The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)

About this book

Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan, became ruler of the small kingdom of Fergana in Central Asia at the age of eleven. In his memoirs he tells how he won and lost Samarkand, wandered as a fugitive, took Kabul in 1504, and finally invaded India, where his victory at Panipat in 1526 founded the Mughal Empire. But the book is as much about the man as his wars: he writes with honesty about his failures, his friends and enemies, his love of poetry, gardens and melons, his struggle with wine, and the plants, animals and people of the lands he saw.

Context and significance

Babur (1483–1530) wrote in his native Chagatai Turkish, and the Baburnama is one of the first true autobiographies in Islamic literature. This translation, of 1922, by Annette Beveridge, was made directly from the Turkish text. Babur admired the Persian poets of his day; for their great predecessor, read the Poems from the Divan of Hafiz.

About the author