Bābur summary

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Bābur , orig. Ẓahīr al-Dīn Muḥammad, (born Feb. 15, 1483, principality of Fergana—died Dec. 26, 1530, Agra, India), Emperor (1526–30) and founder of the Mughal dynasty of India. A descendant of Genghis Khan and Timur, he came from a tribe of Mongol origin but was Turkish in language and upbringing. In his youth he tried for 10 years (1494–1504) to gain control of Samarkand, Timur’s old capital. Those efforts ended in his losing his own principality in Fergana (modern Uzbekistan), but he consoled himself by seizing and holding Kabul (1504). After four failed attempts, he successfully occupied Delhi (1525). Surrounded by enemy states, Bābur (the name means “Tiger”) persuaded his homesick troops to stand their ground, and over the next four years he defeated his foes. His grandson Akbar consolidated the new empire. Bābur was also a gifted poet and a lover of nature who constructed gardens wherever he went. The Bābur-nāmeh, his prose memoirs, has become a world classic of autobiography.

emperor Summary

Emperor, title designating the sovereign of an empire, conferred originally on rulers of the ancient Roman Empire and on various later European rulers, though the term is also applied descriptively to some non-European monarchs. In republican Rome (c. 509–27 bce), imperator denoted a victorious

army Summary

Army, a large organized armed force trained for war, especially on land. The term may be applied to a large unit organized for independent action, or it may be applied to a nation’s or ruler’s complete military organization for land warfare. Throughout history, the character and organization of

Mughal emperors: Jahāngīr, Akbar, and Shah Jahān

Mughal dynasty Summary

Mughal dynasty, Muslim dynasty of Turkic-Mongol origin that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid-18th century. After that time it continued to exist as a considerably reduced and increasingly powerless entity until the mid-19th century. The Mughal dynasty was notable for its

government Summary

Government, the political system by which a country or community is administered and regulated. Most of the key words commonly used to describe governments—words such as monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy—are of Greek or Roman origin. They have been current for more than 2,000 years and have not