Behind the History of Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur | End of Lodi’s Dynasty

Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur was conqueror from Central Asia lived during (14 February 1483 – 26 December 1530;. Babur is the first to set Mughal Dynasty in India. He was the first Mughal Emperor.   He was a direct descendant of Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur(Timurlane) from the Barlas clan, through his father, and also a descendant of Genghis Khan through his mother. He was also influenced by the Persian culture and this affected both his own actions and those of his successors, giving rise to a significant expansion of the Persianate ethos in the Indian subcontinent.

Though born as Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, he was commonly known as Babur. He was the eldest son of Umar Sheikh Mirza. He ascended the throne of Fergana in 1495 at the age of twelve and faced rebellion from his own relatives. He conquered Samarkand two years later, only to lose the city of Fergana soon after. In his attempt to reconquer it, he lost control of Samarkand. In 1501, his attempt to recapture both cities went in vain as he was defeated by Muhammad Shaybani Khan. In 1504, he conquered Kabul, which was under the rule of the infant heir of Ulugh Begh. Babur formed a partnership with Safavid ruler Ismail I and reconquered parts of central Asia including Samarkand, only to lose[clarification needed] again to the Uzbeks.

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After losing the city[clarification needed] for the third time, Babur turned his attention to creating his empire in north India. At that time, north India was ruled by Ibrahim Lodi of the Lodi dynasty. In 1524, Daulat Khan Lodi invited his nephew, Babur, to overthrow Ibrahim and become ruler. Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 and so founded the Mughal empire. However, he again had to face opposition, this time from Rana Sanga of Mewar who considered Babur as a foreigner. The Rana was defeated at the Battle of Khanwa.

Babur married several times. Notable among his sons are Humayun, Kamran Mirza and Hindal Mirza. He died in 1530 and was succeeded by Humayun. According to Babur’s wishes, he was buried in Bagh-e-Babur at Kabul in Afghanistan. Being a patrilineal descendant of Timur, Babur considered himself as a Timurid and Turk, though Uzbek sources claim him as an ethnic Uzbek. He is considered a national hero in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Many of his poems also have become popular folk songs. He wrote his autobiography, Baburnama, in Chaghatai Turkic and this was later translated to Persian during Akbar’s reign.

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Etymology

Babur was born as Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Muḥammad (Arabic: ظهیرالدین محمد‎), but was more commonly known by his nickname, Bābur (بابر). He had the royal titles Badshah and al-ṣultānu ‘l-ʿazam wa ‘l-ḫāqān al-mukkarram pādshāh-e ġāzī. Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn (“Defender of the faith”) Muḥammad was an Arabic name and difficult to pronounce for the Central Asian Turko-Mongols, therefore the name Babur was adopted.

According to historian Stephen Frederic Dale, the name Babur is derived from the Persian word babr, meaning “tiger”, a word that repeatedly appears in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh and had also been borrowed by the Turkic languages of Central Asia. This thesis is supported by the explanation that the Turko-Mongol name Timur underwent a similar evolution, from the Sanskrit word cimara (“iron”) via a modified version *čimr to the final Turkicized version timür, with -ür replacing -r because of need to provide vocalic support between m and r. The choice of vowel would nominally be restricted to one of the four front vowels (e, i, ö, ü per the Ottoman vowel harmony rule), hence babr → babür, although the rule is routinely violated for words of Persian or Arabic derivation.

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Contradicting these views, historian W. M. Thackston argues that the name must instead be derived from a word that has evolved out of the Indo-European word for beaver, pointing to the fact that the name is pronounced bāh-bor in both Persian and Turkic, similar to the Russian word for beaver (бобр – bobr).

Background

Babur’s memoirs form the main source for details of his life. They are known as the Baburnama and were written in Chaghatai Turkic, his mother-tongue, though, according to Dale, “his Turki prose is highly Persianized in its sentence structure, morphology or word formation and vocabulary.” Baburnama was translated into Persian during the rule of Babur’s grandson Akbar.

Babur was born on 14 February [O.S. ] 1483 in the city of Andijan, Andijan Province, Fergana Valley, contemporary Uzbekistan. He was the eldest son of Umar Sheikh Mirza, ruler of the Fergana Valley, the son of Abū Saʿīd Mirza (and grandson of Miran Shah, who was himself son of Timur) and his wife Qutlugh Nigar Khanum, daughter of Yunus Khan, the ruler of Moghulistan (and great-great grandson of Tughlugh Timur, the son of Esen Buqa I, who was the great-great-great grandson of Chaghatai Khan, the second born son of Genghis Khan).

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Babur hailed from the Barlas tribe, which was of Mongol origin and had embraced Turkic and Persian culture. He converted to Islam and resided in Turkestan and Khorasan. Aside from the Chaghatai language, Babur was equally fluent in Persian, the lingua franca of the Timurid elite.

Hence Babur, though nominally a Mongol (or Moghul in Persian language), drew much of his support from the local Turkic and Iranian people of Central Asia, and his army was diverse in its ethnic makeup. It included Persians (known to Babur as “Sarts” and “Tajiks”), ethnic Afghans, Arabs, as well as Barlas and Chaghatayid Turko-Mongols from Central Asia. Babur’s army also included Qizilbāsh fighters, a militant religious order of Shi’a Sufis from Safavid Persia

Rule in Central Asia

As ruler of Fergana

In 1494, at eleven years old, Babur became the ruler of Fergana, in present-day Uzbekistan, after Umar Sheikh Mirza died “while tending pigeons in an ill-constructed dovecote that toppled into the ravine below the palace”. During this time, two of his uncles from the neighboring kingdoms, who were hostile to his father, and a group of nobles who wanted his younger brother Jahangir to be the ruler, threatened his succession to the throne. His uncles were relentless in their attempts to dislodge him from this position as well as from many of his other territorial possessions to come. Babur was able to secure his throne mainly because of help from his maternal grandmother, Aisan Daulat Begum, although there was also some luck involved.

Most territories around his kingdom were ruled by his relatives, who were descendants of either Timur or Genghis Khan, and were constantly in conflict. At that time, rival princes were fighting over the city of Samarkand to the west, which was ruled by his paternal cousin. Babur had a great ambition to capture it and in 1497, he besieged Samarkand for seven months before eventually gaining control over it. He was fifteen years old and for him, this campaign was a huge achievement. Babur was able to hold it despite desertions in his army but later fell seriously ill. Meanwhile, a rebellion amongst nobles who favoured his brother, back home approximately 350 kilometres (220 mi) away robbed him of Fergana. As he was marching to recover it, he lost the Samarkand to a rival prince, leaving him with neither Fergana nor Samarkand. He had held Samarkand for 100 days and he considered this defeat as his biggest loss, obsessing over it even later in his life after his conquests in India.

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In 1501, he laid siege on Samarkand once more, but was soon defeated by his most formidable rival, Muhammad Shaybani, khan of the Uzbeks. Samarkand, his lifelong obsession, was lost again. He tried to reclaim Fergana but lost it too and escaping with a small band of followers, he wandered to the mountains of central Asia and took refuge with hill tribes. Thus, during the ten years since becoming the ruler of Fergana, Babur suffered many short-lived victories and was without shelter and in exile, aided by friends and peasants. He finally stayed in Tashkent, which was ruled by his maternal uncle. Babur wrote, “During my stay in Tashkent, I endured much poverty and humiliation. No country, or hope of one!” For three years Babur concentrated on building up a strong army, recruiting widely amongst the Tajiks of Badakhshan in particular. By 1502, Babur had resigned all hopes of recovering Fergana, he was left with nothing and was forced to try his luck someplace else.
At Kabul

Kabul was ruled by Ulugh Begh Mirza of the Arghun Dynasty, who died leaving only an infant as heir. The city was then claimed by Mukin Begh, who was considered to be a usurper and was opposed by the local populace. In 1504, by using the whole situation[clarification needed] to his own advantage, Babur was able to cross the snowy Hindu Kush mountains and capture Kabul; the remaining Arghunids were forced to retreat to Kandahar. With this move, he gained a new kingdom, re-established his fortunes and would remain its ruler until 1526. In 1505, because of the low revenue generated by his new mountain kingdom, Babur began his first expedition to India; in his memoirs, he wrote, “My desire for Hindustan had been constant. It was in the month of Shaban, the Sun being in Aquarius, that we rode out of Kabul for Hindustan”. It was a brief raid across the Khyber Pass.

In the same year, Babur united with Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqarah of Herat, a fellow Timurid and distant relative, against their common enemy, the Uzbek Shaybani. However, this venture did not take place because Husayn Mirza died in 1506 and his two sons were reluctant to go to war. Babur instead stayed at Herat after being invited by the two Mirza brothers. It was then the cultural capital of the eastern Muslim world. Though he was disgusted by the vices and luxuries of the city, he marvelled at the intellectual abundance there, which he stated was “filled with learned and matched men”. He became acquainted with the work of the Chagatai poet Mir Ali Shir Nava’i, who encouraged the use of Chagatai as a literary language. Nava’i’s proficiency with the language, which he is credited with founding, may have influenced Babur in his decision to use it for his memoirs. He spent two months there before being forced to leave because of diminishing resources; it later was overrun by Shaybani and the Mirzas fled.

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Babur became the only reigning ruler of the Timurid dynasty after the loss of Herat, and many princes sought refuge from him at Kabul because of Shaybani’s invasion in the west. He thus assumed the title of Padshah (emperor) among the Timurids—though this tile was insignificant since most of his ancestral lands were taken, Kabul itself was in danger and Shaybani continued to be a threat. He prevailed during a potential rebellion in Kabul, but two years later a revolt among some of his leading generals drove him out of Kabul. Escaping with very few companions, Babur soon returned to the city, capturing Kabul again and regaining the allegiance of the rebels. Meanwhile, Shaybani was defeated and killed by Ismail I, Shah of Shia Safavid Persia, in 1510.

Babur and the remaining Timurids used this opportunity to reconquer their ancestral territories. Over the following few years, Babur and Shah Ismail formed a partnership in an attempt to take over parts of Central Asia. In return for Ismail’s assistance, Babur permitted the Safavids to act as a suzerain over him and his followers. Thus, in 1513, after leaving his brother Nasir Mirza to rule Kabul, he managed to get Samarkand for the third time and Bokhara but lost both again to the Uzbeks. Shah Ismail reunited Babur with his sister Khānzāda, who had been imprisoned by and forced to marry the recently deceased Shaybani. He returned to Kabul after three years in 1514. The following 11 years of his rule mainly involved dealing with relatively insignificant rebellions from Afghan tribes, his nobles and relatives, in addition to conducting raids across the eastern mountains. Babur began to modernise and train his army despite it being, for him, relatively peaceful times.

Foreign relations

Babur began relations with the Safavids when he met Ali Mirza Safavi at Samarqand; their good relations lasted even after Babur was approached by the Ottomans. The Safavids army led by Najm-e Sani massacred civilians in Central Asia and then sought the assistance of Babur, who advised the Safavids to withdraw. The Safavids, however, refused and were defeated during the Battle of Ghazdewan by the warlord Ubaydullah Khan.

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Babur’s early relations with theOttomans were poor because the Ottoman Sultan Selim I provided his rival Ubaydullah Khan with powerful matchlocks and cannons. In 1507, when ordered to accept Selim I as his rightful suzerain Babur refused, and gathered Qizilbash servicemen in order to counter the forces of Ubaydullah Khan during the Battle of Ghazdewan. In 1513, Selim I reconciled with Babur (fearing that he would join the Safavids), dispatched Ustad Ali Quli the artilleryman and Mustafa Rumi, the matchlock marksman, and many other Ottoman Turks, in order to assist Babur in his conquests; this particular assistance proved to be the basis of future Mughal-Ottoman relations. From them, he also adopted the tactic of using matchlocks and cannons in field (rather than only in sieges), which would give him an important advantage in India.

Formation of the Mughal Empire

Babur still wanted to escape from the Uzbeks, and finally chose India as a refuge instead of Badakhshan, which was to the north of Kabul. He wrote, “In the presence of such power and potency, we had to think of some place for ourselves and, at this crisis and in the crack of time there was, put a wider space between us and the strong foeman.” After his third loss of Samarkand, Babur gave full attention on conquest of India, launching a campaign, he reached Chenab in 1519. Until 1524, his aim was to only expand his rule to Punjab, mainly to fulfil his ancestor Timur’s legacy, since it used to be part of his empire. At the time parts of north India was under the rule of Ibrahim Lodi of the Lodi dynasty, but the empire was crumbling and there were many defectors. He received invitations from Daulat Khan Lodi, Governor of Punjab and Ala-ud-Din, uncle of Ibrahim. He sent an ambassador to Ibrahim, claiming himself the rightful heir to the throne of the country, however the ambassador was detained at Lahore and released months later.

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Babur started for Lahore, Punjab, in 1524 but found that Daulat Khan Lodi had been driven out by forces sent by Ibrahim Lodi. When Babur arrived at Lahore, the Lodi army marched out and was his army was routed. In response, Babur burned Lahore for two days, then marched to Dipalpur, placing Alam Khan, another rebel uncle of Lodi’s, as governor. Alam Khan was quickly overthrown and fled to Kabul. In response, Babur supplied Alam Khan with troops who later joined up with Daulat Khan Lodi and together with about 30,000 troops, they besieged Ibrahim Lodi at Delhi. He easily defeated and drove off Alam’s army and Babur realized Lodi would not allow him to occupy the Punjab.

First battle of Panipat

Babur started his campaign in November 1525. He got news at Peshawar that Daulat Khan Lodi had switched sides and drove out Ala-ud-Din.[clarification needed] Babur then marched onto Lahore to confront Daulat Khan Lodi, only to see Daulat’s army melt away at their approach. Daulat surrendered and was pardoned, thus within three weeks of crossing the Indus Babur became the master of Punjab.[citation needed]

Babur marched on to Delhi via Sirhind. He reached Panipat on 20 April 1526 and there met Ibrahim Lodi’s numerically superior army of about 100,000 soldiers and 100 elephants. In the battle that began on the following day, Babur utilised the tactic of Tulugma, encircling Ibrahim Lodi’s army and forcing it to face artillery fire directly, as well as frightening its war elephants.

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Ibrahim Lodi died during the battle thus ending the Lodi dynasty.

Babur wrote in his memoirs about his victory :

By the grace of the Almighty God, this difficult task was made easy to me and that mighty army, in the space of a half a day was laid in dust.

After the battle, Babur occupied Delhi and Agra, took the throne of Lodi, and laid the foundation for the eventual rise of Mughal Rule in India; however, before he became India’s ruler, he had to fend off challengers, such as Rana Sanga.

Battle of Khanwa

The Battle of Khanwa was fought between Babur and the Rajput ruler Rana Sanga on 17 March 1527. Rana Sanga wanted to overthrow Babur, whom he considered to be a foreigner ruling in India, and also to extend the Rajput territories by annexing Delhi and Agra. He was supported by Afghan chiefs who felt Babur had been deceptive by refusing to fulfil promises made to them. Upon receiving news of Rana Sangha’s advance towards Agra, Babur took a defensive position at Khanwa (currently in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh), from where he hoped to be able to launch a counterattack later. According to K. V. Krishna Rao, Babur won the battle because of his “superior generalship” and modern tactics: the battle was one of the first in India that featured cannons. Rao also notes that Rana Sanga faced “treachery” when a Silhadi man converted to Islam and joined Babur’s army with a garrison of 6,000 soldiers.

Personal life and relationships

There are no descriptions about Babur’s physical appearance, except the paintings from his memoirs which were made during the reign of his grandson Akbar, when he translated it. Babur claimed to be strong and physically fit, saying to have swam across every major river he encountered, including twice across the Ganges River in North India. Unlike his father, he had ascetic tendencies and did not have any great interest in women. In his first marriage, he was “bashful” towards Aisha Sultan Begum. later losing his affection for her. However, he acquired several more wives and concubines over the years, and as required for a prince, he was able to ensure the continuity of his line; Babur treated them and his other women relatives well. In his memoirs, there is a mention of his infatuation for a younger boy when Babur was 16 years old. According to the historian Abraham Eraly, bisexuality was common and pederasty high fashion among the central Asian aristocrats of the time.

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Babur’s first wife, Aisha Sultan Begum, was his cousin, the daughter of Sultan Ahmad Mirza, his father’s brother. She was an infant when betrothed to Babur, who was himself five years old. They married eleven years later, c. 1498-99 AD. The couple had one daughter by her, Fakhr-un-Nissa, who died within a year in 1500. Three years later, after Babur’s first defeat at Fergana, Aisha left him and returned to her father’s household. In 1504, Babur married Zaynab Sultan Begum, who died childless within two years. In the period 1506-08, Babur married four women, being Maham Begum (in 1506), Masuma Sultan Begum, Gulrukh Begum and Dildar Begum. Babur had four children by Maham Begum, of whom only one survived infancy. This was his eldest son and heir, Humayun. Masuma Sultan Begum died during childbirth; the year of her death is disputed (either 1508 or 1519). Gulrukh bore Babur two sons, Kamran and Askari, and Dildar Begum was the mother of Babur’s youngest son, Hindal. Babur later married Mubaraka Yusufzai, a Pashtun woman of the Yusufzai tribe. Gulnar Aghacha and Nargul Aghacha were two Circassian slaves given to Babur as gifts by Tahmasp Shah Safavi, the Shah of Persia. They became “recognized ladies of the royal household.”

During his rule in Kabul, when there was a relative time of peace, Babur pursued his interests in literature, art, music and gardening. Previously, he never drank alcohol and avoided it when he was in Herat. In Kabul, he first tasted it at the age of thirty. He then began to drink regularly, host wine parties and consume preparations made from opium. Though religion had a central place in his life, Babur also approvingly quoted a line of poetry by one of his contemporaries: “I am drunk, officer. Punish me when I am sober”. He quit drinking for health reasons before the Battle of Khanwa, just two years before his death, and demanded that his court do the same. But he did not stop chewing narcotic preparations, and did not lose his sense of irony. He wrote, “Everyone regrets drinking and swears an oath (of abstinence); I swore the oath and regret that.”

Death and legacy

Babur died at the age of 47 on 5 January [O.S. 26 December 1530] 1531, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Humayun. After death, his body was moved to Kabul, Afghanistan where it lies in Bagh-e Babur (Babur Gardens).

It is generally agreed that, as a Timurid, Babur was not only significantly influenced by the Persian culture, but that his empire also gave rise to the expansion of the Persianate ethos in the Indian subcontinent.

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For example, F. Lehmann states in the Encyclopædia Iranica:

His origin, milieu, training, and culture were steeped in Persian culture and so Babur was largely responsible for the fostering of this culture by his descendants, the Mughals of India, and for the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and historiographical results.

Although all applications of modern Central Asian ethnicities to people of Babur’s time are anachronistic, Soviet and Uzbek sources regard Babur as an ethnic Uzbek. At the same time, during the Soviet Union Uzbek scholars were censored for idealizing and praising Babur and other historical figures such as Ali-Shir Nava’i.

Babur is considered a national hero in Uzbekistan. In 14 February 2008, stamps in his name were published in the country to commemorate his 525th birth anniversary. Many of Babur’s poems have become popular Uzbek folk songs, especially by Sherali Jo‘rayev. Some sources claim that Babur is a national hero in Kyrgyzstan too. Babur is also held in high esteem in Afghanistan and Iran.[citation needed] In October 2005, Pakistan developed the Babur Cruise Missile, named in his honor.

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One of the enduring features of Babur’s life was that he left behind the lively and well-written autobiography known as Baburnama. Quoting Henry Beveridge, Stanley Lane-Poole writes:

His autobiography is one of those priceless records which are for all time, and is fit to rank with the confessions of St. Augustine and Rousseau, and the memoirs of Gibbon and Newton. In Asia it stands almost alone.

Babri Masjid

Babur is popularly believed to have demolished the Rama Temple at Ayodhya, India, and built Babri Masjid there.[citation needed] However, three inscriptions which once adorned the surface of the mosque indicate that it was constructed on the orders of Mir Baqi, not Babur. Baqi was one of Babur’s generals who led forces sent to the region during his reign. In 2003, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was asked to conduct a more detailed study and an excavation to ascertain the type of structure that was beneath the rubble of Babri Masjid. According to a news report in The Week, the ASI report indicated “no mention of a temple, only of evidence of a massive structure, fragments of which speak about their association with temple architecture of the Saivite style.”