BABUR

TITLE:- al-ṣultānu 'l-ʿazam wa 'l-ḫāqān al-mukkarram pādshāh-e ghāzī), is more commonly known by his nickname, Bābur (بابر).

Zahir ud-din Muhammad Babur (February 23 [O.S. February 14] 1483 — January 5) was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia, Uzbekistan, Andijan who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of India. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother. Babur identified his lineage as Timurid and Chaghatay-Turkic, while his origin, milieu, training, and culture were steeped in Persian culture and so he was largely responsible for the fostering of this culture by his descendants, and for the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and historiographical results.

Reign:- 1526-1530.

Succeded by his son:- Humayun

Wives:-

ʿĀʾisha Ṣultān Begum

Bībī Mubārika Yuṣufzay
Dildār Begum
Gulnār Āghācha
Gulrukh Begum
Maham Begum.
Ma'suma Begum
Nargul Āghācha
Sayyida Afaq

Maham Begum gave birth to the next successor Humayun.

His position in Central Asia was precarious at best. In order to consolidate his rule, he invaded India five times, crossing the River Indus each time. The fifth expedition resulted in his encounter with Ibrahim Lodhi in the first battle of Panipat in April 1526. Babur's army was better equipped than Lodhi's; he had guns while the sultan relied on elephants. The most successful of Babur's innovations was the introduction of gunpowder, which had never been used before in the Sub-continent. This combined with Babur's newer tactics gave him a greater advantage. Babur's strategy won the war and Ibrahim Lodhi died fighting.

Panipat was merely the beginning of the Mughal rule. Akbar laid its real foundation in 1556.

In 1528, he captured Chanderi from the Rajput chief Medini Rao, and a year later he defeated the Afghan chiefs under Mahmud Lodhi in the battle of Ghagra at Bihar. These conquests made Babur the "Master of Hindustan". He was not destined to enjoy the fruits of his conquests as he died shortly afterwards in Agra on December 26, 1530. He was buried at Kabul in accordance with his wish.

The name Babur is derived from the Persian word babr, meaning "tiger", a word that repeatedly appears in Firdawsī's Shāhnāma and had also been borrowed by the Turkic languages of Central Asia

BiographyThe main source for Babur's biography is a written account of his life, written by Babur himself. His memoirs are known as the Baburnama and are considered the first true autobiography in Islamic literature.

He wrote the Bāburnāma in Chaghatai Turkic, his mother-tongue, though his prose was highly Persianized in its sentence structure, morphology, and vocabulary. The work gives a valuable impression of Babur's surrounding environment.

He died at the age of 47 on January 5 [O.S. 26 December 1530] 1531, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Humayun. Though he wished to be buried in his favourite garden in Kabul, a city he had always loved, he was first buried in a Mausoleum in the capital city of Agra. Roughly nine years later his wishes were fulfilled by Sher Shah Suri and Babur was buried in a beautiful garden Bagh-e Babur in Kabul, now in Afghanistan. The inscription on his tomb reads:-

Tomb in Kabul.

If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this!

"Agar ferdows dar jahan ast..

hamin ast o hamin ast o hamin ast..."

It is believed that in some religious ceremony babur sacrificed his life for his son humayun who was seriously ill..

and after few days of that religious ceremony Humayun started reganing health and Babur's health started degrading.