A Passage to Europe

The Extraordinary Travels of an Indian Prince in the Age of Revolutions

Rahul Markovits

• Publisher: Saqi Books
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781849250962
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

What was an Indian prince doing in the retinue of a French envoy at Constantinople in 1796? When Sultan Selim III, struck by the unusual sight of a fellow Muslim in a French cortège, asked how this prince had come to be there, Ahmad Khan began to tell him his extraordinary story.

A Passage to Europe traces Ahmad Khan's journey from Gujarat to Constantinople, revolutionary France, London and back again. His voyage began with the annexation of Broach by the East India Company. Twenty years later, he reached London to seek redress. The British government paid his expenses, but although his tale was true, Khan was not the man he claimed to be. Branded a spy, he was arrested, and then simply vanished.

Following the elusive paper trail, Rahul Markovits brings to life the astonishing odyssey of this unlikely traveller, revealing a story of empire, intrigue and deception at the dawn of the modern age.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Cast of Characters
• Abbreviations
• Note on Transliteration and Translations
• Note on Currencies and Values
• Prologue: A Procession at the Crossroads
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Paper Trail
• Chapter 2: Who Was Ahmad Khan?
• Chapter 3: The Tragedy of Broach
• Chapter 4: Crossing the Ottoman Empire
• Chapter 5: Landing in Marseilles, 1793
• Chapter 6: Life and Death in Lyon, 1793–4
• Chapter 7: Dragoman Ruffin
• Chapter 8: The ‘Guest of the French People’
• Chapter 9: How Ahid ud-din Reached London and Wrested a Pension
• Chapter 10: The Road Back
• Chapter 11: Interrogated
• Epilogue
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index