Lahore conquered by Babar, 1524 A.D

The invasion of Hindustan had been from the first the favorite object of Baber’s ambition. The empire of Delhi had been an incessant scene of confusion and revolt ; and the whole country was thrown into uttermost disorder. As previously noted, the Panjab was held by Dowlat Khan Lodi and his sons, Ghazi Khan and Dilawar Khan. The impolitic arrogance and haughty temper of Sultan Ibrahim drove the Viceroy of the Panjab into revolt, to suppress which the Emperor sent an army under Behar Khan Lodi. Finding himself unable to resist this force, Dowlat Khan offered his allegiance to Baber and implored him to march to his succour. The Moghal sovereign gladly accepted this call and soon put his army in motion. He crossed the Indus, marched through the country of the Ghakkars, whom he reduced to obedience, passed the Jhelam and the Chenab, and speedily approached Lahore. Behar Khan Lodi, Mobarak Khan Lodi, and some other Afghan Omerahs, still in the interest of the Delhi Emperor, encountered the invading army near Lahore, but were defeated with great slaughter. The conquerors, elated with their success, and enraged at the obstinacy of the resistance, plundered the town and burnt its streets. The Emperor halted only four days in Lahore and then advanced to Dipalpur, the garrison of which place he put to the sword. Crossing then the Sutlej, he had advanced as far as Sirhand, when news reached him of the revolt of Dowlat Khan, who, dissatisfied with his jagir of Sultanpur, which had been allotted to him by the Moghal Emperor, had risen up in arms. Baber, abandoning his designs against Delhi, deemed it prudent to hasten back to Lahore. Dowlat Khan, on hearing of the King’s approach, fled to the hill country on the east, but His Majesty reconciled Dilawar Khan, his son, and honored him with the title of Khani-I-Khanan. At Lahore, he parcelled out among his Omerahs the districts of the Panjab which he had conquered. Dipalpur was given to Sultan Ala-ud-din Lodi, brother of Sultan Ibrahim, a competitor for the throne of Delhi ; Sialkot to Khusrow Gokul Tash, and Kalanor to Mahomed Ali Tajak. Appointing then Mir Abdul Aziz, a near relation, to the charge of Lahore, and Baba Khushka, a veteran Moghal officer, to watch the proceedings of Sultan Ala-ud-din, he marched back to Cabul.

            Scarcely had Baber recrossed the Indus, when Dowlat Khan, issuing from his mountain retreat, advanced to Dipalpur, where his troops defeated Sultan Ala-ud-din. Baba Khushka repaired to Lahore, which became a hot bed of intrigues fomented by Dowlat Khan. Baber again arrived on the scene. His officers had all formed a junction at Lahore, which they still held. Mahomed Sultan Mirza, Adil Sultan and other Moghal Omerahs proceeded from Lahore to Kalanor to pay their respects to His Majesty. The enemy, to the number of 40,000, were encamped on the banks of the Ravi. The Emperor sent a reconnoitering party to examine their position ; but  the force, being informed of his approach, broke up and retreated in consternation. The Emperor thereupon marched towards Delhi without entering Lahore.

            This was Baber’s fifth and last expedition ; and the battle of Panipat, fought on 20th April, 1526, decided the fate of the empire. Ibrahim was slain, his army defeated with great slaughter and Delhi captured by the victorious Baber, who thus laid the foundations of the Moghal empire in Hindustan.

    Baber died at Agra on December 16th, 1530 A.D.

The Moghal Period

Fresh from a lovely and picturesque country, abounding in beautiful streams and rivulets, and rich in luxuriant vegetation and the waving foliage of trees, the followers of Baber, that knight errant of Asia, contemplated with dismay the prospect of a prolonged stay in the inhospitable regions of India. The happy recollections of the vale of Farghana and its neighboring mountains made them anxious to return home ; but Baber, in an eloquent speech made by him before an assembly of his troops, dissuaded them from carrying out their dangerous and impolitic resolution after the brilliant victories they had gained, impressing upon them the incalculable advantages of founding a new empire in India. His words had the desired effect ; and an empire was founded in India which was destined to become one of the greatest that has ever ruled the destinies of an Asiatic country. 

            The first town of importance that benefited by the establishment of the Moghal monarchy in the Panjab, was naturally Lahore. During the reigns of the early Moghal Emperors, justly regarded as the golden period of the history of Lahore, it became once more a place of royal residence. Endowed by nature with a noble spirit of chivalry, velour and enterprise, a lively imagination and a delightful humor, they proved to be the most enlightened patrons of literature and the fine arts that ever flourished in the East. Under them Lahore soon became the seat of learning. It became the resort of learned men, poets, authors, orators and men versed in the science of theology and philosophy, who flocked to the Imperial Court from Bokhara, Samarkand, Mawarulnehr and other countries of Asia, noted in those days for the cultivation of literature and the arts of peace. Fine gardens were laid out, canals dug to improve the means of irrigation, spacious mosques built, caravan ceraes constructed, palaces, domes and minarets erected, and an impetus was given to the architecture of the country quite unsurpassed in any age. The chief architectural monuments that adorn Lahore at the present day, are to be traced to the early Moghal period, and to the same period are referable the best productions of learning and literature in their several branches to which the Panjab may fairly lay a claim.

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