Baburs Wonderful Journey

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He received a thorough education, developing the arts as literature. His language was Chagatai, an orientated version of Turkish, which he will use to write his memoirs. He was also an accomplished rider, and a good swimmer. His father Omar died on June 8, At that time, in these regions, the rules of succession were not established in a clear way, it is besides the wars of succession which weakened the future moghul empire.

After Omar's death his uncles tried to ascend the throne of Ferghana but they failed, his son Zahir having managed to grant it. He is only 12 years old. He then thinks of expanding his kingdom and targets Samarkand, a prosperous city former capital of the Timurid kingdom which he believes has legitimacy.

Early years

It will be his first conquest, in , but during this battle the nobles of his kingdom dismiss him. Babur then returns to retrieve Ferghana but along the way his troops abandon him, automatically freeing Samarkand, lost. Having formed a small army he recovers his territory of Ferghana but in he is again hunted by the Uzbeks and their warlords Muhammad Shaybani.

Only surrounded by a few dozen loyal warriors Babur will wander into his lost kingdom until , when he reaches Kabul and seizes the city. But Kabul was a rich city, it is found at the head of a kingdom certe small, but prosperous. In his enemy Muhammad Shaybani died. Babur will then claim Ferghana.

Babur – The First Mughal Emperor

He will ally himself with the Turkmen to obtain an army and eventually take Samarkand again in , but as the previous time he is driven out the following year, defeated by the Uzbeks. He returned to Kabul in without having achieved his ends. Fearing the Uzbeks, on the western facade of his kingdom, he turned to the East and its region of Punjab, a region formerly a member of the Timurid Empire. Region rather rich, its annexation would be a good source of income for him and it would open to him the doors of India. So he sent several troops into the Punjab to try to take Lahore, which he managed to do in Burb therefore seized this opportunity and allied himself with a Punjab rebel leader, Alam Khan, who provided him with an army of 12, men.

At the head of such an army Babur walks on Delhi. Justifying his unjust rule actually shows the real problems within our Muslim "ummah" where any ruler or ruling elite can get away with the sloutgher of its own people, and lack of knowledge of our own religion also makes us to side with the "Batil" unjust in many cases.

Hitler also once controlled a vast territory in Europe and build huge buildings, highways and industries, in reality, he was a pure anti-human. But it's really a matter of time when masses would know the truth. Same way, All the fabricated history of the so called Muslim tyrants is being exposed by the thoughtful muslim scholars. We should all support these brave souls. The gurdwaras looks like are maintained by someone but the gates are closed.

Hopefully next time we will get to view the insides of these historical structures. Nanak Ji started his life and spiritual journey from Sialkot and then moved to Gujranwala many millions are his followers and diciples. The government should rebuild the gurdwaras to their former glory will get paid back with tourism to this holy place. Guru Nanak went all around the world and there is a Gurdwara in Iraq which he also visited. Just search on google largest Indian empire Babur did not differentiate but he never accounts destroying mosques, he destroyed Temples.

So did Humayun, Aurangzeb. Akbar was nice one among these who was neutral. His ancestor massacred millions of innocent Muslims before conversion to Islam. Khalid beta you are now the light of Punjabi renaissance and a beacon of hope for all Punjabis.

Major successes

We are so proud of you. It reminds me of the saying "History is written by the conquerors". It's always interesting to find a counter narrative. Interestingly, the phenomenon remained confined to North India though, as it gave an outlook of an old family feud. However, Hindus have a tradition of politicizing just about anything and everything, including the subsequent Sikh Gurus which affected adversely the true teachings and beliefs of Guru Nanak.

A few of Hindu as well as Muslim sects treat Sikhs one of their own kind. In fact, Sikhs are clubbed in Indian constitution as Hindus. But Sikhs believe in their religion as a separate entity. Muhammad Saleem "including the subsequent Sikh Gurus which affected adversely the true teachings and beliefs of Guru Nanak" Pity on your little knowledge. Do you have any example of this things you are talking about? Haroon Khalid its an interesting and informative piece of work. Mr Haroon Khalid is trying to combine historical facts with hear say and legends. These two should be kept separate.

He need to read some historical facts before undermining the works of Great Mughals like Babar. It has got nothing political about it. These Sikh gurus left no stone untrurned to help hindus in any form,they fought for hindus and even laid their life for them. Red lol 1 A. D as if they knew what was beyound their own horizons or of the other ancient cultures and civilians. Plus you forget the point in 1 A.

D what qas the actual gdp lol and the world population compared with later and the land mass and population and trades with other civilisations when compared with 1 A. TZaman People, who have wealth and have no guts to protect it, will be separated from their wealth. It is true then and equally true now. Babar's accomplishments prove that and while losers lament. The route spanning the Grand Trunk GT road existed during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya, extending from the mouth of the Ganges to the north-western frontier of the Empire. The predecessor of the modern road was rebuilt by Sher Shah Suri, who renovated and extended the ancient Mauryan route in the 16th century.

The road was considerably upgraded in the British period between and Empror Akbar the Great laid the firm foundation of the Empire in the subconinent while It was Aurangzeb who caused its decline. The primary causes of the decline of the Mughal Empire were the religious and political intolerance imposed upon such groups as the Hindus, Sikhs, Rajputs and Marathas, along with economic oppression caused by heavy taxation. These injustices fomented rebellion among the people. East India Company put curtain on it. Imagine if both nations work together, what can we achieve in education and economically for our people.

Perhaps you would like to know the truth Khwarezmi Pak's greatest time has been all those yrs when India ruled over it. Since pak has no kings or empires of its own. A very genuine effort on the part of writer to unearth the historical places and their buried and forgotten history.

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Well Done Keep it up. When we comment or reproduce someone else's version. It is always good to read the part of history that speaks about the person in question. Blood and destruction has always been a part of wars from the prehistoric times. I suggest the writer to read the Tuzak e Baburi. A biography that remained most authenticated and well read by all including the West till the recent times.

This will help understand Babur. Dear reader, online ads enable us to deliver the journalism you value. Please support us by taking a moment to turn off Adblock on Dawn. Comments 98 Closed Popular Newest Oldest. Jan 04, Haroon Khalid, thanks for presenting this and keep it up.. Beautiful analysis and understanding of the sub-continent from Haroon Khalid. Glad we have scholars like Haroon Khalid. Kudos to you Haroon Khalid. But some want to just ignore such facts.

Thank you Dawn for this beautiful article.. Dear Haroon, If only the folks on both sides of the Indo-Pak border realise the true meaning of what Holy Guru Nanak said, if only when both don't forget the common ancestry, history, civilization that we share irrespective of what ever religion we practice then alone peace will prevail in the Sub Continent and we prosper again together.

God bless you and grant you the strength to bring out many more such articles. A Friend from India. Two thumbs up that is what I can say for now. Kryptonite You pointed the right view. True,Kings and conquerors are hardly concerned about Promotion or destruction of any religion. Fair, balanced and well written. Good to see the space for the likes of the author. Very Good article and I must congratulate the author for showing the courage and objectivity.

Where can you find Haroon Kahlid's book, "Walk with Nanak.. Haroon Khalid for an insightful article. Hats off to the author and Dawn for publishing it. Muslims are my brothers. I m not letting them leave. Khwarezmi You still have no idea what Ashoka had with him. Ignorance not a bliss. To the north of both the town and the river lies a mountain range called Manoghal.

The hunting and fowling-grounds of Khujand are first-rate; white deer, buck and doe, pheasant and hare are all very plentiful. The climate is very malarious; in autumn there is much fever. People rumour it about that the very sparrows get fever and say that the cause of the malaria is the mountain range on the north i.

Kand-i-badam Village of the Almond is a dependency of Khujand; though it is not a full-fledged township, it is close to one. Its almonds are excellent, hence its name; they all are exported to Hormuz or to Hindustan. It is 18 miles east of Khujand. Between Kand-i-badam and Khujand lies the waste known as Ha Darwesh which is always very windy. Its violent, whirling winds continually strike Marghilan to the east and Khujand on its west. People say that some dervishes, encountering a whirlwind in this desert, lost one another and kept crying, "Hay Darwesh!

One of the townships on the north of the Syr-Darya is Akhsi. In books they write it Akhsikit, and for this reason the poet Asiruddin is known as Akhsikiti. After Andijan, no township in Fergana is larger than Akhsi, which is about 50 miles by road to the west of Andijan. The Syr-Darya flows below its walled town, which stands above a great ravine and uses the deep ravines in place of a moat. When 'Umar Shaikh Mirza made it his capital, he once or twice ordered other ravines be dug beyond the outer ones.

In all Fergana no fort is so strong as Akhsi. Its suburbs extend some two miles further than the walled town. People say of Akhsi, "Where is the village? Where are the trees? The melons of Bukhara are famous. When I took Samarkand, I had some brought from there and some from Akhsi.

They were cut up at an entertainment and those from Bukhara could not compare with those from Akhsi. The fowling and hunting of Akhsi are very good indeed; white deer abound in the waste on the Akhsi side of the Syr-Darya; in the jungle on the Andijan side, abundant and well-fed bucks and does, pheasant and hare are had.

To the north of Akhsi is the rather small township of Kasan. Kasan's water comes from Akhsi in the same way that Andijan's water comes from Osh. Kasan has excellent air and beautiful little gardens. As these gardens all lie along the bed of the river people call them the "fine front of the coat. In the mountains round Fergana are excellent summer pastures. There and nowhere else grows the tabalghu [a variety of willow], a tree with red bark. They make staves and bird-cages of it; they scrape it into arrows.

It is an excellent wood and because of its rarity is carried to distant places. Some books write that the mandrake [belladonna] is found in these mountains, but for this long time past nothing has been heard of it. A plant called Ayiq oti and having the qualities of the mandrake is known in Yeti-kent There are turquoise and iron mines in these mountains. With care, three or four thousand men may be maintained by the revenues of Fergana. One of the tribes of the wilds of Andijan is the Jigrak [Chakrak], a numerous people of five or six thousand households, dwelling in the mountains between Kashghar and Fergana.

They have many horses and sheep and also numbers of yaks, which such hill-people keep instead of common cattle. As their mountains are border-fastnesses, they avoid paying tribute. An army was now sent against them under Sayyid Qasim Beg in order that out of the tribute taken from them something might reach the soldiers. He took about 20, of their sheep and between and of their horses and shared all out to the men. Few towns in the whole habitable world are so pleasant as Samarkand. It is of the Fifth Climate and situated in lat.

The name of the town is Samarkand; people used to call its country Mawara'u'n-nahr Transoxania. They used to call it Baldat-i-mahfuza [Protected Town] because no foe had managed to storm and sack it. The Turk and Moghul hordes call it Simiz-kint. Timur Beg made it his capital; no ruler so great ever made it a capital before. I ordered people to pace round the ramparts of the walled-town; the distance measured 10, steps.

Samarkandis are all orthodox Sunni , pure-in the Faith, law-abiding and religious. It is said that more leaders of Islam have arisen in Mawara'u'n-nahr, since the days of his Highness the Prophet, than in any other country. From the Matarid suburb of Samarkand came Shaikh Abu'l-mansur [d.

Of the two sects of Expositors, the Mataridiyah and the Ash'ariyah, the first is named from this Shaikh Abu'l-mansur. The author of the Hidayat , one of the most revered books on jurisprudence among the followers of Abu Hanifa, came from Marghilan in Ferghana, which, although at the limit of settled habitation, is part of Mawara'u'n-nahr.

The Kohik River [i. The Dar-i-gham canal flows along the south, at the distance of some two miles. This is a large and swift torrent, indeed it is like a large river, branching off from the Kohik River. All the gardens and suburbs and some of the subdistricts of Samarkand are irrigated by it. The Kohik River makes habitable and cultivated a stretch of from to miles by road, as far as Bukhara and Qara-kul.

Large as the river is, it is not too large for its dwellings and its culture; during three or four months of the year, indeed, its waters do not reach Bukhara. Grapes, melons, apples and pomegranates--all fruits indeed--are good in Samarkand; two are famous, its apple and its sahibi grapes.

Its winter is mightily cold; snow falls but not so much as in Kabul; in the hot weather its climate is good but not so good as Kabul's. In the citadel, Timur Beg erected a very fine building, the great four-storeyed kiosk, known as the Kok Sarai. In the walled town, again, near the Iron Gate, he built a Friday Mosque of stone [the Bibi-hanim] using the labor of many stone-cutters brought from Hindustan. Round its frontal arch is inscribed in letters large enough to be read two miles away, the Qu'ran verse, Wa az yerfa' Ibrahim al Qawa'id al akhara ["And Abraham and Ismail raised the foundations of this house"].

This also is a very fine building. He also laid out two gardens, on the east of the town, one, the more distant, the Bagh-i-bulandi, the other and nearer, the Bagh-i-dilkusha. From Dilkusha to the Turquoise Gate, he planted an Avenue of white poplar, and in the garden itself erected a great kiosque, painted inside with pictures of his battles in Hindustan. He made another garden, known as the Naqsh-i-jahan World's Picture , on the bank of the Kohik, above the Kara-su or, as people also call it, the Ab-i-rahmat Water-of-mercy of Kan-i-gil.

It had gone to ruin when I saw it; nothing remaining of it except its name. His also are the Bagh-i-chanar, near the walls and below the town on the south, also the Bagh-i-shamal North Garden and the Bagh-i-bihisht Garden of Paradise. His own tomb and those of his descendants who have ruled in Samarkand are in a college [ madrasa ], built at the exit from the walled town, by Muhammad Sultan Mirza, the son of Timur Beg's son, Jahangir Mirza.

The miniature on the left depicts one of the royal gardens laid out at Adinapur in India by Babur; on the right is a detail of the celebration in the Charbagh garden of Kabul on the occasion of the birth of his son, Humayun in Amongst Ulugh Beg Mirza's buildings inside the town are a college and a monastery Khanqah. The dome of the monastery is very large, few so large can be seen anywhere in the world. Near these two buildings, he constructed an excellent Hot Bath known as the Mirza's Bath; he had the pavements in this made of all sorts of stone?

To the south of the college is his mosque, known as the Masjid-i-maqata' Carved Mosque because its ceiling and its walls are all covered with carved ornamentation and "Chinese" pictures formed of segments of wood. There is great discrepancy [in the orientation vis-a-vis Mecca] between the qibla of this mosque and that of the college; that of the mosque seems to have been fixed by astronomical observation. Another of Ulugh Beg Mirza's fine buildings is an observatory [ photo of foundatins, left ], that is, a building with instruments for writing astronomical tables.

This stands three storeys high, on the edge of the Kohik upland. The Mirza used it to work out the Kurkani Tables, now the most widely used ones anywhere in the world. Not more than seven or eight observatories seem to have been constructed in the world. Caliph Mamum built one in which the Mamumi Tables were compiled. Batalmus Ptolemy constructed another. The Hindus of Hindustan use the tables of this observatory.

Babur’s Wonderful Journey

They were put together 1, years ago. Compared with others, they are somewhat defective. In the middle of it he erected a fine building they call Chihil Situn Forty Pillars. On both storeys are pillars, all of stone. Four turrets, like minarets, stand on its four corner-towers, the way up into them being through the towers. Everywhere there are stone pillars, some fluted, some twisted, some many-sided. On the four sides of the upper storey are open galleries enclosing a four-doored hall. Their pillars also are all of stone.

The raised floor of the building is all paved with stone. He made a smaller garden with a building in it out beyond Chihil Situn and towards the Kohik. In the open gallery of this building he placed a great stone throne, some 14 or 15 yards long, some 8 yards wide and perhaps a yard high.

They brought such a large stone in from distant quarries. There is a crack in the middle of it which people say must developed after it was brought here. In the same garden he also built a four-doored hall, know as the Chini-khana Porcelain House because its surfaces are all of porcelain; he sent to China for the porcelain used in it.

Inside the walls is an old building of his, known as the Masjid-i-laqlaqa Mosque of the Echo. If anyone stamps on the ground under the middle of the dome of this mosque, the sound echoes back from the whole dome; it is a curious matter of which none know the secret.

In the time of Sultan Ahmad Mirza the great and lesser begs laid out many gardens, large and small. It lies overlooking the whole of Qulba Meadow, on the slope below the Bagh-i-maidan. Moreover it is arranged symmetrically, terrace above terrace, and is planted with beautiful ornamental trees, cypresses and white poplar. A most agreeable sojourning place, its one defect is the want of a large stream.

Samarkand is a wonderfully beautified town. One of its specialities, perhaps found in few other places, is that the different trades are not mixed up together in it. Each has its own bazar, which makes a lot of sense. Its bakers and its cooks are good. The best paper in the world is made there; the water for the paper-mortars all comes from Kan-i-gil, a meadow on the banks of the Kara-su Blackwater or Ab-i-rahmat Water of Mercy.

Another article of Samarkand trade, exported everywhere, is red velvet. Excellent meadows lie round Samarkand. One is the famous Kan-i-gil, some 2 miles east and a little north of the town. The Qara-su or Ab-i-rahmat flows through it, a stream with driving power for perhaps seven or eight mills. Some say the original name of the meadow must have been Kan-i-abgir Mine of Quagmire because the river is bordered by quagmire, but the bistories all write Kan-i-gil Mine of Clay.

It is an excellent meadow. The Samarkand sultans always made it their reserve, going out to camp in it each year for a month or two. Higher up on the river than Kan-i-gil and to the southeast of it is a meadow some 4 miles east of the town, known as Khan Yurti Khan's Camping-ground. The Kara-su flows through this meadow before entering Kan-i-gil. When it comes to Khan Yurti it curves back so far that it encloses, with a very narrow outlet, enough ground for a camp. Having noticed these advantages, we camped there for a time during the siege of Samarkand.

Another is the Kul-i-maghak Meadow of the Deep Pool at some 4 miles from the town. This also is a round meadow. People call it Kul-i-maghak meadow because there is a large pool on one side of it. Samarkand has good districts and subdistricts. Its largest district, and one that is its equal, is Bukhara, miles to the west. Bukhara in its turn, has several subdistricts; it is a fine town. Its fruits are many and good, its melons excellent, none in Mawara'u'n-nahr matching them for quality and quantity. Although the Mir Timuri- melon of Akhsi is sweeter and more delicate than any Bukhara melon, still in Bukhara many kinds of melon are good and plentiful.

The Bukhara plum is famous; no other equals it. They skin it, dry it and export it from land to land with other rarities; it is an excellent laxative. Fowls and geese are bred in abundance in Bukhara. Bukhara wine is the strongest made in Mawara'u'n-nahr; that was what I drank while in Samarkand. Kesh is another district of Samarkand, 48 miles by road to the south of the town. The Aitmak Range lies between Samarkand and Kesh; from these mountains are taken all the stones for building. Kesh is called also Shahr-i-sabz Green-town because its barren waste and roofs and walls become beautifully green in spring.

As it was Timur Beg's birth-place, he tried hard to make it his capital. He erected noble buildings in it. To seat his own court, he built a great arched hall and in this seated his commander-begs and his diwan-begs, on his right and on his left. For those attending the court, he built two smaller halls, and to seat petitioners to his court, built quite small recesses on the four sides of the meeting-hall.

Few arches so fine can be seen in the world. It is said to be higher than the Chosroes' Arch [at Ctesiphon]. Timur Beg also built in Kesh a college and a mausoleum, in which are the tombs of [his son] Jahangir Mirza and others of his descendants. As Kesh did not offer the same facilities as Samarkand for becoming a major city and a capital, he at last made clear choice of Samarkand. Another district is Karshi, known also as Nashaf and Nakhshab. Karshi is a Moghul name. In the Moghul tongue they call a tomb Karshi.

The name must have come in after the rule of Chingiz Khan. Karshi is somewhat scantily supplied with water; in spring it is very beautiful and its grain and melons are good. It lies 94 miles by road south and a little inclined to the west of Samarkand. In the district a small bird, known as the qil-quyirugh and resembling the sand grouse, is found in such countless numbers that it goes by the name of the Karshi birdie Samarkand has good sub-districts.

One is Soghd with its dependencies. From its head Yar-yilaq, to its foot Bukhara, there may be not one single mile of earth without its village and its cultivated lands. So famous is it that the saying attributed to Timur Beg, 'I have a garden a hundred miles long,' must have been spoken of Soghd. Another sub-district is Shavdar, an excellent suburb of Samarkand. On one side it bounded by the Aitmak Range, lying between Samarkand and Shahr-i-sabz, bordering which are many of its villages.

On the other side is the Kohik River. You should see it!

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