Babur\u2019s life<\/h3>\n
Born in 1483, Babur became the ruler of the small principality of Fergana (modern-day Uzbekistan) at just 12 years old, after his father died when his weight caused the dovecote that he was standing in to collapse and tumble into a ravine below his palace. Babur\u2019s inheritance was not accepted willingly by his uncles, who relentlessly sought to take the position from him, and \u201che spent a great deal of his early life fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
These details are known from the \u201cextraordinary\u201d record of his life that Babur kept, Babur-nameh. Such a record is rare, as rulers were not often literate. \u201cI cannot think of another powerful ruler, emperor, or monarch before the last couple of centuries who wrote a diary,\u201d explains MacMillan.<\/p>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>For the first decade of his rule, Babur was in near-constant conflict to seize lands in Asia, particularly the city of Samarkand. He failed many times, and ended up losing Fergana too, so that he considered giving up and residing in China<\/a>. Instead, he headed south into present-day Afghanistan<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 1504, he captured the strategically important city of Kabul, before eventually taking Kandahar too. Now in control of a substantial kingdom, Babur looked to the east to expand. In the 1520s, he launched his conquest of north India and, with his modernised and trained armies, was able to achieve significant victories and make consecutive gains.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the grace of the Almighty God, this difficult task was made easy to me and that mighty army, in the space of a half a day was laid in dust,\u201d he wrote in his diary after one battle in 1526.<\/p>\n Despite being surrounded by hostile regions, regular Afghan attacks on Kabul for him to contend with, and the threat of rebellion among his own followers, Babur came to secure his lands and control much of north and central India. His Mughal empire was the largest until the arrival of the British<\/a>; a multi-ethnic, multi-religious dominion.<\/p>\n Whilst MacMillan wishes to avoid the idealisation of Babur, she explains that he was also \u201ca very great fighter\u201d. He not only had a capacity for combat, but for keeping people by his side due to his skills as a diplomat. He could learn from his mistakes and \u2013 allowing for the fact that his own memoirs are the primary source for this \u2013 he seems to have encouraged people to critique him.<\/p>\n However, MacMillan notes that Babur could be \u201cpretty ruthless\u201d. He was a man who knew what he wanted; he would make alliances, then abandon them when they no longer proved useful.<\/p>\n