Sun, Emperor and Pope : Neoplatonic Solar Worship in Mughal India and Barberini Rome

By exploring the intriguing parallels between these coinciding solar cults, this article advocates a truly global intellectual history that transcends the conventional boundaries of world religions and civilizations.

This book aims to uncover Neoplatonism as an entangled global philosophy that has connected Europe with India for centuries. To demonstrate that argument, it delves into two notable instances of solar cults during the long sixteenth century. One concerns the Mughal Emperor Akbar in India, while the other concerns the Barberini Pope Urban VIII in Rome. Both cases will be examined through the lens of the longue-durée Great Tradition of Neoplatonism, taking off from the sun cult designed by the Roman Emperor Julian in the fourth century. Despite being centuries and worlds apart, the emergence of the Mughal and Barberini sun cults coincided with rapidly expanding horizons amidst intense millenarian anxiety. Both cults were crafted by a team of avant-garde intellectuals striving to bolster the imperial claims of their patrons.