Illustrations from the Manuscript of Baburnama (Memoirs of Babur) - Late 16th Century

Bāburnāma is the memoirs of Ẓahīr ud-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur (1483-1530), founder of the Mughal Empire and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur. It is an autobiographical work, originally written in the Chagatai language, known to Babur as "Turki" (meaning Turkic), the spoken language of the Andijan-Timurids. Because of Babur's cultural origin, his prose is highly Persianized in its sentence structure, morphology, and vocabulary,and also contains many phrases and smaller poems in Persian. During Emperor Akbar's reign, the work was completely translated to Persian by a Mughal courtier, Abdul Rahīm, in AH (Hijri) 998 (1589-90).

These Paintings, being a fragment of a dispersed copy, was executed most probably in the late 10th AH /16th CE century. It contains 30 mostly full-page miniatures in fine Mughal style by at least two different artists. Another major fragment of this work (57 folios) is in the State Museum of Eastern Cultures, Moscow.

 An awards ceremony in the Sultan Ibrāhīm’s court before being sent on an expedition to Sambhal

 Animals of Hindustan monkeys called bandar that can be taught to do tricks, from Illuminated manuscript Baburnama (Memoirs of Babur)

 Animals of Hindustan monkeys, rodents and the peacock, from Illuminated manuscript Baburnama
 (Memoirs of Babur)

 Animals of Hindustan small deer and cows called gīnī, from Illuminated manuscript Baburnama
 (Memoirs of Babur)

 Babur and his army in the Sinjid valley on the way to Kabul

 Babur and his party hunting for rhinoceros in Swati, from Illuminated manuscript Baburnama

 Babur and his warriors visiting the Hindu temple Gurh Kattri (Kūr Katrī) in Bigram

 Babur being entertained in Ghaznī by Jahāngīr Mīrzā

 Babur confronts his enemies in the mountains of Kharābūk and Pashāmūn

 Babur entering Kabul, from Illuminated manuscript Baburnama

 Babur on the way to Hindustan camps at Jām and with the help of his guide Malik Bū Saʿīd Kamarī is exploring Bigram and enquiring about the Hindu temple Gurh Kattri

 Babur, during his second Hindustan campaign, riding a raft from Kunar back to Atar

 Babur's defeat of the Afghans at the Jagdalek Pass

 Birds of Hindustan luchas, called būqalamūn, and partridges

 Birds of Hindustan starlings, called pandāvalī

 Birds of Hindustan, such as crows, magpies, and cuckoos, that live beside water, and alligators

 Ḥamzah Sulṭān, Mahdī Sulṭan and Mamāq Sulṭān pay homage to Babur

 Having opened the gates of the Murghīnān fortress, ʿAlī Dūst Ṭaghāyī is paying homage to Babur

 Homage being paid to Babur, in 910 AH1504 CE, by Bāqī Chaghānyānī near the river Oxus (Daryā Āmū)

 Illuminated Manuscript Baburnamah

 Illuminated single leaf, Battle Scene from the Baburnamah

 Muḥammad Ḥusaym Mīrzā, a relative of Babur, in spite of his treachery, is being released and send to Khurāsān

 Sultan Muḥammad Vays offers Babur a healthy horse to replace his ailing one

 The battle of Panipat and the death of Sultan Ibrāhīm, the last of the Lōdī Sultans of Delhi

 The battle of Sultan Ḥusayn Mīrzā against Sultan Masʿūd Mīrzā at Hiṣṣār

 The final phase of the battle of Kandahar on the side of the Murghan mountain

 The inhabitants of Osh (Ūsh) drive the enemy out with sticks and clubs and hold the town for Babur

The siege and battle of Isfarah. Babur and his army assaults the fortress of Ibrāhīm Sārū


Source: Flickr Gallery of The Walters Art Museum