Humâyûn, Emperor of Hindûstân, was the son of Baber, son of Omer Shykh, son of Abû Saied, son of Muhammed Myrzâ, son of Myran Hussyn, son of Timur.
His descendants, or successors, were the Emperors Akber, Jehangyr, Shâh Jehân, Aalumgyr-Aurungzyb, Behadur Shâh, Ferrukhsyr, Muhammed, Ahmed, Aalumgyr II. Shâh Aalum, Akber II.
Humâyûn was born at Kabul (A. H. 913, A. D. 1508), being the same year in which his father had taken the title of Padshâh, the second brother was named Kamrân, the third Hindal, the fourth Askery: they all bore the title of Myrzâ (Prince) following their names, and will make a conspicuous figure in this history.*
When Baber invaded Hindûstân (A. H. 932, A. D. 1525), he gave the command of the right wing of his army to Humâyûn, and he was the first general that engaged the Afghans. After the battle of Paniput he was sent on to secure the city of Agra, and the treasures of Sultân Ibrahîm; he also commanded the army sent against the combined forces of the chiefs possessing the country on the eastward of the Ganges: in all of which measures he succeeded, and was rewarded by his father with a present of one crore and seventy laks of dâms,* and a palace at Agra with all its contents. He afterwards took the city of Joanpûr, and then joined the imperial army previous to the bloody battle fought with the Hindû Princes near Biana, in which he highly distinguished himself.
It has been deemed requisite to state these circumstances, because the Memoirs do not commence till his mounting the throne; and he has been accused of want of energy as a monarch; nay, it has been even said, that if he had been a worse man, he would have been a greater king. See Memoirs of the Emperor Baber, by William Erskine, Esq. London, 1826, and Dow’s History of Hindûstân.
As the Author has seldom inserted any dates, I have been under the necessity of supplying them from other sources.
P. S. Although the dynasty of Timur are in India called Moghuls, the family do not acknowledge themselves to be so; they are properly Jagtay Turks, of a very superior clan to the Moghuls or Tartars; but in order to discriminate them from the Turks of Constantinople, the former title has been continued to them both in this work and in the Memoirs of Timur.
It is necessary also to observe here that the Tukhti Soleyman mentioned in the XIVth Chapter is not the Persepolis of the Greeks: I have not been able to discover the European name of it.