Humayun

Akbar (r. 1556-1605) turned the Mughal foothold in India into an empire of fifteen provinces. He rebuilt the central government, created the mansabdari service and the dah-sala revenue settlement, abolished the jizya, and pursued a religious policy his contemporaries judged very differently.

Humayun (1508-1556), the second Mughal emperor, inherited Babur's unconsolidated conquests in 1530, lost them to Sher Shah Suri by 1540, spent some fifteen years in exile including refuge with the Safavids, and recovered Delhi in 1555 months before his death.

Sher Shah Suri (c. 1486-1545) drove the Mughal emperor Humayun out of India and ruled the north from 1540 to 1545. In five years he built a revenue system based on land measurement, minted the silver rupiya behind the rupee, and restored the Grand Trunk Road.

The Mughal Empire (1526-1857) ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for three centuries, from Babur's victory at Panipat to the deposition of Bahadur Shah Zafar. At its height it was among the wealthiest and most populous states in the world.