Babur Seizes Kabul

1504

Driven from his Central Asian homeland by Uzbek warlords, the young Timurid prince Babur led a hungry band over the Hindu Kush and stormed Kabul almost without bloodshed. From this mountain capital of orchards and poets he would stare south toward Hindustan and begin dreaming of empire. His memoir, the Baburnama, describes Kabul's melons and mountain air with the eye of both a conqueror and a poet.