Nasir ud-Din HUMAYUN (r.1530-39, 1555-56)


"Timur, Babur, and Humayun"-- a modern painter's vision of how the *Mughal dynasty* takes shape; *a detailed family tree*
Portraits of Humayun often give him a very Turkish appearance
*PURANA
QILA*
The Purana Qila ("Old Fort") in Delhi (1530-45) was begun by Humayun; Sher Shah, during his own intervening rule, continued to work on it
*BOMBAY*
Since 1510, the Portuguese had been in *Goa*; now from 1534 onward, the British were in Bombay
Elaborate silver "shahrukhi" cons were issued by Humayun from his mint at Agra right up to the time he was dethroned and chased out of the country by Sher Shah

Humayun, now a kind of royal refugee, eventually found a welcome at the court of the Safavid ruler, Shah Tahmasp, in Isfahan



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THE SURI INTERLUDE, 1540-1555
Sher Shah Sur (r.1540-45), Humayun's nemesis, the brilliant soldier and administrator who drove him out of India into a fifteen-year exile, used a mixture of Arabic and Nagari inscriptions on his coins
*QILA-E
KUHNA*
Inside the Purana Qila, Sher Shah added his own mosque, the "Qila-e Kuhna Masjid" (Mosque of the Old Fort), in 1541 (or maybe it was Humayun's; see *Glenn D. Lowry*)
Among his other conquests, Sher Shah besieged the ancient fort of KALINJAR, in Madhya Pradesh; in 1545, in an accidental gunpowder explosion, he died there
Sher Shah's tomb, located in the center of a large tank, is in SASSERAM (or Sasaram), in his home region of Bihar
The mosque and tomb of Isa Khan (1547), who was one of Sher Shah's nobles, ended up near what later became Humayun's tomb
Sher Shah's son Islam (or Salim) Shah (r.1545-54) built the massive Salimgarh fort, just north of what later became the Red Fort; only remnants of it survive today

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Humayun managed to return to India in 1555; see the account by *Sidi Ali Reis*. But then he died suddenly, after a fall down some stairs, in 1556
Humayun's tomb, in early drawings; it was built (1562/3-71) by his widow, Hamida Begam (Akbar's mother); his life was also chronicled by his sister *Gulbadan Begam*
Early photographs of Humayun's tomb
Some modern photos; Humayun's tomb is one of the great Delhi landmarks



 
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