Ibrahim Lodi | Biography, History, Battles, Reign

Who was Ibrahim Lodi

Ibrahim Lodi was the third and last ruler of the Lodi dynasty of Delhi. He ruled from 1517 to 1526.

Ibrahim Lodi biography

Early life

Ibrahim Lodi’s date of birth is not recorded in any book but historians believe that he was born in Delhi between 1480 and 1490.

Ibrahim Lodi became the ruler by the name of Ibrahim Shah after the death of his father Sikandar Lodi on 21 November 1517 and his reign lasted for 9 years.

History

The Lodi dynasty ruled India for many years and there were a total of three rulers in this dynasty, Bahlul Lodi who was the founder and besides, Sikandar Lodi was the strongest ruler of this dynasty while Ibrahim proved to be the last ruler.

Although Ibrahim had all the qualities to become a ruler, but he was a little impatient due to which he took some wrong decisions and he had to face failures many times.

Ibrahim Lodi was a very short-tempered ruler, he used to be uncontrollable in anger, he tried to rule autocracy many times but his army did not support him, due to which he did not succeed in his cause.

However, the Afghan nobles were respected more than the Turkish nobles because the Sultan was the most powerful among the Turkish nobles, but in the Afghan nobles, along with the Sultan, the nobles also had a lot of power.

Ibrahim Lodi’s earlier rulers treated Afghan nobles well, but Ibrahim did not treat nobles well due to which many of his people were became his enemies.

Due to his habits, the Lodi dynasty came to an end and the great Mughal Empire was founded by Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur by defeating Ibrahim.

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Ibrahim Lodi Reign

All the Afghan nobles entrusted Ibrahim, son of Sikandar Lodi, to take over the power of Agra in the year 1517, and as soon as he became the ruler of the Lodi dynasty, he started trying to increase the strength of his empire but was not successful.

Because he was a Rude ruler, he used to talk profusely with his soldiers and did not respect them very much, and besides this, he wanted to rule by intimidating the people, and because of these habits, the Lodi dynasty falls in 1526.

Due to his cruelty, his people also started raising voices against him included some of his soldiers.

But because of this attitude of Ibrahim, his enemies did not dare to go against him.

The victory of the fort of Gwalior

Although Ibrahim’s father Sikandar also wanted to win Gwalior, he also tried to win it many times but he could not win and died. However, Ibrahim started fighting the Rajputs as soon as he became the ruler and Conquered Gwalior, It was one of his biggest successes and we can say it was his biggest success.

Ibrahim had an easy victory over Gwalior as he did not repeat the mistakes that his father Sikandar had made.

However, some historians believe that at the time when Ibrahim attacked Gwalior, King Man Singh of Gwalior was already died, due to which some of the younger rulers of Gwalior surrendered.

Ibrahim Lodi war

• The battle of Khatoli fought in Mewar between Ibrahim Lodi and Rana Sanga from 1517 to 1518 in which Rana Sanga won
• The first battle of Panipat was fought on 21 April 1526, in which Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur won.

Battle of Khatoli

Both his people and some soldiers were troubled by the increasing cruel nature of Ibrahim, due to which the number of his enemies was increasing and many of his enemies conspired to kill him.

In the year 1518, Rana Sanga, the ruler of Mewar, had attacked Ibrahim Lodi in a planned manner, Rana Sanga had done so viciously that Ibrahim Lodi did not even have a clue and on the other hand Rana Sanga had already prepared his soldiers for several months ago, for the battle of Khatoli.

Seeing this sudden attack, Ibrahim was completely shocked and at first, he tried very hard to defeat Rana Sanga with his soldiers, but he could not defeat Rana Sanga, then he tried his best to stop Rana Sanga but he did not succeed in stopping him, and as a result, he lost the war.

It is said that Rana Sanga lost one of his hands in the battle of Khatoli, although he won the battle and took Ibrahim Lodi captive, but only after a few days Ibrahim Lodi was freed from the captivity of Rana Sanga.

After that Rana Sanga annexed Chanderi into his kingdom.

The first battle of Panipat

In the year 1526, the ruler of Kabul, Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur attacked Ibrahim Lodi, the last ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, though there were three big battles fought in the history of Panipat, but among all the three battles, but the most famous battle was between Babur and Ibrahim because due to this battle, the foundation of the Mughal Empire was laid, which was the greatest empire of medieval India, or we can say, one of the greatest empires in the history of India.

Before this battle, Ibrahim started preparing his army.

According to historians Ibrahim Lodi had about 1 lakh soldiers while Babur had a total of between 12 to 15 thousand soldiers but still Ibrahim Lodi’s army faced failure in front of Babur’s army because all Ibrahim’s soldiers had never trained before the battle of Panipat, but Babur’s army was very much Discipline and trained.

According to Babur’s Autobiography Baburnama, Babur did not face too many difficulties due to the lack of troops because his army consisted of modern weapons such as cannon, guns, excellent cavalry, and archers and on the other hand Ibrahim Lodi’s army consisted only of sticks, poles, ax, bow, arrows.

Although Ibrahim had many other types of weapons, but in front of Babur’s cannons, all his weapons were proving to be a failure even though Ibrahim’s army was larger than Babur’s, but Babur had made a decision in such a way that Ibrahim and his soldiers both were confused.

Ibrahim lodi Tomb

Ibrahim’s tomb is situated under the Sheesh dome near Lodhi Garden in Delhi but it is not his real tomb, his original tomb is situated near the tehsil office in Panipat, Haryana, and the dargah of Islamic scholar Bu Ali Shah Kalandar is also close to his tomb.

In the year 1866, the British moved the tomb of Ibrahim Lodi during the construction of the Grand Trunk Road.

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