• In Xanadu (1989)

• City of Djinns (1994)

• A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium (1997)

• The Age of Kali (1998)

• White Mughals (2002)

• Begums, Thugs & White Mughals — The Journals of Fanny Parkes (2002)

• The Last Mughal, The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 (2006)

• in Search of the Sacred in Modern India. London, Bloomsbury. (2009) ISBN 978-1-4088-0061-4

TV and Radio

• In Xanadu - 1990 Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award; Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award; shortlisted for John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize.
• City of Djinns - 1994 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award.
• From the Holy Mountain - Scottish Arts Council Autumn Book Award for 1997; shortlisted for the 1998 Thomas Cook Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize.
• The Age of Kali - 1998, won the French Prix d'Astrolabe in 2005.
• White Mughals: Love & Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India (2002) won the Wolfson Prize for History (2002) and the Scottish Book of the Year Prize (2003); also shortlisted for the Kiryama Prize, the PEN History Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.)
• Awarded the Mungo Park Medal in 2002 by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his outstanding contribution to travel literature.
• The television series Stones of the Raj and Indian Journeys, which he wrote and presented, won him the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002.
• The Long Search, his BBC Radio 4 series on the history of British spirituality and mysticism, won the 2002 Sandford St Martin Prize for Religious Broadcasting and was described by the judges as "thrilling in its brilliance... near perfect radio."
• In December 2005 his article on the madrasas of Pakistan was awarded the prize for Best Print Article of the Year at the 2005 FPA Media Awards.
• Received the Sykes Medal in 2005 from the Royal Society for Asian Affairs for his contribution "to understanding contemporary Islam."
• Received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Honoris Causa, from the University of St Andrews (2006) "for his services to literature and international relations, to broadcasting and understanding."
• On 20 February 2007 The Last Mughal won the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize for History and Biography.
• Received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Honoris Causa, from the University of Lucknow (2007) "for his outstanding contribution in literature and history."
• Received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Honoris Causa, from the University of Aberdeen (2008.
• Received the 2008 Colonel James Tod Award given by the Maharana Mewar Foundation for achieving excellence in his field.
• The Last Mughal won the 2007 Vodafone Crossword Book Award for best work in English non-fiction.
• Nine Lives has received the 2010 Asia House Award for Asian Literature.