Through a close and comparative reading of royal and religious ideologies, The Millennial Sovereign unites the study of sacred kingship and sainthood in early-modern Islamic societies, specifically in India, Iran, and Central Asia. A work of striking revisionism, it blazes a fascinating trail through the occult knowledges and enchanted mentalities of the period, with splendid evocations of the existential otherness of a past age and a fine eye for detail. -- Nile Green, University of California, Los Angeles The Millennial Sovereign deserves tremendous praise for its conceptual clarity and innovation, deep erudition in original materials, and signature contributions to early-modern Indian and Iranian history and Islamic studies. It is essential reading for experts in these fields, and its intellectual vitality and exemplary lucidity make it an accessible yet thoroughly sophisticated introduction for more general audiences. I recommend it with the deepest confidence and pleasure. -- Shahzad Bashir, Stanford University This is an impressive and unusual first book, characterized by its poise, range, and maturity. A. Azfar Moin jointly reconsiders kingship in early-modern India and Iran, domains that have been kept artificially apart more often than not. He rereads the textual and visual record to build a convincing corpus for analyzing changing royal ideologies. Moin is part of a new generation of scholarship that is shifting the terms of the debate on Mughal and Safavid rule by delving deep into the nature of what was shared and what was not in elite political culture. Engagingly and fluently written, and unafraid of controversy, this book will be read and discussed by specialists of South Asian and Iranian history but also more broadly by those interested in early-modern comparisons within the Islamic world and beyond its boundaries. -- Sanjay Subrahmanyam, University of California, Los Angeles