Babur

Personal life and relationships

                             

There no descriptions about Babur's physical appearance, except the paintings from his memoirs which were made during the reign of his grandson Akbar, when he got it translated.^[25] Babur claimed to be strong and physically fit, saying to have swam across every major river he encountered, including twice across the Ganges River in North India.^[49] Unlike his father, he had ascetictendencies and did not have any great interest in women. In his first marriage, he was "bashful" towards Aisha Sultan Begum later losing his affection for her.^[50] However, he acquired several more wives and concubines over the years, and as required for a prince, he was able to ensure the continuity of his line; Babur treated them and his other women relatives well. In his memoirs, there is a mention of his infatuation for a younger boy when Babur was 16 years old.^[33] According to Abraham Eraly, bisexuality andpederasty were common at that time among central Asian rulers.^[33]

Babur's first wife, Aisha Sultan Begum, was his cousin and daughter of Sultan Ahmad Mirza. She was betrothed to Babur when he was five years old and they married after eleven years. He had one daughter with her, Fakhr-un-Nissa, who died as an infant within a year in 1500 AD. Three years later and after his first defeat at Farghana, she left Babur.^[51][33] Babur then married Zainad Sultan Begum in 1504 and Mahim Begum in 1506. A year later, he married Maasuma Sultana Begum, Gulrukh Begum and Dildar Begum.^[51] Zainad died childless within two years. Babur had four children with Mahim, among which only Humayun survived. Maasuma died during childbirth—the year is disputed from 1508 to 1519. With Gulrukh, Babur had two sons, Kamran and Askari, and with Dildar Begum, Hindal.^[51] Babur later married Mubarika Yousefzai, who was an Afghan woman of the Yousefzai tribe. Gulnar Aghacha and Nargul Aghacha were two Circassian slaves given as gifts by Tahmasp Shah Safavi of Persia. They became "recognized ladies of the royal household."^[51]

During his rule in Kabul, when there was a relative time of peace, Babur pursued his interests in literature, art, music and gardening.^[33] Previously, he never drank alcohol and avoided it when he was in Herat. In Kabul, he first tasted it at the age of thirty. He then began to drink regularly, host wine parties and consume preparations made from opium.^[28] Though religion had a central place in his life, Babur also approvingly quoted a line of poetry by one of his contemporaries: "I am drunk, officer. Punish me when I am sober". He quit drinking for health reasons before the Battle of Khanwa, just two years before his death, and demanded that his court do the same. But he did not stop chewing narcotic preparations, and did not lose his sense of irony. He wrote, "Everyone regrets drinking and swears an oath (of abstinence); I swore the oath and regret that."^[52]