Bairam Khan: The Empires Last Hope
Bairam Khan, The Last Hope
Alright buckaroos, story time round 2! This time we have one that is very TCA Raghavan inspired. We’ll be talking about Bairam Khan who is the future regent of the Mughals, but at this point he is the last hope for a collapsing Mughal Empire…
He had descended from a tribe within the Qara Qoyunlu, a small empire within northern Iraq. Oddly enough, the Golconda Sultanate in Southern India also was founded by a QQ Noble after the dissolving of this empire (see Manu Pillai’s Rebel Sultan’s to dig deeper on this)
A very well versed and poetic individual. His Son, Abdur Rahim Khan e Khana had made a collection of Balram's poetic verses 50 or so years after his death. It contained works in Turkic, Persian and even Hindi!
Added to Humayun's retinue when the heir was still a child, he had been there for much of his early life and military campaigns, one of the few early mentions is his tactical success in besieging the Gujarati fort of Champaner.
If he took part in the first 2 battles against Sher Shah, anything he had done was brutally overshadowed by their defeat. Humayun’s wife was captured in the chaos, Humayun had to be rescued by Ataga Khan from drowning, Bairam went into hiding near Lucknow.
Fleeing, he hid from Sher Shah’s general Isa Khan Niazi, but due to the good fortune of having a mutual friend with Isa, Bairam was introduced and actually held court with Sher Shah Sur as a potential recruit into his burgeoning empire.
The Mughal Empire had essentially collapsed all of its territory east of Agra in an instant as the Afghan Sur forces rushed through their cities and forts, taking advantage of Humayun’s familial fractures. Humayun barely had friends within his own family, they needed new allies.
This is where Bairam’s importance becomes relevant. He was a relative of the current Safavid Persian court, and he shared a religious link that the Mughal princes did not, he was Shi’a.
Shi’as in the mughal court were not unheard of. While the Mughal court was made of many religious groups, Shi’as of high influence were among them. Persian influence throughout South Asia was very prominent, and at this moment for the Mughals, it was absolutely essential.
There were desperate times, fleeing from Askari through the deserts of Sindh and Balochistan, fair weather friends abandoned the retinue, even getting a horse for the Emperor’s pregnant wife ended up being an internal conflict. At one point, they were down to maybe 20 loyalists.
It was Bairam’s letter to his family in the Safavids that helped them be received at court, and his diplomatic ability that allowed them to be able to bridge a friendship. Other members of his family held high sway, and it was those connections that the Mughals depended on.
While the Mughals were courting Shah Tamasp, he also courted Bairam, recognizing his talents had offered him governorship of his ancestral lands in Azerbaijan. Good leverage but also a good reminder of the value Bairam Khan offered Humayun.
Shah Tamasp had high demands for the beleaguered party, and eventually agreed to help on the condition that Qandahar be given to the Safavids after it was all done, they lent them 12,000 soldiers to aid in the re-throning of Humayun.
After the siege of Qandahar, it was Bairam who hung the sword around Askari’s neck symbolizing his surrender. This was not a quick affair, and the war with Kamran did not finish until 5 or 6 years later in 1551.
In that time they needed to build up the trust with the old administrators of the empire and build up their reserves. When Kamran launched his final night raid on Qandahar, Hindal, the youngest brother and the first to rebel, lost his life defending Humayun’s rule.
Kamran was then captured, blinded, and sent off on the Hajj. This is a similar fate to one Bairam would one day experience but that will have to be saved for part 2 one day…
Bairam is a prime example of Mughal Empire's willingness to adapt to meet the needs to survive. There were clear religious divides between Sunni’s and Shi’as but it is also important to note, that each religion wasnt and still isnt a monolith, they both had multiple factions.
Even between the two branches, there was blending. Bairam, a Shi'a, attended Friday prayers at Sunni mosques. Bairam’s own son Rahim wrote poetry in Braj about Krishna. The lines between religions were often blurred and very personal.
The Empire needed to embrace outside beliefs to survive, and it did, and it would continue to, in integrating multiple Hindu, Jain and Christian elements into their courts over the next 4 Emperors as a prime component of maintaining their success.
