Military organization of the Baburid (Mughal) State (1526-1605)

The Baburid (Mughal) Dynasty, as direct descendants of the Great Timur and Gengis Khan, emerged to the scene of history in a small march surrounding the area of todays Kabul City under heavy Uzbek threat and in an alliance of convenience with the Safavids. As the last surviving powerful Timurid ruler after the Uzbek assaults, Babur Shah adopted the Ottoman methods of warfare which was a synthesis of the usage of firearms, warwagons, archer infantry and cavalry, and expanded into India following his great victories at the Battles of Panipat (1526) and Kanwa (1527). Yet the resistance, infighting and catastrophic retalliations they faced proved to Babur's successors that in order to remain in India they needed more than military victories. To this end, the Baburid army played a central role as an instrument of attraction, communication and balance. This thesis focuses on the Baburid military organization and the mansabdari system under the reign Jalalu'd-din Muhammad Akbar Shah with the guidence of documents available such as Abu'l-Fazl Allami's work the A'in-i Akbari and other firsthand sources of the times. Taking account of the views from important researches on the topic, a new attempt of interpretation is being served about the military departments on the aspects of their historical backgrounds, purposes, functions and this great rulers regulations about them along with many transcriptional and transliteral assets from the original Persian text.