Humayun (1530-1540, 1555-1556) Humayun loved to read and kept his books with him while travelling. He was also fond of astronomy and studied the movement of stars. He was very innovative and did interesting things to spend his days in an appealing way. For example, he assigned a different colour to each day of the week and used to wear the robe of the same colour on a particular day.

He was fond of his family members and was a peace-loving individual who was not in favour of war and conflicts. According to Babur’s will, Humayun fairly distributed his kingdom among his brothers. On the other hand, Kamran — one of his brothers — was not satisfied with his share to rule Kabul; he attacked Punjab and occupied it. Humayun, instead of fighting, accepted his brother’s victory.

Historians criticise Humayun for his tolerance policy and regard it as his weakness as a ruler. But the irony is that if he had murdered his brothers like Aurangzeb, history even then would not have pardoned him. When he was forced to opt for war, he did it unwillingly and therefore, could not attain success neither against Bahadur Shah of Gujarat nor against Sher Shah Suri.

Afghans were against the Mughals because the Mughals conquered India after defeating the Afghans. When Afghans found Sher Shah as a clever politician and excellent administrator, they accepted him as their leader. Humayun was defeated by Sher Shah in the Battle of Chaunsa in 1539. He was also defeated in the second battle at Qannuj in 1529. After this defeat, he fled to Sindh and later to Persia.

Humayun and Nizam saqqa (water carrier)

Humayun, after his defeat in the Battle of Chaunsa, was crossing the river and was about to drown when a saqqa (water carrier) known as Nizam saved him. Humayun was so grateful to him that he bestowed upon him the power of royalty for two days. Gulbadan Begum writes in her book that the king ordered all his nobles to pay Saqqa homage like a king deserves. Nizam was allowed to act as he liked. He was free to promote anyone to a higher rank and to award according to his liking.

The birth of Akbar

When Humayun was wandering in Sindh for help, he for the first time saw Hamida Banu at the house of his brother Hindal. He fell in love with her and they got married.

When Humayun was in Sindh, he received an invitation from the ruler of Jaiselmer. When he was on way with his family, he received the message that the Raja wanted to imprison him and hand him over to Sher Shah. He backed off and after a lot of hardships reached Amarkot. Gulbadan Begum appreciates the behaviour of Amarkot’s Raja and writes that he gave Humayun a warm welcome and presented him and his family with many gifts.

At that time Hamida Banu was pregnant so Humayun left her at Amarkot and went to Bhakkar. Akbar was born in Amarkot on November 23, 1543.

Humayun went from Sindh to Qandhar in 1543, with the hope to get help from his brothers but he received the news that Askari, instead of helping him, wanted to imprison him. On receiving the news, he left the camp in a hurry.

Having lost all hopes of help and support in India, Humayun went to Iran where the king, Shah Tahmaseb, supported him. He came back with the Iranian army and first conquered Qandhar in 1545, Kabul in 1547 and India in 1555. Sadly, Humayun could not survive to rule and died after a year in an accident.