Note 1320 — SECTION II. KĀBUL666 (continued 3)

Various gleanings suggest motives for Bābur’s assertion of supremacy at this particular time. He was the only Tīmūrid ruler and man of achievement; he filled Ḥusain Bāī-qarā’s place of Tīmūrid headship; his actions through a long period show that he aimed at filling Tīmūr Beg’s. There were those who did not admit his suzerainty,—Tīmūrids who had rebelled, Mughūls who had helped them, and who would also have helped Sa‘īd Khān Chaghatāī, if he had not refused to be treacherous to a benefactor; there were also the Arghūns, Chīngīz-khānids of high pretensions. In old times the Mughūl Khāqāns were pādshāh (supreme); Pādshāh is recorded in history as the style of at least Sātūq-būghra Khān Pādshāh Ghāzī; no Tīmūrid had been lifted by his style above all Mīrzās. When however Tīmūrids had the upper hand, Bābur’s Tīmūrid grandfather Abū-sa‘īd asserted his de facto supremacy over Bābur’s Chaghatāī grandfather Yūnas (T. R. p. 83). For Bābur to re-assert that supremacy by assuming the Khāqān’s style was highly opportune at this moment. To be Bābur Supreme was to declare over-lordship above Chaghatāī and Mughūl, as well as over all Mīrzās. It was done when his sky had cleared; Mīrzā Khān’s rebellion was scotched; the Arghūns were defeated; he was the stronger for their lost possessions; his Aūzbeg foe had removed to a less ominous distance; and Kābul was once more his own.

Gul-badan writes as if the birth of his first-born son Humāyūn were a part of the uplift in her father’s style, but his narrative does not support her in this, since the order of events forbids.