Introduction

Between the 13th and 16th centuries, 33 different sultans ruled this divided territory from their seat in Delhi. In 1398, Timur the Lame destroyed Delhi. The city was so completely devastated that according to one witness, “for months, not a bird moved in the city.” Delhi eventually was rebuilt. But it was not until the 16th century that a leader arose who would unify the empire.

In this lesson you will study about the conquest of India by a new ruling dynasty-the Mughals. The Mughal Empire ruled over India from the early 16th century to the 19th century and controlled most of the India and parts of Afghanistan. The Mughals were led by an able military commander and administrator from Central Asia named Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur. His successors were successful in establishing an all India empire gradually. We will study the details of this process of conquests and consolidation in this lesson. Let us begin with the advent of Babur in India.

Babur

Babur was born on 14 February 1483 in the town of Andijan in the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan. He belonged to the Mongol tribe that also embraced Turkish and Persian. Babur is a Arabic word which means tiger, the nickname given to him because of his attitude shown in battles which he fought there before coming to India. His actual and full name was Zahiruddin Muhammad, yet he was commonly known as Babur. It is said that Babur born, extremely strong and physically fit. He was so powerful that he could allegedly carry two men, one on each of his shoulders, and then climb slopes on the run. According to the legend that Babur swam across every major river he encountered.

His father, Omar Sheik, was king of Ferghana, a district of what is now Russian Turkestan. Omar died in 1495, and Babur, though only twelve years of age, succeeded to the throne. An attempt made by his uncles to dislodge him proved unsuccessful, and no sooner was the young sovereign firmly settled than he began to meditate an extension of his own dominions. In 1497 he attacked and gained possession of Samarkand, but in 1501 his most formidable enemy, Shaibani (Sheibani) Khan, ruler of the Uzbegs, defeated him in a great engagement and drove him from Samarkand. For three years he wandered about trying in vain to recover his lost possessions and finally at last, in the year 1504, he gathered some troops, and crossed the snowy Hindu Kush mountain besieged and captured the strong city of Kabul. But due to the political uncertainties in Central Asia, Babur finally took decision to reassemble his army of 12,000 strong, with some pieces of artillery and marched towards India. Ibrahim, with 100,000 soldiers and numerous elephants, advanced against him. The great battle was fought at Panipat on the April 21, 1526, when Ibrahim was slain and his army routed. Babur at once took possession of Agra and established the Mughal dynasty in the year 1526 AD.

Babur the Mughal had many interests. He wrote his memoir Tujuk I Babari in Turkish language. His memoirs reflect that he had an interest in reading, society, hunting, nature, politics and economics. He had wonderful ideas about architecture, administration, and civilization. Babur was a great patron of cultural activities, and welcomed poets, authors and littérateurs at his court. He was adept in Arabic, Turkish and Persian. Although Babur ruled only four years in India, his love of nature led him to create gardens of great beauty which became an intrinsic part of every Mughal fort, palace and state buildings during the centuries that followed. While alive, Emperor Babur laid out the classical Mughal-style gardens located on a high point in west Kabul which comprised a series of beautiful landscaped hillside. He suffered from ill health during the last years of his life and died at the age of 47 on 26 December 1530. He was succeeded by his son, Humayun.