The Last Mughal

I am reading William Dalrymple's The Last Mughal which chronicles the closing years of the reign of Bahadur Shah Zafar, and the Sepoy Mutiny (from a Delhi vantage point). Very vivid, well-researched, and insightful. I should warn though that many sacred cows are slaughtered, especially those pertaining to the Sepoy Mutiny: this may cut some people the wrong way. For instance, the sepoys were viewed by the people of Delhi with great disdain. They were an unruly crowd, and rampaged through the city looting and committing other atrocities. Also, though Zafar is widely, and correctly, regarded as a weak monarch, I never knew that he presided over a culturally brilliant court: Ghalib was one of his courtiers, and the sitar player at his court, Himmat Khan, was of the calibre of Tansen.