Akbar acknowledged as the greatest Moghul Emperor of India descended on the throne at raw age of only 13 amidst bewildering turmoils and struggles. He had soft corner for Hindus inspite of being a Muslim ruler and was truly secular. Some historians have pointed out his faults while majority of them have excessively glorified him.
In the name of investigating the truth, hair splitting is not our intention. We think every great person has some flaws or his attitude and actions may not be to the liking of many and hence those aspects are blown out of proportion to degrade his character. In the same way every character be it a ruler or pauper has some good qualities and there is little justification in glorifying them in the manner the rhapsodists do. A rational evaluation is needed avoiding the extremes. The best way to do it is to present the events of the life of a subject in a detached matter of fact way, without any prejudice and emotional involvement which may become our own perspective like that of historians. For the benefit of our readers we are telling the story of the life of ‘Moghul Emperor Akbar’ without unnecessary analytical inputs.
Ancestors and birth
The founder of the Moghul empire, Akbar was the grandson of Zahiruddin Mohammad Babar and the son of Nasiruddin Humayun. Babar was the descendent of Taimur Lung and the Mongol Chieftain Genghis Khan (Chungaiz Khan). The Mongol was related on the mother side and the Turk on father’s side. Thus Akbar carried in his veins the mixture of the bloods of Asia’s two historic warrior races.
After Babar’s rule his son Humayun could not rule even for ten years and got defeated at the hands of Shershah Suri Afghan and fled. He travelled towards Sindh alongwith his family and associates. He tried to entrench at Rohri, a place near Bhakkar on the bank of Yamuna river. A short distance away from Rohri, at a place called Pavar, his own brother Hindal was camping. Humayun stayed with him for some days. There, he saw a 14 year old beauty, the daughter of an Iranian called Mir Baba Dost alias Ali Akbar Jani and fell for her. He expressed his wish to marry her.
So, by the efforts of Dilawar Begum, the mother of Hindal, Humayun and the girl named Hamida Banu got married on August 14, 1541.
After some months, with his associates, faithfuls and pregnant wife Hamida, Humayun reached the kingdom of Raja Birsal of Amarkot on August 23, 1542.
Although Humayun had lost power yet Raja Birsal, holding up the Rajput tradition, welcomed him and treated him as his royal guest for the sake of old loyalty and friendship.
On October 15, 1542 Hamida Banu gave birth to a son at Amarkot.
At that time Humayun was 50 kms away on a campaign with the soldiers of the Raja. When he received the news of the birth of his son he was in no position to reward his companions or celebrate impromtu. So, to his prominent associates he offered bits of deer musk saying, “At present I have only this to offer you to celebrate the birth of my son. Just as the smell of this musk scents the air of this tent his glory may spread all over the world and his reputation rise sky high.”
Humayun named his son Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar.
After spending a period in Amarkot on December 8, 1542 Hamida Banu Begum arrived with her new born at Joon where her husband Humayun was camping. A woman called Jiji Anaga was employed as nurse of the baby Akbar. She was the wife of Shamsuddin who had once saved the life of Humayun.
Kamran, one of the brothers of Humayun was in control of a place called Kandahar. His brother Askari used to rule Kandahar on his behalf. Humayun decided to seize it from his brothers. They were, of course, step brothers as Babar had a number of wives. Humayun quietly began to move towards Kandahar. Askari got wind of his intentions. He made preparation to meet the challenge. Humayun had to give up the ill conceived idea of raiding Kandahar and moved towards Mushtang. He learnt that Askari was following him, so he fled on to Seistan and planned to go from there to Mecca via Iran.
The route and the journey onward was very challenging. Hence, Humayun left behind his son, one year old Akbar in the care of trusted servants and moved on with Hamida Begum and associates. In his travel group there were 41 men, excluding he himself and two women. The jouney was undertaken on October 15, 1543.
In the beginning of 1545 Humayun planned an attack on Kandahar with the help of Shah of Iran. With a large army he laid a seige to Kandahar. On September 3, 1545 Askari surrendered the Kandahar fort to Humayun.
From Kandahar he pressed on to Kabul where his step brother Kamran was in power and ruled. The son of Humayun was in his possession. Askari had seized little Akbar from the servants of Humayun and got the boy to Kabul.
As soon as Humayun neared Kabul, Kamran got panicky and fled. On November 18, 1545 Kabul fell to Humayun. Now Kabul also was under his control. After a gap of two years Humayun got the chance to meet his son, Akbar.
After establishing himself in Kabul Humayun sent for his wife Hamida Banu Begum from Kandahar. When Hamida reached Kabul the family was curious to see if young Akbar could recognise his mother after two years. Hamida was made to sit amongst the women folk of the family and little Akbar was brought there to be left unguided. It was a sort of a test. Akbar was not to be tricked, he toddled on straight to Hamida Banu and nestled in her lap to the great astonishment of the clan of women folk. All were unanimous in thought that boy was exceptionally talented innately.
For the clan it was a joyous occasion when all were together after five years of nomadic separation at one place. After sometime Akbar underwent Khatna ritual.
Some months passed in peace. Then, Humayun left his family and travelled towards ‘Badakshan’ where he fell ill. Taking advantage of his absence and physical weakness Kamran recaptured Kabul. After regaining health Humayun again made a move towards Kabul and in November, 1547 laid a seige to Kabul. Young Akbar and the rest of the family of Humayun were still in the hands of Kamran.
Humayun got his guns shell the fort.
To get away from the shelling Kamran resorted to a diabolic strategy. He placed child Akbar on the parapet of the fort-wall to force Humayun stop the gun fire. Humayun at once stopped shelling.
Taking a chance Kamran fled toward Badakshan abandoning the fort. Kabul again was in control of Humayun.
Next few years too brought no peace and respite to Humayun. His position remained uncertain and unstable. In Balkh he tasted defeat and Kabul again was lost to the enemies. But he again won it back.
