Bagh-e Babur Gardens (Kabul) | park, Mughal garden

 park, Mughal garden

Babur (February 14, 1483- December 26, 1530) was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of India. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother.[1] Babur identified his lineage as Timurid and Chaghatay-Turkic, while his origin, milieu, training, and culture were steeped in Persian culture and so he was largely responsible for the fostering of this culture by his descendants, and for the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and historiographical results.[2][3] He bequeathed to his successors, a legacy of toleration for non-Muslims, that would later characterize the character of the Mughal empire at its zenith.[4]
Babur Mughal Emperor of India
al-ṣultānu 'l-ʿazam wa 'l-ḫāqān al-mukkarram
pādshāh-e ghāzī Portrait of Babur Reign 30 April 1526 – 26 December 1530 Coronation Not formally crowned Full name Zāhir ud-Dīn Muḥammad bin ʿOmar Sheykh Chagatay/Persian ﻇﻬﻴﺮ ﺍﻟﺪﻳﻦ محمد بابر Titles Founder of the Mughal dynasty Born February 14, 1483 Birthplace Andijan Died 26 Dec.1530 (age 47) Place of death Agra Buried Bāgh-e Bābur Successor Humāyūn Wives : Āisha Ṣultān Begum, Bībī Mubārika Yuṣufzay, Dildār Begum
Gulnār Āghācha, Gulrukh Begum, Maham Begum., Ma'suma Begum
Nargul Āghācha, Sayyida Afaq Offspring : Humāyūn, son, Kāmrān Mirzā, son, Askarī Mirzā, son
Hindal Mirzā, son, Gulbadan Begum, daughter, Fakhru 'n-Nīsā, daughter
Altun Bishik, alleged son Royal House : Royal House of Timur, Dynasty: Timurid Father : Omar Sheykh Mirzā, Amīr of Farghana, Mother : Qutlaq Nigār Khānum, Religious beliefs: Sunni Islam
Babur's name
Zāhir ud-Dīn Muḥammad bin ʿOmar Sheykh (Chaghatay/Persian: ﻇﻬﻴﺮ ﺍﻟﺪﻳﻦ محمد بابر - Zāhir ud-Dīn Muḥammad Bābor; also known by his royal titles as al-ṣultānu 'l-ʿazam wa 'l-ḫāqān al-mukkarram pādshāh-e ghāzī), is more commonly known by his nickname, Bābur. Babur's cousin, Mirzā Muḥammad Haydar, wrote in this regard:
At that time the Chaghatái were very rude and uncultured (bázári), and not refined (buzurg) as they are now; thus they found Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad difficult to pronounce, and for this reason gave him the name of Bábar. In the public prayers (khutba) and in royal mandates he is always styled 'Zahir-ud-Din Bábar Muhammad,' but he is best known by the name of Bábar Pádisháh.[5]
The Chaghatai were Mongol tribes descended from Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai Khan.
According to Stephen Frederic Dale, the name Babur is derived from the Persian word babr, meaning "leopard" or "tiger", a word that repeatedly appears in Firdawsī's Shāhnāma[6][7] and had also been borrowed by the Turkic languages of Central Asia.[8] It is ultimately derived from the Indo-Iranian Sanskrit word vyagr.[9] This theses is supported by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, explaining that the Turko-Mongol name Timur underwent a similar evolution, from the Sanskrit word cimara ("iron") via a modified version *čimr to the final Turkicized version timür, with -ür replacing -r due to the Turkish vocalic harmony (hence babr → babür).[10]
Contradicting these views, W.M. Thackston argues that the name cannot be taken from babr and instead must be derived from a word that has evolved out of the Indo-European word for beaver, pointing to the fact that the name is pronounced bāh-bor[11] in both Persian and Turkic (similar to the Russian word for beaver, бобр, bobr).
[edit] Turko-Mongolian and Persianate Societies
Main articles: Turko-Persian tradition and Persianate
During Babur's lifetime, Turko-Mongolian and Persianate peoples in Transoxiana and Khurasan existed side by side. This bifurcated society had divided the responsibilities of government and rule into the military and civilian along ethnic lines. The military was almost exclusively Turko-Mongolian, and the civilian was almost exclusively Persian. The spoken language shared by all the Turko-Mongolians throughout the area was Chaghatay Turkic. The political organization hearkened back to the steppe-nomadic system of patronage introduced by Genghis Khan.[11] The major language of the period, however, was Persian, the native language of the Tājīk (Persian) component of society and the language of learning acquired by all literate and/or urban Turks. Persian was the official state language of the Timurid Khanate[12][13] and served as the language of administration, history, belles lettres, and poetry.[14] The Chaghatay language was the native and "home language" of the Timurid family[15] while Arabic served as the language par excellence of science, philosophy, theology and the religious sciences.[16]