Humayun (1530 – 1556) : Biography, Battles, Tomb

Humayun: Humayun the (born March 6, 1508, Kabul [Afghanistan]—died January 15, 1556, Delhi [India]) was the eldest son and successor of Bābur, who ruled from 1530 to 1540 and again from 1555 to 1556. Humayun was the second Mughal ruler who consolidated his empire. Humayun inherited the hope rather than the fact of empire because the Afghans, Rajputs, and sultanates were merely restrained but not reconciled to Mughal supremacy by the Mughal victories.

This is evident through the conflicts with Bahadur Shah, Sher Shah, and other regional rulers. Early in his reign, Humayun lost his entire state to Sher Shah Suri but regained it 15 years later with Safavid aid. His death marked the end of one phase and the beginning of another one in Mughal history. Read below this article to learn more about the Biography of Humayun: Empire’s Administrative System.

Humayun

Full Name	Nasir-ud-Din Muḥammad Humayun
Date of Birth	March 6, 1508
Place of Birth	Kabul, Afghanistan
Parents	Babur (Father), the founder of the Mughal Empire; Maham Begum (Mother)
Ascension to Throne	1530, after the death of his father, Babur
Major Challenges	Threats from Sher Shah Suri; internal dissent
Loss and Exile	Lost the empire to Sher Shah Suri in 1540; spent years in exile in Persia and Afghanistan
Return to Power	Regained the throne in 1555 with support from the Safavid Shah of Persia
Cultural Contributions	Patronage of the arts, including Persian poetry and miniature painting
Architectural Legacy	Construction of the Dinpanah fort (later Purana Qila) in Delhi
Successor	His son, Akbar, one of the greatest Mughal emperors
Date of Death	1556, due to an accidental fall from the stairs of his library
Historical Significance	Played a crucial role in the continuation and expansion of the Mughal Empire; influenced Mughal culture

Literary and Archaeological Sources of Humayun’s Reign.

Scholars have used various literary sources to construct the history of Humayun’s reign. Some of the important sources included Humayun Nama, the ‘Book of Humayun,” written in the 16th century C.E. as an eyewitness account of Humayun’s life by his half-sister, Gulbadan Begum. ‘Ain-i-Akbari’ by Abul Fazl, one of the nine jewels in Akbar’s court, not only provides a detailed document recording the administration of emperor Akbar’s empire, but it also provides valuable information about Humayun’s reign. Tarikh-i-Rashidi, written by Mirza Muhammad Haidar, gives a history of the Moghul dynasty up to the time of Humayun.

uzk-e-Babri (Baburnama), written by Babur, provides a detailed account of Babur’s life and his conquests and also gives insights into Humayun’s early life. ‘Akbar-Nama, written by Abul Fazl, chronicles the reign of Akbar and contains valuable information about the final years of Humayun’s reign.

Archaeological sources of Humayun‘s reign included the Purana Qila Complex in Delhi, which is a significant site. Textual sources such as the Ain-i-Akbari of Abul Fazal (16th century) mention that Humayun had built the fort at the site of Indraprastha, the ancient capital of the Pandavas.

Humayun and his Ascent to Power

Six months after his succession, Humayun besieged the fortress of Kalinjar in Bundelkhand, gained a decisive victory over Afghans at Douhrua, drove out Sultan Mahmood Lodhi from Jaunpur, and even defeated Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. His victories, however, were short-lived due to the weakness of his character. Humayun had three brothers, Kamran, Askari, and Hindal. Humayun divided the empire among his brothers, but this proved to be a great blunder on his part. Kamran was given Kabul and Kandahar. Sambhal and Alwar were given to Askari and Hindal, respectively.

Humayun captured Gujarat from Bahadur Shah and appointed Askari as its governor, but soon Bahadur Shah recovered Gujarat from Askari, who fled from there. In the east, Sher Khan became powerful. Humayun marched against him, and in the Battle of Chausa, held in 1539, Sher Khan destroyed the Mughal army, and Humayun escaped from there. Humayun reached out to Agra to negotiate with his brothers.

In 1540, in the Battle of Bilgram or Ganges, also known as the Battle of Kanauj, Humayun was forced to fight with Sher Khan alone, and after losing his kingdom, he became an exile for the next fifteen years. In 1952, during his wanderings in the deserts of Sindh, Humayun married Hamida Banu Begum, daughter of Sheikh Ali Amber Jaini, who had been a preceptor of Humayun’s brother Hindal. On November 23, 1542, Humayun’s wife gave birth to Akbar Amarkot’s Hindu chief, Rana Prasad, who promised Humayun to help him conquer Thatta.

Humayun and the Empire’s Administrative System

Humayun began to face a number of serious problems, some of which had arisen after Babur’s death in December 1530. A major problem was the unsettled state of the administration and the ambition of the begs who wanted to assert themselves. The Afghans had been weakened but continued to nurse the ambition of setting up independent Afghan kingdoms, which could help in expelling the Mughals from India. Babur had little inclination and, at any rate, no time to plan and set up a new system of administration in India. Both in Afghanistan and India, he tried to continue the established system of administration and left the administrative work in the hands of his begs, who were given large tracks in assignment (Wajh). Humayun, who succeeded Babur, was burdened with the financial crisis that his father faced at the end of his reign in December 1530.

Six months after his accession, Humayun besieged the powerful fort of Kalinjar in Bundelkhand. Though the Chandela ruler had a reputation for bravery, and though he surrendered, he was allowed to keep the fort in return for accepting Humayun’s suzerainty and giving 12 men gold. Humayun spent a year at Agra, organising government and court society. He divided court society broadly into administrative, ecclesiastical, and cultural sections. Various rewards and titles were given to the nobles and others to attach them more closely to the new regime.

The Emperor found time for planning buildings and approving new inventions. His instituting a drum of justice (tabl-i-adl) to enable grievances to be brought to the notice of the king may be considered a first step towards earning a measure of public support for the new Mughal state. He tried to relive the burden on the village folk, the cultivators, and the artisans and merchants, and he tried to help foreign traders by remitting tamgha and some other currencies. Humayun spent the first two years of his reign consolidating his position. He began to get occupied with issues in Malwa, eastern Rajasthan, and Gujarat, where Bahadur Shah, son of Muzaffar Shah II of Gujarat, was emerging as a challenge.

Humayun and his Tussle with Bahadur Shah and Sher Khan

The main problem facing Humayun at that time was that posed by the Afghans of east Pakistan and Bihar. Humayun learned that an Afghan sardar, Sher Khan, who had once been in the service of Babur but had defected, had recently been able to lay his hands on the fort of Chunar. Sher Khan offered to serve the Emperor with a contingent of 500 troops under his son, Qutb Khan.

In 1540, in the Battle of Bilgram or Ganges, also known as the Battle of Kanauj, Humayun was forced to fight with Sher Khan alone, and after losing his kingdom, he became an exile for the next fifteen years. Six months after his accession, Humayun seized the powerful fort of Kalinjar in Bundelkhand. Apart from Sher Shah, Bahadur Shah of Gujarat was one ruler who posed a threat to Mughal sovereignty.

Humayun’s Gujarat Campaign and Conflict with Bahadur Shah

Though Bahadur Shah had not convinced himself that he was in a position to challenge the Mughals, a conflict between the Mughals and a power based in western India was in the logic of things. It was initially Bahadur Shah that launched an attack against the Mughals under Tatar Shah to attack Agra, while another force was to attack Kalinjar in Bundelkhan, and a third one was to move against a force of 40, 000 and capture Bayana. Humayun decided to conquer Gujarat.

In 1535, after much military preparation, instead of marching on Chittor, which was being besieged by Bahadur Shah, Humayun marched via Raisen and Sarangpur to Ujjain. Bahadur Shah advanced and came face-to-face with Humayun at Mandsor, 80 miles north of Ujjain. After a preliminary attack by Bahadur Shah and Rumi Khan, Humayun’s forces suffered severely. Humayun ordered his forces not to venture near but to cut off all food supplies at Bahadur Shah’s camp. Bahadur Shah’s rich camp fell into Humayun’s hands. Bahadhur Shah, having no heart to withstand Humayun, finally left for Diu, which was dominated by the Portuguese navy. Humayun finally succeeded in expelling Bahadur Shah from Gujarat. The conquest of Champanir completed the Mughal conquest of southern Gujarat. Northern Gujarat was gradually occupied when Humayun fought against Imad-ul-Mulk, who was a slave of Bahadur Shah. Ahmadabad was finally occupied by the Mughals in 1535.

The Bengal Campaign and Struggle with Sher Khan

Sher Khan had resolved to expel the Mughals from India and was seeking means to unify the Afghans under his banner in order to do so. It was Bengal that was the main bone of contention between Sher Khan and Humayun. After establishing his virtual dominance over Bihar, Sher Khan had to fight off a number of Bengali invasions of Bihar. Sher Khan’s resolve to conquer Bengal was to be undertaken without incurring direct Mughal hostility. Humayun’s demand for Bengal resulted in Sher Khan leaving Bihar to Humayun and paying him an annual peshkash of ten lakh rupees out of Bengal if his possession of Bengal was confirmed. The clash between Humayun and Sher Khan was the clash between two highly ambitious individuals who have the vision of an Indian north of the Vindhyas being united under one political aegis.

After patching up a government in Bengal, Humayun returned to Agra, as many of his horses had died in the climate of West Bengal. While Humayun was in Bengal, Sher Khan had captured Banaras, besieged Chunar and Jaunpur, and devastated Mughal possessions up to Kannauj and Sambhal. Humayun’s absence brought to light the internal rivalries between Humayun and his brothers, Askari and Humayun. Historians considered the Bengal campaign of Humayun to be totally ill-conceived. On June 26, 1539, Humayun was defeated by Sher Shah at the Battle of Chausa. Humayun followed a faulty strategy of placing his soldiers badly and allowed Sher Khan to take his unawares.

After the defeat, he did not feel strong enough to defend Agra and retreated to Bilgram near Kannauj, where he fought his last battle with Sher Khan, who had now assumed the title of Shah. Humāyūn was again defeated. He then fled from Lahore to the Sindh (or Sind) region, from Sindh to Rajputana, and from Rajputana back to Sindh. Not feeling secure even in Sindh, he fled (July 1543) to Iran to seek military assistance from its ruler, the Ṣafavid Shah Ṭahmāsp I. The shah agreed to assist him with an army on the condition that Humāyūn become a Shiʿi Muslim and return Kandahār, an important frontier town and commercial centre, to Iran in the event of his successful acquisition of that fortress. In 1545, with Persian help, Humayun captured Kandhar and Kabul but refused to cede Kandhar to Persia. Humayun sought help from the Safavid ruler. It was by 1555 that Humayun was able to recapture Delhi from the Sur empire and settle there until his death in 1556.

Architectural Development under Humayun

Mughal architecture during Humayun also had its share of individuality and distinctness. An unusual and almost unseen ‘floating palace’, formed from four barges, each bearing an inward-facing arch and attached in such a manner that an octagonal pool formed the central portion. In addition, Humayun is also known to have designed three-story collapsible palaces that were gilded and domed. More traditional palaces were constructed at Gwalior, Agra, and Delhi. The city, named Din-Panah, where the Puran Kila is located, was auspiciously situated upon the age-old legendary site recognised as Indraprastha, long associated with the traditional Hindu epic Mahabharata. The city was also located in very close proximity to the shrine of Delhi’s most revered saint, Nizam al-Din Auliya.

In the Puran Kila Complex, the Bada Darwaza acts as the main and only point of entry to the fort today. It is a robust structure flanked by two massive bastions. While the gate is made of red sandstone with inlays of white and greyish-black marble, the bastions are constructed of stone and rubble. Multiple slits for arrows are visible both in the upper part of the gate and the bastions.

The Humayun Darwaza is the southern entry to the fort complex. This gateway is divided into two stories, with a high arch in the middle.

The third gateway, the Talaqi Darwaza, or the Forbidden Gate, is located on the northern side of the complex. The name Talaqi is an intriguing one and has several interesting stories attached to it. The gateway has two entrances: upper and lower. While the upper and more ornamental one served as the main entrance, the lower one once opened at the level of the moat.

The sole inscribed monument belonging to Humayun’s patronage is a mosque in Agra, known by the name of its locality, Kachpura. Two inscriptions indicate that the mosque was completed in 1530, the year of Humayun’s accession to the throne. On the mosque, eight-pointed stars and lozenge patterns are embossed into the rectangular facade; possibly these were once painted to accentuate the design, conjuring up the brilliantly coloured glazed tile ornamentation of Herat and Samarqand.

The mosque is, however, in ruins in contemporary times, so it is highly unclear how many bays originally composed the double-aisled side wings. While no traces of enclosure walls and entrance gates remain, they were almost undoubtedly part of the original plan. The overall appearance and plan of this structure suggest that it, just like Babur’s Panipat mosque, was designated to emulate older Timurid types.

Conclusion

Humayun was a popular Mughal ruler and the eldest son of Babur. If you’re curious to know more about his life and some interesting facts related to him, the above article is for you. We have provided complete facts about the literary sources, administrative system during Humayun’s reign, his access to power, and archaeological development.

1. Who built the tomb of Humayun?

The widow of Humayun, Haji Begam, commenced the construction of his tomb in 1569, fourteen years after his death.

2. Who wrote Humayun Nama?

Humayun Nama “Book of Humayun” was written in the 16th century C.E. as an eyewitness account of Humayun’s life by his half-sister, Gulbadan Begum.

3. What was the reason for Humayun’s death?

Humayun died on January 27, 1556, by falling from the staircase of his library.