Write a short essay comparing the fortunes of Babur, Humayun, and Sher Shah Suri.
Answers
Bābur came from the Barlas tribe of Mongol origin, but isolated members of the tribe considered themselves Turks in language and customs through long residence in Turkish regions. Hence, Bābur, though called a Mughal, drew most of his support from Turks, and the empire he founded was Turkish in character. His family had become members of the Chagatai clan, by which name they are known. He was fifth in male succession from Timur and 13th through the female line from Genghis Khan. Bābur’s father, ʿUmar Shaykh Mīrzā, ruled the small principality of Fergana to the north of the Hindu Kush mountain range. Because there was no fixed law of succession among the Turks, every prince of the Timurids—the dynasty founded by Timur—considered it his right to rule the whole of Timur’s dominions. Those territories were vast, and, hence, the princes’ claims led to unending wars. The Timurid princes, moreover, considered themselves kings by profession, their business being to rule others without observing too precisely whether any particular region had actually formed a part of Timur’s empire. Bābur’s father, true to that tradition, spent his life trying to recover Timur’s old capital of Samarkand (now in Uzbekistan), and Bābur followed in his footsteps. The qualities needed to succeed in that dynastic warfare were the abilities to inspire loyalty and devotion, to manage the turbulent factions often caused by family feuds, and to draw revenue from the trading and agricultural classes. Bābur eventually mastered them all, but he was also a commander of genius.
Nasir-ud-Din Muḥammad[1] (Persian: نصیرالدین محمد, romanized: Nasīr-ad-Dīn Muhammad; 6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), better known by his regnal name, Humayun (Persian: همایون, romanized: Humāyūn), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern India, and Bangladesh from 1530 to 1540 and again from 1555 to 1556. Like his father, Babur, he lost his kingdom early but regained it with the aid of the Safavid dynasty of Persia, with additional territory. At the time of his death in 1556, the Mughal Empire spanned almost one million square kilometres.
In December 1530, Humayun succeeded his father to the throne of Delhi as ruler of the Mughal territories in the Indian subcontinent. Humayun was an inexperienced ruler when he came to power, at the age of 22. His half-brother Kamran Mirza inherited Kabul and Kandahar, the northernmost parts of their father's empire. Kamran was to become a bitter rival of Humayun.
Humayun lost Mughal territories to Sher Shah Suri, but regained them 15 years later with Safavid aid. Humayun's return from Persia was accompanied by a large retinue of Persian noblemen and signalled an important change in Mughal court culture. The Central Asian origins of the dynasty were largely overshadowed by the influences of Persian art, architecture, language, and literature. There are many stone carvings and thousands of Persian manuscripts in India dating from the time of Humayun.
Subsequently, Humayun further expanded the Empire in a very short time, leaving a substantial legacy for his son, Akbar.
Sher Shah’s empire extended from Bengal to the Indus, excluding Kashmir. Sher Shah defeated Maldeo of Mewar, his chief opponent, at Samel (1544). At his death, Sher Shah was succeeded by his second son, Islam Shah (1545-53), who spent most of his time putting down rebellions. At his death in 1553, there was civil war among his successors and Humayun managed to recover his empire.
Sher Shah is well known for fostering trade and commerce, improving roads (the Grand Trunk Road), building sarais for travellers, etc. His currency reforms helped commerce and handicrafts. He struck fine gold, silver and copper coins of uniform standard in place of the debased coins of mixed metal.
He did not make many changes in the administrative divisions prevailing since the time of the sultanate, but paid special attention to, and improved the land revenue system, the army and justice. Schedules of rates (called ‘ray’) were drawn up, laying down the States’s share of the different types of crops. The State share was fixed at one-third of the produce.