English: The "Memoirs of Babur" or Baburnama are the work of the great-great-great-grandson of Timur (Tamerlane), Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur (1483-1530). The Baburnama tells the tale of the prince's struggle first to assert and defend his claim to the throne of Samarkand and the region of the Fergana Valley. After being driven out of Samarkand in 1501 by the Uzbek Shaibanids, he ultimately sought greener pastures, first in Kabul and then in northern India, where his descendants were the Moghul (Mughal) dynasty ruling in Delhi until 1858.

The miniatures are from an illustrated copy of the Baburnama prepared for the author's grandson, the Mughal Emperor Akbar. It is worth remembering that the miniatures reflect the culture of the court at Delhi; hence, for example, the architecture of Central Asian cities resembles the architecture of Mughal India. Nonetheless, these illustrations are important as evidence of the tradition of exquisite miniature painting which developed at the court of Timur and his successors. Timurid miniatures are among the greatest artistic achievements of the Islamic world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

This illustration was removed from a manuscript of the Baburnama, the Persian translation of the memoirs of the founder of the Mughal empire, Babur. His original memoirs were written in the early 16th century in his primary language, Turki, and the translation was commissioned by his grandson, the Mughal emperor Akbar, so that the contents could be widely read in his empire. At least seven illustrated copies of the Baburnama have survived, datable to between 1589 and the end of Akbar's life in 1605. This page depictsthree horsemen on a mountain road and is part of an incident which took place in 1525. Babur and a group of men including his son, Humayun, who succeeded him as emperor were encamped near Bagram and were told that a rhinoceros had been seen nearby. As Humayun had never seen one before, they rushed to find it and this illustration shows part of the royal entourage in pursuit of the animal which is not depicted. The painting was probably done in about 1590.[1]

Illustrations of Mughals from the Baburnama