Babur (Zahir al-Din Muhammad)

Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, soldier of fortune, first of the Mughal rulers in India, diarist and poet, was descended on his father's side in the fifth generation from Timur and through his mother Kutluk Nigar Khanum in the fifteenth degree from Chingiz Khan. He was born on 6 Muharram 888/14 February 1483 and succeeded his father 'Umar Shaykh as Mirza of Farghana in Ramadan 899/June 1494. ²

Babur inherited his father's contest with his kinsmen for the towns and fertile areas of Central Asia. By Rabi' I 903/November 1497 he had fended off his uncles' attempts on Farghana and occupied Samarkand, only to lose it four months later; after losing Andijan as well he divided Farghana with his brother Jahangir in 905/1498-9. He took Samarkand by surprise the next year but was starved out by Shaybani Khan after the battle of Sar-i Pul (Ramadan 906/April-May 1501), and became a fugitive nomad. His uncles' supporting army was routed at Archiyan in Dhu'l-Hijja 908/June 1503; after nearly a year among the nomads of Sukh and Hushyar he turned to Kabul (Muharram 910/June 1504), securing it with his brother and asserting tribute from the surrounding Afghan tribes. The death of Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara let Shaybani Khan take most of Khurasan, but Shah Isma'il Safawi defeated and slew him at Marw on 1 Ramadan 916/2 December 1510. Babur then occupied Samarkand a third time (Rajab 917/October 1511) as a client of Shah Isma'il, making an outward profession of Shi'ism — which cost him popular support — and lost the city again after the defeats at Kul-i Malik (Safar 918/May 1512) and Ghujduwan (3 Ramadan 918/12 November 1512). ²

After two years around Kunduz, Babur returned to Kabul, his centre for enterprises east and south; Qandahar was secured by negotiation in Jumada II 928/May 1522. Invited into Hindustan by Dawlat Khan Lodi and 'Alam Khan against Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, he destroyed Ibrahim's forces at Panipat in Rajab 932/April 1526, occupied Delhi and Agra, and his victory at Khanua over Rana Sanga of Chitor (Jumada I 933/March 1527) secured the Rajputana front while his victory at the Ghaghra-Ganges junction in Sha'ban 935/May 1529 extended his paramountcy to Bengal. He died on 6 Jumada I 937/26 December 1530 at Agra; his body was later moved to its present grave. The article characterises him as a cautious general who learned from the Uzbak commanders, applying organised discipline, field defences, musketry, artillery and the encircling movement. (The EI2 queue row's text is cut mid-article at this point; the closing paragraphs and bibliography were not captured.) ¹