AFFAIRS OF HUMÁYUN FROM HIS ACCESSION TO HIS IN- HUMÁYUN'S ACCESSION. DIFFICULTIES OF HIS SITUATION. COMPETITORS FOR THE THRONE. UNSETTLED STATE OF THE EMPIRE -AND OF FOREIGN RELATIONS. PROVISION FOR HIS BROTHERS. CHARACTER OF HUMAYUN. MUHAMMED SULTAN ARRESTED BY THE ADVANCE OF BEHÁDER SHAH-AND TÁTÁR KHAN LODI. WHEN Nasír-ed-dín Muhammed Humáyun succeeded CHAP. L his father, he was in the twenty-third year of his age. * He was born in the citadel of Kábul, A. H. 913, Zikáda 4, (A. D.. VOL. II. B 1508, March 6) and mounted the A. D. 1530. A. D. 1530. accession, BOOK IV. He ascended the throne in the city of Agra, on the 29th of December, A. D. 1530, three days after the late EmHumayun's peror's death. The usual solemnities followed; the chief nobility presented themselves at the Derbár, and A. D. 1530, tendered their allegiance, and money was scattered among the populace. The public prayers were read, and coin struck, in name of the new prince. A. H 937, Jemádi I. 9. Dec. 29. Difficulties of his situation. But, though the son of the great Báber thus mounted the throne of Agra, his situation was not free from danger and difficulty. Even in his own court, and in the army, all was not sound. In that age, the right of succession to the crown was very unsettled. Though the claim of the eldest son to succeed his father was acknowledged in a general way, the order of succession was not in practice rigidly adhered to. The public feeling was little hurt when any other of the sons, or an aspiring uncle, made his way to the throne. The sword was the grand arbiter of right; and every son was prepared to try his fortune against his brothers. The custom of granting large governments or appanages to the younger princes, gave them the means of asserting their ambitious pretensions by force, at the head of armies. In the present instance, other principles unfavourable to the regular succession were in operation. The conquest of Hindustán had been begun only five years before, and was still in progress. Humáyun had not latterly been employed in any military command in that country. The government was still, of course, military. The army was not a national one, connected by common language and country, but a mixed body of adventurers, Chaghatái, Uzbek, Moghul, Persian, Afghán and Indian. Even the Chaghatái chiefs, who had enjoyed most of the Emperor's confidence and favour, were not perfectly unanimous. Though A. D. 1530. tors for the attached to the family of Báber, as the representatives CHAP. I. of that revered prince and of the great Taimúr, yet no eminent chief or head of a tribe considered the crown itself as beyond the range of his ambition. It was the age of revolution; and the kingdoms on every side, Persia, Samarkand, Bokhára, Hissár, Balkh, and Hindustán itself,-saw the throne occupied by adventurers, or the immediate descendants of adventurers, not more distinguished than themselves. The length of time during which the late Emperor's health had been declining, had given time for parties and intrigues to be formed among them, which his talents and respected name had hitherto prevented from bursting out, but which were not the less dangerous on that account. We have seen by what a minute accident a plan of the Competiprime minister himself, for setting aside Báber's son throne. altogether, had been defeated. Syed Mehdi Khwája, the candidate in whose favour he had acted, seems to have been of a religious family, was a son-in-law of Báber, and known to the army, a division of which he had often led. Muhammed Zemán Mírza, another great lord of the court, and a descendant of Taimúr, being a grandson of the celebrated Sultan Husein Mírza Baikra of Khorásán, and who had also married a daughter of Báber, was supposed to have in his interest a formidable party, consisting of many of the most powerful men in the army. He was a man of talent, and had been employed by the late Emperor in many important commands. Muhammed Sultan Mírza, also a descendant of Taimúr and grandson of the late Sultan of Khorásán by a daughter, was a third nobleman, who, from his royal birth and high station, was thought worthy to aspire to the throne. All had their followers and adherents. The very supposition that such men might be placed in hostility to the legal heir, rendered their position dangerous; and it might in some circumstances seem safer to incur the immediate A. D. 1530. BOOK IV. risks of revolt than to endure the lingering annoyances and real dangers of suspicion. Under such circumstances, a thousand unforeseen accidents might occur to blow the smouldering embers of intrigue and faction into a flame. Unsettled state of the Empire. Nor was it only in the court and in the camp that dangers were to be apprehended. The Empire was far from being yet consolidated, when Báber died. It was only five years since that able prince had entered India; and, during that period, his life had been too busily employed, in military expeditions, to admit of his devoting the needful time to settling the details of the internal administration of the kingdoms that he had conquered. He had entered the country as a stranger and a spoiler; he had defeated the armies and broken the power of the reigning dynasty; but the only hold which he, or his race, yet had upon the people of India was military force. Of the two great classes of which the population of India was composed, the Hindus could have little unity of feeling with their Muhammedan conquerors. Both religions are, in their particular ways, exclusive. The Hindus admit of no proselytes; regard all strangers, even their rulers, as not only far behind them in the road to final happiness, but as, at best, only successful barbarians, many of whose habits they view with disgust and abhorrence. The Musulman, too, though eager for proselytism, is an exclusive religion, which looks with hatred or contempt on every other, and is very unfavourable to the existence of much sympathy between the believing lord and the infidel subject; especially where that subject adds to his other crimes that of idolatry. But the difficulty was not less, even with the old Muhammedans. India, for centuries, had been governed by Muhammedan Formidable dynasties of foreign descent. The last of these had been the Afghán; and chiefs of that race, with their followers, were scattered all over the kingdom, and held the most important offices and the most valuable power of the Af gháns. |