Humayun

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Humayun was descending the stone staircase from his library, the Sher Mandal, with his arms full of books. It was the 24th of January 1556. When the muezzin called the faithful to prayer, the emperor did what he always did at that sound. He tried to bow his knee in reverence. His foot caught in his robe, he slipped down several steps, and his temple struck a rugged stone edge. Three days later he was dead, in his forty-ninth year.

  This was the second Mughal emperor, born Nasir al-Din Muhammad on the 6th of March 1508. His regnal name meant the lucky one, the conqueror. The historian Stanley Lane-Poole found the irony unbearable, writing that there is no king named as wrongly as Humayun. He came to the throne of Delhi in 1530 at the age of 22, an inexperienced ruler. He then lost his entire empire and spent fifteen years in exile before clawing it back.

  How does a man lose almost everything his father built, wander a desert with a pregnant wife, eat horse meat boiled in soldiers' helmets, and still return to sit on the throne of Delhi? How did a Central Asian dynasty come home draped in Persian art and language? And why did his most lasting monument turn out to be his own tomb? The answers run through brothers who betrayed him, a Persian shah who saved him, and a son born in a borrowed house.

• 2. A Throne Divided

  ›

  Babur made an unusual choice for India. He divided the territories of his empire between two of his sons rather than handing the whole kingdom to the eldest. Primogeniture was the rule for most monarchies, but the Timurids followed the example of Genghis Khan. Under that system any male heir within a sub-branch held an equal right to the throne. Genghis Khan's empire had passed peacefully to his sons, yet almost every Chinggisid succession after that ended in fratricide.

  Humayun's half-brother Kamran Mirza inherited Kabul and Kandahar, the northernmost parts of their father's lands. The two became bitter rivals. Not every umarah, the nobles, even accepted Humayun as the rightful successor. While Babur still lived, some had tried and failed to install his brother-in-law, Mahdi Khwaja, as ruler instead. When Babur died, Humayun's own territories were the least secure of all.

  Humayun succeeded his father on the 26th of December 1530. The pattern was set from the first day. His brothers revolted after he split the empire among them. One brother, Hindal Mirza, supported him, but was later assassinated. Humayun began building a tomb for Hindal. The structure was never finished, because the emperor was soon forced to flee, and the man who would chase him out had already begun to gather an army in the east.

• 3. The Rise Of Sher Shah

  ›

  Sher Shah Suri, also called Sher Khan, had settled along the river Ganges in Bihar. He was one of two major rivals for Humayun's lands, the other being Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat to the southwest. Humayun's first campaign aimed straight at Sher Shah. Halfway through, he abandoned it to deal with a threat from Ahmed Shah in Gujarat, annexing Gujarat, Malwa, Champaner, and the great fort of Mandu.

  In 1535 Humayun learned that the Sultan of Gujarat planned to strike Mughal territory at Bayana with Portuguese aid. He marched, capturing the forts of Mandu and Champaner within a month. Then, instead of pressing the attack, he stopped to consolidate. Like his father, Humayun was a frequent user of opium. Bahadur escaped to the Portuguese, and in a popular revolt he recaptured all of Gujarat in 1536. In February 1537 Bahadur was killed when a botched plan to kidnap the Portuguese viceroy ended in a fire-fight he lost.

  While Humayun was busy in Gujarat, Sher Khan invaded Bengal and besieged its capital, Gaur. Humayun set off to relieve the siege but was delayed taking Chunar, a fort held by Sher Shah's son. Gaur fell, its great stores of grain were emptied, and Humayun arrived to find corpses littering the roads. The wealth of Bengal flowed east into Sher Shah's hands, giving him a substantial war chest for the battles to come.

• 4. Betrayal And Defeat

  ›

  In June 1539, Sher Shah met Humayun at the Battle of Chausa on the banks of the Ganges near Buxar. Both sides dug into entrenched positions, leaving the Mughal artillery immobile. Humayun turned to diplomacy, sending Muhammad Aziz as ambassador. He agreed to let Sher Shah rule Bengal and Bihar as provinces granted by the emperor, stopping short of full sovereignty. To save face, both sides arranged a mock charge and a feigned retreat.

  The Mughal troops made their charge, Sher Shah's men retreated as agreed, and then the Mughals relaxed. They returned to their entrenchments without posting a proper guard. Sher Shah saw the opening and broke his word. That night his army fell on the sleeping camp and killed most of the men. Humayun survived by swimming across the Ganges on an air-filled water skin, helped across by Shams al-Din Muhammad, and slipped quietly back to Agra.

  Back in Agra, Humayun found all three brothers present and pardoned them again, even Hindal, who had declared himself acting emperor and whose men had killed the grand Mufti, Sheikh Buhlul. Kamran withdrew to Lahore when Humayun refused a quick attack. On the 17th of May 1540, the brothers met Sher Shah at the Battle of Kannauj, 200 kilometres east of Agra. Humayun was soundly defeated. Sher Shah founded the short-lived Sur Empire with its capital at Delhi, and Humayun was driven into fifteen years of exile.

• 5. Wilderness And An Heir

  ›

  From Lahore the four brothers watched Sher Shah draw nearer each day. Humayun offered him all of Hindustan, asking only that Sirhind mark the boundary between them. Sher Shah's reply was curt: I have left you Kabul, you should go there. Kabul belonged to Kamran, who would surrender nothing. Kamran even proposed siding with Sher Shah in return for most of the Punjab. Urged to make an example of Kamran and kill him, Humayun refused, citing Babur's last words: do nothing against your brothers, even though they may deserve it.

  Around 1540, after losing Kannauj, Humayun visited the Sikh Guru Angad at Khadur Sahib. According to Sikh accounts, the Guru was teaching children and did not greet the emperor at once. When Humayun lashed out, the Guru reminded him that he had run from the fight when his throne was at stake, and now wished to attack a man at prayer. In texts written more than a century later, the Guru is said to have blessed him and promised he would one day regain the throne.

  Humayun rode on across the Thar Desert when the Hindu ruler Rao Maldeo Rathore allied with Sher Shah. With his pregnant wife Hamida Bano, rations ran low and even drinking water was scarce. When her horse died, no one would lend the eight-months-pregnant queen a mount, so Humayun gave her his own and rode a camel for six kilometres until Khaled Beg offered his. He later called this the lowest point in his life. Seeking refuge, he reached the oasis town of Amarkot. There, in the household of the Hindu Rajput Rana Prasad Rao, Hamida Bano gave birth to the future emperor Akbar on the 15th of October 1542. Humayun had checked the planets with his astronomer and astrolabe to fix the date. Soon after, he left for Sindh, leaving the infant behind to be adopted by Askari Mirza.

• 6. The Persian Refuge

  ›

  Emir Hussein Umrani, the ruler of Sindh, proved the rare man who did not deceive Humayun. He welcomed the emperor and helped him gather horses, weapons, and alliances. Hundreds of Sindhi and Baloch tribesmen joined the Mughals, among them the Leghari, Magsi, and Rind, as Humayun declared himself the rightful Timurid heir of Babur. On the 11th of July 1543 he crossed the Indus with 300 camels and 2000 loads of grain, bound for Kandahar.

  Finding no help from his brothers, Humayun fled to the Safavid Empire with only 40 men, his wife Bega Begum, and her companion. They crossed mountains and valleys, at one point living on horse meat boiled in the soldiers' helmets. It took a month to reach Herat, where everything changed. An armed escort greeted them, roads were cleaned before them, and they were given lavish food, clothing, and fine accommodation. Humayun went sightseeing and marvelled at Persian art and architecture, much of it sponsored by his own relatives, the Timurid Sultan Husayn Bayqarah and the princess Gauhar Shad.

  The painter Kamaleddin Behzad sent two pupils to join Humayun's court, and the emperor asked if they would serve him should he regain Hindustan. They agreed. He finally met Shah Tahmasp in July at Qazvin, six months after arriving, amid feasts and parties later painted on a wall of the Chehel Sotoun palace in Esfahan. Tahmasp urged Humayun to convert from Sunni to Shia Islam. When Kamran offered to hand over Kandahar in exchange for Humayun dead or alive, Tahmasp refused. Instead he staged a celebration with 300 tents, 12 musical bands, and meat of all kinds, and gave Humayun 12,000 elite cavalry and 300 veterans of his personal guard, asking only that Kandahar be his if Humayun won.

• 7. Clawing Back Kabul

  ›

  On the 21st of March 1545, Humayun reached Kandahar with 14,000 Persian soldiers and began a siege. He sent Bairam Khan to Kabul to win over the Timurid princes. On the 3rd of September Askari surrendered the fort, and Kandahar passed to the Persians as agreed. Then the Persian troops withdrew their help. A month later Humayun launched a surprise attack, drove out the garrison, and seized the city he had promised to the shah. By the 18th of November 1545 he entered Kabul without resistance and met Akbar again after nearly two years.

  The years that followed were a grinding cycle of campaigns against Kamran across Badakhshan and beyond. At Tirgiran, Humayun defeated Mirza Sulaiman. Kamran returned from Sindh, took Ghazni and then Kabul by force, and during the siege placed the child Akbar on the battlements, exposing him to enemy fire. Kamran escaped through a breach in the wall on the 27th of April 1547, then surrendered on the 17th of August 1548 in exchange for Kulab. The fighting wounded Humayun more than once, including an ambush in the Qibchaq defile around mid-1550 that left many believing he was dead.

  Humayun had hardened. He ordered the execution of Yadgar Nasir Mirza and exiled Askari. After recalling Bairam Khan to deal with Kamran's ally, he had Haji Muhammad Khan executed once Bairam persuaded the man to switch sides. On the night of the 20th of November 1551, Kamran attacked at Jiryar in Nangarhar and was defeated, but Mirza Hindal was killed. Kamran was finally handed over by the Gakkhar chief Sultan Adam. On his nobles' advice, Humayun had Kamran blinded in 1553 and sent him to Mecca. With all his brothers gone, no rival threatened his throne.

• 8. Return To Delhi And After

  ›

  By 1554, Bairam Khan left Kandahar to join Humayun for an Indian campaign. Humayun held Kandahar, Kabul, and Ghazni, and word arrived of Islam Shah's death and chaos in India under the young Firuz. He gathered a vast army for Delhi. Because of the Safavid role in that army, most of the soldiers were Shia, so much so that one Shaikh Ahmad told Humayun he could not find a single man bearing the names of the other Companions. Humayun placed the army under Bairam Khan, a wise move given his own record of military ineptitude.

  Bairam Khan led the army through the Punjab almost unopposed. The one major battle came against Sikandar Shah Suri at Sirhind, where Bairam used the old trick of a feigned retreat to lure the enemy onto entrenched defences. At the Battle of Sirhind on the 22nd of June 1555, Sikandar Shah Suri's forces were decisively defeated and the Mughal Empire was reestablished. Towns and villages welcomed the army as it advanced, and on the 23rd of July 1555 Humayun once again sat on Babur's throne in Delhi.

  His return had changed Mughal court culture for good. A large retinue of Persian noblemen came with him, and Persian art, architecture, language, and literature came to overshadow the dynasty's Central Asian roots. Stone carvings and thousands of Persian manuscripts from his time still remain in the subcontinent. After his death, his body was moved first to Kalanaur, where Akbar was crowned, then buried in Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, the first grand garden tomb in Mughal architecture. It was commissioned by his devoted chief wife, Bega Begum, and it set the precedent later followed by the Taj Mahal. Akbar later asked his aunt Gulbadan Begum to write the Humayun nameh, a memoir of his father known today from a single battered manuscript in the British Library.