53 Facts About Babur

Babur was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively.

Babur was given the posthumous name of Firdaws Makani.

Babur ascended the throne of Fergana in its capital Akhsikent in 1494 at the age of twelve and faced rebellion.

Babur conquered Samarkand two years later, only to lose Fergana soon after.

Babur formed a partnership with the Safavid ruler Ismail I and reconquered parts of Turkistan, including Samarkand, only to again lose it and the other newly conquered lands to the Sheybanids.

Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi, Sultan of Delhi, at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 CE and founded the Mughal Empire.

However, Sanga suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Khanwa due to Babur's skillful positioning of troops and modern tactics and firepower.

Babur was first buried in Agra but, as per his wishes, his remains were moved to Kabul and reburied.

Babur hailed from the Barlas tribe, which was of Mongol origin and had embraced Turkic and Persian culture.

Babur's 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 some luck involved.

Babur was fifteen years old and for him the campaign was a huge achievement.

Babur was able to hold the city despite desertions in his army, but he later fell seriously ill.

Babur 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.

For three years, Babur concentrated on building a strong army, recruiting widely amongst the Tajiks of Badakhshan in particular.

Babur then tried to reclaim Fergana, but lost the battle there and, escaping with a small band of followers, he wandered the mountains of central Asia and took refuge with hill tribes.

Babur finally went to Tashkent, which was ruled by his maternal uncle, but he found himself less than welcome there.

In 1504, Babur was able to cross the snowy Hindu Kush mountains and capture Kabul from the remaining Arghunids, who were forced to retreat to Kandahar.

Babur instead stayed at Herat after being invited by the two Mirza brothers.

Babur became acquainted with the work of the Chagatai poet Mir Ali Shir Nava'i, who encouraged the use of Chagatai as a literary language.

Babur spent two months there before being forced to leave because of diminishing resources; it later was overrun by Shaybani and the Mirzas fled.

Babur became the only reigning ruler of the Timurid dynasty after the loss of Herat, and many princes sought refuge with him at Kabul because of Shaybani's invasion in the west.

Babur prevailed during a potential rebellion in Kabul, but two years later a revolt among some of his leading generals drove him out of Kabul.

In return for Ismail's assistance, Babur permitted the Safavids to act as a suzerain over him and his followers.

Babur began to modernise and train his army despite it being, for him, relatively peaceful times.

Babur did employ the matchlock commander Mustafa Rumi and several other Ottomans.

Babur still wanted to escape from the Uzbeks, and he chose India as a refuge instead of Badakhshan, which was to the north of Kabul.

Babur received invitations from Daulat Khan Lodi, Governor of Punjab and Ala-ud-Din, uncle of Ibrahim.

Babur sent an ambassador to Ibrahim, claiming himself the rightful heir to the throne, but the ambassador was detained at Lahore, Punjab, and released months later.

Babur started for Lahore in 1524 but found that Daulat Khan Lodi had been driven out by forces sent by Ibrahim Lodi.

The sultan easily defeated and drove off Alam's army, and Babur realised that he would not allow him to occupy the Punjab.

Babur was supported by Afghan chiefs who felt Babur had been deceptive by refusing to fulfil promises made to them.

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 and muskets.

Babur recognised Sanga's skill in leadership, calling him one of the two greatest non-Muslim Indian kings of the time, the other being Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara.

On receiving news that Rana Sanga had made preparations to renew the conflict with him, Babur decided to isolate the Rana by defeating one of his staunchest allies, Medini Rai, who was the ruler of Malwa.

Babur himself expressed surprise that the upper fort had fallen within an hour of the final assault.

Babur defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi, the last Sultan of the Lodi dynasty, in 1526.

Babur did not initially know old Hindustani; however, his Turkic poetry indicates that he picked up some of its vocabulary later in life.

Babur was an infant when betrothed to Babur, who was himself five years old.

In 1504, Babur married Zaynab Sultan Begum, who died childless within two years.

Babur had four children by Maham Begum, of whom only one survived infancy.

Babur later married Mubaraka Yusufzai, a Pashtun woman of the Yusufzai tribe.

Babur then began to drink regularly, host wine parties and consume preparations made from opium.

Babur quit drinking for health reasons before the Battle of Khanwa, just two years before his death, and demanded that his court do the same.

Babur was opposed to the blind obedience towards the Chinggisid laws and customs that were influential in Turco-Mongol society:.

Babur was an acclaimed writer, who had a profound love for literature.

Babur's library was one of his most beloved possessions that he always carried around with him, and books were one of the treasures he searched for in new conquered lands.

Babur wrote most of his poems in Chagatai Turkic, known to him as Turki, but he composed in Persian.

Babur was first buried in Agra but, as per his wishes, his mortal remains were moved to Kabul and reburied in Bagh-e Babur in Kabul sometime between 1539 and 1544.

Babur emerged in his own telling as a Timurid Renaissance inheritor, leaving signs of Islamic, artistic literary, and social aspects in India.

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 make merry, for the world will not be there for you a second time.