was fought at Sikri, a few miles from Agra. Báber CHAPTER IV. gained the day. The Rajpoots were utterly routed; henceforth they gave him no more trouble.

Báber had played his part like a Moghul. He Policy of Báber. made war against Mussulmans and Sunnís. He confederated with the idolatrous Rana against Mussulmans. If ever he professed to be a Sunní, it was only to ingratiate himself with the Afghans.

Báber only reigned four years. He was chiefly Death of Báber, occupied in rooting the Afghans out of their strongholds. He died in 1530.

reign his Mo

Báber was succeeded by his son Humáyun.15 Humayun's The new Padishah had neither energy nor genius.16 ghul procliviHe offended all good Mussulmans by hankering after the religion of his Moghul ancestors. He divided his household affairs according to the four elements of fire, air, water, and earth. He built a pavilion with seven apartments of different colours to represent the sun, moon, and planets; he sat each day in a different apartment; he transacted business or took his pleasure according to the reigning luminary. The events of Humayun's reign are obscure. He interfered in Rajpoot affairs. He made war on Guzerat. It is difficult to discover that he followed any definite policy. On the contrary, he was vain and foolish; he allowed an Afghan, named Sher Khan, to trick him out of his kingdom.

The story is a striking illustration of Asiatic Humayun out

15 The reign of Humayun is based on the same authorities as that of Báber. Humayun has written his own Memoirs. They teach little respecting the man himself.

16 Europeans gave to each Moghul sovereign the title of emperor. The Moghuls called their sovereign Padishah. "Pad" signifies stability and possession; "Shah" means origin or lord. See Abul Fazl's preface to the Ain-iAkbari, translated by Mr Blockmann. Frequent reference will be made to this invaluable work in dealing with Moghul history.

CHAPTER IV. cleverness. Sher Khan held the fortress of Chunar, witted by Sher one of the strongest positions in Hindustan. It

Khan

Afghan.

Defeat and exile of Humayun.

overhangs the Ganges; it commands the highway from the north-west into Bengal. Humayun might have dislodged him, but Sher Khan was all submission. He was very respectful to Humayun. He wished to hold the fortress, but only in the name of Humáyun. He sent his son with a troop of horse to fight in the Moghul army. Humayun was flattered and gulled. He left Chunar in the hands of the Afghan; he went away westward to reduce the Sultan of Guzerat.

When Humayun returned from Guzerat, Sher Khan was master of all Bengal excepting Gour. Sher Khan was, in fact, at that very moment besieging Gour. Humayun was not aware that Gour was in jeopardy; he knew enough to resolve on marching towards Bengal. At the first onset he found that the road was blocked up by the fortress of Chunar. Six months passed away before he could capture Chunar. After leaving Chunar he met a second block; the defile between the Ganges and Rajmahal hills was closed by Afghans." Suddenly the Afghans disappeared. The road was clear; Humayun pushed on to Gour. There he saw that he had been outwitted. Sher Khan had kept the Moghul army out of Bengal just long enough to suit his own purposes. He had plundered Gour; he had carried the booty to a safe place. Above all, he had hindered the advance of Humayun until the beginning of the rains. On entering Bengal the Moghuls were doomed to destruction.

17 Railway travellers will remember this defile. Its eastern end begins after leaving the station at Sahibgunj.

The country was under water. Numbers died of CHAPTER IV. fever and dysentery brought on by the steamy atmosphere. When the rains were over Humáyun tried to cut his way back to Agra. The Afghans fell upon him; they drove the remains of his army into the Ganges. Humayun escaped to Agra; he had lost his army. He was driven into exile;

he left Sher Khan in possession of Hindustan and the Punjab.

Persia.

The further adventures of Humayun are mere Escape to personal details. He found no refuge in India. He toiled painfully through the desert of Scinde. He suffered agonies from thirst and heat. At this juncture one of his wives gave birth to the celebrated Akber. At last he reached Persia and was entertained at court; he affected to become a Shíah. In this manner Humáyun passed fifteen years in exile.

Sher Khan.

Meantime Sher Khan had founded a dynasty; Character of it lasted fifteen years. Its history throws no light upon political or religious development. Sher Khan has been much belauded by Mussulman historians. According to them he built numerous caravanserais; he dug fifteen hundred wells between the Ganges and the Indus; he erected mosques on the highways; he planted fruit-trees on the highways; he introduced a fixed and universal standard of weights and measures. Most of this may be dismissed as oriental hyperbole.18 Sher Khan

18 The history of the reign of Sher Khan was composed by Abbas Khan. It was written many years after the death of Sher Khan by the order of the Emperor Akber. Abbas Khan was related by marriage to the family of Sher Khan. He wrote at a time when there was a deadly struggle between Afghans and Moghuls, between Sunnís and Shíahs. Abbas Khan was thus impelled by the pride of kinship, by Sunní prejudice, by Afghan proclivities, by every instinct in

CHAPTER IV. was an Afghan freebooter; he had seized an empire; he only reigned five years; he was constantly at war with the Rajpoots. It is monstrous to suppose that such a man would have had the time or inclination to dig wells, to plant fruit-trees, to build mosques and caravanserais. He did one thing which reveals his real character. A Rajpoot garrison had surrendered on condition of marching out with their arms and property. Sher Khan broke faith and slaughtered every man. It is obvious that he was as treacherous and bloodthirsty as the ordinary run of Afghans.19

Humayun recovers his kingdom.

Sher Khan died on the throne; he was succeeded in turn by a son and a grandson. The grandson was murdered by an uncle who usurped the throne. The usurper had a Hindú favourite named Hemu.

man's nature which makes a party writer, to belaud Sher Khan as a model sovereign. The history written by Abbas Khan sufficiently reveals the fact that a horrible anarchy prevailed throughout Hindustan; that Sher Khan kept down robbery and rebellion by sheer terrorism. Abbas Khan's history was translated by Mr E. C. Bayley. It is printed in Elliot's History of India, vol. iv. Professor Dowson adds that Abbas Khan fell into disgrace with Akber. No wonder. Akber was not likely to favour the historian who praised the enemy of Humayun.

19 There is a conflict between experience and evidence in dealing with the reign of Sher Khan. Experience teaches that an Afghan like Sher Khan could not have been the beneficent sovereign he is described. The fact is that Mussulman history from the beginning of the Shíah revolt grows more and more untrustworthy. Sultans are praised and blamed, not according to their merits or demerits, but according to whether they were Shíahs or Sunnís. Striking instances of the strength of this party-feeling will be found hereafter in dealing with the reign of Shah Jehan and Aurungzeb.

The conflict between experience and evidence disappears in dealing with the later history. The experience is supported by European evidence. The European evidence proves that so-called oriental historians were shameless flatterers. The most wicked and contemptible princes have been praised by party writers as the greatest of kings.

It is strange that Ferishta, who was a Shíah, should have repeated the praises that had been bestowed on Sher Khan. Ferishta, however, was an honest man; he tried to be impartial; he generally is impartial. In dealing with Sher Khan he was probably misled by Abbas Khan.

He made Hemu his minister. He advanced Hindús CHAPTER IV. to rank and power to the prejudice of the Afghans; his proceedings drove the nobles into rebellion.20 At this crisis Humáyun suddenly returned to India; he took possession of Delhi and Agra. He began the old work of restoring order. Within six months he was killed at Delhi by a fall from the parapet of his palace.21

máyun types of

period.

Báber and Humayun were types of the transition Báber and Huperiod between the Moghul Turk and the Moghul a transition Persian. Both were lax Mussulmans. In both religion was little better than lip-service. Humáyun was a professed Shíah. After his return from Persia nothing is said of his Moghul fancies. Probably he became a better Mussulman.

type.

Akber, the son and successor of Humáyun, Akber a Persian may be described as the first Moghul sovereign of the Persian epoch. Before attempting to delineate his character it will be necessary to glance at the leading events of the first twenty years of his reign.

Akber, the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth, Akber Padiascended the throne in 1556. He was only a boy of Bairam Khan, of fourteen; he was away in the Punjab fighting against the Afghans. A general of capacity, named Bairam Khan, was commanding the armies in the Punjab. When Humayun died, Bairam Khan became guardian of Akber.

the reign.

The reign of Akber is one of the most important Importance of in the history of India; it is one of the most important in the history of the world. It bears a strange

20 Hemu belonged to the same type as Malik Kafúr and Khuzru Khan. 21 The history involves a curious coincidence. The Moghuls reigned fifteen years and were succeeded by Afghans. The Afghans reigned fifteen years and were succeeded by Moghuls.