Empire: World History - 207. The Stargazing Hippie vs The Lion King

Episode Date: November 28, 2024

On his death bed, Babur tells his eldest son not to fight with his brothers however awful they will be to him. As his father passes away, Humayun inherits a fragile empire on shaky ground. And his dad’s message of peace quickly comes to the fore when his treacherous younger brothers plot to take his throne. Once thought of as the hopeless hippie son, Humayun was an accomplished military general who had served in Babur’s forces as a teenager, and as emperor he continued to command troops against a familiar enemy – Sher Shah. But despite Humayun’s military might, he seemingly cannot win against the formidable Afghan warlord. Will he lose all that his father had built for their dynasty? Listen as William and Anita explore the life of the second Mughal emperor, Humayun. Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [e-mail] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Anouska Lewis Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community. Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mparpoduk.com. Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnan. And me, William Duremberg. Now, the last episode we left you with Barber, having exchanged his life with Hermayo, his son, in the eyes of God. I mean, it was a very sort of sweet

and actually quite touching promise that he makes to God that if you spare my sick son, then just take me instead. It is said, I think this is really interesting, really, that Barbara's last words to his son are, do not against your brothers, even though they may deserve it.

Isn't that interesting? That's his advice to his son. This is a crucial bind for Humayan, because Humayan, who realizes in his view that his father has given his life for him, is not willing throughout his life to forget his father's last request. And as we will see, this is the single biggest flaw in Humayans' rule, that he is continually messed around by his kid brothers who are always rebelling against them.

And he's always forgiving them. And this goes on and on and on till eventually his own followers take the law into their own hands and sort the problem out. Don't blow the end. I'm not saying a thing. Yes, I mean, you just did. But it's okay. Let's pretend you different.

But let's just remind people of Humayo, because we sort of described him as this boutique-wearing hippie on a gap yard. We're talking about a man who was actually very glamorous. I mean, he was a glamorous man who, you know, liked colorful clothes. I'm not sure I'd say glam, but he was certainly lively and dreamy, I think, is the word I'd probably use. We talked last time about how Babel shows this sort of odd mixture of prime. and extreme irritation with this boy.

Like so many Indian dads. Like so many Indian dads, exactly. And the sun is brave, dashing, intelligent, but also kind of unfocused, unambitious, and like me, perennially un punctual. And except that while I'm often sort of half an hour late. Half an hour late? How are you not bursting into flames?

Oh my lord. Okay, well let that slide. I have never turned up three weeks late, what Humayin does when Barbo's trying to invade India. But when you and I first worked together on our Coenol book, I wrote quite a lot about Humayn in that. And I was very much of the view that he was the hippie-dippy, charming, dashing, but rather hopeless boy. But since then, there has been a very important intervention by my wonderful friend, Ebba Koch. Ah, yes. She's the greatest living scholar of Mughal architecture. And she's a particular expert on the early Mughal period.

And in the year following our Koinur book, Eber came out with a wonderful book called the Planetary King, Humayan Padshar, inventor and visionary on the mogul throne. And this has completely changed all our views on Humayan. And if I was writing that book again, I would write a very different portrait now, having read Eber's work. Because Eber has shown that the kind of, you know, the kind of horoscope loving Humayon, who we always saw. with just the hippie-dippy. I mean, the story that there's always told of him is he fires arrows in the air randomly and sees where they land and decides on his policy, depending on where they land. Now, that all sounded kind of completely bonkers to us, but she has shown that in fact, he is by the standards of the time, this sort of visionary mystic, stroke astronomer,

stroke mathematician, who, like everyone at this time, looks to the heavens for the answers. This is not unique to Humayyne. This is absolutely par for the course in both Indian and in Islamic thought. And this whole science, as it was thought of then, which the ancient Indians in Sanskrit called Jotisa, which is both a mixture of astronomy and astrology and mathematics, was something that Humayin was a great expert in. And while he spent most of his life fighting and a lot of his life fighting against his brothers, in between times, he comes up with extraordinary inventions, which I had no idea about until I read Eber's book. So what we're going to be talking about over the next two episodes is profoundly altered

by Eber's work. And I recommend anyone who wants to know more about Humayne or anyone who wants to have a completely new take on one of the six famous mogul rulers to go and buy the planetary king, because it's completely changed my view of this man. So anyway. Anyway, let's go ahead using Eber's work. Ebba's work is fabulous. I'd just give you a little bit of a pen portrait of the man himself. So he's born on the 6th of March in 1508 in Kabul to Barbara's favorite wife. But he is the first of Barbara's children to survive infancy because infant mortality is so very terrible.

And the Kabul that he is born into is very different to the one that Barbara first encounters in 1504. He's beloved but will become infuriating to his father because, you know, his father will have numerous wives. He'll have four other sons, five daughters, a number of other children who died childbirth or as infants. But we should talk about the three most prominent brothers, that dark sort of muttering from Barbara on his deathbed, you know, do not act against your brothers even if they deserve it. The three brothers in question are Kamran, Ascari and Hindal. Tell us a little bit about the family relationship. What are the personalities of these people? Well, these three between them behave so badly in Humayin's rule that it subsequently changes the entire course of mogul history.

And it becomes the norm in mogul rule henceforth to imprison younger sons within the fort. And this remains true right up until the time of the end of the Mongol dynasty in the 1850s as a whole. By that stage, there's a whole half of the red fort, which is the princely quarter. And these guys lead a very circumscribed life. they have to seek special permission to leave the fort. They're basically expected to live in great luxury, but within it, within this world, within the world. And this is all because Kamran, Ascari and Hindal, between them, make Humayans' life

completely impossible. It's a lesson which subsequent moguls take to heart, and they're never going to suffer the same as Humay. It would have been easier if Barba would have just named a successor, you know, that Hamaya is going to be the one who takes over, you know, using a system that the other I mean, the Ottomans, they killed their brothers, didn't they? They killed any other challenger. But in this system that Humayu inherits, the kingdom's kind of carved up into separate territories. So these other sons, I mean, Hamayo is the main man. He's going to be the main man.

But the others get regions where they can plot and fulminate against, you know, the fact that they haven't been the main man and have a chance to act against him. I think you can find examples in the previous reigns of both approaches. There are examples where brothers are kept strongly under a leash, so to speak. There are other examples where people have taken the view that their brothers are their most useful allies and that keeping governorates within the family is the best way of keeping the whole empire together. So when Humayan is ruling, I don't think that he's breaking a precedent. I think it's just that from this point, the system has changed to make sure that what happens during Humayan's rule is never repeated. It's a very important part of Humayan's story, and it's one that alters subsequent history completely.

So Humayin is 18 when his father goes to India, and Humayan has a good war. We've described him as this sort of hippie-dippy character, but he doesn't seem like that during the invasion of India. Although he's very late setting off, he distinguishes himself at the Battle of Panipat and then races on to capture Agra. And remember, it's Humayan. who captures the diamond that may be the Kohinor when he takes Lodi Agra and captures the Raja of Guagliore and his jewels. And in other periods, Babur has placed Humayon in charge of Badakshan, which is one of the richest provinces in Afghanistan. Badakshan rubies, we've talked about so many times. Badakshan rubies and Badakshan Lapis. Lapis Lazubu comes from there, exactly.

Despite his sort of tendency to get excited about astronomy and the heavens, is a very successful general. one of the things he does very well. And we talked last time about the crucial battle of Canua when Babur just manages to defeat Rana Sanga, partly due to his canon, partly due to the fact that Rana Sanga is subsequently betrayed by his own people. And after that, while Babur is sort of mopping up resistance in India, Babur sends Humayin back to Kabul to maintain his interests in in that whole region. And there's this wonderful moment when Humayan gets a bit bored in Afghanistan. Remember, his father longs to be back in Kabul and thinks he's done the kindest thing a father can do by sending Humayan back there. Humayan suddenly turns up in Agra in 1529 when he's meant to be

governing Central Asia. And there's a famous miniature, I think, in one of the Babonamas of Humayan turning up unexpectedly at court and his mother and all the other ladies sort of falling on him and giving him a kind of group hug. So Humayin is around in India, and it is in India that he gets his fever, and it is in India that he recovers as Barbo falls ill and dies. Also, I mean, we should really mark this, because I think this is important, that the Hindustan that Hamaya will inherit has only been taken by Barbo for years before. So, you know, what he is, he is not a ruling.

It's a very fresh convent. And in the minds of many people who live in India, the moguls are still a military occupation. They are not a government. They haven't been accepted as a ruling family at all, yes. So, you know, Hamayo is on pretty shaky foundations, even if Barbara has been remarkably successful. He's not inheriting a state. He's inheriting a state in flux. We look at history always with the eyes of hindsight because we know that the moguls would go on until 1858, 87. And we always sort of, forget how much is contingent on chance. And what Humayan inherits at the age of 22 is, as you say, an incredibly unstable India. There are warring Afghans who do not want the moguls anywhere near

Hindustan running the whole of Bengal. Bengal has been in Afghan hands for a couple of hundred years. And Humayan has to go straight into battle when on December 29th, 1530, his father dies. And his first battles are in Gujarat. He leads a campaign to Gujarat. He faces off against the Sultan of Gujarat, Sultan Bahardo, and Humayan besieges the great fortress of Champan. Have you ever been the Champaner? Have you ever been to Champaner? So tell me what I'm missing. So there's this whole world that is almost never visited by outsiders of these extraordinary sultanate buildings in Gujarat. And the architecture of Gujarat so impresses humay and son Akbar, a generation on, the style of Fatipu-Sikri and the style of Akbari architecture

is very much borrowed and in a sense plagiarized from that of Champanah and the Gujarati sultaners. But this is one of the most innovative Indo-Islamic kingdoms and one of the richest, because it has a very rich trading merchant class that trade along the Arabian Ocean and sail across to Africa and Egypt at this period. This is what Humayin now is gunning for. As far as he's concerned, his father has successfully first defeated and then collaborated with the Rajputs. And so beyond Rajasthan, he now wants to go to war with the Gujarati's.

And he defeats them. It's a success. 1535, he defeats Sultan Bahadur, takes Champan, takes the treasury. He's so impressed by Champaner and so enjoys so much. the architecture and the glorious world of gardens and delights that he finds, that he remains there, indulging in all sorts of astronomical interests and pleasures. I'm going to say more about his superstition in a second, but interesting, he doesn't kill Sultan Bahadha, because Sultan Bahadha pegs it to the coast, and actually it's the Portuguese who are there

already, who protect him. He takes refuge with the Portuguese. It's not a vanquished forever because he doesn't manage to kill the man. It is, though, at a time when people start realizing just how superstitious this fella is, and you sort of start saying, he's a bit weird, because, as said of Hermey, he never placed his left foot first in any house or mosque. And if anyone else did, he would send them out and tell them to come back again. He's flexing, he's winning military things, but people are thinking he's decidedly odd at this time as well. There are those like Ebercock who defend this. And as far as she's concerned, it isn't weird that he actually has a deep engagement with both

Indian and Islamic traditions of astronomy. Eber has found a whole series of new sources for whom Ians reign that point to what he was up to in a way that we didn't understand before. And he's trying to build, we did say he was a bit of a hippie-dippy, a utopian society favored by the heavens. And Emma depicts Humayin as a ruler whose fixations were first and foremost intellectual. He's besotted by numbers and geometry. No other ruler organizes his court like he does according to planetary cosmology. He designs court costumes, court gates based on this system. He conceives astronomical tents and carpets, which sound to me a bit.

Can you remember that game Twister? Did you ever do Twister, when you were around when you've got one of the I played drunk twister. That's something. Well, there's a version, a kind of version of that that he comes up with, this carpet organized into different astronomical realms that you have to move yourself into. But what's also fascinating is that this period, in Champanour and at the beginning of his reign, he begins to construct movable palaces as sort of boats, floating bazaars and gardens, boat palaces and movable bridges.

It's all quite exciting stuff. Let's talk about his sort of innovations in a bit. But I just want to talk about that moment, that sort of honeymoon period after he takes Champanar, because he really wants to party with the troops. You know, well done boys, you done really, really well. And so he sits, you know, this is a lovely detail in the new fortress that now belongs to him. And he wears the red clothing of Mars. And he sits on the throne and he says, let us celebrate.

And they do. And they get really quite raucously drunk. And what happens is the army, because it's drunken out of control, decide to lead their own expedition. They just go off, you know, thinking, oh, Hamaio's asleep. You know, he's probably asleep in his red. Let's go off and do something ourselves. And Hamaio is incensed because it's the kind of like, give him an inch, those bloody troops, and they take a mile. So when they come back and he orders them back, and they do come back, he orders a really savage punishment for anyone involved in this expedition, this extrajudicial expedition that he did not.

order, even the Imam who he suspected of criticizing him and sort of, you know, egging these drunken troops on. And do you know what the punishment is? He orders elephants to trample them to death. So hippie-dippy he may be, but not like a hippie that you and I recognize who is all peace and love, because there is a darkness about this as well. Well, I don't think he regards it as a darkness. He sees it as trying to keep the proper order, the proper cosmological order. He dresses each day in planetary colors, so it was red for Mars the day that that happened. The quarters of each of his seven daughters are arranged in planetary formation and Humayan visits them in the Pacific order, and we catch glimpses of Hermione's sort of weird, mathematical,

astronomical mind in the structure of the Monumentary Commission, in these movable palaces and bridges and floating bazaars and all the rest of it. But it's something, which is very much the source of mogul style in the future. His architecture is very ornate, built with this sort of geometrical precision that he insists on maintaining at court. In the surviving buildings, you see the use of all these different colours in the way that he lays it down in his planetary system. So it all looks a bit weird to us, but the result is mogul architecture. And Ebercock has made a very good case that all this sort of strange rules about colour and geometry ends up with ultimately Humean's tomb, which is the

seed from which the Taj Mahal grows. You've just jumped straight to his tomb. We are jumping, but it's important. What I'm trying to say is that all this sort of weird colour and geometry that he imposes on the court ends with the Taj Mahal. So we can't complain too much. This is where all these ideas begin. And she makes the case, Emma makes the case that without Humayne, we'd never have any of those beautiful gardens, any of those beautiful...

Can I put it this way in conclusion? He's pretty weird, but his weird is pretty. Okay, we'll leave it at that. He's sort of sitting there comfortably. You know, he's trampled his unruly troops to death, so no one's going to do that again. But while he's sort of sitting pretty and thinking, you know, he's done very, very well, there is a threat that is on the horizon. and that is an Afghan warlord called Cher Shah. So join us after the break and we'll talk about what happens

when he has to face another challenge, which is not as easy to defeat. It doesn't go running off to the Portuguese. It is a real present danger to Hamiya's short rule. Welcome back. So just before the break, and we were talking about this impending threat that is coming to Hamios' rule

in the shape of somebody who called Cher Shah, but he's not Cher Shah at the time because he's still Cher Khan. That's the name we all know if we've read our jungle book, Shere Khan, but he is the lion, the lion king, if you like. And tell us a little bit, because he's an Afghan warlord, is he not, William? And tell us a little bit about his story. What's up with him? And where is he?

There is a whole world of supporters of Shere Khan, particularly, I think, in modern Pakistan and Afghanistan, who make the case that, in fact, many of the things to which the moguls are remembered, such as the Grand Trunk Road, some of the greatest buildings in Bangladesh. Delhi are the result of Cher Khan or Sher Shah, not the moguls. He's from one of these Pashtun Afghan tribes who have come down to Hindustan and settled in what's now Bihar and Bengal. He is a remarkable leader and he becomes the biggest thorn in Humayanside along with his brothers. Which should we deal with first because they're kind of simultaneous. Should we start with Kamran and Hindal? Shall I do you a Kamran and then you do me a hindle? Okay, so Kamran is the jealous second son

and who is a right pain in Hamayu's bottom. Kamran believed that Barbara and Hamaya should have given him more. Greater lands, greater power. He really resented his older brother for not doing him the justice that he felt he deserved. He's occupied Punjab from his base in Kabul. He's got lots of officers who were formerly loyal to his father, who are very, very loyal to him. So while Hamaya is looking at, you know, the threat of Cher Khan in the distance in Bengal. And moving towards Eastern India, yeah, importantly. In the meantime, while he's looking at Bengal, you remember Sultan Bahadur, the man who was in Champaner and who sort of gives up Champanar and has gone into the arms of the Portuguese. He just moves back to Champaner while he's gone. You know, sort of Hamaya's otherwise occupied.

He moves back in. The Portuguese kind of help him to take back his city and then they calmly kill him and take over that. territory altogether. So you've got this sort of encroaching colonialism going on in the background of Hamayo's rule. And Hamio's going to have to deal with this at a later date. And they will actually hang on to that territory for a lot longer than Bahra does. Anyway, so we go back to Kamran, the pain in the bum, Malken-Teth brother. Younger brother. Younger brother, jealous brother. He's four years younger. And he looks like his brother. He looks like the emperor. And you see him, you know, in paintings. He's often depicted the same way that his brother's depicted in paintings. You

He's sort of sitting cross-legged, he's thoughtful, he's staring away into the distance. But there is a difference. Whereas Hamayu is still our tie-dye hippie, you know, even by those standards, a mogul standard. This guy has always got little small knives attached to his belt. So it is very clear for everyone to see that he is a stabby brother. So that's sort of Kamran. Hindle, on the other hand, is the youngest brother of this group. and he believes he is born to a destiny because Barber has given him the name Hindle. That is Turkish for

Taker of India. So this is before at all there is any chance that this is going to be a reality. Hindal has the name and the destiny, Hind the taker of India. So he too feels really miserable and sidelined and the fact that his manifest destiny is being thwarted by his tide-eye brother. and that is a very irritating thing for him. He's very close to Gulber then Begham, the daughter I told you, who's also a chronicler of the court at this time. Gulberdon is a wonderful character, and Ruby Lall has just written a wonderful book about her.

And one of the things that I think might surprise people that don't know about the moguls is how much the Mughal court women are incredibly highly educated. And over again, generation after generation, you get these princesses who are writers. And Gulbadan is one of the first, Princess Rose body is the body of roses. But Hindle has always been, I mean, he has a reason to be aggrieved because he has been his father's favourite. His father loves him. Even when he's getting really cross with Hamaya in Humaya's writing style and lack of, you know, sort of good grammar, he loves Hindle.

And it's on his deathbed in Agra where he's desperately asking, yes, where is Hindle, please bring me Hindle. And Hindle can't get back. Hamay is close enough to get back in time. But Hindle is not back in time because he's fighting in Kabul. He's doing the work that makes his father proud. So, you know, all of these unresolved things are in Hindel's mind. That is his blueprint. It should have been me.

So these two brothers will team up. And not once, but on several occasions, they will unite against Humayin. And that is coming. Now, Humayin is heading eastwards. You can remember that when Babel, first got to India. He had, in a sense, two enemies to choose from. He could either take on the Rajputs or he can take on the Afghans. Now, he decides to take on the Rajputs and he defeats them, but it leaves the Afghans still at large in Bengal. And Humayin has gone to Gujarat and he still

hasn't grasped its nettle. So in July 1537, after Humayin has been rolling around, enjoying himself in Gujarat, he suddenly wakes up to the threat that's coming from the east. And this is from the Afghans who had been running Bengal and Bihar, that's the great chunk of Eastern India, for several centuries before the moguls turned up. And these guys had no intention of some new moguls coming in, some timurids coming in from Central Asia and taking what they thought was their part of the world. And Homiyaan sets off eastwards to combat Shair Khan. This is an epic battle between two very capable generals. And initially, Homiang is successful. He goes to Bengal, he captures Sher Khan's capital, which is called Gore. It's the most gorgeous area.

I've been there a few years ago, and it's this beautiful green landscape of meandering rivers. and orchards and mango groves with these beautiful Bengali-style mosques in red brick and tilework. Today, it's cut in half by the border between West Bengal in India and East Bengal in Bangladesh. And you have to sort of make a 200-mile detour to see both sides of the city. You can't just go through a border there. But after capturing it, he likes it so much, which is thoroughly understandable, because it's this beautiful, green expanse. And he spends too long enjoying himself in the mango orchards.

And he allows time for Cher Shah to regroup and recapture his old territories. And it's during a negotiation for a peace treaty that Cher Khan suddenly falls on Humayan's camp. And to everyone's surprise, he defeats him. And Humayin has to take flight. He's never been defeated before. He's not used to this. And after he is defeated on the battlefield of Kanoj, which is some way now into Uttar Pradesh, not far away from Lucknow, that this famous incident takes place. And Humaim is driven into the river and is starting to drown when a humble water carrier, who happens to have an inflatable hide. And in Fated Hide, I've seen these relatively from about 112 years ago. I've got one of those, you know, those stereoscopes which have two pictures. And I think it may even be in Bengal, but of people crossing the river on inflated cow carcasses. I've done it.

You've done it. It's like an inner tube, but with legs coming out of it. Exactly. Oh, mad. No, I've actually done it on the Indus. Have you? They've got four or five of these rope together, and then they have a very kind of primitive ruff, and they punch you across the indus at a place called Thakot.

Anyway, so what Humayan is saved by is just one guy who has his water skin. And these skins, which are normally used to carry water, can be inflated as sort of life-saving. Like, what do you call these things that you have on the side of ships? Yeah, rubber rings. You know, rubber rings. You know, they're like inner tubes, massive inner tubes. But you've got to imagine you've got the legs of the cow sticking out of them.

So you can totally see it's a carcass. It's very, very weird. So when this guy saves him, Humayin makes... a vow to this water carrier whose name is Nizam. He says, you are Nizam of the saints, which is a kind of pun on Nizawadine Orlia, the great saint of Delhi. And he promises him that he will reward him, saying that when I'm safely seated on the throne, I will make you king for half a day. And there are lots of pictures of this in Mughal painting. So this is a kind of terrible moment for Humayin. Not only are his brothers revolting and they've taken over Agra, but he's just

been defeated by the Afghan. So this is a moment of complete crisis and a poor old to mine has to take flight. This looks like the end of his rule. It looks like the end of Mogul rule. So does he sort of almost becomes a little bit like Barbara does for a while, a refugee in his own land. I mean, does he just sort of wander about a bit? He wanders around a bit. He tries to get an army together. But then there's another battle in 1540, the Battle of Knoge, which is sort of about two or three hours outside Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, further towards Agra, when Sher Shah defeats him a second time. And this time, Hindal and Ascari are fighting with Sher Shah against her brother. So it's a total betrayal. Oh, they are such buggers, aren't they?

It's not the end of it. We'll see them do this again and again. So Humayin tries to do a deal, but he's got so few cards left in his hand that when he offers Cher Shah all of Hindustan except the Punjab, Sheshire says no. And so Humaan has to be. to flee further and become a nomad, as you say. He goes off to Sindh, then he heads off just over the border, well, it's in Pakistan. It's in Pakistan. It's Western India. It used to be then, but now it's Pakistan. Right. So it's at this point at this lowest Nadir of fortune that he meets his future wife, Hamida. And even Hamida is not sort of immediately flattered by this failed king. Well, he hasn't got much to recommend him. He's wandering around like a beggar. He's

lost a kingdom. His brothers want to kill him. Cher Khan wants to kill him. He's just saved, you know, his own life. He probably still smells a damp cow, which is whatever saved his life going across. He's not a catch. Harmuth is only 14 at this time. But I mean, you know, marriages took place at a much younger age at this time, didn't they? So what, she's not impressed. Does she say no? Well, she certainly resistance for 40 days, is what the chronicles say. And Hindle opposes the marriage because he wants to marry her himself. But let's see what Kindle has got really to recommend him since he's betrayed his own brother. And at this point, Humayyan gives way to opium and despair.

But eventually, Hamida says yes and becomes pregnant. And as they both flee from Cher Shah and the betraying brothers, nine months later, Hamida gives birth in incredibly adverse circumstances on the run in the deserts of Sindh. and that child is the future emperor. Akbar the Great. Akbar the Great. So in this moment, when everything looks like the moguls are now history,

that this brief attempt to see Sindhistan is completely failed, as Humayin is heading into exile towards Iran, Akbar is born a refugee in a tent with a failed father and a young mother who has nothing other than this. son and this hopeless husband. So it's not looking at all promising. It's an epic tale, isn't it? An epic tale. Join us next time for the continuing saga of Hamayu. What happens next? He's got enemies all over. He at least has a son who is bizarrely from his lowest ebb, eventually going to restore mogul fortunes, but nobody knows this at the time. Until the next time we meet is goodbye

from me, Anita Arnon. And goodbye from me, William Durempul.