Mustafa Rumi was an Ottoman general who served the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

under

Babur Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his ...

. At the Battle of Panipat and

Battle of Khanwa The Battle of Khanwa was fought at Khanwa on March 16, 1527. It was fought between the invading Timurid forces of Babur and the Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sanga for suprermacy of Northern India. The battle was a major event in Medieval I ...

, he commanded the

Matchlock A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Before ...

gun infantry. His role in these battles as commander of rifle troops was a vital one, as it was the riflemen and the cannons under

Ustad Ali Quli Ustad Ali Quli was a Ottoman Turkish commander of the Mughal Empire. Under the reign of Babur, he commanded the artillery for his army. At the Battle of Panipat and Battle of Khanwa, he commanded his cannon batteries. His role in these battles ...

and Mustafa Rumi that won the day.

Introduction of Mustafa Rumi to Babur

Babur's early relations with the Ottomans were poor because the Ottoman

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

Selim I Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite last ...

provided

's rival Ubaydullah Khan with powerful

matchlock A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Before ...

s and

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

s. In 1507, when ordered to accept Selim I as his rightful

suzerain Suzerainty () is the rights and obligations of a person, state or other polity who controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy. While the subordinate party is calle ...

, Babur refused and gathered

Qizilbash Qizilbash or Kizilbash ( az, Qızılbaş; ota, قزيل باش; fa, قزلباش, Qezelbāš; tr, Kızılbaş, lit=Red head ) were a diverse array of mainly Turkoman Shia militant groups that flourished in Iranian Azerbaijan, Anatolia, the ...

servicemen in order to counter the forces of Ubaydullah Khan during the

Battle of Ghazdewan The Battle of Ghazdewan occurred near the city of Ghijduvan, what is now Uzbekistan in November 1512 AD between Safavid army and Uzbek army. Prelude After Babur's defeat at the Battle of Kul Malek, he requested assistance from Biram Khan ...

in 1512. In 1513, Selim I reconciled with Babur (fearing that he would join the

Safavids Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

), dispatched

and Mustafa Rumi, and many other Ottoman Turks, in order to assist Babur in his conquests; this particular assistance proved to be the basis of future Mughal-Ottoman relations. From them, he also adopted the tactic of using matchlocks and cannons in field (rather than only in

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

s), which would give him an important advantage in India.

References

Mughal Empire people 16th-century people from the Ottoman Empire {{Ottoman-bio-stub