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Akbar was born to the second Mughal Emperor Humayan and his teenaged bride Hamida Banu Begum on October 14,1542 in Sindh, now in Pakistan. Although his ancestors included both Genghis Khan and Timur (Tamerlane), the family was on the run after losing Babur's newly-established empire. Humayan would not regain northern India until 1555. With his parents in exile in Persia, little Akbar was raised by an uncle in Afghanistan, with help from a series of nursemaids. He practiced key skills like hunting, but never learned to read (perhaps due to a learning disability?) Nonetheless, throughout his life, Akbar had texts on philosophy, history, religion, science and other topics read to him, and could recite long passages of what he had heard from memory.In 1555, Humayan died just months after retaking Delhi. Akbar ascended the Mughal throne at the age of 13, and became Shahanshah ("King of Kings"). His regent was Bayram Khan, his childhood guardian and an outstanding warrior/statesman. The young emperor almost immediately lost Delhi once more to the Hindu leader Hemu. However, in November of 1556, Generals Bayram Khan and Khan Zaman I defeated Hemu's much larger army at the Second Battle of Panipat. Hemu himself was shot through the eye as he rode into battle atop an elephant; the Mughal army captured and executed him. When he came of age at 18, Akbar dismissed the increasingly overbearing Bayram Khan and took direct control of the empire and army. Bayram was ordered to make the hajj to Mecca; instead, he started a rebellion against Akbar. The young emperor's forces defeated Bayram's rebels at Jalandhar, in the Punjab; rather than executing the rebel leader, Akbar mercifully allowed his former regent another chance to go to Mecca. This time, Bayram Khan went.