Humayun
HUMAYUN
HUMAYUN (1508–1556), Mughal emperor (1530–1540, 1555–1556). Born Nasin-ud-din Muhammad in Kabul, Afghanistan, Humayun was the second Mughal emperor of India. In his youth he participated in the Battle of Panipat in 1526 with which his father, Babur, began his conquest of India. Humayun served as governor of Kabul for his father, returning to India shortly before Babur's death. He inherited an empire in name only, appointing his four brothers governors of its provinces, though two of them, Kamran and Askari, combined to deprive him of the Punjab. A Sur Afghan, Sher Shah, leader of the Afghan resistance to the Mughals, controlled Bihar. In 1532 Humayun besieged him at Chunar but did not capture him. Humayun's predicament was worsened by his bouts of lethargy, caused by his increasing addiction to opium, and the threat to his position from his brothers. He invaded Gujarat in 1535, but it was brought under Mughal control only after the death of Bahadur Shah in 1537 at the hands of the Portuguese. That same year, Sher Khan invaded and captured Bengal. Humayun marched east to confront him, but Sher Khan defeated Humayun in battle at Chausa on the Ganges in 1539, assuming the title of Sher Shah, and at Kannauj in 1540, after which Humayun fled for his life, becoming a homeless wanderer in Sind and Rajasthan.
While in Sind in 1542, Humayun's wife gave birth to his son Akbar, the true founder of the Mughal empire. Humayun arrived in Persia in 1544 with a few hundred followers and came under the protection of the Safavid ruler, Shah Tamasp, who gave him support when he converted Shi?ism. With this Persian military assistance Humayun captured Kandahar in 1545, which he had promised to return to Persia, and Kabul in 1553, after three campaigns over an eight-year period against his brother Kamran.
After the death of Sher Shah in May 1545, his son Islam Shah Sur ruled until 1553. After his death, the empire was split into four parts ruled by different relatives, and his young son Firuz was murdered by his maternal uncle. Humayun took advantage of this war and of the growing popular dissatisfaction with Sur rule due to famine, invading India. He captured Lahore in February 1555 and then defeated Sikander Sur, the Afghan ruler of the Punjab, at Sirhind, after which he recovered Delhi and Agra. Once again he was emperor of India. The following year, however, he died after accidentally falling down the stone stairs of his observatory at Purana Qila, which led to the quip, "He stumbled out of life as he had stumbled through it."
Roger D. Long
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Eraly, Abraham. The Last Spring: The Lives and Times of the Great Mughals. New Delhi: Viking, 1997.
Richards, John F. The Mughal Empire. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1993.