INTRODUCTION

The organization of the nobility was an important institution

devised by the Mughal emperors and its roots can be traced back to

political and economic developments in West Asia under Islam. In fact

the existence of Mughal empire depended on the proper working of this

institution as it had been an important organ of monarchical system of

government. It played a significant role in the growth, organization,

administrative structure, social and cultural life of the Mughal empire.

There was a symbiotic relationship between the king and the

nobility. The success of an emperor depended, on the one hand, upon his

ability to mainteiin the equilibrium between the powers of the crown and

the nobles, on the other hand, upon his ability to maintain a balance of

power among the various factions of the nobility. The composition of the

nobility varied from time to time depending on their loyalty,

administrative efficiency, political consideration, social milieu of the

Empires and finally the reaction and response of the Emperors.

During the Mughal period the nature of the organization of nobility

was closely related to the nature of the administrative structure and the

socio-cultural base of the Empire, So in recent past more attention has

been paid to the study of the vital institution of nobility by the scholars of
Medieval Indian history. A major break through in this direction was

made with the Publication of Satish Chandra's. Parties and Politics at the

Mughal Court.. (1707-1740) , in which for the first time he analysed in

detail the role of the nobility during the period of the later Mughals. It

was followed by an authentic account of the ruling class in its totality by

M. Athar All's, The Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb and the Apparatus

of Empire. It opened new horizons for investigation and research. These

works have greatly enriched our understanding of the fiinctioning of the

Mughal Empire.

Several research papers and monographs on various aspects of the

working of the nobility have also appeared in the important Journals.'

Some of the recent works has studied separately the position of various

social, reUgious and ethnic groups present in the nobility. In this respect

some studies have been made on Iranis, Turanis and Rajput Nobility

during various periods of Mughal rule. These monographs and research

articles on important nobles and family groups of nobles have also been

' Syed Nurul Hasan, 'New Light on the Relation of early Mughal Rulers with their Nobility'.
I.H.C.1956.
, 'The Theory of Nur Jahan Junta. A critical Study, l.H.C, 1956.
Afzal Hussain, 'Provincial Governors under Akbar.' I.H.C., 1970.
, 'Growth of Irani Element in Akbar's Nobility'. l.H.C., 1973.
, 'Element of Continuity and stability in Mughal Nobility under Akbar and Jahangir.'
studies in History, Vol.II,No.2,1980.
Ahsan Raza Khan, 'Gradation of Nobilitv. under Babanlslafflic culture, Vol. XI, No.l, Jan. 1986.
published.^ Two works on Afghans have been published but they are of

very general nature. ^

But very little work has been attempted on the study of the nobility

of the early Mughals. Professor S. Nurul Hasan's article, New light on the

Relations of the early Mughal Rulers with their Nobility, and Iqtidar

Warn Khan's, Mirza Kamran, A Biographical study deal with the

organization and the role of the nobility primarily under Humayun.

However, a large number of monographs have appeard on Babur, more

than any other Mughal emperor of Hindustan. But the most of these

works are in the nature of biographies of Babur renarrating the events of

his life in a chronological sequence. In this context the beginning in

researches on Babur was made with the publication of A.R. Khan's

article 'Babur's settlement of his conquest in Hindustan' in which he

focussed attention on Babur's administration . Radhey Shyam's , Babur.

^ Afzal Hussain, Nobility under Akbar and Jahangir (A study of Family groups). Delhi. 1999.
'Nobility under Akbar and the Envelopment of his Religions Policy.' 1960-80,
Journal of Royal Asatic Society , 1968.
U.N. Upadhya, Irani Nobility under the Mughals.
Afzal Khan, Irani Nobility under Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb.l 987(unpublished>
Irfan Habib, 'The Family of Nur Jahan during Jahangir's raign. A Political study. Medieval
India, A Miscellany, Vol.1, Aligarh, 1969.
Radhey Shyam, Life and Times of Malik Amber, Delhi, 1966.
,'The composition of the Nobility under Lodi Sultans',Medieval India-A
Miscellany, Vol.IV,1977.
.Mttgbal Relations with the todian Ruling Elitc.Delhi. 19SJ.
Rafaqat AH Khan, Kachhwahas under Akbar and Jahangir Acss. Delhi, 1976.
Rajiv Narain Prasad, Raja Man Singh of Amber. Calcatta, 1960.
G.N, Sharma, Mewar and the Mughals. Shiv Lai Agarwal & CO, 1962,
Satish Chandra, Marwar under Jaswant Singh (1658-1678).
Firdous Anwar.Nobilitv under the Mughals(1628-1658),delhi,2001.
^ Abdur Rahim, Histctry of the Afghans, in India, 1545-1631,,. Karachi 196L
Rita Joshi, The Afghan Nobility and the Muehals. (1526-1707), Delhi, 1985.
1980 , the first monograph on Babur which discusses, in addition to

Babur's life and reign. Similarly S.K. Bane rjees, Humavun Badshah is

the same kind of work. Moreover, on the lives of Humayun some other

works have also been produced. * These are valuable monographs

covering this whole period and concentrate on the person of the Emperor

rather than taking an overall review of the governing class.

But those above mentioned articles and few monographs on the

lives of important nobles and their families are not sufficient. No detailed

study of the structure of the nobility and the roles of nobles during the

reign of Babur and Humayun has been made so far. So in the absence of

any comprehensive work the present study would be a beginning in this

direction with regard to the Nobility under Babur and Humayun covering

the 1st half of the sixteenth century. It wiU offer some interesting and

useful insights into the period of both the emperors.

The Mughal nobility as it is well known comprised of multiracial

(Turanis, Iranis, Indian Muslims, Rajputs, Afghans, Deccanis etc ) and

multi-religious elements (Hindus, Muslims including Shias and Sunnis ).

Babur's nobles or begs were mainly of Central Asian origin with the

exception of few Iranis who joined his service after the fall of Timurid

power in Herat. In the early period of his reign the nobility behaved in a

Ishwari Prasad, Life and Times of Humavun. Orient Lx>ngmans Ltd, Calcutta ,1955.
R.S. Awasthy, The Mughal Emperor Humavun. University of Allahabad, Allahabad,
1967.
primitive fashion. The nobility was predominantly of Mongol race which

displayed enormous sense of loyalty and did help to save his Kingdom

from his elderly and ambitious rivals.

After the conquest of Kabul, Babur's position began to be stable

and he started asserting his control on the nobility. At this juncture, he

was apparently averse to the existing relationship between the ruler and

his nobility. When he started on his expedition to northern India, he

raised 'small men of little standing' to the status of begs, to keep them

effectively under his controL

Prior to the conquest of India, Babur was hardly in a position to

organize a nobility fiilly disciplined and subservient to him. The territory

under his control was small and not very productive. In these

circumstances it was not possible for him to attract and retain a stable

nobility. The nobles who remained with him were treated more as

associates. The situation became more complicated because of the

presence of a large number of close relations and members of important

chaghtai clans. In these circumstances the position of the king remained

very weak and he could not control the ruling class very effectively.

Soonafter the battle of Panipat, the composition of nobility began

to change with the admission of Afghan and Indian nobles in the ruling

class so that Babur could establish stable rule in India, BahurNama-gives

services given to Indian nobles along with the central Asian nobles. It

also appears that Babur started making friendly relations with the local

chiefs. These attempts of the integration of the new nobles were made in

order to strengthen the supermacy of the ruler visa-vis the older nobihty

which were regulated through certain customary rules designated as

Turai-changezis. However, the Afghans who constituted largest group of

nobles among Indian nobles could not be fully integrated.

After the death of Babur and during the early years of Humayun

the problems of nobility brought new dimensions. The nobles asserted

their claim that 'the empire belonged not to the ruler but to the ruling

family.' The conspiracy to enthrone Mahdi khawaja inplace of Humayun

and the revolts of Mirzas could be reexamined in this context.

Moreover, Humayun was incapable to deal the problems of

growing Afghan resistance, the dissensions of the Mughal Afghan nobles

and factionalism of the Turani nobility. The attitude of his brothers

especially Mirza Kamran further complicated the situation because

certain seactions of nobles were always eager to incite and support them.

The collapse of Gujrat, the conquest and defeat of the Mughal army

against Shershah was basically the result of the Emperor's lack of

and not because of military weakness.

After Humayun's defeat and expulsion between 1540 and 1555 the

composition of Mughal nobility again began to change by inclusion of the

Iranian nobles. In these circumstances, the old Turani nobility began to

disappear and a large number of new Turani nobles who were in lower

ranks were raised to higher ranks and given important position.

Simultaneously, Irani nobles were also promoted, they were appointed to

various important central offices such as Diwan, Wazir, Mir Saman,

Mushrif-i Diwan etc.

Along with the increased power of the Irani nobility in Kabul,

came the emergence of a new Turani nobility which Humayun raised

mainly to strengthen his position towards the old nobility. In doing so, he

promoted low ranking Turani nobles and admitted a number of Persians

and used them as bulAvark against the old Turani nobles. The new nobility

served him loyally throughout his contest with Mirza Kamran and

followed him in the conquest of India. In recognition of their services

important assignments were generally given to this section of the nobility.

By raising Iranis and low ranking Turanis to higher ranks, Humayun was

able to create a ruling class loyal to the king and was successful in

reconquering Hinjdu&tan, The dqj^ndeince of the ruka* on the new nobility

nobility upto the time of the Afghan offensive in 1556.

In the present study we propose to make an attempt to survey the

character, composition and the multifarious functions of the ruling class

during the political history of Babur and Humayun, We will also make a

brief study of the Timurid concept of sovereignty especially the relationship

between the king and his ruling class. This naturally would lead a discussion

on Turko-Mongol theory of kingship which is very important for our study.

We will also analyse the shifting alliances and affiliations of individual

nobles and the various political factions during the period under review.

Internal dissessions and changing fortunes of nobles within the nobility will

also be examined. Finally an attempt would also be made to analyse the role

of emperors towards the existing nobility and the lives of the important

nobles.

The following hypothesis has to be tested in the light of the study.

I. The nature of the relationship of the nobility with the emperor.

II. How far crisis in the nobility was responsible in creating

problems for the emperors.

expansion of Mughal empire.

IV. How far the nobility was responsible in regard to the functioning

of administration.

For making the study of nobility we have prepared the lists of nobles

along with their assignments,values,honours and rewards,offices and

military services under the reign of Babur and Humayun.Lists of religious

samts,hakims,maulanas and nobel ladies who remamed during Humajom's

court have also been prepared. We have also prepared lists of nobels who

accompined Humayun during his critical conditions.

I have tried my best to consult all the contemporary, semi

contemporary and modem works related to the subject.