Eldest of the four son of Babur, Humayun associated with the government of Babur's territory.  At the age of twenty itself, he managed jagirs of Sambhal, Agra and Badakshan.  On Babur's death, Humayun was put on the throne (1530).

The inherited throne was insecure and was not a bed of roses to Humayun. Rajputs were not completely crushed.  On the other side, his brothers Kamran, Askari and Hindal were aiming for power.  Every prince asserted their clim to father's property and throne was the prime arbiter of right for them.  Neither nobles were that in favour, nor the army was dependable.  Sher Khan had already started his adventure in Bengal and Bihar.  Bahadur Shah in Gujarat was aiming to conquer whole of Rajputana.

In accordance with the wishes of his father, Humayun gave Sambhal to Askari, Alwar to Hindal and Kabul and Kandahar to Kamran.  Kamran was not still satisfied and managed to take Hissar Firoza and Panjab which deprived Humayun for rest of his life.  Humayun left with no source to recruit his new army, and on the other side his hold on the territory was insecure.

The light hearted, kind Humayun did not dominate in his decision but remained a attracting character throughout his life.  Though Humayun made Sher Khan to submit, did not crush his power.  He lost Gujarat completely to Bahadur Shah in 1536.  Bahadur Shah was however killed by Portuguese the same year.  Humayun's immediate task was to prevent Sher Khan from overwhelming Bengal.  It is not until the rainy season of 1537, his boat was ready to se off to Chunar accompanied by brothers Askar and Hindal to capture the fort of Chunar which was on the bank of Ganges.  But by then, Sher Shah had already moved his treasure which aided to prepare his powerful army.  Both Askar and Hindal showed no interest during Humayun's three months of defensive positioning and Sher Shah utilized the golden opportunity during the night to massacre Humayun's army while deep asleep.   Humayun somehow managed to escape by crossing the river Ganges with the help of a water carrier and reached Agra.  But fate was against Humayun and during the next battle at Kanauj, Sher Shah defeated Humayun though he was supported by his two brothers.  Humayun thus moved down to Indus with Hindal but Kamran withdrew to the comparative safety of Kabul along with Askar.

Things changed drastically during the silence period, Humayun married Hamida the future mother of Akbar.  It is then the Raja of Umarkot offered help to provide seven thousand horses to fight with the Hussain to retaliate Raja's father's killing.   After a brief progress, in 1545 Humayun managed to capture Kandahar from Askari and then Kabul without any resistance.  In 1556 Humayun re-ascended the throne of Delhi with the generalship of Bairam Khan (whose great leadership, helped Mughal in retaining the territory  for the next few three century).  In the same year, an unfortunate incident of fall from the stairs of library, made Humayun unconscious for a while and Humayun died.

THE COINAGE

Babur and Humayun minted silver shahrukhis or dirhams which followed in every respect the coinage of the Timurid princes.  These were mainly minted in Lahore, Agra, Delhi and Kabul.  The camp language Urdu (a mixture of Persian and Arabic) first appeared on Babur's coinage with the Kalima enclosed with the name of four Khalif's name.  Very few early struck small gold coins survive today and the copper coins are anonymous.  During the last short reign, Humayun adopted Sher Shah Suri's standard and coined Dirhams.  Humayun's secondary reign resulted in a reformed coinage system in which he closely followed Sher Shah Suri's standard.
 

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