Tardi Beg was a military commander in the 16th century in

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 ...

. He served under the

Mughal Emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...

Humayun Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad ( fa, ) (; 6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), better known by his regnal name, Humāyūn; (), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northe ...

and Akbar. Beg was part of Humayun's forces when they retreated from India after the siege by Sher Shah. He remained with his leader throughout his exile in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. It is reported that he was disliked by both the troops and generals and was eventually killed for cowardice by Bairam Khan. Beg is said to have refused to give up his horse for the heavily pregnant Hamida, wife of Humayun, when she was eight months pregnant with her son Akbar. He is also said to have charged Humayun 20%

interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a borrower or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distin ...

on a loan. Beg was further accused of deserting the city of

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra i ...

as soon as

Hemu Hemu (; also known as Hemu Vikramaditya and Hemchandra Vikramaditya; died 5 November 1556) was an Indian emperor who previously served as a general and Wazir of Adil Shah Suri of Sur Empire during a period in Indian history when Mughals and A ...

's forces approached. The truth of these allegations is difficult to gauge as most were written after his death and following the great successes of Bairam Khan, his executor. The allegations therefore may have been created to justify the action taken by Bairam.

References

Akbar-Nama Vol. 2 Chap. 9
Mughal generals {{india-mil-bio-stub