Babur

Babar was more of a soldier than a politician. It has been suggested by historians that the government he set up was saifi (by the sword ) and not qalami (by the pen). Considerable parts of his empire were ruled by his ministers with full sovereignity. He was an orthodox Sunni muslim and loved architecture and music; he was also a master of Turki, his mother tongue, as well as Persian. The chronicles of his life, the Babarnama, remains widely used and is a masterpiece of that genre of literature. Babar appears not to have been enamored of Delhi and India, and in recent years his name has been mired in controversy. A mosque by the name of Babri masjid, apparently built in 1526 at his command, was destroyed on 6 December 1992 by Hindu militants. They claim that a Hindu temple, marking the site of Lord Rama's birth, was destroyed at Babar's orders, and a mosque built at that very site. For Hindu militants and chauvinists, Babar's name has become synonymous with the history of Muslim tyranny and oppression, but almost nothing in the historical record warrants this reading.

Babar nominated his son Humayun as his successor and died on 30 December 1530 at the age of forty eight.