Person · Mughal emperor · India
Humayun
Also known as Humayun, Nasiruddin Muhammad Humayun
Babur's eldest son and successor, who lost India to Sher Shah Suri at Chausa in 1539 and Kannauj in 1540, spent fifteen years in Persian exile at Shah Tahmasp's court, and recovered Delhi in 1555 with Persian military support. He died six months later falling down the stairs of his library at the Purana Qila. His tomb at Delhi, commissioned by his widow Hamida Banu Begum and completed in 1572, introduced the Persian charbagh tomb-garden to India — the direct architectural ancestor of the Taj Mahal.
- Date
- 1508–1556
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Mughal
- Tradition
- Standard reference and biographical literature; contemporary chronicles and institutional records as applicable.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
His Persian exile left a lasting cultural mark: he brought the painters Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad back from Tabriz, who founded what became the Mughal atelier under Akbar. He also brought Chagatai manuscripts, the astrolabe-making tradition, and a working knowledge of Persian court protocol that shaped Mughal ceremonial. His death from a fall in the library — he was hurrying to call to prayer — gave the Mughal library its proverbial status.
About the place
Placed at Delhi (Humayun's Tomb) and Kabul (period of exile and recovery).
Connections (8)
- Buried atHumayun's Tomb
Humayun's Tomb at Delhi was commissioned by his widow Hamida Banu Begum beginning around 1565 and completed in 1572 — the first monumental charbagh tomb-garden in India and the direct architectural prototype for the Taj Mahal three generations later. Humayun's remains were brought from the Purana Qila where he had died in 1556 to the new tomb at Nizamuddin; his sarcophagus is in the central chamber and his son Dara Shikoh and other Mughal royals were later buried in the complex's side chambers.
- Lost battle atChausa
Sher Shah Suri beat Humayun at Chausa in 1539 and at Kannauj in 1540, driving him out of India for fifteen years during which the Suri dynasty ran the subcontinent, built the Grand Trunk Road and reformed the currency and revenue systems that the Mughals subsequently inherited. Humayun crossed into Persia and spent his exile at Shah Tahmasp's court at Qazvin before recovering Delhi in 1555 with Persian military support, six months before his accidental death.
- Son ofZahiruddin Babur
Humayun was Babur's eldest son and succeeded him at Agra in 1530 at the age of twenty-two. Babur's deathbed instruction, famously preserved in the Baburnama tradition, was that Humayun should treat his brothers kindly — advice Humayun followed to his cost, as his brothers' independent territories and factional politics contributed to his losing the empire to Sher Shah within a decade.
- Son ofShah Jahan
Shah Jahan — born Khurram — was Humayun's grandson and Jahangir's son, becoming emperor in 1628 after a brief civil war against his brothers following Jahangir's death. The direct Babur-Humayun-Akbar-Jahangir-Shah Jahan line gives the Mughal dynasty its central five emperors across a hundred and thirty years; Shah Jahan was the first of them not to have campaigned to claim the throne against an uncle or cousin, which is partly why his reign could spend as it did on architecture.
- DefeatedSher Shah Suri
Sher Shah Suri drove Humayun out of India for fifteen years, beating him at Chausa in 1539 and at Kannauj in 1540, and in his five years of rule produced the Bengal-to-Indus highway with its sarais, the silver rupiya and the surveyed-land revenue system that the Mughals subsequently inherited. The Sur interregnum is the clearest case in Indian history of a defeated dynasty inheriting its conqueror's administration entire.
- Mother in law ofMariam-uz-Zamani (Harkha Bai)
Mariam-uz-Zamani was the paternal grandmother of Shah Jahan, whose own mother Jagat Gosain of Marwar — the historical Jodh Bai whom popular tradition confuses with Mariam-uz-Zamani — was Jahangir's wife and Mariam-uz-Zamani's daughter-in-law. The two Rajput princesses in two generations of the Mughal line are routinely conflated in retellings, but Mariam-uz-Zamani was Akbar's wife and Jagat Gosain was Jahangir's.
- Died atIndraprastha / Purana Qila
Humayun died at the Purana Qila in Delhi on 24 January 1556 when he fell down the stairs of his library in Sher Mandal hurrying to call to prayer — six months after recovering Delhi from the Suris with Persian support. He was buried first at Purana Qila and then at his widow Hamida Banu Begum's charbagh tomb, which became the architectural prototype for the Taj Mahal three generations later. His library and the circumstances of his death gave the Mughal library its proverbial status.
- Power passed toKoh-i-Noor
After the 21 April 1526 First Battle of Panipat and Babur's defeat of Ibrahim Lodi, the Mughal prince Humayun captured the family of Bikramjit, the Hindu Raja of Gwalior and vassal of the defeated Lodi, who were sheltering at Agra Fort. In gratitude for Humayun's protection, Bikramjit's family presented him with the diamond. Babur recorded in his autobiography that 'the gem was so invaluable that its value could feed the whole world for a day'. The diamond entered the Mughal royal collection through this 1526 transfer at Agra.