Alex Rutherford - Brothers at War

Main Characters

Humayun’s family

Babur, Humayun’s father and the first Moghul emperor

Maham, Humayun’s mother and Babur’s favourite wife

Khanzada, Humayun’s aunt, the sister of Babur

Baisanghar, Humayun’s maternal grandfather

Kamran, Humayun’s eldest half-brother

Askari, Humayun’s middle half-brother and full brother of Kamran

Hindal, Humayun’s youngest half-brother

Gulbadan, Humayun’s half-sister and full sister of Hindal

Hamida, Humayun’s wife

Akbar, Humayun’s son

Humayun’s inner circle

Kasim, Humayun’s vizier

Jauhar, Humayun’s attendant and later his comptroller of the household

Baba Yasaval, Humayun’s master-of-horse

Ahmed Khan, Humayun’s chief scout and later governor of Agra

Sharaf, Humayun’s astrologer

Zahid Beg, a senior commander

Salima, Humayun’s favourite concubine

Suleiman Mirza, Humayun’s cousin and general of his cavalry

Maham Anga, Akbar’s wet-nurse

Adham Khan, Akbar’s milk-brother

Nadim Khwaja, one of Humayun’s commanders and Maham

Anga’s husband

Others

Gulrukh, Babur’s wife and mother of Kamran and Askari

Dildar, Babur’s wife and mother of Hindal and Gulbadan

Nizam, a water-carrier

Zainab, Hamida’s waiting woman

Sultana, Moghul concubine of Raja Maldeo

Wazim Pathan, a retired soldier rewarded by Humayun for his courage

Shaikh Ali Akbar, Hindal’s vizier and father of Hamida

Darya, son of Nasir, commander of Humayun’s garrison in Kabul

Mustapha Ergun, Turkish cavalry officer

Hindustan

Sultan Bahadur Shah, ruler of Gujarat

Tartar Khan, member of the previous ruling dynasty, the Lodi, defeated by Humayun’s father Babur, and a claimant to the throne of Hindustan

Sher Shah, an ambitious ruler of humble origins in Bengal

Islam Shah, Sher Shah’s son

Mirza Husain, Sultan of Sind

Raja Maldeo, ruler of Marwar

Tariq Khan, ruler of Ferozepur and vassal of Sher Shah

Adil Shah, Islam Shah’s brother-in-law and a claimant to the throne of Hindustan

Sekunder Shah, cousin of Islam Shah and claimant to the throne of Hindustan

Persians

Shah Tahmasp

Rustum Beg, elderly general and cousin of Shah Tahmasp

Bairam Khan, nobleman, military commander and later Humayun’s khan-i-khanan , commander-in-chief

Humayun’s ancestors

Genghis Khan

Timur, known in the west as Tamburlaine from a corruption of Timur-i-Lang (Timur the Lame)

Ulugh Beg, Timur’s grandson and a famous astronomer

The wind was chill. If Humayun closed his eyes he could almost imagine himself back among the pastures and mountains of the Kabul of his boyhood, rather than here on the battlements of Agra. But the short winter was ending. In a few weeks the plains of Hindustan would burn with heat and dust.

Drawing his fur-lined scarlet cloak more tightly around him, Humayun walked slowly along the walls. He had ordered his bodyguards to leave him because he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. Raising his head, he gazed up into clear skies that were splashed with stars. Their intense, jewel-like brightness never failed to fascinate him. It often seemed that everything was written there if only you knew where to look and how to interpret the messages. .

A firm, light footstep from somewhere behind him disturbed him. Humayun turned, wondering which courtier or guard had been rash enough to disobey their emperor’s expressed wish for solitude. His angry gaze fell on a slight, tall figure in purple robes, a thin gauze veil pulled over the lower face, with above it the raisin eyes of his aunt, Khanzada. Humayun’s expression relaxed into a smile.

‘We are waiting for you in the women’s quarters.You said you would eat with us tonight. Your mother complains you spend too much time alone, and I agree with her.’

Khanzada dropped her veil. The tawny light from a torch burning in a sconce fell on a fine-boned face no longer as beautiful as in her youth but one that Humayun had loved and trusted for as many of his twenty-three years as he could remember. As she stepped a little closer he caught the soft fragrance of the sandalwood that burned constantly in jewelled golden saucers in the women’s apartments.

‘I have much to reflect on. I still find it difficult to accept that my father is dead.’

‘I understand, Humayun. I loved him too. Babur was your father, but don’t forget he was also my little brother. He and I went through much together and I never thought to lose him so soon. . but it was God’s will.’

Humayun looked away, unwilling for even Khanzada to see the tears gleaming in his eyes at the thought that he would never see his father, the first Moghul emperor, again. It seemed incredible that that strong, seasoned warrior, who had led his nomadic horsemen down through the mountain passes from Kabul and across the Indus to found an empire, was dead. Even less real was the thought that only three months ago, with his father’s eagle-hilted sword Alamgir at his waist and the ring of his ancestor Timur on his finger, he himself had been proclaimed Moghul emperor.

‘It’s so strange. .like a fantasy from which I keep expecting to wake.’

‘It’s the real world and you must accept it. Everything Babur wanted, everything he fought for, had one purpose only — to win an empire and found a dynasty. You know that as well as I — weren’t you fighting at your father’s side when he crushed Sultan Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat to claim Hindustan for the Moghuls?’

Humayun said nothing. Instead he looked up once more at the sky. As he did so, a shooting star sped across the heavens and vanished, leaving not even a trace of its fiery tail. Glancing at Khanzada, he saw that she had seen it too.

‘Perhaps the shooting star was an omen. Perhaps it means my reign will fizzle out ingloriously. . that no one will remember me. .’

‘Such self-doubt and hesitancy would anger your father if he were here now. Instead he would have you embrace your destiny. He could have chosen one of your three half-brothers as his heir, but he selected you. Not just because you are the eldest — that has never been the way of our people — but because he thought you were the most worthy, the most able. Our hold on Hindustan is precarious — we have been here only five years and dangers press in from every side. Babur picked you because he trusted not just in your courage, which you had already demonstrated on the battlefield, but also in your inner strength and your self-belief, your sense of our family’s right to rule, which our dynasty must have to survive and prosper here in this new land.’ Khanzada paused.

When Humayun did not reply, she raised her face to the light of the torch and ran her finger down a thin white scar extending from her right eyebrow almost to her chin. ‘Do not forget how I got this, how when I was young and your father had to abandon Samarkand to the Uzbeks I was seized by their chieftain Shaibani Khan and forced to submit to him. He hated all who, like us, have the blood of Timur. It gave him pleasure to humiliate and degrade a princess of our house. I give thanks that I never despaired all the time I was a captive in his haram . . never forgot who I was or that it was my duty to survive. Remember that when another woman attacked me and stole some of my beauty, I wore this scar as a badge of honour — to show that I was still alive and that one day I would be free. After ten long years that day came. I rejoined my brother and rejoiced to see him drink to my return from a vessel made from the skull of Shaibani Khan. You must have the same self-belief, the same strength of character, Humayun, as I had.’