Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur

Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur was the first Emperor of the Mughal dynasty in the Indian subcontinent and the founder of the Mughal Empire. Through his father and mother, he was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan. Firdaws Makani ('Dwelling in Paradise') was also his posthumous name. Babur was born in Andijan Province, Fergana Valley, modern-day Uzbekistan, on February 14, 1483. He was the firstborn son of Umar Sheikh Mirza, the Fergana Valley's king, and his wife Qutlugh Nigar Khanum, the daughter of Moghulistan's ruler, Yunus Khan. Umar Sheikh Mirza was the son of Ab Sad Mirza (and grandson of Miran Shah, who was himself a son of Timur) (a descendant of Genghis Khan). 

Babur was a member of the Barlas tribe, a Mongol group that had embraced Turkic and Persian culture. They lived in Turkestan and Khorasan and had converted to Islam centuries before. Babur was also fluent in Persian, the Timurid elite's lingua franca, and Chaghatai. As a result, despite being a Mongol (or Moghul in Persian), Babur garnered much of his support from the Turkic and Iranian peoples of Central Asia, and his army was ethnically varied. It featured Persians (dubbed "Sarts" and "Tajiks" by Babur), ethnic Afghans, Arabs, and Central Asian Turko-Mongols such as the Barlas and Chaghatayid Turko-Mongols.

Babur was Umar Sheikh Mirza's eldest son and a great-great-grandson of Timur (1336–1405). He was born in the Fergana Valley's Andijan (in present-day Uzbekistan).  Babur, who was twelve years old when he seized the throne of Fergana in its capital of Akhsikent in 1494, faced insurrection. Two years later, he captured Samarkand, only to lose Fergana soon after. He lost control of Samarkand in his attempt to retake Fergana. His attempt to retake both provinces in 1501 was thwarted when Muhammad Shaybani Khan defeated him. In 1504, he captured Kabul, supposedly ruled by Abdur Razaq Mirza, Ulugh Beg II's newborn heir. Babur created a relationship with Ismail I of the Safavids and reclaimed parts of Turkistan, including Samarkand, only to lose it and the other newly gained provinces to the Sheybanids again.

After the third defeat in Samarkand, Babur shifted his attention to India, enlisting the help of the neighbouring Safavid and Ottoman empires. In 1526 CE, Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodhi at the First Battle of Panipat, establishing the Mughal Empire. However, by the time, the Delhi Sultanate was a spent force. It was long crumbling before the conflict. On the contrary, the Mewar kingdom, led by Rana Sanga, had become the strongest power in Northern India. Thus, Babur, also known as Sanga, and Krishnadevaraya Sanga unified various Rajput clans for the first time after Prithviraj Chauhan and marched with a grand coalition of 100,000 Rajputs. On the other hand, Sanga suffered a catastrophic setback in the Battle of Khanwa because of Babur's expert army deployment and innovative tactics. The loss of Rana Sanga was a watershed event in the Mughal conquest of northern India, and the Battle of Khanua was one of the most decisive battles in Indian history, even more so than the First Battle of Panipat. Babur was married several times. Humayun, Kamran Mirza, and Hindal Mirza are notable among his sons. Babur died at Agra in 1530, and Humayun became his successor. Babur was initially buried in Agra, but his bones were transferred to Kabul and reburied as he desired. In Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, he is regarded as a national hero. Several of his poetry have been turned into popular folk melodies. He wrote the Baburnama in Chaghatai Turkic, and his grandson, Emperor Akbar, had it translated into Persian during his reign (1556–1605).

As ruler of Fergana:

After Umar Sheikh Mirza died "while feeding pigeons in an ill-constructed dovecote that tumbled into the valley below the palace" in 1494, Babur, then eleven years old, became the ruler of Fergana, in modern-day Uzbekistan. During this period, his succession to the throne was endangered by two of his uncles from neighbouring kingdoms opposed to his father and a group of nobles who wanted his younger brother Jahangir to be the monarch. Moreover, his uncles were adamant about removing him from this position and many of his other geographical holdings in the future. Nevertheless, Babur was able to secure his reign thanks to his maternal grandmother, Aisan Daulat Begum, and some luck.  His relatives were administered most of his kingdom's lands, who were either Timur or Genghis Khan descendants and were continuously at odds. Rival princes were warring over the city of Samarkand, which his paternal cousin held at the time. [requires citation] Babur was hell-bent on capturing the city. He besieged Samarkand for seven months in 1497 before taking possession of the city. He was fifteen years old at the time, and the campaign was a big success for him. Despite desertions in his army, Babur held the city, but he eventually became gravely ill.

Meanwhile, an uprising among nobles who favoured his brother stripped him of Fergana some 350 kilometres (220 miles) distant. Finally, he lost Samarkand to a rival prince while moving to reclaim it, leaving him neither. In Samarkand, he had held for 100 days and considered it his greatest defeat, obsessing over it even after his conquests in India later in life.

Babur spent three years concentrating on developing a formidable army, particularly among the Tajiks of Badakhshan. In 1500–1501, he besieged Samarkand again and briefly conquered the city, but he was besieged in turn by his most powerful foe, Muhammad Shaybani, Khan of the Uzbeks. As a result of the situation, Babar was forced to marry his sister, Khanzada, to Shaybani as part of the peace agreement. Babur and his troops were only allowed to leave the city safely after this. As a result, Samarkand, his lifelong obsession, was lost once more. He next tried to recapture Fergana but was defeated there as well, so he fled to the mountains of Central Asia with a small band of supporters and sought refuge among hill tribes. By 1502, he had given up all chance of regaining Fergana; he was left with nothing and had no choice but to seek his fortune elsewhere. He eventually travelled to Tashkent, which his maternal uncle ruled, but he was not welcomed. "During my stay in Tashkent, I faced tremendous privation and humiliation," Babur wrote. There is no country, and there is no possibility of one!" Babur had several short-lived successes throughout his ten years as ruler of Fergana, and he was without shelter and in exile, helped by allies and peasants.

At Kabul:

Ulugh Beg II, Babur's paternal uncle, controlled Kabul until he died, leaving only an infant as heir. The city was later claimed by Mukin Begh, who was viewed as a usurper by the locals and opposed them. Nevertheless, Babur crossed the Hindu Kush mountains in 1504 and conquered Kabul from the Arghunids, who were forced to flee to Kandahar. He won a new kingdom due to this migration, re-established his wealth, and ruled it until 1526. Babur embarked on his first journey to India in 1505, owing to the meagre money provided by his new mountain realm; in his memoirs, he stated, "Hindustan has always piqued my interest. We rode out of Kabul for Hindustan in the month of Shaban, with the Sun in Aquarius ". It was a quick crossing of the Khyber Pass. In the same year, Babur allied with Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqarah of Herat, a fellow Timurid and distant relative, against the Uzbek Shaybani. However, Husayn Mirza died in 1506, and his two sons were hesitant to go to war. Therefore this effort did not take place. Babur, on the other hand, stayed in Herat after the two Mirza brothers welcomed him. It was the eastern Muslim world's cultural hub at the time. Though he despised the city's vices and luxury, he admired its intellectual wealth, which he described as "packed with intelligent and matched persons." He became familiar with Chagatai poet Mir Ali Shir Nava'i, who promoted Chagatai as a literary language. Babur's decision to utilize the language, which Nava'i is credited with creating, may have been inspired by Nava'i's command. He stayed for two months before being forced to go due to dwindling resources; Shaybani later took it, and the Mirzas fled. After the defeat of Herat, Babur became the Timurid dynasty's sole ruler, and many princes sought sanctuary with him in Kabul due to Shaybani's assault in the west. As a result, he was given the title of Padshah (Emperor) among the Timurids. Although most of his family lands had been captured, Kabul was in danger, and Shaybani remained a menace. Babur was victorious in a potential mutiny in Kabul, but he was driven out of Kabul two years later by a revolt among his leading generals. Babur, who had escaped with only a few comrades, returned to Kabul soon after, recapturing the city and recovering the rebels' support. Meanwhile, in 1510, Ismail I, Shah of Shia Safavid Persia, defeated and killed Shaybani.

Babur and the remaining Timurids took advantage of the opportunity to reclaim their ancestral lands. Babur and Shah Ismail formed a collaboration over the next few years to conquer sections of Central Asia. Babur granted the Safavids suzerainty over him and his followers in exchange for Ismail's help. After leaving his brother Nasir Mirza in charge of Kabul, he managed to retake Samarkand for the third time in 1513 and Bokhara, but both were lost to the Uzbeks. Babur was reunited with his sister Khnzda, imprisoned and forced to marry the recently deceased Shaybani, thanks to Shah Ismail. In 1514, Babur returned to Kabul after a three-year absence. During the next 11 years of his reign, he mostly dealt with minor rebellions from Afghan tribes, nobility, and family and undertook incursions through the eastern mountains. Although he was living in comparatively quiet times, Babur began to modernize and train his army.

The Safavid army, led by Najm-e Sani, slaughtered citizens in Central Asia before seeking help from Babur, who encouraged the Safavids to retreat. The Safavids, on the other hand, resisted and were defeated by the warlord Ubaydullah Khan during the Battle of Ghazdewan. Because the Ottoman Sultan Selim I entrusted his opponent Ubaydullah Khan with powerful matchlocks and cannons, Babur's early relations with the Ottomans were strained. When ordered to recognize Selim I as his legal suzerain in 1507, Babur resisted and assembled Qizilbash troops to fight Ubaydullah Khan's soldiers during the Battle of Ghazdewan. Selim reconciled with Babur in 1513 (fearing that he would join the Safavids) and dispatched Ustad Ali Quli, an artilleryman, and Mustafa Rumi, a matchlock marksman, as well as a large number of other Ottoman Turks, to aid Babur in his conquests; this particular assistance proved to be the foundation of future Mughal-Ottoman relations. He also learned to use matchlocks and cannons on the field (rather than just in sieges), which would provide him with a significant advantage in India.

Babur still wanted to flee the Uzbeks, and he selected India over Badakhshan, which was to the north of Kabul, as his shelter. "We had to think of someplace for ourselves in the presence of such might and potency," he wrote, "and, at this crisis and in the gap of time there was, put a greater space between the strong foeman and us." After his third defeat in Samarkand, Babur focused his efforts entirely on the conquest of North India, commencing a campaign in 1519 that brought him to the Chenab River, now in Pakistan. Until 1524, his only goal was to expand his dominion to Punjab, mostly to honour his ancestor Timur's memory, as Punjab had previously been a part of his empire. Ibrahim Lodi of the Lodi dynasty ruled Parts of North India, but the empire disintegrated, and many people defected. He was invited by Daulat Khan Lodi, the Governor of Punjab, and Ala-ud-Din, Ibrahim's uncle. He dispatched an emissary to Ibrahim, claiming to be the legitimate successor to the throne, but the ambassador was apprehended in Lahore and released months later.

In 1524, Babur set out towards Lahore, Punjab, but discovered that Ibrahim Lodi's men had forced Daulat Khan Lodi. The Lodi army marched out and routed Babur's army when he arrived in Lahore. In retaliation, Babur set fire to Lahore for two days before marching to Dibalpur and appointing Alam Khan, another Lodi rebel relative, as governor. Alam Khan was deposed quickly and escaped to Kabul. In retaliation, Babur supplied Alam Khan with troops, who eventually joined forces with Daulat Khan Lodi and besieged Ibrahim Lodi at Delhi with a force of roughly 30,000 men. Babur realized that Lodi would not allow him to conquer Punjab after defeating and driving off Alam's troops.

The first battle of Panipat:

Babur received word from Peshawar in November 1525 that Daulat Khan Lodi had switched sides, and he pushed Ala-ud-Din out. Babur then marched into Lahore to face Daulat Khan Lodi, only to have Daulat's army disintegrate as they approached. Daulat was pardoned once he surrendered. In three weeks after crossing the Indus River, Babur had ascended to the throne of Punjab. Babur continued his march to Delhi via Sirhind. On April 20, 1526, he arrived in Panipat and encountered Ibrahim Lodi's numerically superior force of 100,000 troops and 100 elephants. Babur utilized the Tulugma technique in the battle the next day, encircling Ibrahim Lodi's army and forcing it to face direct artillery fire, as well as terrifying its war elephants. During the conflict, Ibrahim Lodi perished, putting an end to the Lodi dynasty. Following the fight, Babur conquered Delhi and Agra and the crown of Lodi, laying the groundwork for Mughal control in India. He had to fight off competitors like Rana Sanga before becoming the ruler of North India.

Battle of Khanwa:

On March 16, 1527, Babur and Rana Sanga, the Rajput ruler of Mewar, fought the Battle of Khanwa. Rana Sanga planned to depose Babur, whom he saw as an outsider governing in India, and expand the Rajput holdings by annexing Delhi and Agra. Afghan chiefs backed him, believing Babur had deceived them by neglecting to keep pledges he had made to them. After learning of Rana Sangha's march on Agra, Babur chose a defensive position in Khanwa (now in the Indian state of Rajasthan). He anticipated launching a counterattack later from there.

Battle of Chanderi:

Following the Combat of Khanwa, this battle took place. Babur intended to isolate Rana Sanga by inflicting a military loss on one of his staunchest friends, Medini Rai, the king of Malwa, after learning that the Rana was preparing to renew the battle with him.

Babur offered Shamsabad to Medini Rao as a peace overture when he arrived in Chanderi on January 20, 1528, but rejected the offer. Babur's forces took the outer fortification of Chanderi at night, then the upper fort the next morning. Babur himself was taken aback because the higher fort fell within an hour of the final assault. Medini Rai held a Jauhar ceremony, in which women and children from the citadel self-immolated. A small group of soldiers also gathered in Medini Rao's home and committed suicide by killing each other. Babur did not appear to be struck by this sacrifice, as he did not mention the adversary in his narrative.

Except for the illustrations in the translation of the Baburnama created during Akbar's reign, there are no accounts of Babur's physical appearance. However, in his memoirs, Babur claimed to be strong and physically healthy, claiming to have swum over every major river he came across, including twice across the Ganges River in North India.

He had monastic tendencies and had little interest in women, unlike his father. He was "bashful" towards Aisha Sultan Begum in his first marriage, subsequently losing his regard for her. On the other hand, Babur gained several more wives and concubines over the years, and as a prince, he was able to secure the line's continuity. Aisha Sultan Begum, Babur's first wife, was his paternal cousin and the daughter of Sultan Ahmad Mirza, his father's brother. She was a newborn when she was betrothed to Babur, who was five years old at the time. They married around. 1498–99, eleven years later. Fakhr-un-Nissa, the couple's only child, died within a year of her birth in 1500. After Babur's first defeat at Fergana three years later, Aisha abandoned him and went to her father's household. Babur married Zaynab Sultan Begum in 1504, but she died childless two years later. Babur married four ladies between 1506 and 1508: Maham Begum (in 1506), Masuma Sultan Begum, Gulrukh Begum, and Dildar Begum. Babur had four children with Maham Begum, but only one of them lived to adulthood. Humayun was his eldest son and heir. Masuma Sultan Begum died while giving birth to her kid; the year of her death is debatable (either 1508 or 1519).  Babur had two sons from Gulrukh, Kamran and Askari, while Hindal was Babur's youngest son from Dildar Begum. Babur later married Mubaraka Yusufzai of the Yusufzai tribe, a Pashtun woman. Tahmasp Shah Safavi, the Shah of Persia, gave Babur two Circassian slaves named Gulnar Aghacha and Nargul Aghacha.

"Recognized ladies of the royal household," they were dubbed. Babur pursued his hobbies in literature, art, music, and gardening during his reign in Kabul when there was a period of relative tranquillity. He never had drunk alcohol before and had avoided it at Herat. Then, at the age of thirty, his first taste of it in Kabul. After that, he began to drink regularly, throw wine parties, and ingest opium-based medicines. He stopped drinking for health concerns barely two years before his death, during the Battle of Khanwa, and insisted that his court do the same. He didn't quit ingesting narcotic mixtures, though, and his sense of irony remained intact.

On January 5, 1531, Babur died at Agra at 47 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Humayun. He was first interred at Agra, but his mortal remains were transferred to Kabul and reburied in Bagh-e Babur sometime between 1539 and 1544, as per his wishes.

Babur's dominion, as a Timurid, was widely acknowledged to have not only been influenced by Persian culture but also to have given rise to the spread of the Persianate ethos across the Indian subcontinent. According to his account, he appeared as a Timurid Renaissance inheritor, leaving indications of India's Islamic, artistic, intellectual, and social features. Although all modern Central Asian ethnicities are outdated when applied to Babur's period, Soviet and Uzbek sources identify Babur as an ethnic Uzbek. Uzbek scholars were restricted during the Soviet Union for idealizing and praising Babur and other historical luminaries such as Ali-Shir Nava'i. In Uzbekistan, Babur is revered as a national hero. On the 525th anniversary of his birth, stamps bearing his name were released in the country on February 14, 2008. Babur's poems have been turned into popular Uzbek folk melodies, particularly by Sherali Jo'rayev. According to certain authorities, Babur is also a national hero in Kyrgyzstan. Pakistan created the Babur Cruise Missile in his honour in October 2005. Wajahat Mirza directed Shahenshah Babar, an Indian film about the Emperor, which was released in 1944. The Emperor's life was chronicled in the 1960 Indian biographical film Babar, directed by Hemen Gupta and starring Gajanan Jagirdar. Babur's life is remembered for the vibrant and well-written autobiography known as Baburnama, which he left behind.