Sher Shah suri History

 history books are riddled with tales of great men.

their feats often aggrandized by chroniclers who sought favor with their patrons

what's less common are leaders whose accomplishments haven't been sufficiently accounted for the 16th century afghan ruler of hindustan sher shah suri

 is an excellent example of this his brief reign as the supreme sovereign of northern india is often remembered as being an interregnum between mugu rule in the subcontinent but such a judgment is harsh and unfair for it leaves us ignorant to the wide scope of social and economic reforms he made which the mughals gratefully inherited upon their return to power despite the grandeur of his achievements

shersha suri failed to write his own story down as a result we are dependent upon mughal sources considering the enmity between the suris and the mughals we can see why this is problematic for instance the tariqi shir shahi that was commissioned by emperor akbar in the 1580s doesn't go into any real detail about the early years of shersha

what we do know is that he was born as farid khan in sasaram bihar near the bengal the year of his birth is given as either or 1486. his grandfather ibrahim khan suri had migrated down from afghanistan to northern india as a horse trader 

who settled and became a jager dar meaning landlord in narnul the suri are a pashtun tribe and in the time period we are discussing the terms of ran and pashtun were interchangeable

it's also important to note that afghanistan and india had very real links and migration from the rugged mountainous land in the north to the fertile plains of hindustan was very common in the medieval period in fact the dominant power in northern india 

at the time of faridhan's birth was the lodi delhi sultanat another pashtun dynasty his father hassan khan had changed profession from a trader to a soldier in the service of various regional rulers until he was given an ikta in sasaram where he settled an ikta was a form of tax farming common throughout the middle east and india hasan khan served the lodi dynasty apparently excelling in military service something that his son farid khan would follow him in from the little information that we have about his early life we know that faridhan rebelled against his father's wishes 

and left home to enlist as a soldier going on to become a mercenary soldier for the lodis in the 1520s he picked up the title shir khan whilst in the service of bahar khan lohani the pashtun governor of bihar for his valor and after supposedly killing a tiger single-handedly sheer being the persian word for lion the governor even appointed him as his deputy and tutored to his son 

he would only become known as shirsha when he became an independent ruler in the bengal during the 1530s after babar invaded india in 1526 shershaw would continue his wandering military service under the mughals whilst in the mughal camp sher shah was introduced to barbara who remarked upon seeing him that the eyes of this afghan indicate turbulence and strife mongering he ought to be confined this apprehensiveness was mutual as shersha soon left when the aforementioned governor of bihar died in the late 1520s 

he was succeeded by his minor son jalal khan and shar shah was left to serve as his regent eventually jalal khan became disgruntled with his regent who monopolized power in his own hands and so a plot was organized against shersha that included the powerful sultan of bengal to the east tensions came to a head at the battle of suraj in 1534 

where shersha defeated his opponents and stepped up from the shadows to become the official governor of bihar 

having thus created a power base for himself he sought to reorganize his realms administration and supplement its expansion by maintaining a well-disciplined army to his east the sultanate of bengal was going through its own internal issues sensing an opportunity to elevate his status from a petty regional governor shersha set his sights on his wealthy neighbor a thriving and bustling center of commerce thanks to its maritime trade  the bengal would have been enviously viewed by any sovereign of the day despite teaming up with the portuguese colonists the sultan of bengal was decisively defe inated by suri in 1538 meanwhile the political situation in the rest of northern india remained turbulent even though babur had supplanted the delhi sultanate mugu control over the region was not yet solidified babar's successor humayun continued from where his father left off but the ambition of shirsha suri out in the east ensured that at some point the two men would butt heads together for dominance over hindustan the fact that suri was on the verge of conquering the bengal greatly alarmed humayun who rode out east to confront the afghan the two finally met at the battle of khosa in june 1539 after both sides dug themselves into trenches humayun decided to create a breakthrough by using diplomacy he would allow suri to rule bihar and bengal as provinces granted to him rather than undermining mugu prestige by declaring outright severity and in a face-saving exercise humayun's troops would charge shersha's forces who would retreat in fake fear accepted everything took place according to plan and the mughal forces went back to their camp in celebratory mood the crafty afghan however saw this as an opportunity to outfox the mughal emperor going back on his word he attacked the relaxed mugha unl forces which were routed emperor humayun survived the affair by jumping into the ganges river and swimming away with the mugus retreating to lick their wounds  shershaw was now free to complete his conquest of bengal the following year the two sides met in battle once again at kanoj where the mughals were once again decisively defeated humayun was now forced to flee hindustan first via sindh then afghanistan and from there to safavid persia that was not the last india would hear of humayun on the back of such victories sharsha suri immediately moved his capital to delhi and set about to become the supreme ruler of northern india from delhi he crossed into the punjab capturing the key city of lahore from there he marched northward in order to defeat the gakar tribes near raul pindi in the process constructing a key fort erotas to ensure the suppression of the always problematic gakars feeling secure with his newfound power suri now turned his attention to administrative issues he laid reforms for his new empire that included the introduction of the rupiah system which still serves as the basis of the monetary system in india and pakistan his government's efforts in establishing good quality coinage was inherited by the mughals later on shersha is also often remembered for helping to rebuild and revive the grand trunk road which connected the bengal to afghanistan in central asia he ordered caravan sarais to be laid out for the travelers and merchants using the route to further enhance the organizational structure of his realm tsuri also established an efficient postal system which relied on mail being carried by relays of horse riders when the mughals eventually regained their throne they were aware of the utility of learning from shirsha suri's reforms and overall administration of his realm that the tariq sher shahi was commissioned by emperor akbar sher shah continued his run of conquests through the early 1540s spreading his authority to sindh in the northwest and expanding into rajasthan at the expense of the rajputs his industrious reign and life would come to an end in 1545 when he was besieging kalinjar fort there he was caught in an accident involving a mine and he later died from the burns he suffered he was succeeded by his son islam shah  but the suri empire 

sharsha established would not survive a decade after his death falling in 1555 to the returning humayun who would regain the throne he lost to the afghan