Short Biography of Babur

Zahir-ud-Din Mohammad, surnamed Babur, was born in 1483. He was connected with both the families of Timur and Chingiz Khan. Thus, he had in him the blood of the two greatest conquerors of Central Asia. At the early age of 12, his father, Sultan Umar Shaikh Mirza, died and Babur became the king of Farghana. At the time of his accession, he was surrounded on all sides by his enemies.

His uncles and cousins took advantage of his youth and inexperience and attacked him right and left. Ahmed Mirza attacked Babur in 1490. Fortunately for Babur, his attack failed and he himself died in 1495. It was now the turn of Babur to have his revenge and he took full advantage of the confusion that prevailed in Samarkand after the death of Ahmed Mirza, his uncle. In November, 1497, Babur was able to capture Samarkand. Unfortunately, while at Samarkand, Babur fell ill and his Ministers gave out that he was dead. They also put on the throne the younger brother of Babur named Jahangir.

As soon as Babur recovered from his sickness and came to know of the trick played upon him, he marched from Samarkand to recover Farghana. Due to his ill-luck, Babur lost both Samarkand and Farghana. He could not capture Farghana because Jahangir was securely established there and as regards Samarkand, it was occupied in his absence by his cousin, Ali. The result was that in February 1498, Babur was not the king of any place. His only possession was Khojend. He had to live a wanderer’s life for more than a year. However, in June 1499, he was able to recapture the capital of Farghana.

In 1500, Babur conquered Samarkand for the second time but he was forced by the Uzbegs to leave the same. After the loss of Samarkand, he lost Farghana also in the same year. The result was that after all these ups and downs of life, Babur was left with nothing in 1502 and no wonder he left his native land to try his luck somewhere else.

Babur set out of Kabul. At that time, there was political chaos in that country. The reason was that Babur’s uncle, Ulugh Beg, had died in 1501 and his son Abdul Razzak was deposed by a usurper named Mukin Beg. There was a strong feeling in Kabul that the usurper should be turned out and a prince of the royal blood be put on the throne. Babur managed the whole situation to his own advantage and the ultimate result was that he occupied Kabul in 1504.

As the king of Kabul, he ruled from 1504 to 1526 when he led his major offensive against India. In that interval, Babur conquered Kandhar and Herat. In 1513, he again tried his luck to conquer Samarkand after the death of Shaibani. He entered into an alliance with the Shah of Persia, and captured both Bokhara and Samarkand. However, he was not destined to sit on the throne of Samarkand for long. Within less than a year he was driven out of Samarkand.

It was only after his final failure in Samarkand that Babur paid his full attention to the conquest of India. He himself wrote thus in 1526: “From the time I conquered the land of Kabul till now, I had always been bent on subdoing Hindustan. Sometimes, however from the misconduct of my Amirs, sometimes from the opposition of my brothers, etc., I was prevented. At length, these obstacles were removed and I gathered an army (1519) and marched on to Bajour and Swat and thence to advance to Bhera on the west of the Jhelum River.”

Babur reached as far as the Chenab in 1519. Acting on the advice of his ministers, he sent an Ambassador to Ibrahim Lodi demanding the restoration of the country which belonged to the Turks. The Ambassador was detained at Lahore and came back empty-hand after many months. After conquering Bhera Khushab and the country of the Chenab, Babur went back to Kabul.

In 1520, Badakshan was captured and was put under the charge of Humayun. In 1522, Kandhar was captured and given to Kamran.

At this time, Babur received many invitations and those came particularly from Daulat Khan Lodi, Governor of the Punjab, Ala-ud-Din, uncle of Ibrahim, and Rana Sanga. There could be no better chance for him to fulfil his ambition of conquering India. Babur at once started and reached Lahore. On his arrival at Lahore he found that Daulat Khan Lodi had already been turned out by an Afghan Chief. Babur defeated the Afghan Chief, captured Lahore and left for Kabul after appointing Ala-ud-Din as the Governor of Lahore. All this happened in 1524. However, Ala-ud- Din was not allowed to stay long at Lahore and he was driven out by Daulat Khan Lodi. Ala-ud-Din ran away to Kabul.