reader a chance to relive the ancient times. The paper argues that the novel functions as a creative act of resurrection, demonstrating that literature possesses the power to restore forgotten spaces and reanimate the past within contemporary imagination.