Tardi Beg, born Mirza Muhammad Beg Zulfiqar Khan, was a 16th century military commander in the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

. He served under the

Mughal emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...

Humayun Nasir al-Din Muhammad (6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), commonly known by his regnal name Humayun (), was the second Mughal emperor, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Northern India, and Pakistan from ...

and

Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

. 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 (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. It is reported that he was disliked by both the troops and generals and was eventually killed for cowardice by

Bairam Khan Muhammad Bairam Khan (; 18 January 1501 – 31 January 1561), commonly known as Bairam Khan or Bayram Khan was an important military commander, and later commander-in-chief of the Mughal Empire, Mughal army, a powerful statesman and regent at ...

. Beg is said to have refused to give up his horse for the heavily pregnant

Hamida Banu Begum Hamida Banu Begum (Persian: حمیده بانو بیگم; 1527 – 29 August 1604) was the queen consort, empress consort of the second Mughal emperor Humayun and the mother of his successor, the third Mughal emperor Akbar. ...

, wife of Humayun, when she was eight months pregnant with her son

. He is also said to have charged Humayun 20%

interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a debtor 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 distinct f ...

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 Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

as soon as

Hemu Hemu (; 1501 – 5 November 1556), also known as Hemu Vikramaditya and Hemchandra Vikramaditya, was an Indian king (maharaja) who previously served as a general and Vizier, Wazir of Muhammad Adil Shah (died 1557), Adil Shah Suri of the Sur Emp ...

'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

, 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 16th-century Mughal Empire people 16th-century Indian military personnel {{india-mil-bio-stub