Who was the greatest Mughal emperor? This is the question we are tackling right now in class 7. We will study 6 Mughal emperors and judge their reign. As assessment, students will come up with a social media campaign for one of the emperors. Behind each leader there is always a PR team praising his or her achievements.

In the coming weeks I will discuss one emperor each time and reflect on their achievements, weaknesses, and legacy. Today: Babur. Mughal emperor from 1526-1530.

Babur, which literally means tiger in Persian, was the founder of the Mughal Empire. He was born in Fergana, modern day Uzbekistan. You could say he was destined to become a conqueror as he was related to both Timur (1336-1405) and Genghis Khan (1162-1227), two of history’s greatest conquerors.

Babur became the ruler of Fergana aged 12 and spent quite a lot of time trying to get a foothold in central Asia. He conquered Samarkand, lost Fergana, tried to reconquer Fergana and lost Samarkand too. Eventually, he conquered Kabul and reigned from there. After other unsuccessful campaigns in Central-Asia, he turned his attention to India and conquered the Sultanate of Delhi (North India) with the help of the Safavid and Ottoman empire after a great victory at the Battle of Panipat. After this successful campaign he founded the Mughal Empire.

As emperor Babur kept campaigning to secure Northern-India, but he was not just a general. He was an educated man who loved poetry, build up an impressive library and wrote extensively about his own life. Babur also lived in great luxury worthy of an emperor.

One of Babur’s biggest weaknesses was his lack of administrative skills. He did not set up a proper administrative system for his new empire and was not able to collect taxes effectively. Together with his lavish spending, this left the Mughal coffers empty when he died after just four years of being emperor. It also put his son Humayun in the difficult position of ruling an empire without money, a proper administration and a long-established dynasty. In my next post I will discuss whether Humayun was able to face this challenge. 

Originally posted on Instagram on January 27, 2022