Editing Humayun (section)

==Background==
Humayun was born as Nasir al-Din Muhammad to [[Babur]]'s favourite wife [[Maham Begum|Māham Begum]] on Tuesday 6 March 1508. According to [[Abul Fazl]], Māham was related to the noble family of [[Sultan Husayn Bayqara]], the [[Timurid dynasty|Timurid]] ruler of [[Herat]]. She was also related to [[Sheikh Ahmad-e Jami]], a [[Persians|Persian]] [[Irfan|mystic]] and poet.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Prasad |first1=Ishwari |year=1955 |title=The Life and Times of Humayun |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.507583/page/n19/mode/1up?view=theater |publisher=Orient Longmans |page=1-Footnotes}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fazl |first1=Abul |translator=Henry Beveridge |year=1907 |title=The Akbarnama of Abu'l Fazl |volume=I |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.55648/page/n296/mode/1up?view=theater |publisher=The Asiatic Society |page=285}}</ref>

The decision of Babur to divide the territories of his empire between two of his sons was unusual in India, although it had been a common Central Asian practice since the time of [[Genghis Khan]]. Unlike most [[monarchies]], which practised [[primogeniture]], the Timurids followed the example of Genghis and did not leave an entire kingdom to the eldest son. Although under that system only a [[Chingissid]] could claim sovereignty and Khanal authority, any male Chinggisid within a given sub-branch had an equal right to the throne (though the Timurids were not Chinggisid in their paternal ancestry).<ref name="Multiple">Sharaf Al-Din: "Zafar-nama".</ref> While Genghis Khan's Empire had been peacefully divided between his sons upon his death, almost every Chinggisid succession since had resulted in fratricide.<ref>{{cite book |last=Soucek |first=Svat |date=2000 |title=A History of Inner Asia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-65704-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofinneras00souc}}</ref>{{page needed|date=November 2012}}

After Timur's death, his territories were divided among [[Pir Muhammad (son of Jahangir)|Pir Muhammad]], [[Miran Shah]], [[Khalil Sultan]] and [[Shah Rukh]], which resulted in inter-family warfare.<ref>William Bayne Fisher, Peter Jackson, Peter Avery, Lawrence Lockhart, John Andrew Boyle, Ilya Gershevitch, Richard Nelson Frye, Charles Melville, Gavin Hambly, ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume VI'' (1986), pp. 99–101</ref> Not all ''[[Umrah|umarah]]'' (nobles) viewed Humayun as Babur's rightful successor. While Babur was still alive, some of the nobles tried unsuccessfully to install his brother-in-law, Mahdi Khwaja, as ruler.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roy |first1=S. |editor1-last=Majumdar |editor1-first=Ramesh Chandra |editor1-link=R. C. Majumdar |chapter=Humayun |title=The History and Culture of the Indian People |url=https://archive.org/details/mughal-empire-r.-c.-majumdar-1974/page/65/mode/1up |year=1974 |volume=VII |location=Bombay |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |page=65}}</ref> Upon Babur's death, Humayun's territories were the least secure{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}