What was an Indian prince doing in the retinue of a French envoy at Constantinople in 1796? When Ottoman Emperor Selim III, struck by the unusual sight of a fellow Muslim in a French cortege, asked how he came to be there, Ahmad Khan told him his extraordinary story. A Passage to Europe traces the journey of Indian prince Ahmad Khan from Gujarat to Constantinople, revolutionary France, London and back again. His voyage began in 1772 with the annexation of the coastal town of Broach by the East India Company; two decades later, he reached London seeking redress. The British government looked into his case, but although his tale was true, Khan was not the man he claimed to be. Back in Bombay, authorities arrested and imprisoned him for being a spy, and then he simply vanished. Uncovering the elusive paper trail, Rahul Markovitsbrings to life the remarkable journey of this unlikely traveller’s passage to Europe, revealing a story of empire, intrigue and deception at the dawn of the modern age.
