The founder of India’s Mughal dynasty (1526–1858), Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, rose from origins as a Central Asian princeling to rule a vast empire stretching across today’s Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Over the course of his extraordinary life, he wrote a memoir known as the Baburnama, weaving incisive observations on art and nature into recollections of love, war, and political alliances. Babur’s grandson, the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605), later commissioned the translation of his grandfather’s frank, uninhibited, and often funny diary. Today, the Baburnama offers a unique window into a remarkable mind and an exceptional time. The online exhibition Writing My Truth: The Mughal Emperor Babur brings together Persian paintings from Babur’s lifetime (1483–1530) with Mughal paintings from 1580 to 1650, when his autobiography was illustrated and circulated.
Explore the online exhibition: Writing My Truth: The Mughal Emperor Babur