The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c12.s3.28

v4.c12.s3.28

The Indian career of the Turkī prince Bābur did not actually begin till his capture of Lahore in 1524, and he died in 1530. It therefore took him only six years to lay the foundations of a vast empire the rulers of which, real or nominal, continued down to the middle of the nineteenth century. It is interesting to recall that his famous ancestor Tīmūr had, in 1397, invaded northern India, and entered Delhi in 1398 as a conqueror. But Tamerlane’s ambitions were too great for him to treat his Indian campaign as more than a raid. That Bābur should have confined his conquering activities to northern India, after consolidating his power between the Oxus and Kashmīr, was, no doubt, partly due to the fact that he had been helped by the powerful founder of the Safavid kingdom, Shāh Isma‘īl, with whom, much against his better Sunnī feelings, he had made an alliance which had lasted twenty months (A.H. 917–18—A.D. 1511–12). There could, therefore, be no question of attacking Persia, even had he been strong enough to do so. It was as lord of Kābul that he cast longing glances across the Hindu Kush.