Humayun

Humayun (Kabul, March 6, 1508-Delhi, February 22, 1556), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire of India. He ruled from 1530 to 1540 (and then between June 1555 and January 1556 until his accidental death) a territory that today corresponds to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and part of northern India. He was the son of Babur, the founder of the empire. He ascended the throne on December 30, 1530 despite the opposition of a part of the nobility, inheriting from his father an immense territory that he had not had time to organize. He lost his empire for a long period of time but eventually, with the help of the Persian Empire, he regained it, and even bigger.

Reign of Humayun

Taking advantage of the instability of the empire, undermined by the intrigues of the court, the rajahs subdued by his father rebelled. In 1531, Humayun led his army before the Kalinjar fortress. But due to a shortage of funds from the imperial treasury, he accepted the heavy ransom offered and lifted the siege. Humayun then set out to subdue the Afghans settled in Bihar whom he defeated in 1532. In December of that same year he managed to subdue the troops of Sher Shah Suri.

Meanwhile, Bahadur Shah annexed the area of Malwa (corresponding to a part of the current state of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan). Bahadur fortified himself at the Chittor fort. Humayun took the fort and forced Bahadur to flee. The troops of the empire continued their march, taking the fortress of Mandu and the cities of Cambay and Ahmedabad. He left his brother Askari as governor of the area; He was unable to defend the region when Bahadur Shah attacked it in 1536.

While Humayun continued his campaigns in the west, Sher Shah strengthened his position in Bihar and launched the conquest of Bengal. Humayun decided to try to regain Bengal instead of pursuing Sher Shah. On June 26, 1539, the Mughal troops were defeated by the Afghans at the Battle of Chansa. Humayun was forced to flee to Agra accompanied only by a few loyal followers of him. He lost a new battle against the Afghans at Kanauj in 1540 which forced him to flee again, this time to Punjab and later to Sind. It was there, in Umarkot, that his son and heir, Akbar, was born in 1542.

Banishment and return to the throne

Humayun's flight ended in Persia where the shah offered him troops so he could regain the throne. In 1544, Humayun took the cities of Kandahar and Kabul, governed by his brother Kamran, who recovered them in 1546. The following year the city was taken again by Humayun. In 1549, Kamran seized Kandahar; Humayun recovered the village, blinded his brother and sent him to Mecca as penance.

After the accidental death of Sher Shah during the siege of Kalinjar (1545) his son, Islam Shah succeeded him. Humayun was now prepared to return to India and regain the throne from him. In 1554, he entered Peshawar; The following year he took Lahore. That same year, his victory against Afghan troops at the Battle of Macchiwara established his victory. In July 1555, Humayun finally entered Delhi and regained the throne after 15 years of dethroning (first in exile and then fighting in Mughal territory).

Personality

Edward S. Holden writes: "He was uniformly kind and considerate to his dependents, devoutly attached to his son Akbar, his friends, and his turbulent brothers. The misfortunes of his reign arose largely from his inability to treat them with rigor. Furthermore, he writes: "The same defects in his character, which make him less admirable as a successful ruler of nations, make us appreciate him more as a man." His fame has suffered because his reign fell between the brilliant conquests of Babur and the beneficent statesmanship of Akbar; but he was not unworthy of being the son of one and the father of the other. Stanley Lane-Poole writes in his book Medieval India: "His name meant the victor (Lucky/ Conqueror), there is no guy in history who is so badly named as Humayun", he was of forgiving nature. He further writes: "Unfortunate indeed... He had scarcely enjoyed his throne for six months in Delhi when he slipped from the polished steps of his palace and died in his forty-ninth year (January 24, 1556).. If there was a chance to fall, Humayun was not the man to lose it. "He staggered through his life and stumbled out of it."

Humayun ordered the execution by elephant crushing of an imam who he mistakenly believed was critical of his reign.

Death and legacy

The second emperor of the Mughals died in 1556 after accidentally falling from a staircase in his library. His wife, Hamida Begum, ordered a mausoleum to be built in his honor. Humayun's tomb located in Delhi has been considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1993. It is one of the best examples of Mughal art in India and is considered the precursor in style of the famous Taj Mahal in Agra.

On January 24, 1556, Humayun, with his arms full of books, was descending the stairs of his library when the muezzin announced the Azaan (the call to prayer). He had the habit, whenever he heard the call, of kneeling as a sign of reverence. Trying to kneel, he caught his foot on his tunic, slipped several steps, and hit his temple on a steep stone edge. He died three days later. His body was buried at Purana Quila initially, but, due to an attack by Hemu on Delhi and the capture of Purana Qila, Humayun's body was exhumed by the fleeing army and moved to Kalanaur in the Punjab. where Akbar was crowned. After the young Mughal emperor Akbar defeated and killed Hemu in the Second Battle of Panipat. Humayun's body was buried in Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, the first great garden tomb of Mughal architecture, setting the precedent later followed by the Taj Mahal and many other Indian monuments. It was commissioned by his favorite and devoted principal wife, Bega Begum.

Akbar later asked his paternal aunt, Gulbadan Begum, to write a biography of his father Humayun, the Humayun nameh (or Humayun-nama), and which he remembered from Babur.

The full title is Ahwal Humayun Padshah Jamah Kardom Gulbadan Begum bint Babur Padshah amma Akbar Padshah. She was only eight years old when Babur died, and she married at 17, and her work is in the style simple Persian.

Unlike other Mughal royal biographies (Timur's Zafarnama, the Baburnama, and his own Akbarnama) no richly illustrated copy has survived, and the work only It is known from a single battered and slightly incomplete manuscript, now in the British Library, which appeared in the 1860s. An English translation was published by Annette Beveridge in 1901, and English and Bengali editions have been published since 2000.

Wives and descendants

Of the union with Beqa Begum Taghai (1527-1581), nicknamed Haji Begum, daughter of Yadgar Mirza Taghay:

• Al Aman Mirza, (Agra 1528 - died young)
• Aqiqa Begum (Agra 1531 - drowned in Chausa on 27 June 1539)

Gul Barg Begum Barlas (1530/1533), daughter of Nizamuddin Ali Barlas Khalifa, and Sultanam Begum (married first to Mir Shah Hussein Arghoun); died after 1543; she has no offspring

Of the union with Hamida Banu Begum (Sindh, August 29, 1541), titled Mariam Makani; daughter of Sheikh Ali Akbar Jami, nicknamed Baba Dost; (1527 - Agra, August 29, 1604):

• Akbar
• Jahan Sultan Begum, (Sabz awar 1544 - Kabul 1547)
• Na Begum, (1545/1550 - Kotal Sitara autumn 1557)
• Na Begum, (1545/1550 - Jallalabad autumn 1557)

Nawab Bilqis Makani Mariam Beg (in Persia 1543/1544), daughter of Masum Beg and Sultanam, sister of Shah Tahmasp; no offspring

Of the union with Mah Chuchak Oghlan (1546 - Kabul March 1564), sister of Bairam Oghlan:

• Bakhtunissa Begum or Fakhrunissa Begum (Kabul 1550 - Agra 1608) married to Abul Maali Shah, murdered May 13, 1564 then Kwaja Hassan Naqshabandi
• Sakina Banu Begum, (1551 - after 1578) married to Shah Ghazi Khan Qazwini, son of Naqib Khan Qazwini
• Amina Banu Begum, (1552)
• Mohammed Hakim Mirza (Kabul 19 April 1553 - Kabul 10 October 1585); Governor of Badakstan
• Faruk Fal Mirza, (Kabul 1554- died young)
• Na Begum (1555/1556)

Shahzada Begum Miranshah (1551), daughter of Sultan Soleiman Mirza Miranshah and Haram Begum; no offspring

Concubines

• Maywa Jan, daughter of Chamberlain Khadang
• Chand Bibi, drowned in Chausa, June 27, 1539
• Shad Bibi, drowned in Chausa, June 27, 1539
• Bibi Gunwar whose
  • Bakshi Banu Begum, (September 1540) married to Sultan Ibrahim Mirza Miranshah, (1534 - dead in September 1560), son of Sultan Soleiman Mirza Miranshah and Haram Begum and then Mirza Sharafuddin Husain Ahrari, son of Kwaja Muin Ahrarim, dead in 1580
• Khanish Agha Khwarizmi, daughter of Jujuq Mirza Khwarizmi of whom:
  • Ibrahim Mirza, (Kabul 19 April 1553 - died young)
• Shaham Agha, on a pilgrimage to Mecca 1575
• Bibi Safiya, on a pilgrimage to Mecca 1575