Humayun

Humāyūn, also known as Nir al-Dn Muhammad, was the second Mughal ruler of India, reigning from 1508 to 1556. He was more of an adventurer than a consolidator of his empire. Humayun, the son, and successor of Babur, who established the Mughal dynasty, ruled from 1530 to 1540, and again from 1555 to 1556.

Because the Afghans and Rajputs were merely restrained but not reconciled to Mughal supremacy by the Mughal victories at Panipat (1526), Khanua (1527), and the Ghaghara (1529), Humayun inherited the hope rather than the fact of empire. Encouraged by Afghan and Mughal émigrés, Bahādur Shah of Gujarat challenged the Mughals in Rajasthan. Even though Humayun conquered Gujarat in 1535, the threat there didn't end until Bahdur's death in 1537. Meanwhile, Shēr Shah of Sūr, an Afghan soldier of fortune, had established his dominance in Bengal and Bihar. Humayun was expelled from India after he defeated him at Chausa in 1539 and at Kannauj in 1540.

Humāyūn became a homeless wanderer, seeking help first in Sindh, then in Marwar, and finally back in Sindh, where his famous son, Akbar, was born in 1542. When Humāyūn arrived in Iran in 1544, he was granted military aid by Shah Ṭahmāsp and went on to conquer Kandahr (1545) and seize Kabul three times from his own disloyal brother, Kāmrān, the last time in 1550. Taking advantage of civil wars among Shēr Shah's descendants, Humāyūn captured Lahore in February 1555, and after defeating SikandarSūr, the rebel Afghan governor of the Punjab, at Sirhind, he reclaimed Delhi and Agra the following July. Humāyūn was killed after falling down his library's staircase. The first of the great Mughal architectural masterpieces, his tomb in Delhi was constructed several years after his passing and was given UNESCO World Heritage status in 1993.