Humayun

Humayun - contemporary miniature

Nasir ud din Muhammad Humayun ( Persian نصیر الدین محمد همایون, DMG Naṣīru d-Dīn Muḥammad Humāyūn ; born March 6, 1508 in Kabul ; d. 26. January 1556 in Delhi ) was the second ruler of the Mughal Empire of India and ruled from 1530 to 1540 and from 1555 to 1556.

Humayun failed to consolidate the empire conquered from his father Babur . As a ruler and general, he did not have the skills to assert himself against his internal and external opponents in a not firmly established empire. A serious defeat against Sher Shah forced him to flee India and led to the interruption of Mughal rule by the short-lived Sur dynasty . He found refuge and help at the Persian court , and it was only the power struggles that broke out under Sher Shah's successors that finally enabled him to return to India.

Youth and Succession

As is customary for a Mughal, Humayun gained military experience early on. In one battle he showed personal courage and commanded the right wing of the Mughal army in his father's battles at Panipat and Khanua. Babur then sent his nineteen-year-old son to Badakhshan as governor . Much to his father's displeasure, he returned to court in the capital, Agra , without permission ; possibly he had learned of an intrigue threatening his succession. Babur forgave Humayun. The already established succession plan remained untouched: Humayun was the heir to the throne and received the Indian part of the empire. His brother Kamran should receive Afghanistan. The other two brothers, Askari and Hindal, had to be content with smaller fiefs. Four days after Babur's death on December 26, 1530, Humayun ascended the throne.

First phase of government

The new ruler was overly superstitious even by the ideas of the time. He arranged court life according to the course of the planets, sometimes contrary to all practical necessities, and an administrative reform provided for the establishment of departments according to the four Aristotle elements. Humayun was educated and, in addition to astrology, was also interested in the natural sciences, but did not take them seriously enough to achieve concrete results.

In 1531 Humayun successfully led a campaign against Mahmud Lodhi in Bihar . He was the brother of the last Sultan of Delhi , defeated by Humayun's father . This was probably less due to his military skills than to the Mogular Army, which was superior thanks to field artillery and musketeers. In Bihar, Humayun also forced the warlord Sher Khan to recognize his supremacy. Sher Khan did not see the time yet to rebel against the Mughals. Ruling nominally for Humayun, Sher Khan set about strengthening his position in Bihar.

North India

As a result, the prevailing tendency of the Mughals to rebellion became apparent. Humayun had to put down an uprising between two cousins ​​and was confronted with a demand from his brother Kamran, who was approaching from Kabul, for a larger inheritance. Humayun characteristically gave in to the demand. Bahadur Shah of Gujarat tried to take advantage of the unrest among the Mughals . Humayun began a two-year campaign against him in 1534, during which he captured Ahmadabad and Mandu in Malwa . Bahadur found refuge with the Portuguese viceroy. In Mandu, Humayun indulged, not for the last time, to a tendency towards idleness and excessive consumption of alcohol and opium. It was only when his brother Askari, who was left behind as governor in Ahmadabad, returned illegally to Agra that Humayun also left Mandu. The absence of the Mughals enabled Bahadur Shah to recapture Gujarat (although he was murdered shortly afterwards, in 1536). Humayun had been at war for two years and in the end lost all conquests.

Sher Khan took advantage of Humayun's absence to conquer Bengal and, with the possession of this rich province, became a threat to the Mughals. The slow advance of the Mughal army in 1537 enabled Sher Khan to withdraw to Bihar in an orderly fashion. In the rear of Humayun, Sher Khan occupied the passes between Bihar and Bengal and thus enclosed him. Humayun also remained inactive for a long time in Gaur, the capital of Bengal . He began the inevitable retreat when the monsoons set in and his army continued to weaken and demoralize. At Chausa, Sher Khan, who had meanwhile assumed the title Shah, intercepted Humayun. Hindal used Humayun's absence for a rebellion, which was suppressed by Kamran, but who in turn did nothing to rush to Humayun's aid. The mogul was forced to enter into negotiations with his enemy. Sher Shah accepted it on the pretense, but on June 25, 1539 attacked the Humayuns camp surprisingly. The defeat was complete and only in dire need Humayun was able to escape across the Ganges . Back in Agra , Humayun once more showed leniency towards his insubordinate brothers. Humayun gathered a new army, but he was unable to restore morale or combat strength. In addition, Kamran did not join the campaign against the common enemy. The opponents met at Kannauj . During the weeks of mutual surveillance that was customary at the time, Humayun's army was severely decimated by desertions. On May 17, 1540 there was a battle and a disastrous defeat. Humayun fled to Lahore via Agra and Delhi . When Sher Shah reached the undecided Mughal Mughal there, the Mughals temporarily fled India.

The Interregnum of the Sur Dynasty

Sher Shah set about securing his rule and reforming the administration of the empire. He restricted the power of the governors by separating civil and military administration, reorganized the remuneration of civil servants and soldiers, coinage and tax collection. His righteousness was proverbial. He consistently applied Islamic law regardless of person and had the peasants who were affected by his army compensated. He supported the poor and had roads, forts and caravan serails built. The hard-working new ruler died in 1545 after a campaign against Maldev of Marwar during the siege of Kalinjar . The reforms made by Sher Shah laid the foundation for the administration of the Mughal Empire, which was later introduced under Akbar I.

The emirs chose his younger son Jalal to succeed him, who took the name Islam Shah. He sought a compromise with his older brother Adil Khan, without being able to finally end his threat to his rule. There were no major conquests under Islam Shah. Like his father, he paid attention to the efficient administration of the empire. He died of illness in 1554. His son Firuz Khan was soon overthrown by a cousin of Islam Shah, Mubariz Khan. He ruled from Bihar under the name of Adil Shah. Unlike his predecessors, he had little interest in government business - he left them to a Hindu named Hemu. The empire of the Sur dynasty fell apart in no time; Sikandar in Punjab and other parts of the empire in Bengal became self-employed - as did the capital Delhi.

Exile and Restoration

Humayun, meanwhile, began a three-year aimless odyssey in the course of which his followers shrank to a handful of people and were exposed to various hardships. At first he sought refuge with Hindal in the Sindh ruled by his relative Shah Husain Mirza . There he married Hamida, the mother of his future heir to the throne Akbar, who was born in Umarkot in 1542. Humayun had the vague intention of conquering Gujarat at the suggestion of his brother, but Shah Husain, who was only nominally subordinate to him, refused to support him. At the invitation of Maldev of Marwar, Humayun crossed the desert of Rajasthan , but turned back before his arrival due to a warning. In Umarkot, thanks to a loan from his henchman Tardi Beg, he succeeded in recruiting warriors among the local Rajputs without being able to benefit from it. They soon left him. When his former general Biram Khan joined him after his escape from Sher Shah's captivity, Humayun was persuaded to move to Afghanistan in June 1543. He found no safety there either. On the way to Kandahar, Humayun's camp was attacked by Askari soldiers at Kamran's orders . Humayun managed to escape, but his son Akbar fell into his hands and was raised separately from his father in Kandahar and later in Kabul. Humayun now fled further to Persia . After almost three years of wandering around, the Mughals crossed the border in January 1544. After Humayun left the political scene, Kamran declared himself Shah of the Mughals.

Humayun's tomb in Delhi

The Persian Safavids had already supported Humayun's father in the fight against the Uzbeks and Shah Tahmasp I received his son not as a refugee, but as an equal. The journey through Persia to the Shah turned out to be an excursion on which Humayun could enjoy all the luxury he had long been deprived of. The mogul was generously entertained by the Shah for a year. However, among Humayun's vanished treasure, there was still a considerable gift: there is some evidence that the gemstone presented was the famous Koh-i-Noor , who should have more than made up for the Shah's expenses. With the help of the refugee, Tahmasp tried to expand his influence to the east. He urged Humayun to accept the Shiite doctrine with dubious success and provided Humayun with a sizeable armed force in exchange for his promise to receive Kandahar.

The Mughal returned to Afghanistan in 1545. Kandahar was taken in September without any difficulty, and as the tide had apparently turned, the Mughals began to defection to Humayun. Kabul fell without resistance in November. The escaped Kamran could be captured, but there was reconciliation once more. And one more time, Kamran rebelled against his brother. The hesitant and indulgent Humayun lost Kabul two more times before his followers urged him to remove the danger once and for all. Captured again in 1553, Kamran was blinded and began a pilgrimage to Mecca, on which he died.

Humayun's return to India in 1554 was facilitated by the fact that Sikandar was currently on a campaign against Ibrahim of Delhi , so that no resistance was offered in Punjab. Bairam Khan succeeded in defeating the Sikandar, who was hastily returning with a far superior army, at Sirhind. Delhi fell back to Humayun in 1555 without a fight. Humayun could now, meanwhile without serious competitors, leave the reconquest to his able generals and occupied himself in Delhi with plans for an administrative reform and astronomical observations. On January 24, 1556, he fell unhappy from a staircase and died two days later. Akbar, only thirteen years old, succeeded him under the reign of Bairam Khan.

Legacy

Humayun's cultivated lethargy, eccentric superstition and mildness towards his brothers make him appear as a friendly but incompetent ruler. But it must be noted that under the Mughals, the struggle for power took place according to a kind of code of honor. His predecessors and successors were also lenient towards family insubordination. It was Humayun's bad luck that his other character traits coincided with the appearance of a sly and capable opponent and the need to hold a territorial empire together required more rigor. His biographers, who were in a favorable mood for him, and perhaps he himself, always justified his behavior with the command he received from his father not to act against his brothers.

Through Humayun's stay in Persia, the court culture of the Mughals was influenced even more strongly by Persia. On his return there were also two Persian painters among his entourage, who had a strong influence on the later Mughal school. After his death, the Humayun mausoleum was built in Delhi. It is considered the first representative building of Mughal architecture and was built by a Persian architect.

See also

• History of India

literature

• Abraham Eraly: The Mughal Throne. The saga of India's great emperors . Phoenix Books, London 2004, ISBN 0-75381-758-6 .
• Heinrich G. Franz (Ed.): The Old India. History and culture of the Indian subcontinent . Bertelsmann-Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-572-00852-2 .
• Bamber Gascoigne: The Mughals. Splendor and greatness of Mohammedan princes in India . Prisma Verlag, Gütersloh 1987, ISBN 3-570-09930-X .
• Stephan Conermann: The Mughal Empire. History and Culture of Muslim India . Munich 2006.

Web links

Commons : Humayun's Tomb, Delhi  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Humayun, biography - info + links ( Encyclopaedia Britannica , English)
• Humayun, biography - picture + info (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Babur	Mughal Mughal of India 1530–1540	Sher Shah
Adil Shah	Mughal Mughal of India 1555–1556	Akbar I.