ZAHIRUDDIN MUHAMMAD BABUR IBN UMAR SHAIKH MIRZA

He was born on February 14, 1483 in the city of Andijan.

The sixth day of the month of Muharram, eight hundred and eighty-eighth year according to Hijri (Khondamir, Mirza Muhammad Haydar). Maulana Munir Margilani, a scholar of Ulugbek Kabuli, found the story of his birth by counting the sums of the letters in the word “Shashi Muharram” (sixth Muharram).

The name was given by Khoja Ubaydullah Akhror, and according to the Muslim naming ritual, the azan was given the name Zahiruddin Muhammad.

In the family from infancy he was affectionately called Babur, Baburjan, and this became both a name and a nickname; Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, Babur Mirza, Babur the Padishah are used in historical sources and scientific literature. The Baburids in the family called him “Firdavs Makoni”.

Grandfather Yunus Khan was very close to his father Umarsheikh Mirza, and when Babur Mirza was born, he sent a messenger to convey good news to Yunus Khan.

Khan arrived from Mogolistan and they remained together for a long time. When Padishah Babur was tonsured, everyone celebrated this occasion.

Grandfather Yunus Khan and father Umarsheikh Mirza asked Hazrat Eshan Ubaidullahan to name the child.

Hazrat named him Zahiruddin Muhammad... It was difficult for them to pronounce Zahiruddin Muhammad, so they called him Babur. In khutbahs and charters he was called and written as “Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur.” However, he is better known as Babur the Padishah (Mirza Muhammad Haydar, pp. 219-220).

After the tragic death of his father Umarsheikh Mirza in 1494, Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, at the age of 12, sat on the throne of Fergana province and began to rule the state.

His turbulent life and energetic activities coincided with the last period of the Timurid dynasty, which was in political, socio-economic and cultural crisis and in decline.

Disobedience to the central government and the willfulness of local governors have intensified in the country.

In particular, the ruler of Isfara, Ibrahim Soru, refused to obey Babur Mirza and handed over the city to the Samarkand ruler, Boysungur Mirza. A group of beks (officers) led by Hasan Yaqub, in order to elevate Jahangir Mirza, the brother of Babur Mirza, to the throne, organized a rebellion against him. In these dangerous years, Babur Mirza begins to take precautions: “This year I began to abstain from questionable foods and carefully chose even my knife, spoon and tablecloth.”

Babur’s attempt to return Andijan with the support of his uncle, the ruler of Tashkent, Sultan Mahmud Khan, was unsuccessful.

This failure had a negative impact on Babur’s army, and many beks (officers) and nukers (soldiers) left him. Soon he captured Margilan and tried to recapture Andijan. He returned it in June 1498. Babur made peace with his brother Jahangir Mirza and left him “the areas towards Akhsi on the banks of the Khojand River...” and took control of the areas on Andijan side.

During the period of intensifying civil strife among the Timurids, Shaybani Khan began to conquer Transoxiana.

In 1499, he passed through Jizzakh and Samarkand, capturing Karshi and Shakhrisabz, and returned to Dashti-Kipchak with great booty. Soon after this, he returned with a large army to Transoxiana and captured Bukhara and Karakul (1499); the ruler of Samarkand, Sultanali Mirza, due to lack of intelligence, surrendered the city to Shaybani Khan without a fight (1500). However, a certain part of the city residents and nobility advocated the restoration of Timurid power. They sent a letter to the ruler of Fergana Babur and invited him to conquer Samarkand.

Babur with 200-300 soldiers marches through the Hissar Mountains to Kabul (1504) and, taking advantage of the internal conflicts of the local authorities, captures Ghazni and Kabul.

After the conquest of Kabul, he quickly began building an independent state, organizing an army and establishing strict internal discipline. Babur treated Kabul and Afghanistan as a whole as his homeland and began construction and improvement, development of crafts and agriculture. He built gardens such as “Bog’i Shahroro”, “Bog’i Jahonoro”, “O’rtabog’”, “Bog’i Vafo” and “Bog’i Bobur”. He turned the Bolo Hisar fortress inside the city into his residence, restored it, built new buildings and lived in this fortress with his family. His children Humayun, Gulbadan Begim, Kamron and Hindol were born here. Here, in “Bog’i Navruz,” his mother Kutluknigorhanim, who died in the spring of 1506, was buried.

Proof of such a high position is the fact that Sultan Hussein specially invited Babur to a meeting together with all the Timurid rulers on the issue of taking joint measures against the Shaybanid invasion.

Following this invitation, Babur goes to Herat. Despite the sudden death of Sultan Hussein (1506), he went to Herat and negotiated with the heirs of Sultan Hussein. The plans of the Timurid rulers to unite and repel the invasion of Shaybani Khan were not realized, and soon they suffered defeats one after another and the state was completely lost from their hands.

By the spring of 1519, Babur began implementing his plan to conquer India and organized several campaigns over the next 5-6 years.

Finally, in April 1526, in the Battle of Panipat, he defeated the hundred thousand army of his main rival, Delhi Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, with 12 thousand soldiers, and captured Delhi. Soon after this, he defeats the Rajput commander Rana Sanga, subjugating part of Northern India up to Bengal. Babur, who chose Agra as his capital, begins large-scale landscaping and construction work. Thus, Babur created a huge state in 1526, uniting the territories from the Ganga River to the Amu Darya, thereby laying the foundation for the powerful Baburid dynasty, which ruled India for almost three and a half centuries.

Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur was not only a major statesman and commander of his time, but also a sensitive poet, writer, translator and mature scholar.

He left humanity a rich literary and scientific heritage. His works that have come down to us testify to the versatility and genre diversity of Babur’s work. In his works, the reader sees the image of a scientist and thinker, a lover of the beauty of man and nature, a connoisseur of the best moral qualities, accurately reflecting current historical events, condemning evil and hypocrisy, impartially observing the activities of historical figures, able to evaluate the work of scientists, poets and artists from the standpoint of advanced traditions of that time. Babur is considered a great personality who left an indelible mark on the history of mankind thanks to his progressive views and merits in the development of science.

In the rich and priceless scientific and literary heritage that Babur left to his descendants, his “Baburnama” undoubtedly brought world fame to our great ancestor.

Finally, in April 1526, in the Battle of Panipat, he defeated the hundred thousand army of his main rival, Delhi Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, with 12 thousand soldiers, and captured Delhi. Soon after this, he defeats the Rajput commander Rana Sanga, subjugating part of Northern India up to Bengal. Babur, who chose Agra as his capital, begins large-scale landscaping and construction work. Thus, Babur created a huge state in 1526, uniting the territories from the Ganga River to the Amu Darya, thereby laying the foundation for the powerful Baburid dynasty, which ruled India for almost three and a half centuries.

The general properties of the poet’s lyrical works are as follows:

Their style is distinguished by simplicity and smoothness, brevity, appearance based on more real events, despite the fact that they were created in the traditions of our classical literature. As a result, his poems organically combine lyricism with historicism, artistry with vitality, emotionality and reality. This determines the uniqueness of the poet’s creative style.

It should be especially noted that in Babur’s writings the realistic style of depiction prevails over the emotional style of depiction.

For example, in a gazelle about love “...turned yellow like an autumn leaf...” the poet complains about the indifference of his beloved. Noting that he has turned yellow, like an autumn leaf, from his love towards this roselike face, he asks his beloved to be lenient when she sees his yellowed face. The lover, having not earned the favor of his beloved, agrees to die, but at the same time does not condemn her, but, on the contrary, wishes her happiness and “love in the garden of beauty.”

Babur’s Treatise on Aruz occupies an important place in the study of the theory of Uzbek poetry.

This treatise by Babur became the second major study written in Turkic about the size of aruz after “Mezon ul-Avzon” by Ali-Shir Nava’i. When writing this work, along with Nava’i’s treatise, the author carefully studies the treatises on aruz by the classics of Persian-Tajik literature Rashiddin Vatvot, Nasiriddin Tusi, al-Razi and others.

The Treatise on Aruz mentions the names of more than 60 poets who lived in the 15th-16th centuries and provides excerpts from their works.

This work serves as an important source and guide in studying the history of the theory of poetry of the Uzbek and other Turkic peoples.

The author strives to reveal the most significant aspects inherent in their work when it comes to people who wrote.

When Babur talks about creators, describing them, he tries to note their contribution to the development of literature and art, their skill in this field, their merits in the development of culture and evaluates the poet or writer from this perspective.

Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur made a worthy contribution to the development of many branches of science.

In this sense, Mubayyin occupies a special place in his work. However, the study of this work, which is a valuable resource not only for literary scholars, but also for scientists in other fields of science - Islamic scholars, historians, philosophers, economists, linguists, teachers, became possible only after our Motherland gained independence. A lot of work has been done to research and publish it. The Mubayyin is an essay in verse about scientific, educational, religious culture in public, family, and private life of Timurid era.

Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur with his Mubayyin proves that he is a great scientist.

Conceiving the rules as a program for his sons, Crown Princes Nasiriddin Humayun and Kamron Mirza, through them he educates the masses about the five pillars (fards) of Islam. Indeed, the work beautifully expounds in verse the questions of the five pillars of the holy religion of Islam: faith, namaz (prayer), fasting, zakat and hajj. Research scholars claim that the main sources on which the author of Mubayyin relies are the blessed books Mukhtasari Vikoya and Khidoya Sharif. On the other hand, the texts of the prayers in the composition are mainly from six books, that is, the prayers are selected from the hadiths contained in the books of the six great work, as well as from the work of Imam Ghazali Ihyu ulumiddin.