Babur Drives the Uzbeks Toward Samarkand | Restored Mughal Wall Art

The young Babur — founder of the Mughal dynasty — leads his men in furious cavalry charge against the Uzbeks, driving them back toward Samarkand. Bodies and horses tangled together at the bottom; in the distance, the pink walls of Samarkand and a small attendant looking on from beneath a tree.

An illustration from the Baburnama — Babur's own autobiography, written in his native Chaghatai Turkish and translated into Persian for the Mughal court by Akbar's grand vizier Abd al-Rahim Khan-i-Khanan. The Mughal imperial atelier illustrated the manuscript lavishly in the 1590s, blending the dynastic memory of conquest in Central Asia with the visual language Akbar had built in India.

Restored from the museum archives by aurahliving.com.

Baburnama folio, Mughal imperial atelier, late 16th century. Public domain.