1. He was born Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur. His name comes from the Persian word ‘Babr,’ which means tiger.
2. He was the eldest son of Umar Sheikh Mirza, a direct descendant of Timur, also known as Tamurlane, the Turk-Mongol conqueror. His mother was a direct descendant of the conqueror of Asia, Genghis Khan.
3. At the age of 12, he ascended to the throne of Fergana (now Uzbekistan). In 1504, he conquered Kabul, a major citadel in Central Asia.
4. In 1524, Daulat Khan Lodi, a Lodi dynasty rebel, invited Babur to invade North India and fight the dynasty and their enemies in Rajputana. A Hindu Rajput confederacy led by Mewar king Rana Sanga ruled Rajputana.
5. In 1526, Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the Lodi king, at the Battle of Panipat. He conquered Delhi and established the Mughal Empire, North India’s most powerful dynasty.
6. He also defeated Rana Sanga in the Battle of Khanwa, who regarded Babur as a foreign invader. Since then, Rajputana has been a subjugated ally of the Mughals.
7. There is some uncertainty about Babur’s ethnicity. He considered himself a Timurid of Turk because he was Timur’s descendant. However, according to Uzbek history, Babur was an ethnic Uzbek.
8.Babur claimed to be physically fit and strong.
9. He also claimed to have swum across every major river he came across, including the Ganges River twice.
10. He mentioned this in Stanley Lane-Medieval Poole’s India from the Mohammedan Conquest to the Reign of Akbar the Great.
