Humayun

Humayun, who succeeded Babar, had many of his father's amiablequalities, but none of his genius as a leader of men. He utterlyfailed in the attempt to consolidate the great empire which Babar hadleft him, and in 1539, or nine and a half years after his accession,he was completely defeated at Kanauj by Shere Khan Sur, an Afghannobleman, who had submitted to Babar, but revolted against hisson. Humayun found himself a fugitive with only a handful of men,and was eventually driven not only out of Hindustan, but even from thekingdom of Kabul. He then took refuge with the Shah of Persia. ShereKhan Sur, under the title of Shere Shah, ruled at Agra until he died,five years afterwards. His son, Salim Shah, or Sultan Islam, succeededhim, and reigned between seven and eight years, but on his death theusual quarrels between his relatives and generals gave Humayun, whoin the mean time had got back Kabul with the aid of a Persian army,the opportunity to recover his position in Hindustan. This occurredin 1555, but Humayun's unfortunate reign terminated the same yearthrough a fatal fall from a staircase in his palace at Delhi.

Humayun left no memorial of himself at Agra, but he is to be rememberedfor two circumstances; the first, that he was the father of the greatAkbar, who succeeded him; and the second, that the plan of his tombat Delhi, built by Akbar, was the model on which the plan of the Tajwas based.

Interregnum: Shere Shah.

Shere Shah was a great builder, and a most capable ruler. In his shortreign of five years he initiated many of the great administrativereforms which Akbar afterwards perfected. Fergusson, in his"History of Indian Architecture," mentions that in his time therewas a fragment of a palace built by Shere Shah in the Fort at Agra,"which was as exquisite a piece of decorative art as any of its classin India." This palace has since been destroyed to make room for abarrack, but probably the two-storied pavilion known as the Salimgarhis the fragment to which Fergusson refers. The only other buildingof Shere Shah's time now remaining in Agra is the half-buried mosqueof Alawal Bilawal, or Shah Wilayat, in the _Nai-ki Mandi_ quarter(see p. 102).

Shere Shah's tomb at Sasseram, in Bihar, is one of the noblestmonuments of the Pathan style, or the style of the earliest Muhammadanarchitects in India.