Babur, or by his full name Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur (Chagatai Turkic: ظهيرالدين محمد بابور; Persian: ظهيرالدين محمد بابور, 14 February 1483 – 26 December 1530), a Turkic leader and the founder and first ruler of the Mughal Empire. Babur, whose lineage descended from Timur on his father's side and from Genghis Khan on his mother's side, brought all of Northern India under his control as a result of the campaigns he waged into India from 1519 onward, and in 1526 put an end to the Delhi Sultanate, founding the Mughal Empire over lands covering present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India.
Babur made important contributions to the literature of the Chagatai period. The Baburnama, which he wrote in Chagatai Turkic and in which he recounted his deeds chronologically, is regarded as one of the masterpieces of the prose genre in the history of Turkish literature. Babur, who developed the style of writing called the Baburi script (Hatt-ı Baburi), is also regarded as the greatest poet of Chagatai literature after Ali-Shir Nava'i. Babur, who was also heavily influenced by Persian culture, exerted this influence both on himself and on his successors, which led to the considerable development of this culture in India.
Early years and rule over Afghanistan
Babur was born on 14 February 1483 in the city of Andijan, located within the borders of present-day Uzbekistan and the Fergana Valley. His father was Umar Shaikh Mirza II, the governor of Fergana and a descendant of Miran Shah, Timur's third son, and his mother was Qutlugh Nigar Khanum, daughter of Yunus Khan, one of the descendants of Genghis Khan. When he was born, the Timurid dynasty ruled a small part of Central Asia. After his father's death, he ascended the throne in Fergana in 1494 at the age of 12. When Babur sat on his father's throne, his uncle Sultan Ahmad, the Khan of Samarkand, and his maternal uncle Mehmet, the Khan of Tashkent, were attacking Fergana. Babur weathered this danger thanks to his father's commanders. In 1497 Babur succeeded in capturing Samarkand, the capital of his great ancestor Timur. But he was defeated by Shaybani, the Khan of the Uzbeks. Although he recaptured Samarkand in 1501, he lost it again to the Uzbeks in 1503. As the small states under the rule of the rulers descended from Timur were eliminated by the Uzbeks, and the important Timurid cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Herat fell into the hands of the Uzbeks, and the princes (mirzas) of the dynasty lost their lives one by one, Babur was the only one left from the Timurid dynasty in the region. Babur, who tried to lay claim to Timur's legacy, was continually defeated in the face of the Uzbek Khan Shaybani Khan. On one occasion he was forced to leave his elder sister in Shaybani's hands and flee with a few loyal men.