‘Jaan-e-Mumbai’: The slim Persian book that came to be the first urban biography of the city

The city of Mumbai, one of the largest urban conurbations in the world, has been the subject of hundreds of books in the past few decades. This is not a new phenomenon and can be traced back to the 16th century.

The earliest mention of the island of Mumbai is by Garcia da Orta in his Portuguese book Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India first published in Goa in 1563 and one of the first books to be printed in India. Orta mentions “Mombaim, land and island, where the King our Lord has made me a grant, a long lease”, and waxes eloquent about the luscious mangoes that grew on the island. And, doubtless, many other Portuguese books from the 16th and 17th century have mentioned the island.

After the island of Mumbai changed hands in the 1660s, the English began writing about their new acquisition with a passion that no other city, except London, could invoke in them. Both visitors and residents were constantly writing and publishing about the city and its phenomenal growth.

One of the first to write about the city after an extended stay was Dr John Fryer, surgeon with the East India Company, who first arrived in Mumbai in 1673. A new...

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