mannikins artfully said to me, 'You must not bestir yourself to leave
Karnān till there is news of Qādīr-bīrdī but this house is right amongst
the suburbs; on the outskirts the orchards are empty; no-one will
suspect if we go [Sidenote: Fol. 118.] there.' Accordingly we mounted at
mid-night and went to a distant orchard. Bābā Sairāmī kept watch from
the roof of a house. Near mid-day he came down and said, 'Commandant
Yūsuf is coming.' Great fear fell upon me! 'Find out,' I said, 'whether
he comes because he knows about me.' He went and after some exchange of
words, came back and said, 'He says he met a foot-soldier in the Gate of
Akhsī who said to him, "The pādshāh is in such a place," that he told
no-one, put the man with Walī the Treasurer whom he had made prisoner in
the fight, and then gallopped off here.' Said I, 'How does it strike
you?' 'They are all your servants,' he said, 'you must go. What else can
you do? They will make you their ruler.' Said I, 'After such rebellion
and fighting, with what confidence could I go?' We were saying this,
when Yūsuf knelt before me, saying, 'Why should it be hidden? Sl. Aḥmad
Taṃbal has no news of you, but Shaikh Bāyazīd has and he sent me here.'
On hearing this, my state of mind was miserable indeed, for well is it
understood that nothing in the world is worse than fear for one's life.
'Tell the truth!' I said, 'if the affair is likely to go on to worse, I
will make [Sidenote: Fol. 118b.] ablution.' Yūsuf swore oaths, but who
would trust them? I knew the helplessness of my position. I rose and
went to a corner of the garden, saying to myself, 'If a man live a
hundred years or a thousand years, at the last nothing ...'[665]
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.
Friends are likely to have rescued Bābur from his dangerous isolation.
His presence in Karnān was known both in Ghawā and in Akhsī; Muḥ. Bāqir
Beg was at hand (f. 117); some of those he had dropped in his flight
would follow him when their horses had had rest; Jahāngīr was somewhere
north of the river with the half of Bābur's former force (f. 112); The
Khāns, with their long-extended line of march, may have been on the main
road through or near Karnān. If Yūsuf took Bābur as a prisoner along the
Akhsī road, there were these various chances of his meeting friends.
His danger was evaded; he joined his uncles and was with them, leading
1000 men (Sh. N. p. 268), when they were defeated at Archīān just before
or in the season of Cancer, _i.e._ _circa_ June (T. R. p. 164). What he
was doing between the winter cold of Karnān (f. 117b) and June might
have been known from his lost pages. Muḥ. Ṣāliḥ writes at length of one
affair falling within the time,—Jahāngīr's occupation of Khujand, its
siege and its capture by Shaibānī. This capture will have occurred
considerably more than a month before the defeat of The Khāns (Sh. N. p.
230).
It is not easy to decide in what month of 908 AH. they went into
Farghāna or how long their campaign lasted. Bābur chronicles a series of
occurrences, previous to the march of the army, which must have filled
some time. The road over the Kīndīrlīk-pass was taken, one closed in
Bābur's time (f. 1b) though now open through the winter. Looking at the
rapidity of his own movements in Farghāna, it seems likely that the pass
was crossed after and not before its closed time. If so, the campaign
may have covered 4 or 5 months. Muḥ. Ṣāliḥ's account of Shaibāq's
operations strengthens this view. News that Aḥmad had joined Maḥmūd in
Tāshkīnt (f. 102) went to Shaibānī in Khusrau Shāh's territories; he saw
his interests in Samarkand threatened by this combination of the
Chaghatāī brothers to restore Bābur in Farghāna, came north therefore in
order to help Taṃbal. He then waited a month in Samarkand (Sh. N. p.
230), besieged Jahāngīr, went back and stayed in Samarkand long enough
to give his retainers time to equip for a year's campaigning (l. c. p.
244) then went to Akhsī and so to Archīān.
Bābur's statement (f. 110b) that The Khāns went from Andijān to the
Khujand-crossing over the Sīr attracts attention because this they might
have done if they had meant to leave Farghāna by Mīrzā-rabāṯ but they
are next heard of as at Akhsī. Why did they make that great détour? Why
not have crossed opposite Akhsī or at Sang? Or if they had thought of
retiring, what turned them east again? Did they place Jahāngīr in
Khujand? Bābur's missing pages would have answered these questions no
doubt. It was useful for them to encamp where they did, east of Akhsī,
because they there had near them a road by which reinforcement could
come from Kāshghar or retreat be made. The Akhsī people told Shaibānī
that he could easily overcome The Khāns if he went without warning, and
if they had not withdrawn by the Kulja road (Sh. N. p. 262). By that
road the few men who went with Aḥmad to Tāshkīnt (f. 103) may have been
augmented to the force, enumerated as his in the battle by Muḥ. Ṣāliḥ
(Sh. N. cap. LIII.).
When The Khāns were captured, Bābur escaped and made 'for Mughūlistān,'
a vague direction seeming here to mean Tāshkīnt, but, finding his road
blocked, in obedience to orders from Shaibāq that he and Abū'l-makāram
were to be captured, he turned back and, by unfrequented ways, went into
the hill-country of Sūkh and Hushīār. There he spent about a year in
great misery (f. 14 and Ḥ. S. ii, 318). Of the wretchedness of the time
Ḥaidar also writes. If anything was attempted in Farghāna in the course
of those months, record of it has been lost with Bābur's missing pages.
He was not only homeless and poor, but shut in by enemies. Only the
loyalty or kindness of the hill-tribes can have saved him and his few
followers. His mother was with him; so also were the families of his
men. How Qūtlūq-nigār contrived to join him from Tāshkīnt, though
historically a small matter, is one he would chronicle. What had
happened there after the Mughūl defeat, was that the horde had marched
away for Kāshghar while Shāh Begīm remained in charge of her daughters
with whom the Aūzbeg chiefs intended to contract alliance. Shaibānī's
orders for her stay and for the general exodus were communicated to her
by her son, The Khān, in what Muḥ. Ṣāliḥ, quoting its purport, describes
as a right beautiful letter (p. 296).
By some means Qūtlūq-nigār joined Bābur, perhaps helped by the
circumstance that her daughter, Khān-zāda was Shaibāq's wife. She spent
at least some part of those hard months with him, when his fortunes were
at their lowest ebb. A move becoming imperative, the ragged and
destitute company started in mid-June 1504 (Muḥ. 910 AH.) on that
perilous mountain journey to which Ḥaidar applies the Prophet's dictum,
'Travel is a foretaste of Hell,' but of which the end was the
establishment of a Tīmūrid dynasty in Hindūstān. To look down the years
from the destitute Bābur to Akbar, Shāh-jahān and Aurangzīb is to see a
great stream of human life flow from its source in his resolve to win
upward, his quenchless courage and his abounding vitality. Not yet 22,
the sport of older men's intrigues, he had been tempered by failure,
privation and dangers.
He left Sūkh intending to go to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā in Khurāsān but he
changed this plan for one taking him to Kābul where a Tīmūrid might
claim to dispossess the Arghūns, then holding it since the death, in 907
AH. of his uncle, Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā _Kābulī_.
THE MEMOIRS OF BABUR
SECTION II. KĀBUL[666]
910 AH.-JUNE 14TH 1504 TO JUNE 4TH 1505 AD.[667]
(_a. Bābur leaves Farghāna._)
In the month of Muḥarram, after leaving the Farghāna country [Sidenote:
Ḥaidarābād MS. Fol. 120.] intending to go to Khurāsān, I dismounted at
Aīlāk-yīlāq,[668] one of the summer pastures of Ḥiṣār. In this camp I
entered my 23rd year, and applied the razor to my face.[669] Those who,
hoping in me, went with me into exile, were, small and great, between 2
and 300; they were almost all on foot, had walking-staves in their
hands, brogues[670] on their feet, and long coats[671] on their
shoulders. So destitute were we that we had but two tents (_chādar_)
amongst us; my own used to be pitched for my mother, and they set an
_ālāchūq_ at each stage for me to sit in.[672]
Though we had started with the intention of going into Khurāsān, yet
with things as they were[673] something was hoped for from the Ḥiṣār
country and Khusrau Shāh's retainers. Every few days some-one would come
in from the country or a tribe or the (Mughūl) horde, whose words made
it probable that we had growing ground for hope. Just then Mullā Bābā of
Pashāghar came back, who had been our envoy to Khusrau Shāh; from
Khusrau Shāh he brought nothing likely to please, but he did from the
tribes and the horde.
[Sidenote: Fol. 120b.] Three or four marches beyond Aīlāk, when halt was
made at a place near Ḥiṣār called Khwāja `Imād, Muḥibb-`alī, the
Armourer, came to me from Khusrau Shāh. Through Khusrau Shāh's
territories I have twice happened to pass;[674] renowned though he was
for kindness and liberality, he neither time showed me the humanity he
had shown to the meanest of men.
As we were hoping something from the country and the tribes, we made
delay at every stage. At this critical point Sherīm T̤aghāī, than whom
no man of mine was greater, thought of leaving me because he was not
keen to go into Khurāsān. He had sent all his family off and stayed
himself unencumbered, when after the defeat at Sar-i-pul (906 AH.) I
went back to defend Samarkand; he was a bit of a coward and he did this
sort of thing several times over.
(_b. Bābur joined by one of Khusrau Shāh's kinsmen._)
After we reached Qabādīān, a younger brother of Khusrau Shāh, Bāqī
_Chaghānīānī_, whose holdings were Chaghānīān,[675] Shahr-i-ṣafā and
Tīrmīẕ, sent the _khatīb_[676] of Qarshī to me to express his good
wishes and his desire for alliance, and, after we had crossed the Amū at
the Aūbāj-ferry, he came himself to wait on me. By his wish we moved
down the river to opposite Tīrmīẕ, where, without fear [or, without
going over himself],[677] he had their families[678] and their goods
brought across to join us. This done, we set out together for Kāhmard
and Bāmīān, then held by his son[679] Aḥmad-i-qāsim, the son of Khusrau
Shāh's sister. Our plan was to leave the households (_awī-aīl_) safe in
Fort Ajar of the Kāhmard-valley and to take action wherever [Sidenote:
Fol. 121.] action might seem well. At Aībak, Yār-`alī Balāl,[680] who
had fled from Khusrau Shāh, joined us with several braves; he had been
with me before, and had made good use of his sword several times in my
presence, but was parted from me in the recent throneless times[681] and
had gone to Khusrau Shāh. He represented to me that the Mughūls in
Khusrau Shāh's service wished me well. Moreover, Qaṃbar-`alī Beg, known
also as Qaṃbar-`alī _Silākh_ (Skinner), fled to me after we reached the
Zindān-valley.[682]
(_c. Occurrences in Kākmard._)
We reached Kāhmard with three or four marches and deposited our
households and families in Ajar. While we stayed there, Jahāngīr Mīrzā
married (Aī Begīm) the daughter of Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā and Khān-zāda Begīm,
who had been set aside for him during the lifetime of the Mīrzās.[683]
Meantime Bāqī Beg urged it upon me, again and again, that two rulers in
one country, or two chiefs in one army are a source of faction and
disorder—a foundation of dissension and ruin. "For they have said, 'Ten
darwīshes can sleep under one blanket, but two kings cannot find room in
one clime.'
If a man of God eat half a loaf,
He gives the other to a darwīsh;
Let a king grip the rule of a clime,
He dreams of another to grip."[684]
Bāqī Beg urged further that Khusrau Shāah's retainers and followers
would be coming in that day or the next to take service with the Pādshāh
(_i.e._ Bābur); that there were such [Sidenote: Fol. 121b.]
sedition-mongers with them as the sons of Ayūb _Begchīk_, besides other
who had been the stirrers and spurs to disloyalty amongst their
Mīrzās,[685] and that if, at this point, Jahāngīr Mīrzā were dismissed,
on good and friendly terms, for Khurāsān, it would remove a source of
later repentance. Urge it as he would, however, I did not accept his
suggestion, because it is against my nature to do an injury to my
brethren, older or younger,[686] or to any kinsman soever, even when
something untoward has happened. Though formerly between Jahāngīr Mīrzā
and me, resentments and recriminations had occurred about our rule and
retainers, yet there was nothing whatever then to arouse anger against
him; he had come out of that country (_i.e._ Farghāna) with me and was
behaving like a blood-relation and a servant. But in the end it was just
as Bāqī Beg predicted;—those tempters to disloyalty, that is to say,
Ayūb's Yūsuf and Ayūb's Bihlūl, left me for Jahāngīr Mīrzā, took up a
hostile and mutinous position, parted him from me, and conveyed him into
Khurāsān.
(_d. Co-operation invited against Shaibāq Khān._)
In those days came letters from Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, long and far-fetched
letters which are still in my possession and in that [Sidenote: Fol.
122.] of others, written to Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā, myself, Khusrau Shāh
and Ẕū'n-nūn Beg, all to the same purport, as follows:—"When the three
brothers, Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā, and Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā,
joined together and advanced against me, I defended the bank of the
Murgh-āb[687] in such a way that they retired without being able to
effect anything. Now if the Aūzbegs advance, I might myself guard the
bank of the Murgh-āb again; let Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā leave men to defend
the forts of Balkh, Shibarghān, and Andikhūd while he himself guards
Girzawān, the Zang-valley, and the hill-country thereabouts." As he had
heard of my being in those parts, he wrote to me also, "Do you make fast
Kāhmard, Ajar, and that hill-tract; let Khusrau Shāh place trusty men in
Ḥiṣār and Qūndūz; let his younger brother Walī make fast Badakhshān and
the Khutlān hills; then the Aūzbeg will retire, able to do nothing."
These letters threw us into despair;—for why? Because at that time there
was in Tīmūr Beg's territory (_yūrt_) no ruler so great as Sl. Ḥusain
Mīrzā, whether by his years, armed strength, or dominions; it was to be
expected, therefore, that envoys would go, treading on each other's
heels, with clear and sharp orders, such as, "Arrange for so many boats
at the Tīrmīz, [Sidenote: Fol. 122b.] Kilīf, and Kīrkī ferries," "Get
any quantity of bridge material together," and "Well watch the ferries
above Tūqūz-aūlūm,"[688] so that men whose spirit years of Aūzbeg
oppression had broken, might be cheered to hope again.[689] But how
could hope live in tribe or horde when a great ruler like Sl. Ḥusain
Mīrzā, sitting in the place of Tīmūr Beg, spoke, not of marching forth
to meet the enemy, but only of defence against his attack?
When we had deposited in Ajar what had come with us of hungry train (_aj
aūrūq_) and household (_awī-aīl_), together with the families of Bāqī
Beg, his son, Muḥ. Qāsim, his soldiers and his tribesmen, with all their
goods, we moved out with our men.
(_e. Increase of Bābur's following._)
One man after another came in from Khusrau Shāh's Mughūls and said, "We
of the Mughūl horde, desiring the royal welfare, have drawn off from
T̤āīkhān (T̤ālīkān) towards Ishkīmīsh and Fūlūl. Let the Pādshāh advance
as fast as possible, for the greater part of Khusrau Shāh's force has
broken up and is ready to take service with him." Just then news arrived
that Shaibāq Khān, after taking Andijān,[690] was getting to horse again
against Ḥiṣār and Qūndūz. On hearing [Sidenote: Fol. 123.] this, Khusrau
Shāh, unable to stay in Qūndūz, marched out with all the men he had, and
took the road for Kābul. No sooner had he left than his old servant, the
able and trusted Mullā Muḥammad _Turkistānī_ made Qūndūz fast for
Shaibāq Khān.
Three or four thousand heads-of-houses in the Mughūl horde, former
dependants of Khusrau Shāh, brought their families and joined us when,
going by way of Sham-tū, we were near the Qīzīl-sū.[691]
(_f. Qaṃbar-`alī, the Skinner, dismissed._)
Qaṃbar-`alī Beg's foolish talk has been mentioned several times already;
his manners were displeasing to Bāqī Beg; to gratify Bāqī Beg, he was
dismissed. Thereafter his son, `Abdu'l-shukūr, was in Jahāngīr Mīrzā's
service.
(_g. Khusrau Shāh waits on Bābur._)
Khusrau Shāh was much upset when he heard that the Mughūl horde had
joined me; seeing nothing better to do for himself, he sent his
son-in-law, Ayūb's Yaq`ūb, to make profession of well-wishing and
submission to me, and respectfully to represent that he would enter my
service if I would make terms and compact with him. His offer was
accepted, because Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ was a man of weight, and, however
steady in his favourable disposition to me, did not overlook his
brother's side in this matter. Compact was made that Khusrau Shāh's
life should be safe, and that whatever amount of his goods he selected,
should not be refused him. After giving Yaq`ūb leave to go, we marched
down the Qīzīl-sū and dismounted near to where it joins the water of
Andar-āb. [Sidenote: Fol. 123b.]
Next day, one in the middle of the First Rabī` (end of August, 1504
AD.), riding light, I crossed the Andar-āb water and took my seat under
a large plane-tree near Dūshī, and thither came Khusrau Shāh, in pomp
and splendour, with a great company of men. According to rule and
custom, he dismounted some way off and then made his approach. Three
times he knelt when we saw one another, three times also on taking
leave; he knelt once when asking after my welfare, once again when he
offered his tribute, and he did the same with Jahāngīr Mīrzā and with
Mīrzā Khān (Wais). That sluggish old mannikin who through so many years
had just pleased himself, lacking of sovereignty one thing only, namely,
to read the _Khuṯba_ in his own name, now knelt 25 or 26 times in
succession, and came and went till he was so wearied out that he
tottered forward. His many years of begship and authority vanished from
his view. When we had seen one another and he had offered his gift, I
desired him to be seated. We stayed in that place for one or two
_garīs_,[692] exchanging tale and talk. His conversation was vapid and
empty, presumably because he was a coward and false to his salt. Two
things he said were extraordinary for the time when, under his eyes, his
trusty and trusted retainers were becoming mine, and when his affairs
had reached the point that he, the sovereign-aping mannikin, had had to
come, willy-nilly, abased and unhonoured, to what sort [Sidenote: Fol.
124.] of an interview! One of the things he said was this:—When condoled
with for the desertion of his men, he replied, "Those very servants have
four times left me and returned." The other was said when I had asked
him where his brother Walī would cross the Amū and when he would arrive.
"If he find a ford, he will soon be here, but when waters rise, fords
change; the (Persian) proverb has it, 'The waters have carried down the
fords.'" These words God brought to his tongue in that hour of the
flowing away of his own authority and following!
After sitting a _garī_ or two, I mounted and rode back to camp, he for
his part returning to his halting-place. On that day his begs, with
their servants, great and small, good and bad, and tribe after tribe
began to desert him and come, with their families, to me. Between the
two Prayers of the next afternoon not a man remained in his presence.
"Say,—O God! who possessest the kingdom! Thou givest it to whom Thou
wilt and Thou takest it from whom Thou wilt! In Thy hand is good, for
Thou art almighty."[693]
Wonderful is His power! This man, once master of 20 or 30,000 retainers,
once owning Sl. Maḥmūd's dominions from Qaḥlūgha,—known also as the
Iron-gate,—to the range of [Sidenote: Fol. 124b.] Hindū-kush, whose old
mannikin of a tax-gatherer, Ḥasan _Barlās_ by name, had made us march,
had made us halt, with all the tax-gatherer's roughness, from Aīlāk to
Aūbāj,[694] that man He so abased and so bereft of power that, with no
blow struck, no sound made, he stood, without command over servants,
goods, or life, in the presence of a band of 200 or 300 men, defeated
and destitute as we were.
In the evening of the day on which we had seen Khusrau Shāh and gone
back to camp, Mīrzā Khān came to my presence and demanded vengeance on
him for the blood of his brothers.[695] Many of us were at one with him,
for truly it is right, both by Law and common justice, that such men
should get their desserts, but, as terms had been made, Khusrau Shāh was
let go free. An order was given that he should be allowed to take
whatever of his goods he could convey; accordingly he loaded up, on
three or four strings of mules and camels, all jewels, gold, silver, and
precious things he had, and took them with him.[696] Sherīm T̤aghāī was
told off to escort him, who after setting Khusrau Shāh on his road for
Khurāsān, by way of Ghūrī and Dahānah, was to go to Kāhmard and bring
the families after us to Kābul.
(_h. Bābur marches for Kābul._)
Marching from that camp for Kābul, we dismounted in Khwāja Zaid.
On that day, Ḥamza Bī _Mangfīt_,[697] at the head of Aūzbeg raiders, was
over-running round about Dūshī. Sayyid Qāsim, the Lord of the Gate, and
Aḥmad-i-qāsim _Kohbur_ were sent [Sidenote: Fol. 125.] with several
braves against him; they got up with him, beat his Aūzbegs well, cut off
and brought in a few heads.
In this camp all the armour (_jība_) of Khusrau Shāh's armoury was
shared out. There may have been as many as 7 or 800 coats-of-mail
(_joshan_) and horse accoutrements (_kūhah_);[698] these were the one
thing he left behind; many pieces of porcelain also fell into our hands,
but, these excepted, there was nothing worth looking at.
With four or five marches we reached Ghūr-bund, and there dismounted in
Ushtur-shahr. We got news there that Muqīm's chief beg, Sherak (var.
Sherka) _Arghūn_, was lying along the Bārān, having led an army out, not
through hearing of me, but to hinder `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā from passing
along the Panjhīr-road, he having fled from Kābul[699] and being then
amongst the Tarkalānī Afghāns towards Lamghān. On hearing this we
marched forward, starting in the afternoon and pressing on through the
dark till, with the dawn, we surmounted the Hūpīān-pass.[700]
I had never seen Suhail;[701] when I came out of the pass I saw a star,
bright and low. "May not that be Suhail?" said I. Said they, "It is
Suhail." Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ recited this couplet;—[702]
"How far dost thou shine, O Suhail, and where dost thou rise?
A sign of good luck is thine eye to the man on whom it may light."
The Sun was a spear's-length high[703] when we reached the foot of the
Sanjid (Jujube)-valley and dismounted. Our scouting [Sidenote: Fol.
125b.] braves fell in with Sherak below the Qarā-bāgh,[704] near
Aīkarī-yār, and straightway got to grips with him. After a little of
some sort of fighting, our men took the upper hand, hurried their
adversaries off, unhorsed 70-80 serviceable braves and brought them in.
We gave Sherak his life and he took service with us.
(_i. Death of Walī of Khusrau._)
The various clans and tribes whom Khusrau Shāh, without troubling
himself about them, had left in Qūndūz, and also the Mughūl horde, were
in five or six bodies (_būlāk_). One of those belonging to
Badakhshān,—it was the Rūstā-hazāra,:—came, with Sayyidīm `Alī
_darbān_,[705] across the Panjhīr-pass to this camp, did me obeisance
and took service with me. Another body came under Ayūb's Yūsuf and
Ayūb's Bihlūl; it also took service with me. Another came from Khutlān,
under Khusrau Shāh's younger brother, Walī; another, consisting of the
(Mughūl) tribesmen (_aīmāq_) who had been located in Yīlānchaq, Nikdiri
(?), and the Qūndūz country, came also. The last-named two came by
Andar-āb and Sar-i-āb,[706] meaning to cross by the Panjhīr-pass; at
Sar-i-āb the tribesmen were ahead; Walī came up behind; they held the
road, fought and beat him. He himself fled to the Aūzbegs,[707] and
Shaibāq Khān had his head struck off in the Square (_Chār-sū_) of
Samarkand; his followers, beaten and plundered, came on with the
tribesmen, and like these, took service with me. With them came Sayyid
[Sidenote: Fol. 126.] Yūsuf Beg (the Grey-wolfer).
(_j. Kābul gained._)
From that camp we marched to the Āq-sarāī meadow of the Qarā-bāgh and
there dismounted. Khusrau Shāh's people were well practised in
oppression and violence; they tyrannized over one after another till at
last I had up one of Sayyidīm `Alī's good braves to my Gate[708] and
there beaten for forcibly taking a jar of oil. There and then he just
died under the blows; his example kept the rest down.
We took counsel in that camp whether or not to go at once against Kābul.
Sayyid Yūsuf and some others thought that, as winter was near, our first
move should be into Lamghān, from which place action could be taken as
advantage offered. Bāqī Beg and some others saw it good to move on Kābul
at once; this plan was adopted; we marched forward and dismounted in
Ābā-qūrūq.
My mother and the belongings left behind in Kāhmard rejoined us at
Ābā-qūrūq. They had been in great danger, the particulars of which are
these:—Sherīm T̤aghāī had gone to set Khusrau Shāh on his way for
Khurāsān, and this done, was to fetch the families from Kāhmard. When he
reached Dahānah, he found he was not his own master; Khusrau Shāh went
on with him into Kāhmard, where was his sister's son, Aḥmad-i-qāsim.
These two took up an altogether wrong [Sidenote: Fol. 126b.] position
towards the families in Kāhmard. Hereupon a number of Bāqī Beg's
Mughūls, who were with the families, arranged secretly with Sherīm
T̤aghāī to lay hands on Khusrau Shāh and Aḥmad-i-qāsim. The two heard of
it, fled along the Kāhmard-valley on the Ajar side[709] and made for
Khurāsān. To bring this about was really what Sherīm T̤aghāī and the
Mughūls wanted. Set free from their fear of Khusrau Shāh by his flight,
those in charge of the families got them out of Ajar, but when they
reached Kāhmard, the Sāqānchī (var. Asīqanchī) tribe blocked the road,
like an enemy, and plundered the families of most of Bāqī Beg's
men.[710] They made prisoner Qul-i-bāyazīd's little son, Tīzak; he came
into Kābul three or four years later. The plundered and unhappy families
crossed by the Qībchāq-pass, as we had done, and they rejoined us in
Ābā-qūrūq.
Leaving that camp we went, with one night's halt, to the Chālāk-meadow,
and there dismounted. After counsel taken, it was decided to lay siege
to Kābul, and we marched forward. With what men of the centre there
were, I dismounted between Ḥaidar _Tāqī's_[711] garden and the tomb of
Qul-i-bāyazīd, the Taster (_bakāwal_);[712] Jahāngīr Mīrzā, with the men
of the right, [Sidenote: Fol. 127.] dismounted in my great Four-gardens
(_Chār-bāgh_), Nāṣir Mīrzā, with the left, in the meadow of
Qūtlūq-qadam's tomb. People of ours went repeatedly to confer with
Muqīm; they sometimes brought excuses back, sometimes words making for
agreement. His tactics were the sequel of his dispatch, directly after
Sherak's defeat, of a courier to his father and elder brother (in
Qandahār); he made delays because he was hoping in them.
One day our centre, right, and left were ordered to put on their mail
and their horses' mail, to go close to the town, and to display their
equipment so as to strike terror on those within. Jahāngīr Mīrzā and the
right went straight forward by the Kūcha-bāgh;[713] I, with the centre,
because there was water, went along the side of Qūtlūq-qadam's tomb to a
mound facing the rising-ground;[714] the van collected above
Qūtlūq-qadam's bridge,—at that time, however, there was no bridge. When
the braves, showing themselves off, galloped close up to the
Curriers'-gate,[715] a few who had come out through it fled in again
without making any stand. A crowd of Kābulīs who had come out to see the
sight raised a great dust when they ran away from the high slope of the
glacis of the citadel (_i.e._ Bālā-ḥiṣār). A number of pits had been dug
up the rise [Sidenote: Fol. 127b.] between the bridge and the gate, and
hidden under sticks and rubbish; Sl. Qulī _Chūnāq_ and several others
were thrown as they galloped over them. A few braves of the right
exchanged sword-cuts with those who came out of the town, in amongst
the lanes and gardens, but as there was no order to engage, having done
so much, they retired.
Those in the fort becoming much perturbed, Muqīm made offer through the
begs, to submit and surrender the town. Bāqī Beg his mediator, he came
and waited on me, when all fear was chased from his mind by our entire
kindness and favour. It was settled that next day he should march out
with retainers and following, goods and effects, and should make the
town over to us. Having in mind the good practice Khusrau Shāh's
retainers had had in indiscipline and longhandedness, we appointed
Jahāngīr Mīrzā and Nāṣir Mīrzā with the great and household begs, to
escort Muqīm's family out of Kābul[716] and to bring out Muqīm himself
with his various dependants, goods and effects. Camping-ground was
assigned to him at Tīpa.[717] When the Mīrzās and the Begs went at dawn
to the Gate, they saw much mobbing and tumult of the common people, so
they sent me a man to say, "Unless you come yourself, there will be no
holding these people in." In the end I got to horse, had two or three
persons shot, two or three cut in pieces, and so stamped the rising
down. Muqīm and his belongings then got out, safe and sound, [Sidenote:
Fol. 128.] and they betook themselves to Tīpa.
It was in the last ten days of the Second Rabī` (Oct. 1504 AD.)[718]
that without a fight, without an effort, by Almighty God's bounty and
mercy, I obtained and made subject to me Kābul and Ghaznī and their
dependent districts.
DESCRIPTION OF KĀBUL[719]
The Kābul country is situated in the Fourth climate and in the midst of
cultivated lands.[720] On the east it has the Lamghānāt,[721]
Parashāwar (Pashāwar), Hash(t)-nagar and some of the countries of
Hindūstān. On the west it has the mountain region in which are Karnūd
(?) and Ghūr, now the refuge and dwelling-places of the Hazāra and
Nikdīrī (var. Nikudārī) tribes. On the north, separated from it by the
range of Hindū-kush, it has the Qūndūz and Andar-āb countries. On the
south, it has Farmūl, Naghr (var. Naghz), Bannū and Afghānistān.[722]
(_a. Town and environs of Kābul._)
The Kābul district itself is of small extent, has its greatest length
from east to west, and is girt round by mountains. Its walled-town
connects with one of these, rather a low one known as Shāh-of-Kābul
because at some time a (Hindū) Shāh of Kābul built a residence on its
summit.[723] Shāh-of-Kābul begins at the Dūrrīn narrows and ends at
those of Dih-i-yaq`ūb[724]; it may be 4 miles (2 _shar`ī_) round; its
skirt is covered with gardens fertilized from a canal which was brought
along the hill-slope in the time of my paternal uncle, Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā
by his guardian, Wais Atāka.[725] The water of this canal comes to an
end in a retired corner, a quarter known as Kul-kīna[726] where much
debauchery has gone on. About this place it [Sidenote: Fol. 128b.]
sometimes used to be said, in jesting parody of Khwāja Ḥāfiẓ[727],—"Ah!
the happy, thoughtless time when, with our names in ill-repute, we lived
days of days at Kul-kīna!"
East of Shāh-of-Kabūl and south of the walled-town lies a large
pool[728] about a 2 miles [_shar`ī_] round. From the town side of the
mountain three smallish springs issue, two near Kul-kīna; Khwāja
Shamū's[729] tomb is at the head of one; Khwāja Khiẓr's Qadam-gāh[730]
at the head of another, and the third is at a place known as Khwāja
Raushānāī, over against Khwāja `Abdu'ṣ-ṣamad. On a detached rock of a
spur of Shāh-of-Kābul, known as `Uqābain,[731] stands the citadel of
Kābul with the great walled-town at its north end, lying high in
excellent air, and overlooking the large pool already mentioned, and
also three meadows, namely, Siyāh-sang (Black-rock), Sūng-qūrghān
(Fort-back), and Chālāk (Highwayman?),—a most beautiful outlook when the
meadows are green. The north-wind does not fail Kābul in the heats;
people call it the Parwān-wind[732]; it makes a delightful temperature
in the windowed houses on the northern part of the citadel. In praise of
the citadel of Kābul, Mullā Muḥammad _T̤ālib Mu`ammāī_ (the
Riddler)[733]
[Sidenote: Fol. 129.] used to recite this couplet, composed on
Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's name:—
Drink wine in the castle of Kābul and send the cup round
without pause;
For Kābul is mountain, is river, is city, is lowland in one.[734]
(_b. Kābul as a trading-town._)
Just as `Arabs call every place outside `Arab (Arabia), `Ajam, so
Hindūstānīs call every place outside Hindūstān, Khurāsān. There are two
trade-marts on the land-route between Hindūstān and Khurāsān; one is
Kābul, the other, Qandahār. To Kābul caravans come from Kāshghar,[735]
Farghāna,Turkistān, Samarkand, Bukhārā, Balkh, Ḥiṣār and Badakhshān. To
Qandahār they come from Khurāsān. Kābul is an excellent trading-centre;
if merchants went to Khīta or to Rūm,[736] they might make no higher
profit. Down to Kābul every year come 7, 8, or 10,000 horses and up to
it, from Hindūstān, come every year caravans of 10, 15 or 20,000
heads-of-houses, bringing slaves (_barda_), white cloth, sugar-candy,
refined and common sugars, and aromatic roots. Many a trader is not
content with a profit of 30 or 40 on 10.[737] In Kābul can be had the
products of Khurāsān, Rūm, `Irāq and Chīn (China); while it is
Hindūstān's own market.
(_c. Products and climate of Kābul._)
In the country of Kābul, there are hot and cold districts close to one
another. In one day, a man may go out of the town of Kābul to where snow
never falls, or he may go, in two sidereal [Sidenote: Fol. 129b.] hours,
to where it never thaws, unless when the heats are such that it cannot
possibly lie.
Fruits of hot and cold climates are to be had in the districts near the
town. Amongst those of the cold climate, there are had in the town the
grape, pomegranate, apricot, apple, quince, pear, peach, plum,
_sinjid_, almond and walnut.[738] I had cuttings of the _ālū-bālū_[739]
brought there and planted; they grew and have done well. Of fruits of
the hot climate people bring into the town;—from the Lamghānāt, the
orange, citron, _amlūk_ (_diospyrus lotus_), and sugar-cane; this last I
had had brought and planted there;[740]—from Nijr-au (Nijr-water), they
bring the _jīl-ghūza,[741] and, from the hill-tracts, much honey.
Bee-hives are in use; it_ is only from towards Ghaznī, that no honey
comes.
The rhubarb[742] of the Kābul district is good, its quinces and plums
very good, so too its _badrang_;[743] it grows an excellent grape, known
as the water-grape.[744] Kābul wines are heady, those of the Khwāja
Khāwand Sa`īd hill-skirt being famous for their strength; at this time
however I can only repeat the praise of others about them:—[745]
The flavour of the wine a drinker knows;
What chance have sober men to know it?
Kābul is not fertile in grain, a four or five-fold return is reckoned
good there; nor are its melons first-rate, but they are not altogether
bad when grown from Khurāsān seed.
It has a very pleasant climate; if the world has another so pleasant, it
is not known. Even in the heats, one cannot sleep at night without a
fur-coat.[746] Although the snow in most places lies deep in winter, the
cold is not excessive; whereas in [Sidenote: Fol. 130.] Samarkand and
Tabrīz, both, like Kābul, noted for their pleasant climate, the cold is
extreme.
(_d. Meadows of Kābul._)
There are good meadows on the four sides of Kābul. An excellent one,
Sūng-qūrghān, is some 4 miles (2 _kuroh_) to the north-east; it has
grass fit for horses and few mosquitos. To the north-west is the Chālāk
meadow, some 2 miles (1 _shar`ī_) away, a large one but in it mosquitos
greatly trouble the horses. On the west is the Dūrrīn, in fact there are
two, Tīpa and Qūsh-nādir (var. nāwar),—if two are counted here, there
would be five in all. Each of these is about 2 miles from the town; both
are small, have grass good for horses, and no mosquitos; Kābul has no
others so good. On the east is the Siyāh-sang meadow with Qūtlūq-qadam's
tomb[747] between it and the Currier's-gate; it is not worth much
because, in the heats, it swarms with mosquitos. Kamarī[748] meadow
adjoins it; counting this in, the meadows of Kābul would be six, but
they are always spoken of as four.
(_e. Mountain-passes into Kābul._)
The country of Kābul is a fastness hard for a foreign foe to make his
way into.
The Hindū-kush mountains, which separate Kābul from Balkh, Qūndūz and
Badakhshān, are crossed by seven roads.[749] Three of these lead out of
Panjhīr (Panj-sher), _viz._ Khawāk, the uppermost, T̤ūl, the next lower,
and Bāzārak.[750] Of the passes on them, the one on the T̤ūl road is the
best, but the road itself is rather [Sidenote: Fol. 130b.] the longest
whence, seemingly, it is called T̤ūl. Bāzārak is the most direct; like
T̤ūl, it leads over into Sar-i-āb; as it passes through Pārandī, local
people call its main pass, the Pārandī. Another road leads up
through Parwān; it has seven minor passes, known as Haft-bacha
(Seven-younglings), between Parwān and its main pass (Bāj-gāh). It is
joined at its main pass by two roads from Andar-āb, which go on to
Parwān by it. This is a road full of difficulties. Out of Ghūr-bund,
again, three roads lead over. The one next to Parwān, known as the
Yāngī-yūl pass (New-road), goes through Wālīān to Khinjan; next above
this is the Qīpchāq road, crossing to where the water of Andar-āb meets
the Sūrkh-āb (Qīzīl-sū); this also is an excellent road; and the third
leads over the Shibr-tū pass;[751] those crossing by this in the heats
take their way by Bāmīān and Saighān, but those crossing by it in
winter, go on by Āb-dara (Water-valley).[752] Shibr-tū excepted, all the
Hindū-kush roads are closed for three or four months in winter,[753]
because no road through a valley-bottom is passable when the waters are
high. If any-one thinks to cross the Hindū-kush at that time, over the
mountains instead of through a valley-bottom, his journey is hard
indeed. The time to cross is during the three or four autumn months when
the snow is less and the waters are low. [Sidenote: Fol. 131.] Whether
on the mountains or in the valley-bottoms, Kāfir highwaymen are not few.
The road from Kābul into Khurāsān passes through Qandahār; it is quite
level, without a pass.
Four roads lead into Kābul from the Hindūstān side; one by rather a low
pass through the Khaibar mountains, another by way of Bangash, another
by way of Naghr (var. Naghz),[754] and another through Farmūl;[755] the
passes being low also in the three last-named. These roads are all
reached from three ferries over the Sind. Those who take the Nīl-āb[756]
ferry, come on through the Lamghānāt.[757] In winter, however, people
ford the Sind-water (at Hāru) above its junction with the
Kābul-water,[758] and ford this also. In most of my expeditions into
Hindūstān, I crossed those fords, but this last time (932 AH.-1525 AD.),
when I came, defeated Sl. Ibrāhīm and conquered the country, I crossed
by boat at Nīl-āb. Except at the one place mentioned above, the
Sind-water can be crossed only by boat. Those again, who cross at
Dīn-kot[759] go on through Bangash. Those crossing at Chaupāra, if they
take the Farmūl road, go on to Ghaznī, or, if they go by the Dasht, go
on to Qandahār.[760]
(_f. Inhabitants of Kābul._)
There are many differing tribes in the Kābul country; in its dales and
plains are Turks and clansmen[761] and `Arabs; in its town and in many
villages, Sārts; out in the districts and also [Sidenote: Fol. 131b.] in
villages are the Pashāī, Parājī, Tājīk, Bīrkī and Afghān tribes. In the
western mountains are the Hazāra and Nikdīrī tribes, some of whom speak
the Mughūlī tongue. In the north-eastern mountains are the places of the
Kāfirs, such as Kitūr (Gawār?) and Gibrik. To the south are the places
of the Afghān tribes.
Eleven or twelve tongues are spoken in Kābul,—`Arabī, Persian, Turkī,
Mughūlī, Hindī, Afghānī, Pashāī, Parājī, Gibrī, Bīrkī and Lamghānī. If
there be another country with so many differing tribes and such a
diversity of tongues, it is not known.
(_e. Sub-divisions of the Kābul country._)
The [Kābul] country has fourteen _tūmāns_.[762]
Bajaur, Sawād and Hash-nagar may at one time have been dependencies of
Kābul, but they now have no resemblance to cultivated countries
(_wilāyāt_), some lying desolate because of the Afghāns, others being
now subject to them.
In the east of the country of Kābul is the Lamghānāt, 5 _tūmāns_ and 2
_bulūks_ of cultivated lands.[763] The largest of these is Nīngnahār,
sometimes written Nagarahār in the histories.[764] Its _dārogha's_
residence is in Adīnapūr,[765] some 13 _yīghāch_ east of Kābul by a very
bad and tiresome road, going in three or four places over small
hill-passes, and in three or four others, through [Sidenote: Fol. 132.]
narrows.[766] So long as there was no cultivation along it, the
Khirilchī and other Afghān thieves used to make it their beat, but it
has become safe[767] since I had it peopled at Qarā-tū,[768] below
Qūrūq-sāī. The hot and cold climates are separated on this road by the
pass of Bādām-chashma (Almond-spring); on its Kābul side snow falls,
none at Qūrūq-sāī, towards the Lamghānāt.[769] After descending this
pass, another world comes into view, other trees, other plants (or
grasses), other animals, and other manners and customs of men. Nīngnahār
is nine torrents (_tūqūz-rūd_).[770] It grows good crops of rice and
corn, excellent and abundant oranges, citrons and pomegranates. In 914
AH. (1508-9 AD.) I laid out the Four-gardens, known as the Bāgh-i-wafā
(Garden-of-fidelity), on a rising-ground, facing south and having the
Sūrkh-rūd between it and Fort Adīnapūr.[771] There oranges, citrons and
pomegranates grow in abundance. The year I defeated Pahār Khān and took
Lāhor and Dipālpūr,[772] I had plantains (bananas) brought and planted
there; they did very well. The year before I had had sugar-cane planted
there; it also did well; some of it was sent to Bukhārā and
Badakhshān.[773] The garden lies high, has running-water close at hand,
and a mild winter [Sidenote: Fol. 132b.] climate. In the middle of it, a
one-mill stream flows constantly past the little hill on which are the
four garden-plots. In the south-west part of it there is a reservoir, 10
by 10,[774] round which are orange-trees and a few pomegranates, the
whole encircled by a trefoil-meadow. This is the best part of the
garden, a most beautiful sight when the oranges take colour. Truly that
garden is admirably situated!
The Safed-koh runs along the south of Nīngnahār, dividing it from
Bangash; no riding-road crosses it; nine torrents (_tūqūz-rūd_) issue
from it.[775] It is called Safed-koh[776] because its snow never
lessens; none falls in the lower parts of its valleys, a half-day's
journey from the snow-line. Many places along it have an excellent
climate; its waters are cold and need no ice.
The Sūrkh-rūd flows along the south of Adīnapūr. The fort stands on a
height having a straight fall to the river of some 130 ft. (40-50
_qārī_) and isolated from the mountain behind it on the north; it is
very strongly placed. That mountain runs between Nīngnahār and
Lamghān[777]; on its head snow falls when it snows [Sidenote: Fol. 133.]
in Kābul, so Lamghānīs know when it has snowed in the town.
In going from Kābul into the Lamghānāt,[778]—if people come by
Qūrūq-sāī, one road goes on through the Dīrī-pass, crosses the
Bārān-water at Būlān, and so on into the Lamghānāt,—another goes through
Qarā-tū, below Qūrūq-sāī, crosses the Bārān-water at Aūlūgh-nūr
(Great-rock?), and goes into Lamghān by the pass of Bād-i-pīch.[779] If
however people come by Nijr-aū, they traverse Badr-aū (Tag-aū), and
Qarā-nakariq (?), and go on through the pass of Bād-i-pīch.
Although Nīngnahār is one of the five _tūmāns_ of the Lamghān _tūmān_
the name Lamghānāt applies strictly only to the three (mentioned below).
One of the three is the `Alī-shang _tūmān_, to the north of which are
fastness-mountains, connecting with Hindū-kush and inhabited by Kāfirs
only. What of Kāfiristān lies nearest to `Alī-shang, is Mīl out of which
its torrent issues. The tomb of Lord Lām,[780] father of his Reverence
the prophet Nuḥ (Noah), is in this _tūmān_. In some histories he is
called Lamak and Lamakān. Some people are observed often to change _kāf_
for _ghain_ (_k_ for _gh_); it would seem to be on this account that the
country is called Lamghān.
The second is Alangār. The part of Kāfiristān nearest to it is Gawār
(Kawār), out of which its torrent issues (the Gau or Kau). This torrent
joins that of `Alī-shang and flows with it [Sidenote: Fol. 133b.] into
the Bārān-water, below Mandrāwar, which is the third _tūmān_ of the
Lamghānāt.
Of the two _bulūks_ of Lamghān one is the Nūr-valley.[781] This is a
place (_yīr_) without a second[782]; its fort is on a beak (_tūmshūq_)
of rock in the mouth of the valley, and has a torrent on each side; its
rice is grown on steep terraces, and it can be traversed by one road
only.[783] It has the orange, citron and other fruits of hot climates in
abundance, a few dates even. Trees cover the banks of both the torrents
below the fort; many are _amlūk_, the fruit of which some Turks call
_qarā-yīmīsh_;[784] here they are many, but none have been seen
elsewhere. The valley grows grapes also, all trained on trees.[785] Its
wines are those of Lamghān that have reputation. Two sorts of grapes are
grown, the _arah-tāshī_ and the _sūhān-tāshī_;[786] the first are
yellowish, the second, full-red of fine colour. The first make the more
cheering wine, but it must be said that neither wine equals its
reputation for cheer. High up in one of its glens, apes (_maimūn_) are
found, none below. Those people (_i.e._ Nūrīs) used to keep swine but
they have given it up in our time.[787]
Another _tūmān_ of Lamghān is Kūnār-with-Nūr-gal. It lies somewhat
out-of-the-way, remote from the Lamghānāt, with its borders in amongst
the Kāfir lands; on these accounts its people give in tribute rather
little of what they have. The Chaghān-sarāī [Sidenote: Fol. 134.] water
enters it from the north-east, passes on into the _bulūk_ of Kāma, there
joins the Bārān-water and with that flows east.
Mīr Sayyid `Alī _Hamadānī_,[788]—God's mercy on him!—coming here as he
journeyed, died 2 miles (1 _shar`ī_) above Kūnār. His disciples carried
his body to Khutlān. A shrine was erected at the honoured place of his
death, of which I made the circuit when I came and took Chaghān-sarāī in
920 AH.[789]
The orange, citron and coriander[790] abound in this _tūmān_. Strong
wines are brought down into it from Kāfiristān.
A strange thing is told there, one seeming impossible, but one told to
us again and again. All through the hill-country above Multa-kundī,
_viz._ in Kūnār, Nūr-gal, Bajaur, Sawād and thereabouts, it is commonly
said that when a woman dies and has been laid on a bier, she, if she has
not been an ill-doer, gives the bearers such a shake when they lift the
bier by its four sides, that against their will and hindrance, her
corpse falls to the ground; but, if she has done ill, no movement
occurs. This was heard not only from Kūnārīs but, again and again, in
Bajaur, [Sidenote: Fol. 134b.] Sawād and the whole hill-tract.
Ḥaidar-`alī _Bajaurī_,—a sulṯān who governed Bajaur well,—when his
mother died, did not weep, or betake himself to lamentation, or put on
black, but said, "Go! lay her on the bier! if she move not, I will have
her burned."[792] They laid her on the bier; the desired movement
followed; when he heard that this was so, he put on black and betook
himself to lamentation.
(_Authors note to Multa-kundī._) As Multa-kundī is known the
lower part of the _tūmān_ of Kūnār-with-Nūr-gal; what is below
(_i.e._ on the river) belongs to the valley of Nūr and to
Atar.[791]
Another _bulūk_ is Chaghān-sarāī,[793] a single village with little
land, in the mouth of Kāfiristān; its people, though Muṣalmān, mix with
the Kāfirs and, consequently, follow their customs.[794] A great torrent
(the Kūnār) comes down to it from the north-east from behind Bajaur, and
a smaller one, called Pīch, comes down out of Kāfiristān. Strong
yellowish wines are had there, not in any way resembling those of the
Nūr-valley, however. The village has no grapes or vineyards of its own;
its wines are all brought from up the Kāfiristān-water and from
Pīch-i-kāfiristānī.
The Pīch Kāfirs came to help the villagers when I took the place. Wine
is so commonly used there that every Kāfir has his leathern wine-bag
(_khīg_) at his neck, and drinks wine instead of water.[795]
Kāma, again, though not a separate district but dependent on Nīngnahār,
is also called a _bulūk_.[796] [Sidenote: Fol. 135.]
Nijr-aū[797] is another _tūmān_. It lies north of Kābul, in the
Kohistān, with mountains behind it inhabited solely by Kāfirs; it is a
quite sequestered place. It grows grapes and fruits in abundance. Its
people make much wine but, they boil it. They fatten many fowls in
winter, are wine-bibbers, do not pray, have no scruples and are
Kāfir-like.[798]
In the Nijr-aū mountains is an abundance of _archa_, _jīlghūza_, _bīlūt_
and _khanjak_.[799] The first-named three do not grow above Nigr-aū but
they grow lower, and are amongst the trees of Hindūstān. _Jīlghūza_-wood
is all the lamp the people have; it burns like a candle and is very
remarkable. The flying-squirrel[800] is found in these mountains, an
animal larger than a bat and having a curtain (_parda_), like a bat's
wing, between its arms and legs. People often brought one in; it is said
to fly, downward from one tree to another, as far as a _giz_ flies;[801]
I myself have never seen one fly. Once we put one to a tree; it
clambered up directly and got away, but, when people went after it, it
spread its wings and came down, without hurt, as if it had flown.
Another of the curiosities of the Nijr-aū mountains is the _lūkha_
(var. _lūja_) bird, called also _bū-qalamūn_ (chameleon) because,
between head and tail, it has four or five changing colours,
resplendent like a pigeon's throat.[802] It is about as large as the
_kabg-i-darī_ and seems to be the _kabg-i-darī_ of Hindūstān.[803]
People tell this wonderful thing about it:—When the birds, at [Sidenote:
Fol. 135b.] the on-set of winter, descend to the hill-skirts, if they
come over a vineyard, they can fly no further and are taken.[804] There
is a kind of rat in Nijr-aū, known as the musk-rat, which smells of
musk; I however have never seen it.[805]
Panjhīr (Panj-sher) is another _tūmān_; it lies close to Kāfiristān,
along the Panjhīr road, and is the thoroughfare of Kāfir highwaymen who
also, being so near, take tax of it. They have gone through it, killing
a mass of persons, and doing very evil deeds, since I came this last
time and conquered Hindūstān (932 AH.-1526 AD.).[806]
Another is the _tūmān_ of Ghūr-bund. In those countries they call a
_kūtal_ (_koh_?) a _bund_;[807] they go towards Ghūr by this pass
(_kūtal_); apparently it is for this reason that they have called (the
_tūmān_?) Ghūr-bund. The Hazāra hold the heads of its valleys.[808] It
has few villages and little revenue can be raised from it. There are
said to be mines of silver and lapis lazuli in its mountains.
Again, there are the villages on the skirts of the (Hindū-kush)
mountains,[809] with Mīta-kacha and Parwān at their head, and
Dūr-nāma[810] at their foot, 12 or 13 in all. They are fruit-bearing
villages, and they grow cheering wines, those of Khwāja Khāwand Sa`īd
being reputed the strongest roundabouts. The villages all lie on the
foot-hills; some pay taxes but not all are taxable because they lie so
far back in the mountains.
Between the foot-hills and the Bārān-water are two detached stretches of
level land, one known as _Kurrat-tāziyān_,[811] the other as
_Dasht-i-shaikh_ (Shaikh's-plain). As the green grass of the millet[812]
grows well there, they are the resort of Turks and [Sidenote: Fol. 136.]
(Mughūl) clans (_aīmāq_).
Tulips of many colours cover these foot-hills; I once counted them up;
it came out at 32 or 33 different sorts. We named one the Rose-scented,
because its perfume was a little like that of the red rose; it grows by
itself on Shaikh's-plain, here and nowhere else. The Hundred-leaved
tulip is another; this grows, also by itself, at the outlet of the
Ghūr-bund narrows, on the hill-skirt below Parwān. A low hill known as
Khwāja Reg-i-rawān (Khwāja-of-the-running-sand), divides the afore-named
two pieces of level land; it has, from top to foot, a strip of sand from
which people say the sound of nagarets and tambours issues in the
heats.[813]
Again, there are the villages depending on Kābul itself. South-west from
the town are great snow mountains[814] where snow falls on snow, and
where few may be the years when, falling, it does not light on last
year's snow. It is fetched, 12 miles may-be, from these mountains, to
cool the drinking water when ice-houses in Kābul are empty. Like the
Bāmiān mountains, these are fastnesses. Out of them issue the Harmand
(Halmand), Sind, Dūghāba of Qūndūz, and Balkh-āb,[815] so that in a
single day, a man might drink of the water of each of these four rivers.
It is on the skirt of one of these ranges (Pamghān) that most of the
villages dependent on Kābul lie.[816] Masses of grapes ripen in their
vineyards and they grow every sort of fruit in abundance. No-one of them
equals Istālīf or Astar-ghach; these must be the [Sidenote: Fol. 136b.]
two which Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā used to call his Khurāsān and Samarkand.
Pamghān is another of the best, not ranking in fruit and grapes with
those two others, but beyond comparison with them in climate. The
Pamghān mountains are a snowy range. Few villages match Istālīf, with
vineyards and fine orchards on both sides of its great torrent, with
waters needing no ice, cold and, mostly, pure. Of its Great garden
Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā had taken forcible possession; I took it over, after
paying its price to the owners. There is a pleasant halting-place
outside it, under great planes, green, shady and beautiful. A one-mill
stream, having trees on both banks, flows constantly through the middle
of the garden; formerly its course was zig-zag and irregular; I had it
made straight and orderly; so the place became very beautiful. Between
the village and the valley-bottom, from 4 to 6 miles down the slope, is
a spring, known as Khwāja Sih-yārān (Three-friends), round which three
sorts of tree grow. A group of planes gives pleasant shade above it;
holm-oak [Sidenote: Fol. 137.] (_quercus bīlūt_) grows in masses on the
slope at its sides,—these two oaklands (_bīlūtistān_) excepted, no
holm-oak grows in the mountains of western Kābul,—and the Judas-tree
(_arghwān_)[817] is much cultivated in front of it, that is towards the
level ground,—cultivated there and nowhere else. People say the three
different sorts of tree were a gift made by three saints,[818] whence
its name. I ordered that the spring should be enclosed in mortared
stone-work, 10 by 10, and that a symmetrical, right-angled platform
should be built on each of its sides, so as to overlook the whole field
of Judas-trees. If, the world over, there is a place to match this when
the _arghwāns_ are in full bloom, I do not know it. The yellow _arghwān_
grows plentifully there also, the red and the yellow flowering at the
same time.[819]
In order to bring water to a large round seat which I had built on the
hillside and planted round with willows, I had a channel dug across the
slope from a half-mill stream, constantly flowing in a valley to the
south-west of Sih-yārān. The date of cutting this channel was found in
_jūī-khūsh_ (kindly channel).[820]
Another of the _tūmāns_ of Kābul is Luhūgur (mod. Logar). Its one large
village is Chīrkh from which were his Reverence Maulānā Ya`qūb and
Mullā-zāda `Us̤mān.[821] Khwāja Aḥmad [Sidenote: Fol. 137b.] and Khwāja
Yūnas were from Sajāwand, another of its villages. Chīrkh has many
gardens, but there are none in any other village of Luhūgur. Its people
are Aūghān-shāl, a term common in Kābul, seeming to be a
mispronouncement of Aūghān-sha`ār.[822]
Again, there is the _wilāyat_, or, as some say, _tūmān_ of Ghaznī, said
to have been[823] the capital of Sabuk-tīgīn, Sl. Maḥmūd and their
descendants. Many write it Ghaznīn. It is said also to have been the
seat of government of Shihābu'd-dīn _Ghūrī_,[824] styled Mu`iz̤z̤u'd-dīn
in the _T̤abaqāt-i-nāṣirī_ and also some of the histories of Hind.
Ghaznī is known also as _Zābulistān_; it belongs to the Third climate.
Some hold that Qandahār is a part of it. It lies 14 _yīghāch_ (south-)
west of Kābul; those leaving it at dawn, may reach Kābul between the Two
Prayers (_i.e._ in the afternoon); whereas the 13 _yīghāch_ between
Adīnapūr and Kābul can never be done in one day, because of the
difficulties of the road.
Ghaznī has little cultivated land. Its torrent, a four-mill or five-mill
stream may-be, makes the town habitable and fertilizes four or five
villages; three or four others are cultivated from under-ground
water-courses (_kārez_). Ghaznī grapes are better than those of Kābul;
its melons are more abundant; its apples [Sidenote: Fol. 138.] are very
good, and are carried to Hindūstān. Agriculture is very laborious in
Ghaznī because, whatever the quality of the soil, it must be newly
top-dressed every year; it gives a better return, however, than Kābul.
Ghaznī grows madder; the entire crop goes to Hindūstān and yields
excellent profit to the growers. In the open-country of Ghaznī dwell
Hazāra and Afghāns. Compared with Kābul, it is always a cheap place. Its
people hold to the Ḥanafī faith, are good, orthodox Muṣalmāns, many keep
a three months' fast,[825] and their wives and children live modestly
secluded.
One of the eminent men of Ghaznī was Mullā `Abdu'r-raḥmān, a learned man
and always a learner (_dars_), a most orthodox, pious and virtuous
person; he left this world the same year as Nāṣir Mīrzā (921 AH.-1515
AD.). Sl. Maḥmūd's tomb is in the suburb called Rauẓa,[826] from which
the best grapes come; there also are the tombs of his descendants, Sl.
Mas`ūd and Sl. Ibrāhīm. Ghaznī has many blessed tombs. The year[827] I
took Kābul and Ghaznī, over-ran Kohāt, the plain of Bannū and lands of
the Afghāns, and went on to Ghaznī by way of Dūkī (Dūgī) and Āb-istāda,
people told me there was a tomb, in a village of Ghaznī, which moved
when a benediction on the Prophet was [Sidenote: Fol. 138b.] pronounced
over it. We went to see it. In the end I discovered that the movement
was a trick, presumably of the servants at the tomb, who had put a sort
of platform above it which moved when pushed, so that, to those on it,
the tomb seemed to move, just as the shore does to those passing in a
boat. I ordered the scaffold destroyed and a dome built over the tomb;
also I forbad the servants, with threats, ever to bring about the
movement again.
Ghaznī is a very humble place; strange indeed it is that rulers in whose
hands were Hindūstān and Khurāsānāt,[828] should have chosen it for
their capital. In the Sulṯān's (Maḥmūd's) time there may have been three
or four dams in the country; one he made, some three _yīghāch_ (18 m.?)
up the Ghaznī-water to the north; it was about 40-50 _qārī_ (yards) high
and some 300 long; through it the stored waters were let out as
required.[829] It was destroyed by `Alāu'u'd-dīn _Jahān-soz Ghūrī_ when
he conquered the country (550 AH.-1152 AD.), burned and ruined the tombs
of several descendants of Sl. Maḥmūd, sacked and burned the town, in
short, left undone no tittle of murder and rapine. Since [Sidenote: Fol.
139.] that time, the Sulṯān's dam has lain in ruins, but, through God's
favour, there is hope that it may become of use again, by means of the
money which was sent, in Khwāja Kalān's hand, in the year Hindūstān was
conquered (932 AH.-1526 AD.).[830] The Sakhandam is another, 2 or 3
_yīghāch_ (12-18 m.), may-be, on the east of the town; it has long been
in ruins, indeed is past repair. There is a dam in working order at
Sar-i-dih (Village-head).
In books it is written that there is in Ghaznī a spring such that, if
dirt and foul matter be thrown into it, a tempest gets up instantly,
with a blizzard of rain and wind. It has been seen said also in one of
the histories that Sabuk-tīgīn, when besieged by the Rāī (Jāī-pāl) of
Hind, ordered dirt and foulness to be thrown into the spring, by this
aroused, in an instant, a tempest with blizzard of rain and snow, and,
by this device, drove off his foe.[831] Though we made many enquiries,
no intimation of the spring's existence was given us.
In these countries Ghaznī and Khwārizm are noted for cold, in the same
way that Sulṯānīā and Tabrīz are in the two `Irāqs and Aẕarbāījān.
Zurmut is another _tūmān_, some 12-13 _yīghāch_ south of Kābul and 7-8
south-east of Ghaznī.[832] Its _dārogha's_ head-quarters are [Sidenote:
Fol. 139b.] in Gīrdīz; there most houses are three or four storeys high.
It does not want for strength, and gave Nāṣir Mīrzā trouble when it went
into hostility to him. Its people are Aūghān-shāl; they grow corn but
have neither vineyards nor orchards. The tomb of Shaikh Muḥammad
_Muṣalmān_ is at a spring, high on the skirt of a mountain, known as
Barakistān, in the south of the _tūmān_.
Farmūl is another _tūmān_,[833] a humble place, growing not bad apples
which are carried into Hindūstān. Of Farmūl were the Shaikh-zādas,
descendants of Shaikh Muḥammad _Muṣalmān_, who were so much in favour
during the Afghān period in Hindūstān.
Bangash is another _tūmān_.[834] All round about it are Afghān
highwaymen, such as the Khūgīānī, Khirilchī, Tūrī and Landar. Lying
out-of-the-way, as it does, its people do not pay taxes willingly. There
has been no time to bring it to obedience; greater tasks have fallen to
me,—the conquests of Qandahār, Balkh, Badakhshān and Hindūstān! But, God
willing! when I get the chance, I most assuredly will take order with
those Bangash thieves.
One of the _bulūks_ of Kābul is Ālā-sāī,[835] 4 to 6 miles (2-3
_shar`ī_) east of Nijr-aū. The direct road into it from Nijr-aū leads,
at a place called Kūra, through the quite small pass which in that
locality separates the hot and cold climates. Through this pass the
birds migrate at the change of the seasons, and at those times many are
taken by the people of Pīchghān, one of the dependencies of Nijr-aū, in
the following manner:—From [Sidenote: Fol. 140.] distance to distance
near the mouth of the pass, they make hiding-places for the
bird-catchers. They fasten one corner of a net five or six yards away,
and weight the lower side to the ground with stones. Along the other
side of the net, for half its width, they fasten a stick some 3 to 4
yards long. The hidden bird-catcher holds this stick and by it, when the
birds approach, lifts up the net to its full height. The birds then go
into the net of themselves. Sometimes so many are taken by this
contrivance that there is not time to cut their throats.[836]
Though the Ālā-sāī pomegranates are not first-rate, they have local
reputation because none are better there-abouts; they are carried into
Hindūstān. Grapes also do not grow badly, and the wines of Ālā-sāī are
better and stronger than those of Nijr-aū.
Badr-aū (Tag-aū) is another _bulūk_; it runs with Ālā-sāī, grows no
fruit, and for cultivators has corn-growing Kāfirs.[837]
(_f. Tribesmen of Kābul._)
Just as Turks and (Mughūl) clans (_aīmāq_) dwell in the open country of
Khurāsān and Samarkand, so in Kābul do the Hazāra and Afghāns. Of the
Hazāra, the most widely-scattered are the Sulṯān-mas`ūdi Hazāra, of
Afghāns, the Mahmand.
(_g. Revenue of Kābul._)
The revenues of Kābul, whether from the cultivated lands or from tolls
(_tamghā_) or from dwellers in the open country, amount to 8 _laks_ of
_shāhrukhīs_.[838] [Sidenote: Fol. 140b.]
(_h. The mountain-tracts of Kābul._)
Where the mountains of Andar-āb, Khwāst,[839] and the Badakh-shānāt have
conifers (_archa_), many springs and gentle slopes, those of eastern
Kābul have grass (_aūt_), grass like a beautiful floor, on hill, slope
and dale. For the most part it is _būta-kāh_ grass (_aūt_), very
suitable for horses. In the Andijān country they talk of _būta-kāh_, but
why they do so was not known (to me?); in Kābul it was heard-say to be
because the grass comes up in tufts (_būta, būta_).[840] The alps of
these mountains are like those of Ḥiṣār, Khutlān, Farghāna, Samarkand
and Mughūlistān,—all these being alike in mountain and alp, though the
alps of Farghāna and Mughūlistān are beyond comparison with the rest.
From all these the mountains of Nijr-aū, the Lamghānāt and Sawād differ
in having masses of cypresses,[841] holm-oak, olive and mastic
(_khanjak_); their grass also is different,—it is dense, it is tall, it
is good neither for horse nor sheep. Although these mountains are not so
high as those already described, indeed they look to be low,
none-the-less, they are strongholds; what to the eye is even slope,
really is hard rock on which it is impossible to ride. Many of the
beasts and birds of Hindūstān [Sidenote: Fol. 141.] are found amongst
them, such as the parrot, _mīna_, peacock and _lūja_ (_lūkha_), the ape,
_nīl-gāu_ and hog-deer (_kūta-pāī_);[842] some found there are not found
even in Hindūstān.
The mountains to the west of Kābul are also all of one sort, those of
the Zindān-valley, the Ṣūf-valley, Garzawān and Gharjistān
(Gharchastān).[843] Their meadows are mostly in the dales; they have not
the same sweep of grass on slope and top as some of those described
have; nor have they masses of trees; they have, however, grass suiting
horses. On their flat tops, where all the crops are grown, there is
ground where a horse can gallop. They have masses of _kīyik_.[844] Their
valley-bottoms are strongholds, mostly precipitous and inaccessible from
above. It is remarkable that, whereas other mountains have their
fastnesses in their high places, these have theirs below.
Of one sort again are the mountains of Ghūr, Karnūd (var. Kuzūd) and
Hazāra; their meadows are in their dales; their trees are few, not even
the _archa_ being there;[845] their grass is fit for horses and for the
masses of sheep they keep. They differ from those last described in
this, their strong places are not below.
The mountains (south-east of Kābul) of Khwāja Ismā`īl, Dasht, Dūgī
(Dūkī)[846] and Afghānistān are all alike; all low, scant of vegetation,
short of water, treeless, ugly and good-for-nothing. Their people take
after them, just as has been said, _Tīng būlmā-ghūncha_ [Sidenote: Fol
141b.] _tūsh būlmās_.[847] Likely enough the world has few mountains so
useless and disgusting.
(_h. Fire-wood of Kabul._)
The snow-fall being so heavy in Kābul, it is fortunate that excellent
fire-wood is had near by. Given one day to fetch it, wood can be had of
the _khanjak_ (mastic), _bīlūt_ (holm-oak), _bādāmcha_ (small-almond)
and _qarqand_.[848] Of these _khanjak_ wood is the best; it burns with
flame and nice smell, makes plenty of hot ashes and does well even if
sappy. Holm-oak is also first-rate fire-wood, blazing less than mastic
but, like it, making a hot fire with plenty of hot ashes, and nice
smell. It has the peculiarity in burning that when its leafy branches
are set alight, they fire up with amazing sound, blazing and crackling
from bottom to top. It is good fun to burn it. The wood of the
small-almond is the most plentiful and commonly-used, but it does not
make a lasting fire. The _qarqand_ is quite a low shrub, thorny, and
burning sappy or dry; it is the fuel of the Ghaznī people.
(_i. Fauna of Kābul._)
The cultivated lands of Kābul lie between mountains which are like great
dams[849] to the flat valley-bottoms in which most villages and peopled
places are. On these mountains _kīyik_ and _āhū_[850] are scarce.
Across them, between its summer and winter quarters, the dun sheep,[851]
the _arqārghalcha_, have their regular track,[852] to which braves go
out with dogs and birds[853] to take them. [Sidenote: Fol. 142.] Towards
Khūrd-kābul and the Sūrkh-rūd there is wild-ass, but there are no white
_kīyik_ at all; Ghaznī has both and in few other places are white
_kīyik_ found in such good condition.[854]
In the heats the fowling-grounds of Kābul are crowded. The birds take
their way along the Bārān-water. For why? It is because the river has
mountains along it, east and west, and a great Hindū-kush pass in a line
with it, by which the birds must cross since there is no other
near.[855] They cannot cross when the north wind blows, or if there is
even a little cloud on Hindū-kush; at such times they alight on the
level lands of the Bārān-water and are taken in great numbers by the
local people. Towards the end of winter, dense flocks of mallards
(_aūrdūq_) reach the banks of the Bārān in very good condition. Follow
these the cranes and herons,[856] great birds, in large flocks and
countless numbers.
(_j. Bird-catching._)
Along the Bārān people take masses of cranes (_tūrna_) with the cord;
masses of _aūqār_, _qarqara_ and _qūṯān_ also.[857] This method of
bird-catching is unique. They twist a cord as long as the arrow's[858]
flight, tie the arrow at one end and a _bīldūrga_[859] at the other, and
wind it up, from the arrow-end, on a piece of wood, span-long and
wrist-thick, right up to the _bīldūrga_. They [Sidenote: Fol. 142b.]
then pull out the piece of wood, leaving just the hole it was in. The
_bīldūrga_ being held fast in the hand, the arrow is shot off[860]
towards the coming flock. If the cord twists round a neck or wing, it
brings the bird down. On the Bārān everyone takes birds in this way; it
is difficult; it must be done on rainy nights, because on such nights
the birds do not alight, but fly continually and fly low till dawn, in
fear of ravening beasts of prey. Through the night the flowing river is
their road, its moving water showing through the dark; then it is, while
they come and go, up and down the river, that the cord is shot. One
night I shot it; it broke in drawing in; both bird and cord were brought
in to me next day. By this device Bārān people catch the many herons
from which they take the turban-aigrettes sent from Kābul for sale in
Khurāsān.
Of bird-catchers there is also the band of slave-fowlers, two or three
hundred households, whom some descendant of Tīmūr Beg made migrate from
near Multān to the Bārān.[861] Bird-catching [Sidenote: Fol. 143.] is
their trade; they dig tanks, set decoy-birds[862] on them, put a net
over the middle, and in this way take all sorts of birds. Not fowlers
only catch birds, but every dweller on the Bārān does it, whether by
shooting the cord, setting the springe, or in various other ways.
(_k. Fishing._)
The fish of the Bārān migrate at the same seasons as birds. At those
times many are netted, and many are taken on wattles (_chīgh_) fixed in
the water. In autumn when the plant known as _wild-ass-tail_[863] has
come to maturity, flowered and seeded, people take 10-20 loads (of
seed?) and 20-30 of green branches (_gūk-shībāk_) to some head of water,
break it up small and cast it in. Then going into the water, they can at
once pick up drugged fish. At some convenient place lower down, in a
hole below a fall, they will have fixed beforehand a wattle of
finger-thick willow-withes, making it firm by piling stones on its
sides. The water goes rushing and dashing through the wattle, but leaves
on it any fish that may have come floating down. This way of catching
fish is practised in Gul-bahār, Parwān and Istālīf.
[Sidenote: Fol. 143b.] Fish are had in winter in the Lamghānāt by this
curious device:—People dig a pit to the depth of a house, in the bed of
a stream, below a fall, line it with stones like a cooking-place, and
build up stones round it above, leaving one opening only, under water.
Except by this one opening, the fish have no inlet or outlet, but the
water finds its way through the stones. This makes a sort of fish-pond
from which, when wanted in winter, fish can be taken, 30-40 together.
Except at the opening, left where convenient, the sides of the fish-pond
are made fast with rice-straw, kept in place by stones. A piece of
wicker-work is pulled into the said opening by its edges, gathered
together, and into this a second piece, (a tube,) is inserted, fitting
it at the mouth but reaching half-way into it only.[864] The fish go
through the smaller piece into the larger one, out from which they
cannot get. The second narrows towards its inner mouth, its pointed ends
being drawn so close that the fish, once entered, cannot [Sidenote: Fol.
144.] turn, but must go on, one by one, into the larger piece. Out of
that they cannot return because of the pointed ends of the inner, narrow
mouth. The wicker-work fixed and the rice-straw making the pond fast,
whatever fish are inside can be taken out;[865] any also which, trying
to escape may have gone into the wicker-work, are taken in it, because
they have no way out. This method of catching fish we have seen nowhere
else.[866]
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE RESUMED.[867]
(_a. Departure of Muqīm and allotment of lands._)
A few days after the taking of Kābul, Muqīm asked leave to set off for
Qandahār. As he had come out of the town on terms and conditions, he was
allowed to go to his father (Ẕu'n-nūn) and his elder brother (Shāh Beg),
with all his various people, his goods and his valuables, safe and
sound.
Directly he had gone, the Kābul-country was shared out to the Mīrzās and
the guest-begs.[868] To Jahāngīr Mīrzā was given Ghaznī with its
dependencies and appurtenancies; to Nāṣir Mīrzā, the Nīngnahār _tūmān_,
Mandrāwar, Nūr-valley, Kūnār, Nūr-gal (Rock-village?) and Chīghān-sarāī.
To some of the begs who had been with us in the guerilla-times and had
come to Kābul with us, were given villages, fief-fashion.[869] _Wilāyat_
[Sidenote: Fol. 144b.] itself was not given at all.[870] It was not only
then that I looked with more favour on guest-begs and stranger-begs than
I did on old servants and Andijānīs; this I have always done whenever
the Most High God has shown me His favour; yet it is remarkable that,
spite of this, people have blamed me constantly as though I had favoured
none but old servants and Andijānīs. There is a proverb, (Turkī) "What
will a foe not say? what enters not into dream?" and (Persian) "A
town-gate can be shut, a foe's mouth never."
(_b. A levy in grain._)
Many clans and hordes had come from Samarkand, Ḥiṣār and Qūndūz into the
Kābul-country. Kābul is a small country; it is also of the sword, not of
the pen;[871] to take in money from it for all these tribesmen was
impossible. It therefore seemed advisable to take in grain, provision
for the families of these clans so that their men could ride on forays
with the army. Accordingly it was decided to levy 30,000 ass-loads[872]
of grain on Kābul, Ghaznī and their dependencies; we knew nothing at
that time about the harvests and incomings; the impost was excessive,
and under it the country suffered very grievously.
In those days I devised the Bāburī script.[873]
(_c. Foray on the Hazāra._)
A large tribute in horses and sheep had been laid on the Sulṯān Mas`ūdī
Hazāras;[874] word came a few days after collectors [Sidenote: Fol.
145.] had gone to receive it, that the Hazāras were refractory and would
not give their goods. As these same tribesmen had before that come down
on the Ghaznī and Gīrdīz roads, we got to horse, meaning to take them by
surprise. Riding by the Maidān-road, we crossed the Nirkh-pass[875] by
night and at the Morning-prayer fell upon them near Jāl-tū (var.
Chā-tū). The incursion was not what was wished.[876] We came back by the
Tunnel-rock (Sang-i-sūrākh); Jahāngīr Mīrzā (there?) took leave for
Ghaznī. On our reaching Kābul, Yār-i-ḥusain, son of Daryā Khān, coming
in from Bhīra, waited on me.[877]
(_d. Bābur's first start for Hindūstān._)
When, a few days later, the army had been mustered, persons acquainted
with the country were summoned and questioned about its every side and
quarter. Some advised a march to the Plain (Dasht);[878] some approved
of Bangash; some wished to go into Hindūstān. The discussion found
settlement in a move on Hindūstān.
It was in the month of Sha`bān (910 AH.-Jan. 1505 AD.), the Sun being in
Aquarius, that we rode out of Kābul for Hindūstān. We took the road
by Bādām-chashma and Jagdālīk and reached Adīnapūr in six marches. Till
that time I had never seen a hot country or the Hindūstān border-land.
In Nīngnahār[879] another world came to view,—other grasses, other
trees, other animals, other birds, and other manners and customs of clan
and horde. We were amazed, and truly there was ground for amaze.
[Sidenote: Fol. 145b.]
Nāṣir Mīrzā, who had gone earlier to his district, waited on me in
Adīnapūr. We made some delay in Adīnapūr in order to let the men from
behind join us, also a contingent from the clans which had come with us
into Kābul and were wintering in the Lamghānāt.[880] All having joined
us, we marched to below Jūī-shāhī and dismounted at Qūsh-guṃbaz.[881]
There Nāṣir Mīrzā asked for leave to stay behind, saying he would follow
in a few days after making some sort of provision for his dependants and
followers. Marching on from Qūsh-guṃbaz, when we dismounted at
Hot-spring (Garm-chashma), a head-man of the Gāgīānī was brought in, a
_Fajjī_[882] presumably with his caravan. We took him with us to point
out the roads. Crossing Khaibar in a march or two, we dismounted at
Jām.[883]
Tales had been told us about Gūr-khattrī;[884] it was said to be a holy
place of the Jogīs and Hindūs who come from long distances to shave
their heads and beards there. I rode out at once from Jām to visit
Bīgrām,[885] saw its great tree,[886] and all the country round, but,
much as we enquired about Gūr-khattrī, our guide, one Malik Bū-sa`īd
_Kamarī_,[887] would say nothing [Sidenote: Fol. 146.] about it. When we
were almost back in camp, however, he told Khwāja Muḥammad-amīn that it
was in Bīgrām and that he had said nothing about it because of its
confined cells and narrow passages. The Khwāja, having there and then
abused him, repeated to us what he had said, but we could not go back
because the road was long and the day far spent.
(_e. Move against Kohāt._)
Whether to cross the water of Sind, or where else to go, was discussed
in that camp.[888] Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ represented that it seemed we
might go, without crossing the river and with one night's halt, to a
place called Kohāt where were many rich tribesmen; moreover he brought
Kābulīs forward who represented the matter just as he had done. We had
never heard of the place, but, as he, my man in great authority, saw it
good to go to Kohāt and had brought forward support of his
recommendation,—this being so! we broke up our plan of crossing the
Sind-water into Hindūstān, marched from Jām, forded the Bāra-water, and
dismounted not far from the pass (_dābān_) through the Muḥammad-mountain
(_fajj_). At the time the Gāgīānī Afghāns were located in Parashawār
but, in dread of our army, had drawn off to the skirt-hills. One of
their headmen, coming into this camp, did me obeisance; we took him, as
well as the Fajjī, with us, so that, between them, they might
[Sidenote: Fol. 146b.] point out the roads. We left that camp at
midnight, crossed Muḥammad-fajj at day-rise[889] and by breakfast-time
descended on Kohāt. Much cattle and buffalo fell to our men; many
Afghāns were taken but I had them all collected and set them free. In
the Kohāt houses corn was found without limit. Our foragers raided as
far as the Sind-river (_daryā_), rejoining us after one night's halt. As
what Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ had led us to expect did not come to hand, he
grew rather ashamed of his scheme.
When our foragers were back and after two nights in Kohāt, we took
counsel together as to what would be our next good move, and we decided
to over-run the Afghāns of Bangash and the Bannū neighbourhood, then to
go back to Kābul, either through Naghr (Bāghzān?), or by the Farmūl-road
(Tochī-valley?).
In Kohāt, Daryā Khān's son, Yār-i-ḥusain, who had waited on me in Kābul
made petition, saying, "If royal orders were given me for the
Dilazāk,[890] the Yūsuf-zāī, and the Gāgīānī, these would not go far
from my orders if I called up the Pādshāh's swords on the other side of
the water of Sind."[891] The farmān he petitioned for being given, he
was allowed to go from Kohāt.
(_f. March to Thāl._)
Marching out of Kohāt, we took the Hangū-road for Bangash. [Sidenote:
Fol. 147.] Between Kohāt and Hangū that road runs through a valley shut
in on either hand by the mountains. When we entered this valley, the
Afghāns of Kohāt and thereabouts who were gathered on both hill-skirts,
raised their war-cry with great clamour. Our then guide, Malik Bū-sa`īd
_Kamarī_ was well-acquainted with the Afghān locations; he represented
that further on there was a detached hill on our right, where, if the
Afghāns came down to it from the hill-skirt, we might surround and take
them. God brought it right! The Afghāns, on reaching the place, did come
down. We ordered one party of braves to seize the neck of land between
that hill and the mountains, others to move along its sides, so that
under attack made from all sides at once, the Afghāns might be made to
reach their doom. Against the allround assault, they could not even
fight; a hundred or two were taken, some were brought in alive but of
most, the heads only were brought. We had been told that when Afghāns
are powerless to resist, they go before their foe with grass between
their teeth, this being as much as to say, "I am your cow."[892] Here
[Sidenote: Fol. 147b.] we saw this custom; Afghāns unable to make
resistance, came before us with grass between their teeth. Those our men
had brought in as prisoners were ordered to be beheaded and a pillar of
their heads was set up in our camp.[893]
Next day we marched forward and dismounted at Hangū, where local Afghāns
had made a _sangur_ on a hill. I first heard the word _sangur_ after
coming to Kābul where people describe fortifying themselves on a hill as
making a _sangur_. Our men went straight up, broke into it and cut off a
hundred or two of insolent Afghān heads. There also a pillar of heads
was set up.
From Hangū we marched, with one night's halt, to Tīl (Thāl),[894] below
Bangash; there also our men went out and raided the Afghāns near-by;
some of them however turned back rather lightly from a _sangur_.[895]
(_g. Across country into Bannū._)
On leaving Tīl (Thāl) we went, without a road, right down a steep
descent, on through out-of-the-way narrows, halted one night, and next
day came down into Bannū,[896] man, horse and camel all worn out with
fatigue and with most of the booty in cattle left on the way. The
frequented road must have been a few miles to our right; the one we came
by did not seem a riding-road at all; it was understood to be called
the Gosfandliyār [Sidenote: Fol. 148.] (Sheep-road),—_liyār_ being
Afghānī for a road,—because sometimes shepherds and herdsmen take their
flocks and herds by it through those narrows. Most of our men regarded
our being brought down by that left-hand road as an ill-design of Malik
Bū-sa`īd _Kamarī_.[897]
(_h. Bannū and the `Īsa-khail country._)
The Bannū lands lie, a dead level, immediately outside the Bangash and
Naghr hills, these being to their north. The Bangash torrent (the Kūrām)
comes down into Bannū and fertilizes its lands. South(-east) of them are
Chaupāra and the water of Sind; to their east is Dīn-kot; (south-)west
is the Plain (Dasht), known also as Bāzār and Tāq.[898] The Bannū lands
are cultivated by the Kurānī, Kīwī, Sūr, `Īsa-khail and Nīā-zāī of the
Afghān tribesmen.
After dismounting in Bannū, we heard that the tribesmen in the Plain
(Dasht) were for resisting and were entrenching themselves on a hill to
the north. A force headed by Jahāngīr Mīrzā, went against what seemed to
be the Kīwī _sangur_, took it at once, made general slaughter, cut off
and brought in many heads. Much white cloth fell into (their) hands. In
Bannū also a pillar of heads was set up. After the _sangur_ had been
taken, the Kīwī head-man, Shādī Khān, came to my presence, with grass
between his teeth, and did me obeisance. I pardoned all the prisoners.
After we had over-run Kohāt, it had been decided that Bangash and Bannū
should be over-run, and return to Kābul [Sidenote: Fol. 148b.] made
through Naghr or through Farmūl. But when Bannū had been over-run,
persons knowing the country represented that the Plain was close by,
with its good roads and many people; so it was settled to over-run the
Plain and to return to Kābul afterwards by way of Farmūl.[899]
Marching next day, we dismounted at an `Īsa-khail village on that same
water (the Kūrām) but, as the villagers had gone into the Chaupāra hills
on hearing of us, we left it and dismounted on the skirt of Chaupāra.
Our foragers went from there into the hills, destroyed the `Īsa-khail
_sangur_ and came back with sheep, herds and cloth. That night the
`Īsa-khail made an attack on us but, as good watch was kept all through
these operations, they could do nothing. So cautious were we that at
night our right and left, centre and van were just in the way they had
dismounted, each according to its place in battle, each prepared for its
own post, with men on foot all round the camp, at an arrow's distance
from the tents. Every night the army was posted in this way and every
night three or four of my household [Sidenote: Fol. 149.] made the
rounds with torches, each in his turn. I for my part made the round once
each night. Those not at their posts had their noses slit and were led
round through the army. Jahāngīr Mīrzā was the right wing, with Bāqī
_Chaghānīānī_, Sherīm T̤aghāī, Sayyid Ḥusain Akbar, and other begs.
Mīrzā Khān was the left wing, with `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā, Qāsīm Beg and
other begs. In the centre there were no great begs, all were
household-begs. Sayyid Qāsim Lord-of-the-gate, was the van, with Bābā
Aūghūlī, Allāh-bīrdī (var. Allāh-qulī Purān), and some other begs. The
army was in six divisions, each of which had its day and night on guard.
Marching from that hill-skirt, our faces set west, we dismounted on a
waterless plain (_qūl_) between Bannū and the Plain. The soldiers got
water here for themselves, their herds and so on, by digging down, from
one to one-and-a-half yards, into the dry water-course, when water came.
Not here only did this happen for all the rivers of Hindūstān have the
peculiarity that water is safe to be found by digging down from one to
one-and-a-half yards in their beds. It is a wonderful provision
of God that where, except for the great rivers, there are no
running-waters,[900] water should be so placed within reach in dry
water-courses.
We left that dry channel next morning. Some of our men, riding light,
reached villages of the Plain in the afternoon, raided a few, and
brought back flocks, cloth and horses bred for trade.[901] Pack-animals
and camels and also the braves we had outdistanced, kept coming into
camp all through that night till dawn and on till that morrow's noon.
During our stay there, the foragers [Sidenote: Fol. 149b.] brought in
from villages in the Plain, masses of sheep and cattle, and, from Afghān
traders met on the roads, white cloths, aromatic roots, sugars,
_tīpūchāqs_, and horses bred for trade. Hindī (var. Mindī) _Mughūl_
unhorsed Khwāja Khiẓr _Lūhānī_, a well-known and respected Afghān
merchant, cutting off and bringing in his head. Once when Sherīm T̤aghāī
went in the rear of the foragers, an Afghān faced him on the road and
struck off his index-finger.
(_i. Return made for Kābul._)
Two roads were heard of as leading from where we were to Ghaznī; one was
the Tunnel-rock (Sang-i-sūrākh) road, passing Birk (Barak) and going on
to Farmūl; the other was one along the Gūmāl, which also comes out at
Farmūl but without touching Birk (Barak).[902] As during our stay in the
Plain rain had fallen incessantly, the Gūmāl was so swollen that it
would have been difficult to cross at the ford we came to; moreover
persons well-acquainted with the roads, represented that going by the
Gūmāl road, this torrent must be crossed several times, that this was
always difficult when the waters were so high and that there was always
uncertainty on the Gūmāl road. Nothing was settled then as to which of
these two roads to take; I expected it to be settled next day when,
after the drum of departure had sounded, [Sidenote: Fol. 150.] we talked
it over as we went.[903] It was the `Īd-i-fitr (March 7th 1505 AD.);
while I was engaged in the ablutions due for the breaking of the fast,
Jahāngīr Mīrzā and the begs discussed the question of the roads.
Some-one said that if we were to turn the bill[904] of the Mehtar
Sulaimān range, this lying between the Plain and the Hill-country
(_desht u dūkī_),[905] we should get a level road though it might make
the difference of a few marches. For this they decided and moved off;
before my ablutions were finished the whole army had taken the road and
most of it was across the Gūmāl. Not a man of us had ever seen the road;
no-one knew whether it was long or short; we started off just on a
rumoured word!
The Prayer of the `Id was made on the bank of the Gūmāl. That year
New-year's Day[906] fell close to the `Id-i-fitr, there being only a few
days between; on their approximation I composed the following (Turkī)
ode:—
Glad is the Bairām-moon for him who sees both the face of the Moon and
the Moon-face of his friend;
Sad is the Bairām-moon for me, far away from thy face and from
thee.[907]
O Bābur! dream of your luck when your Feast is the meeting,
your New-year the face;
For better than that could not be with a hundred New-years
and Bairāms.
After crossing the Gūmāl torrent, we took our way along the skirt of the
hills, our faces set south. A mile or two further on, [Sidenote: Fol.
150b.] some death-devoted Afghāns shewed themselves on the lower edge of
the hill-slope. Loose rein, off we went for them; most of them fled but
some made foolish stand on rocky-piles[908] of the foot-hills. One took
post on a single rock seeming to have a precipice on the further side of
it, so that he had not even a way of escape. Sl. Qulī _Chūnāq_
(One-eared), all in his mail as he was, got up, slashed at, and took
him. This was one of Sl. Qulī's deeds done under my own eyes, which led
to his favour and promotion.[909] At another pile of rock, when
Qūtlūq-qadam exchanged blows with an Afghān, they grappled and came down
together, a straight fall of 10 to 12 yards; in the end Qūtlūq-qadam
cut off and brought in his man's head. Kūpūk Beg got hand-on-collar with
an Afghān at another hill; both rolled down to the bottom; that head
also was brought in. All Afghāns taken prisoner were set free.
Marching south through the Plain, and closely skirting Mehtar Sulaimān,
we came, with three nights' halt, to a small township, called Bīlah, on
the Sind-water and dependent on Multān.[910] The villagers crossed the
water, mostly taking to their boats, but some flung themselves in to
cross. Some were seen standing on an island in front of Bīlah. Most of
our men, man and horse in [Sidenote: Fol. 151.] mail, plunged in and
crossed to the island; some were carried down, one being Qul-i-arūk
(thin slave), one of my servants, another the head tent-pitcher, another
Jahāngīr Mīrzā's servant, Qāītmās _Turkmān_.[911] Cloth and things of
the baggage (_partaldīk nīma_) fell to our men. The villagers all
crossed by boat to the further side of the river; once there, some of
them, trusting to the broad water, began to make play with their swords.
Qul-i-bāyazīd, the taster, one of our men who had crossed to the island,
stripped himself and his horse and, right in front of them, plunged by
himself into the river. The water on that side of the island may have
been twice or thrice as wide as on ours. He swum his horse straight for
them till, an arrow's-flight away, he came to a shallow where his weight
must have been up-borne, the water being as high as the saddle-flap.
There he stayed for as long as milk takes to boil; no-one supported him
from behind; he had not a chance of support. He made a dash at them;
they shot a few arrows at him but, this not checking him, they took to
flight. To swim such a river as the Sind, alone, bare on a bare-backed
horse, no-one behind him, and to chase off a foe and occupy his ground,
was a mightily bold deed! He having driven the enemy off, other soldiers
went over who [Sidenote: Fol. 151b.] returned with cloth and droves of
various sorts. Qul-i-bāyazīd had already his place in my favour and
kindness on account of his good service, and of courage several times
shewn; from the cook's office I had raised him to the royal taster's;
this time, as will be told, I took up a position full of bounty, favour
and promotion,—in truth he was worthy of honour and advancement.
Two other marches were made down the Sind-water. Our men, by perpetually
gallopping off on raids, had knocked up their horses; usually what they
took, cattle mostly, was not worth the gallop; sometimes indeed in the
Plain there had been sheep, sometimes one sort of cloth or other, but,
the Plain left behind, nothing was had but cattle. A mere servant would
bring in 3 or 400 head during our marches along the Sind-water, but
every march many more would be left on the road than they brought in.
(_j. The westward march._)
Having made three more marches[912] close along the Sind, we left it
when we came opposite Pīr Kānū's tomb.[913] Going to the tomb, we there
dismounted. Some of our soldiers having injured [Sidenote: Fol. 152.]
several of those in attendance on it, I had them cut to pieces. It is a
tomb on the skirt of one of the Mehtar Sulaimān mountains and held in
much honour in Hindūstān.
Marching on from Pīr Kānū, we dismounted in the (Pawat) pass; next again
in the bed of a torrent in Dūkī.[914] After we left this camp there were
brought in as many as 20 to 30 followers of a retainer of Shāh Beg,
Fāẓil _Kūkūldāsh_, the dārogha of Sīwī. They had been sent to
reconnoitre us but, as at that time, we were not on bad terms with Shāh
Beg, we let them go, with horse and arms. After one night's halt, we
reached Chūtīālī, a village of Dūkī.
Although our men had constantly gallopped off to raid, both before we
reached the Sind-water and all along its bank, they had not left horses
behind, because there had been plenty of green food and corn. When,
however, we left the river and set our faces for Pīr Kānū, not even
green food was to be had; a little land under green crop might be found
every two or three marches, but of horse-corn, none. So, beyond the
camps mentioned, there began the leaving of horses behind. After passing
Chūtīālī, my own felt-tent[915] had to be left from want of
baggage-beasts. One night at that time, it rained so much, that water
stood knee-deep in my tent (_chādār_); I watched the night out till
dawn, uncomfortably sitting on a pile of blankets.
(_k. Bāqī Chaghānīānī's treachery._)
A few marches further on came Jahāngīr Mīrzā, saying, "I [Sidenote: Fol.
152b.] have a private word for you." When we were in private, he said,
"Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ came and said to me, 'You make the Pādshāh cross the
water of Sind with 7, 8, 10 persons, then make yourself Pādshāh.'" Said
I, "What others are heard of as consulting with him?" Said he, "It was
but a moment ago Bāqī Beg spoke to me; I know no more." Said I, "Find
out who the others are; likely enough Sayyid Ḥusain Akbar and Sl. `Alī
the page are in it, as well as Khusrau Shāh's begs and braves." Here the
Mīrzā really behaved very well and like a blood-relation; what he now
did was the counterpart of what I had done in Kāhmard,[916] in this same
ill-fated mannikin's other scheme of treachery.[917]
On dismounting after the next march, I made Jahāngīr Mīrzā lead a body
of well-mounted men to raid the Aūghāns (Afghāns) of that neighbourhood.
Many men's horses were now left behind in each camping-ground, the day
coming when as many as 2 or 300 were left. Braves of the first rank went
on foot; Sayyid Maḥmūd _Aūghlāqchī_, one of the best of the
household-braves, left his horses behind and walked. In this state as to
horses we went all the rest of the way to Ghaznī.
Three or four marches further on, Jahāngīr Mīrzā plundered [Sidenote:
Fol. 153.] some Afghāns and brought in a few sheep.
(_l. The Āb-i-istāda._)
When, with a few more marches, we reached the Standing-water
(_Āb-i-istāda_) a wonderfully large sheet of water presented itself to
view; the level lands on its further side could not be seen at all; its
water seemed to join the sky; the higher land and the mountains of that
further side looked to hang between Heaven and Earth, as in a mirage.
The waters there gathered are said to be those of the spring-rain floods
of the Kattawāz-plain, the Zurmut-valley, and the Qarā-bāgh meadow of
the Ghaznī-torrent,—floods of the spring-rains, and the over-plus[918]
of the summer-rise of streams.
When within two miles of the Āb-i-istāda, we saw a wonderful
thing,—something as red as the rose of the dawn kept shewing and
vanishing between the sky and the water. It kept coming and going. When
we got quite close we learned that what seemed the cause were flocks of
geese,[919] not 10,000, not 20,000 in a flock, but geese innumerable
which, when the mass of birds flapped their wings in flight, sometimes
shewed red feathers, sometimes not. Not only was this bird there in
countless numbers, but birds of every sort. Eggs lay in masses on the
shore. When two Afghāns, come there to collect eggs, saw us, [Sidenote:
Fol. 153b.] they went into the water half a _kuroh_ (a mile). Some of
our men following, brought them back. As far as they went the water was
of one depth, up to a horse's belly; it seemed not to lie in a hollow,
the country being flat.
We dismounted at the torrent coming down to the Āb-i-istāda from the
plain of Kattawāz. The several other times we have passed it, we have
found a dry channel with no water whatever,[920] but this time, there
was so much water, from the spring-rains, that no ford could be found.
The water was not very broad but very deep. Horses and camels were made
to swim it; some of the baggage was hauled over with ropes. Having got
across, we went on through Old Nānī and Sar-i-dih to Ghaznī where for a
few days Jahāngīr Mīrzā was our host, setting food before us and
offering his tribute.
(_m. Return to Kābul._)
That year most waters came down in flood. No ford was found through the
water of Dih-i-yaq`ūb.[921] For this reason we went straight on to
Kamarī, through the Sajāwand-pass. At Kamarī I had a boat fashioned in a
pool, brought and set on the Dih-i-yaq`ūb-water in front of Kamarī. In
this all our people were put over.
We reached Kābul in the month of Ẕū'l-ḥijja (May 1505 AD.).[922] A few
days earlier Sayyid Yūsuf _Aūghlāqchī_ had gone to God's [Sidenote: Fol.
154.] mercy through the pains of colic.
(_n. Misconduct of Nāṣīr Mīrzā._)
It has been mentioned that at Qūsh-guṃbaz, Nāṣir Mīrzā asked leave to
stay behind, saying that he would follow in a few days after taking
something from his district for his retainers and followers.[923] But
having left us, he sent a force against the people of Nūr-valley, they
having done something a little refractory. The difficulty of moving in
that valley owing to the strong position of its fort and the
rice-cultivation of its lands, has already been described.[924] The
Mīrzā's commander, Faẓlī, in ground so impracticable and in that
one-road tract, instead of safe-guarding his men, scattered them to
forage. Out came the valesmen, drove the foragers off, made it
impossible to the rest to keep their ground, killed some, captured a
mass of others and of horses,—precisely what would happen to any army
chancing to be under such a person as Faẓlī! Whether because of this
affair, or whether from want of heart, the Mīrzā did not follow us at
all; he stayed behind.
Moreover Ayūb's sons, Yūsuf and Bahlūl (Begchīk), more seditious, silly
and arrogant persons than whom there may not exist,—to whom I had given,
to Yūsuf Alangār, to Bahlūl `Alī-shang, they like Nāṣir Mīrzā, were to
have taken something from [Sidenote: Fol. 154b.] their districts and to
have come on with him, but, he not coming, neither did they. All that
winter they were the companions of his cups and social pleasures. They
also over-ran the Tarkalānī Afghāns in it.[925] With the on-coming
heats, the Mīrzā made march off the families of the clans,
outside-tribes and hordes who had wintered in Nīngnahār and the
Lamghānāt, driving them like sheep before him, with all their goods, as
far as the Bārān-water.[926]
(_o. Affairs of Badakhshān._)
While Nāṣir Mīrzā was in camp on the Bārān-water, he heard that the
Badakhshīs were united against the Aūzbegs and had killed some of them.
Here are the particulars:—When Shaibāq Khān had given Qūndūz to Qaṃbar
Bī and gone himself to Khwārizm[927]; Qaṃbar Bī, in order to conciliate
the Badakhshīs, sent them a son of Muḥammad-i-makhdūmī, Maḥmūd by name,
but Mubārak Shāh,—whose ancestors are heard of as begs of the Badakhshān
Shāhs,—having uplifted his own head, and cut off Maḥmūd's and those of
some Aūzbegs, made himself fast in the fort once known as Shāf-tiwār but
re-named by him Qila`-i-ẕafar. Moreover, in Rustāq Muḥammad _qūrchī_, an
armourer of Khusrau Shāh, then occupying Khamalangān, slew Shaibāq
Khān's _ṣadr_ and some Aūzbegs and made that place fast. Zubair of Rāgh,
again, [Sidenote: Fol. 155.] whose forefathers also will have been begs
of the Badakhshān Shāhs, uprose in Rāgh.[928] Jahāngīr _Turkmān_, again,
a servant of Khusrau Shāh's Walī, collected some of the fugitive
soldiers and tribesmen Walī had left behind, and with them withdrew into
a fastness.[929]
Nāṣir Mīrzā, hearing these various items of news and spurred on by the
instigation of a few silly, short-sighted persons to covet Badakhshān,
marched along the Shibr-tū and Āb-dara road, driving like sheep before
him the families of the men who had come into Kābul from the other side
of the Amū.[930]
(_p. Affairs of Khusrau Shāh._)
At the time Khusrau Shāh and Aḥmad-i-qāsim were in flight from Ājar for
Khurāsān,[931] they meeting in with Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and Ẕū'n-nūn
Beg, all went on together to the presence of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā in Herī.
All had long been foes of his; all had behaved unmannerly to him; what
brands had they not set on his heart! Yet all now went to him in their
distress, and all went through me. For it is not likely they would have
seen him if I had not made Khusrau Shāh helpless by parting him from his
following, and if I had not taken Kābul from Ẕū'n'nūn's son, Muqīm.
Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā himself was as dough in the [Sidenote: Fol. 155b.]
hands of the rest; beyond their word he could not go. Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā
took up a gracious attitude towards one and all, mentioned no-one's
misdeeds, even made them gifts.
Shortly after their arrival Khusrau Shāh asked for leave to go to his
own country, saying, "If I go, I shall get it all into my hands." As he
had reached Herī without equipment and without resources, they finessed
a little about his leave. He became importunate. Muḥammad Barandūq
retorted roundly on him with, "When you had 30,000 men behind you and
the whole country in your hands, what did you effect against the Aūzbeg?
What will you do now with your 500 men and the Aūzbegs in possession?"
He added a little good advice in a few sensible words, but all was in
vain because the fated hour of Khusrau Shāh's death was near. Leave was
at last given because of his importunity; Khusrau Shāh with his 3 or 400
followers, went straight into the borders of Dahānah. There as Nāṣir
Mīrzā had just gone across, these two met.
Now the Badakhshī chiefs had invited only the Mīrzā; they had not
invited Khusrau Shāh. Try as the Mīrzā did to persuade Khusrau Shāh to
go into the hill-country,[932] the latter, quite understanding the whole
time, would not consent to go, his own idea being that if he marched
under the Mīrzā, he would get the [Sidenote: Fol. 156.] country into his
own hands. In the end, unable to agree, each of them, near Ishkīmīsh,
arrayed his following, put on mail, drew out to fight, and—departed.
Nāṣir Mīrzā went on for Badakhshān; Khusrau Shāh after collecting a
disorderly rabble, good and bad of some 1,000 persons, went, with the
intention of laying siege to Qūndūz, to Khwāja Chār-tāq, one or two
_yīghāch_ outside it.
(_q. Death of Khusrau Shāh._)
At the time Shaibāq Khān, after overcoming Sulṯān Aḥmad _Taṃbal_ and
Andijān, made a move on Ḥiṣār, his Honour Khusrau Shāh[933] flung away
his country (Qūndūz and Ḥiṣār) without a blow struck, and saved himself.
Thereupon Shaibāq Khān went to Ḥiṣār in which were Sherīm the page and a
few good braves. _They_ did not surrender Ḥiṣār, though their honourable
beg had flung _his_ country away and gone off; they made Ḥiṣār fast. The
siege of Ḥiṣār Shaibāq Khān entrusted to Ḥamza Sl. and Mahdī
Sulṯān,[934] went to Qūndūz, gave Qūndūz to his younger brother, Maḥmūd
Sulṯān and betook himself without delay to Khwārizm against Chīn Ṣūfī.
But as, before he reached Samarkand on his way to Khwārizm, he heard of
the death in Qūndūz of his brother, Maḥmūd Sulṯān, he gave that place to
Qaṃbar Bī of Marv.[935]
Qaṃbar Bī was in Qūndūz when Khusrau Shāh went against it; he at once
sent off galloppers to summon Ḥamza Sl. and the [Sidenote: Fol. 156b.]
others Shaibāq Khān had left behind. Ḥamza Sl. came himself as far as
the _sarāī_ on the Amū bank where he put his sons and begs in command of
a force which went direct against Khusrau Shāh. There was neither fight
nor flight for that fat, little man; Ḥamza Sulṯān's men unhorsed him,
killed his sister's son, Aḥmad-i-qāsim, Sherīm the page and several good
braves. Him they took into Qūndūz, there struck his head off and from
there sent it to Shaibāq Khān in Khwārizm.[936]
(_r. Conduct in Kābul of Khusrau Shāh's retainers._)
Just as Khusrau Shāh had said they would do, his former retainers and
followers, no sooner than he marched against Qūndūz, changed in their
demeanour to me,[937] most of them marching off to near
Khwāja-i-riwāj.[938] The greater number of the men in my service had
been in his. The Mughūls behaved well, taking up a position of adherence
to me.[939] On all this the news of Khusrau Shāh's death fell like water
on fire; it put his men out.
911 AH.—JUNE 4TH 1505 TO MAY 24TH 1506 AD.[940]
(_a. Death of Qūtlūq-nigār Khānīm._)
In the month of Muḥarram my mother had fever. Blood was let without
effect and a Khurāsānī doctor, known as Sayyid T̤abīb, in accordance
with the Khurāsān practice, gave her water-melon, but her time to die
must have come, for on the [Sidenote: Fol. 157.] Saturday after six days
of illness, she went to God's mercy.
On Sunday I and Qāsim Kūkūldāsh conveyed her to the New-year's Garden on
the mountain-skirt[941] where Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā had built a house, and
there, with the permission of his heirs,[942] we committed her to the
earth. While we were mourning for her, people let me know about (the
death of) my younger Khān _dādā_ Alacha Khān, and my grandmother
Aīsān-daulat Begīm.[943] Close upon Khānīm's Fortieth[944] arrived from
Khurāsān Shāh Begīm the mother of the Khāns, together with my
maternal-aunt Mihr-nigār Khānīm, formerly of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's _ḥaram_,
and Muḥammad Ḥusain _Kūrkān Dūghlāt_.[945] Lament broke out afresh; the
bitterness of these partings was extreme. When the mourning-rites had
been observed, food and victuals set out for the poor and destitute, the
Qorān recited, and prayers offered for the departed souls, we steadied
ourselves and all took heart again.
(_b. A futile start for Qandahār._)
When set free from these momentous duties, we got an army to horse for
Qandahār under the strong insistance of Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_. At the
start I went to Qūsh-nādir (var. nāwar) where on dismounting I got
fever. It was a strange sort of illness for whenever with much trouble I
had been awakened, my eyes closed again in sleep. In four or five days I
got quite well.
(_c. An earthquake._)
At that time there was a great earthquake[946] such that most of the
ramparts of forts and the walls of gardens fell down; houses were
levelled to the ground in towns and villages and many persons lay dead
beneath them. Every house fell in Paghmān-village, [Sidenote: Fol.
157b.] and 70 to 80 strong heads-of-houses lay dead under their walls.
Between Pagh-mān and Beg-tūt[947] a piece of ground, a good
stone-throw[948] wide may-be, slid down as far as an arrow's-flight;
where it had slid springs appeared. On the road between Istarghach and
Maidān the ground was so broken up for 6 to 8 _yīghāch_ (36-48 m.) that
in some places it rose as high as an elephant, in others sank as deep;
here and there people were sucked in. When the Earth quaked, dust rose
from the tops of the mountains. Nūru'l-lāh the _ṯambourchī_[949] had
been playing before me; he had two instruments with him and at the
moment of the quake had both in his hands; so out of his own control was
he that the two knocked against each other. Jahāngīr Mīrzā was in the
porch of an upper-room at a house built by Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā in Tīpa;
when the Earth quaked, he let himself down and was not hurt, but the
roof fell on some-one with him in that upper-room, presumably one of his
own circle; that this person was not hurt in the least must have been
solely through God's mercy. In Tīpa most of the houses were levelled to
the ground. The Earth quaked 33 times on the first day, and for a month
afterwards used to quake two or three times in the 24 hours. The begs
and soldiers having been ordered to repair the breaches made in the
towers and ramparts [Sidenote: Fol. 158.] of the fort (Kābul),
everything was made good again in 20 days or a month by their industry
and energy.
(_d. Campaign against Qalāt-i-ghilzāī._)
Owing to my illness and to the earthquake, our plan of going to Qandahār
had fallen somewhat into the background. The illness left behind and the
fort repaired, it was taken up again. We were undecided at the time we
dismounted below Shniz[950] whether to go to Qandahār, or to over-run
the hills and plains. Jahāngīr Mīrzā and the begs having assembled,
counsel was taken and the matter found settlement in a move on Qalāt. On
this move Jahāngīr Mīrzā and Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ insisted strongly.
At Tāzī[951] there was word that Sher-i-`alī the page with Kīchīk Bāqī
_Diwāna_ and others had thoughts of desertion; all were arrested;
Sher-i-`alī was put to death because he had given clear signs of
disloyalty and misdoing both while in my service and not in mine, in
this country and in that country.[952] The others were let go with loss
of horse and arms.
On arriving at Qalāt we attacked at once and from all sides, without our
mail and without siege-appliances. As has been mentioned in this
History, Kīchīk Khwāja, the elder brother of Khwāja Kalān, was a most
daring brave; he had used his sword [Sidenote: Fol. 158b.] in my
presence several times; he now clambered up the south-west tower of
Qalāt, was pricked in the eye with a spear when almost up, and died of
the wound two or three days after the place was taken. Here that Kīchīk
Bāqī _Dīwāna_ who had been arrested when about to desert with
Sher-i-`alī the page, expiated his baseness by being killed with a stone
when he went under the ramparts. One or two other men died also.
Fighting of this sort went on till the Afternoon Prayer when, just as
our men were worn-out with the struggle and labour, those in the fort
asked for peace and made surrender. Qalāt had been given by Ẕū'n-nūn
_Arghūn_ to Muqīm, and in it now were Muqīm's retainers, Farrukh
_Arghūn_ and Qarā _Bīlūt_ (Afghān). When they came out with their swords
and quivers hanging round their necks, we forgave their offences.[953]
It was not my wish to reduce this high family[954] to great straits; for
why? Because if we did so when such a foe as the Aūzbeg was at our side,
what would be said by those of far and near, who saw and heard?
As the move on Qalāt had been made under the insistance of Jahāngīr
Mīrzā and Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_, it was now made over to the Mīrzā's
charge. He would not accept it; Bāqī also could give no good answer in
the matter. So, after such a storming and assaulting of Qalāt, its
capture was useless.
We went back to Kābul after over-running the Afghāns of Sawā-sang and
Ālā-tāgh on the south of Qalāt. [Sidenote: Fol. 159.]
The night we dismounted at Kābul I went into the fort; my tent and
stable being in the Chār-bāgh, a Khirilchī thief going into the garden,
fetched out and took away a bay horse of mine with its accoutrements,
and my _khachar_.[955]
(_e. Death of Bāqī Chaghānīānī._)
From the time Bāqī _Chaghānīanī_ joined me on the Amū-bank, no man of
mine had had more trust and authority.[956] If a word were said, if an
act were done, that word was his word, that act, his act. Spite of this,
he had not done me fitting service, nor had he shewn me due civility.
Quite the contrary! he had done things bad and unmannerly. Mean he was,
miserly and malicious, ill-tongued, envious and cross-natured. So
miserly was he that although when he left Tīrmīẕ, with his family and
possessions, he may have owned 30 to 40,000 sheep, and although those
masses of sheep used to pass in front of us at every camping-ground, he
did not give a single one to our bare braves, tortured as they were by
the pangs of hunger; at last in Kāh-mard, he gave 50!
Spite of acknowledging me for his chief (_pādshāh_), he had nagarets
beaten at his own Gate. He was sincere to none, had regard for none.
What revenue there is from Kābul (town) comes from the _ṯamghā_[957];
the whole of this he had, together [Sidenote: Fol. 159b.] with the
_dārogha_-ship in Kābul and Panjhīr, the Gadai (var. Kidī) Hazāra, and
_kūshlūk_[958] and control of the Gate.[959] With all this favour and
finding, he was not in the least content; quite the reverse! What medley
of mischief he planned has been told; we had taken not the smallest
notice of any of it, nor had we cast it in his face. He was always
asking for leave, affecting scruple at making the request. We used to
acknowledge the scruple and excuse ourselves from giving the leave. This
would put him down for a few days; then he would ask again. He went too
far with his affected scruple and his takings of leave! Sick were we too
of his conduct and his character. We gave the leave; he repented asking
for it and began to agitate against it, but all in vain! He got written
down and sent to me, "His Highness made compact not to call me to
account till nine[960] misdeeds had issued from me." I answered with a
reminder of eleven successive faults and sent this to him through Mullā
Bābā of Pashāghar. He submitted and was allowed to go towards Hindūstān,
taking his family and possessions. A few of his retainers escorted him
through Khaibar and returned; he joined Bāqī _Gāgīānī's_ caravan and
crossed at Nīl-āb.
Daryā Khān's son, Yār-i-ḥusain was then in Kacha-kot,[961] having drawn
into his service, on the warrant of the _farmān_ taken from me in Kohāt,
a few Afghāns of the Dilazāk (var. Dilah-zāk) and Yūsuf-zāī and also a
few Jats and Gujūrs.[962] With these he beat the roads, taking toll with
might and main. Hearing about Bāqī, he blocked the road, made the whole
party [Sidenote: Fol. 160.] prisoner, killed Bāqī and took his wife.
We ourselves had let Bāqī go without injuring him, but his own misdeeds
rose up against him; his own acts defeated him.
Leave thou to Fate the man who does thee wrong;
For Fate is an avenging servitor.
(_f. Attack on the Turkmān Hazāras._)
That winter we just sat in the Chār-bāgh till snow had fallen once or
twice.
The Turkmān Hazāras, since we came into Kābul, had done a variety of
insolent things and had robbed on the roads. We thought therefore of
over-running them, went into the town to Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā's house at the
Būstān-sarāī, and thence rode out in the month of Sha`bān (Feb. 1506
AD.).
We raided a few Hazāras at Janglīk, at the mouth of the Dara-i-khūsh
(Happy-valley).[963] Some were in a cave near the valley-mouth, hiding
perhaps. Shaikh Darwīsh Kūkūldāsh went incautiously right (_auq_) up to
the cave-mouth, was shot (_aūqlāb_) in the nipple by a Hazāra inside and
died there and then (_aūq_).[964]
(_Author's note on Shaikh Darwīsh._) He had been with me in
the guerilla-times, was Master-armourer (_qūr-begī_), drew a
strong bow and shot a good shaft.
As most of the Turkmān Hazāras seemed to be wintering inside the
Dara-i-khūsh, we marched against them.
The valley is shut in,[965] by a mile-long gully stretching inwards from
its mouth. The road engirdles the mountain, having [Sidenote: Fol.
160b.] a straight fall of some 50 to 60 yards below it and above it a
precipice. Horsemen go along it in single-file. We passed the gully and
went on through the day till between the Two Prayers (3 p.m.) without
meeting a single person. Having spent the night somewhere, we found a
fat camel[966] belonging to the Hazāras, had it killed, made part of its
flesh into _kabābs_[967] and cooked part in a ewer (_aftāb_). Such good
camel-flesh had never been tasted; some could not tell it from mutton.
Next day we marched on for the Hazāra winter-camp. At the first watch (9
a.m.) a man came from ahead, saying that the Hazāras had blocked a ford
in front with branches, checked our men and were fighting. That winter
the snow lay very deep; to move was difficult except on the road. The
swampy meadows (_tuk-āb_) along the stream were all frozen; the stream
could only be crossed from the road because of snow and ice. The Hazāras
had cut many branches, put them at the exit from the water and were
fighting in the valley-bottom with horse and foot or raining [Sidenote:
Fol. 161.] arrows down from either side.
Muḥammad `Alī _Mubashshir_[968] Beg, one of our most daring braves,
newly promoted to the rank of beg and well worthy of favour, went along
the branch-blocked road without his mail, was shot in the belly and
instantly surrendered his life. As we had gone forward in haste, most of
us were not in mail. Shaft after shaft flew by and fell; with each one
Yūsuf's Aḥmad said anxiously, "Bare[969] like this you go into it! I
have seen two arrows go close to your head!" Said I, "Don't fear! Many
as good arrows as these have flown past my head!" So much said, Qāsim
Beg, his men in full accoutrement,[970] found a ford on our right and
crossed. Before their charge the Hazāras could make no stand; they fled,
swiftly pursued and unhorsed one after the other by those just up with
them.
In guerdon for this feat Bangash was given to Qāsim Beg. Ḥātim the
armourer having been not bad in the affair, was promoted to Shaikh
Darwīsh's office of _qūr-begī_. Bābā Qulī's Kīpik (_sic_) also went well
forward in it, so we entrusted Muḥ. `Alī _Mubashshir's_ office to him.
Sl. Qulī _Chūnāq_ (one-eared) started in pursuit of the Hazāras but
there was no getting out of the hollow because of the snow. [Sidenote:
Fol. 161b.] For my own part I just went with these braves.
Near the Hazāra winter-camp we found many sheep and herds of horses. I
myself collected as many as 4 to 500 sheep and from 20 to 25 horses.
Sl. Qulī _Chūnāq_ and two or three of my personal servants were with me.
I have ridden in a raid twice[971]; this was the first time; the other
was when, coming in from Khurāsān (912 AH.), we raided these same
Turkmān Hazāras. Our foragers brought in masses of sheep and horses. The
Hazāra wives and their little children had gone off up the snowy slopes
and stayed there; we were rather idle and it was getting late in the
day; so we turned back and dismounted in their very dwellings. Deep
indeed was the snow that winter! Off the road it was up to a horse's
_qāptāl_,[972] so deep that the night-watch was in the saddle all
through till shoot of dawn.
Going out of the valley, we spent the next night just inside the mouth,
in the Hazāra winter-quarters. Marching from there, we dismounted at
Janglīk. At Janglīk Yārak T̤aghāī and other late-comers were ordered to
take the Hazāras who had killed Shaikh Darwīsh and who, luckless and
death-doomed, seemed still to be in the cave. Yārak T̤aghāī and his band
by sending smoke into the cave, took 70 to 80 Hazāras who mostly died by
the sword.
(_g. Collection of the Nijr-aū tribute._)
On the way back from the Hazāra expedition we went to the Āī-tūghdī
neighbourhood below Bārān[973] in order to collect the revenue of
Nijr-aū. Jahāngīr Mīrzā, come up from Ghaznī, [Sidenote: Fol. 162.]
waited on me there. At that time, on Ramẓān 13th (Feb. 7th) such
sciatic-pain attacked me that for 40 days some-one had to turn me over
from one side to the other.
Of the (seven) valleys of the Nijr-water the Pīchkān-valley,—and of the
villages in the Pīchkān-valley Ghain,—and of Ghain its head-man Ḥusain
_Ghainī_ in particular, together with his elder and younger brethren,
were known and notorious for obstinacy and daring. On this account a
force was sent under Jahāngīr Mīrzā, Qāsim Beg going too, which went to
Sar-i-tūp (Hill-top), stormed and took a _sangur_ and made a few meet
their doom.
Because of the sciatic pain, people made a sort of litter for me in
which they carried me along the bank of the Bārān and into the town to
the Būstān-sarāī. There I stayed for a few days; before that trouble was
over a boil came out on my left cheek; this was lanced and for it I also
took a purge. When relieved, I went out into the Chār-bāgh.
(_h. Misconduct of Jahāngīr Mīrzā._)
At the time Jahāngīr Mīrzā waited on me, Ayūb's sons Yūsuf and Buhlūl,
who were in his service, had taken up a strifeful and seditious attitude
towards me; so the Mīrzā was not found to be what he had been earlier.
In a few days he marched out of Tīpa in his mail,[974] hurried back to
Ghaznī, there took Nānī, killed some of its people and plundered all.
[Sidenote: Fol. 162b.] After that he marched off with whatever men he
had, through the Hazāras,[975] his face set for Bāmīān. God knows that
nothing had been done by me or my dependants to give him ground for
anger or reproach! What was heard of later on as perhaps explaining his
going off in the way he did, was this;—When Qāsim Beg went with other
begs, to give him honouring meeting as he came up from Ghaznī, the Mīrzā
threw a falcon off at a quail. Just as the falcon, getting close, put
out its pounce to seize the quail, the quail dropped to the ground.
Hereupon shouts and cries, "Taken! is it taken?" Said Qāsim Beg, "Who
looses the foe in his grip?" Their misunderstanding of this was their
sole reason for going off, but they backed themselves on one or two
other worse and weaker old cronish matters.[976] After doing in Ghaznī
what has been mentioned, they drew off through the Hazāras to the Mughūl
clans.[977] These clans at that time had left Nāṣir Mīrzā but had not
joined the Aūzbeg, and were in Yāī, Astar-āb and the summer-pastures
thereabouts.
(_i. Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā calls up help against Shaibāq Khān._)
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, having resolved to repel Shaibāq Khān, summoned all
his sons; me too he summoned, sending to me Sayyid Afẓal, son of Sayyid
`Alī _Khwāb-bīn_ (Seer-of-dreams). It was right on several grounds for
us to start for Khurāsān. One ground was that when a great ruler,
sitting, as Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā sat, in Tīmūr Beg's place, had resolved to
act against [Sidenote: Fol. 163.] such a foe as Shaibāq Khān and had
called up many men and had summoned his sons and his begs, if there were
some who went on foot it was for us to go if on our heads! if some took
the bludgeon, we would take the stone! A second ground was that, since
Jahāngīr Mīrzā had gone to such lengths and had behaved so badly,[978]
we had either to dispel his resentment or to repel his attack.
(_j. Chīn Ṣūfī's death._)
This year Shaibāq Khān took Khwārizm after besieging Chīn Sūfī in it for
ten months. There had been a mass of fighting during the siege; many
were the bold deeds done by the Khwārizmī braves; nothing soever did
they leave undone. Again and again their shooting was such that their
arrows pierced shield and cuirass, sometimes the two cuirasses.[979] For
ten months they sustained that siege without hope in any quarter. A few
bare braves then lost heart, entered into talk with the Aūzbeg and were
in the act of letting him up into the fort when Chīn Ṣūfī had the news
and went to the spot. Just as he was beating and forcing down the
Aūzbegs, his own page, in a discharge of arrows, shot him from behind.
No man was left to fight; the Aūzbegs took Khwārizm. God's mercy on
Chīn Ṣūfī, who never for one moment ceased to stake his life [Sidenote:
Fol. 163b.] for his chief![980]
Shaibāq Khān entrusted Khwārizm to Kūpuk (_sic_) Bī and went back to
Samarkand.
(_k. Death of Sultān Ḥusain Mīrzā._)
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā having led his army out against Shaibāq Khān as far as
Bābā Ilāhī[981] went to God's mercy, in the month of Ẕū'l-ḥijja
(Ẕū'l-ḥijja 11th 911 AH.-May 5th 1506 AD.).
SULT̤ĀN ḤUSAIN MĪRZĀ AND HIS COURT.[982]
(_a._) _His birth and descent._
He was born in Herī (Harāt), in (Muḥarram) 842 (AH.-June-July, 1438 AD.)
in Shāhrukh Mīrzā's time[983] and was the son of Manṣūr Mīrzā, son of
Bāī-qarā Mīrzā, son of `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā, son of Amīr Tīmūr. Manṣūr
Mīrzā and Bāī-qarā Mīrzā never reigned.
His mother was Fīrūza Begīm, a (great-)grandchild (_nabīra_) of Tīmūr
Beg; through her he became a grandchild of Mīrān-shāh also.[984] He was
of high birth on both sides, a ruler of royal lineage.[985] Of the
marriage (of Manṣūr with Fīrūza) were born two sons and two daughters,
namely, Bāī-qarā Mīrzā and Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, Ākā Begīm and another
daughter, Badka Begīm whom Aḥmad Khān took.[986]
Bāī-qarā Mīrzā was older than Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā; he was his younger
brother's retainer but used not to be present as head of the Court;[987]
except in Court, he used to share his brother's divan (_tūshak_). He was
given Balkh by his younger brother and was its Commandant for several
years. He had three sons, Sl. Muḥammad Mīrzā, Sl. Wais Mīrzā and Sl.
Iskandar Mīrzā.[988]
Ākā Begīm was older than the Mīrzā; she was taken by [Sidenote: Fol.
164.] Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā,[989] a grandson (_nabīra_) of Mīrān-shāh; by him
she had a son (Muḥammad Sulṯān Mīrzā), known as Kīchīk (Little) Mīrzā,
who at first was in his maternal-uncle's service, but later on gave up
soldiering to occupy himself with letters. He is said to have become
very learned and also to have taste in verse.[990] Here is a Persian
quatrain of his:—
For long on a life of devotion I plumed me,
As one of the band of the abstinent ranged me;
Where when Love came was devotion? denial?
By the mercy of God it is I have proved me!
This quatrain recalls one by the Mullā.[991] Kīchīk Mīrzā made the
circuit of the _ka'ba_ towards the end of his life.
Badka (Badī`u'l-jamāl) Begīm also was older[992] than the Mīrzā. She was
given in the guerilla times to Aḥmad Khān of Ḥājī-tarkhān;[993] by him
she had two sons (Sl. Maḥmūd Khān and Bahādur Sl.) who went to Herī and
were in the Mīrzā's service.
(_b._) _His appearance and habits._
He was slant-eyed (_qīyik gūzlūq_) and lion-bodied, being slender from
the waist downwards. Even when old and white-bearded, he wore silken
garments of fine red and green. He used to wear either the black
lambskin cap (_būrk_) or the _qālpāq_,[994] but on a Feast-day would
sometimes set up a little three-fold turban, wound broad and badly,[995]
stick a heron's plume in it and so go to Prayers.
When he first took Herī, he thought of reciting the names of [Sidenote:
Fol. 164b.] the Twelve Imāms in the _khuṯba_,[996] but `Alī-sher Beg and
others prevented it; thereafter all his important acts were done in
accordance with orthodox law. He could not perform the Prayers on
account of a trouble in the joints,[997] and he kept no fasts. He was
lively and pleasant, rather immoderate in temper, and with words that
matched his temper. He shewed great respect for the law in several
weighty matters; he once surrendered to the Avengers of blood a son of
his own who had killed a man, and had him taken to the Judgment-gate
(_Dāru'l-qaẓā_). He was abstinent for six or seven years after he took
the throne; later on he degraded himself to drink. During the almost 40
years of his rule[998] in Khurāsān, there may not have been one single
day on which he did not drink after the Mid-day prayer; earlier than
that however he did not drink. What happened with his sons, the soldiers
and the town was that every-one pursued vice and pleasure to excess.
Bold and daring he was! Time and again he got to work with his own
sword, getting his own hand in wherever he arrayed to fight; no man of
Tīmūr Beg's line has been known to match him in the slashing of swords.
He had a leaning to poetry and even put a _dīwān_ together, writing in
Turkī with Ḥusainī for his pen-name.[999] Many couplets in his _dīwān_
are not bad; it is however in one and the same metre throughout. Great
ruler though he was, [Sidenote: Fol. 165.] both by the length of his
reign (_yāsh_) and the breadth of his dominions, he yet, like little
people kept fighting-rams, flew pigeons and fought cocks.
(_c._) _His wars and encounters._[1000]
He swam the Gurgān-water[1001] in his guerilla days and gave a party of
Aūzbegs a good beating.
Again,—with 60 men he fell on 3000 under Pay-master Muḥammad `Alī, sent
ahead by Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā, and gave them a downright good beating
(868 AH.). This was his one fine, out-standing feat-of-arms.[1002]
Again,—he fought and beat Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā near Astarābād (865
AH.).[1003]
Again,—this also in Astarābād, he fought and beat Sa`īdlīq Sa`īd, son of
Ḥusain _Turkmān_ (873 AH.?).
Again,—after taking the throne (of Herī in Ramẓān 873 AH.-March 1469
AD.), he fought and beat Yādgār-i-muḥammad Mīrzā at Chanārān (874
AH.).[1004]
Again,—coming swiftly[1005] from the Murgh-āb bridge-head (Sar-i-pul),
he fell suddenly on Yādgār-i-muḥammad Mīrzā where he lay drunk in the
Ravens'-garden (875 AH.), a victory which kept all Khurāsān quiet.
Again,—he fought and beat Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā at Chīkmān-sarāī in the
neighbourhood of Andikhūd and Shibrghān (876 AH.).[1006]
Again,—he fell suddenly on Abā-bikr Mīrzā[1007] after that Mīrzā, joined
by the Black-sheep Turkmāns, had come out of `Irāq, beaten Aūlūgh Beg
Mīrzā (_Kābulī_) in Takāna and Khimār (var. Ḥimār), taken Kābul, left it
because of turmoil in `Irāq, crossed Khaibar, gone on to Khūsh-āb and
Multān, on again to [Sidenote: Fol. 165b.] Sīwī,[1008] thence to Karmān
and, unable to stay there, had entered the Khurāsān country (884
AH.).[1009]
Again,—he defeated his son Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā at Pul-i-chirāgh (902
AH.); he also defeated his sons Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā and Kūpuk
(Round-shouldered) Mīrzā at Ḥalwā-spring (904 AH.).[1010]
Again,—he went to Qūndūz, laid siege to it, could not take it, and
retired; he laid siege to Ḥiṣār, could not take that either, and rose
from before it (901 AH.); he went into Ẕū'n-nūn's country, was given
Bast by its _dārogha_, did no more and retired (903 AH.).[1011] A ruler
so great and so brave, after resolving royally on these three movements,
just retired with nothing done!
Again,—he fought his son Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā in the Nīshīn-meadow, who
had come there with Ẕū'n-nūn's son, Shāh Beg (903 AH.). In that affair
were these curious coincidences:—The Mīrzā's force will have been small,
most of his men being in Astarābād; on the very day of the fight, one
force rejoined him coming back from Astarābād, and Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā
arrived to join Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā after letting Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā take
Ḥiṣār, and Ḥaidar Mīrzā came back from reconnoitring Badī`u'z-zamān
Mīrzā at Sabzawār.
(_d._) _His countries._
His country was Khurāsān, with Balkh to the east, Bistām and Damghān to
the west, Khwārizm to the north, Qandahār [Sidenote: Fol. 166.] and
Sīstān to the south. When he once had in his hands such a town as Herī,
his only affair, by day and by night, was with comfort and pleasure; nor
was there a man of his either who did not take his ease. It followed of
course that, as he no longer tolerated the hardships and fatigue of
conquest and soldiering, his retainers and his territories dwindled
instead of increasing right down to the time of his departure.[1012]
(_e._) _His children._
Fourteen sons and eleven daughters were born to him.[1013] The oldest of
all his children was Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā; (Bega Begīm) a daughter of
Sl. Sanjar of Marv, was his mother.
Shāh-i-gharīb Mīrzā was another; he had a stoop (_būkūrī_); though ill
to the eye, he was of good character; though weak of body, he was
powerful of pen. He even put a _dīwān_ together, using Gharbatī
(Lowliness) for his pen-name and writing both Turkī and Persian verse.
Here is a couplet of his:—
Seeing a peri-face as I passed, I became its fool;
Not knowing what was its name, where was its home.
For a time he was his father's Governor in Herī. He died before his
father, leaving no child.
Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā was another; he was his father's favourite son,
but though this favourite, had neither accomplishments nor character. It
was Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's over-fondness for this son that led his other
sons into rebellion. The mother of Shāh-i-gharīb Mīrzā and of
Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā was [Sidenote: Fol. 166b.] Khadīja Begīm, a
former mistress of Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā by whom she had had a daughter
also, known as Āq (Fair) Begīm.
Two other sons were Abū'l-ḥusain Mīrzā and Kūpuk (var. Kīpik) Mīrzā
whose name was Muḥammad Muḥsin Mīrzā; their mother was Laṯīf-sulṯān
Āghācha.
Abū-turāb Mīrzā was another. From his early years he had an excellent
reputation. When the news of his father's increased illness[1014]
reached him and other news of other kinds also, he fled with his younger
brother Muḥammad-i-ḥusain Mīrzā into `Irāq,[1015] and there abandoned
soldiering to lead the darwish-life; nothing further has been heard
about him.[1016] His son Sohrāb was in my service when I took Ḥiṣār
after having beaten the sulṯāns led by Ḥamza Sl. and Mahdī Sl. (917
AH.-1511 AD.); he was blind of one eye and of wretchedly bad aspect; his
disposition matched even his ill-looks. Owing to some immoderate act
(_bī i`tidāl_), he could not stay with me, so went off. For some of his
immoderate doings, Nijm S̤ānī put him to death near Astarābād.[1017]
Muḥammad-i-ḥusain Mīrzā was another. He must have been shut up (_bund_)
with Shāh Ismā`īl at some place in `Irāq and have become his
disciple;[1018] he became a rank heretic later on and became this
although his father and brethren, older and younger, were all orthodox.
He died in Astarābād, still on the same wrong road, still with the same
absurd opinions. A good deal is heard about his courage and heroism, but
no deed of his stands out as worthy of record. He may have been
poetically-disposed; here is a couplet of his:—
Grimed with dust, from tracking what game dost thou come?
Steeped in sweat, from whose heart of flame dost thou come?
Farīdūn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā was another. He drew a very strong [Sidenote:
Fol. 167.] bow and shot a first-rate shaft; people say his cross-bow
(_kamān-i-guroha_) may have been 40 _bātmāns_.[1019] He himself was very
brave but he had no luck in war; he was beaten wherever he fought. He
and his younger brother Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā were defeated at Rabāṯ-i-dūzd
(var. Dudūr) by Tīmūr Sl. and `Ubaid Sl. leading Shaibāq Khān's advance
(913 AH.?), but he had done good things there.[1020] In Dāmghān he and
Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā[1021] fell into the hands of Shaibāq Khān who,
killing neither, let both go free. Farīdūn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā went later on
to Qalāt[1022] where Shāh Muḥammad _Diwāna_ had made himself fast; there
when the Aūzbegs took the place, he was captured and killed. The three
sons last-named were by Mīnglī Bībī Āghācha, Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's Aūzbeg
mistress.
Ḥaidar Mīrzā was another; his mother Payānda-sulṯān Begīm was a daughter
of Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā. Ḥaidar Mīrzā was Governor of Balkh and Mashhad
for some time during his father's life. For him his father, when
besieging Ḥiṣār (901 AH.) took (Bega Begīm) a daughter of Sl. Maḥmūd
Mīrzā and Khān-zāda Begīm; this done, he rose from before Ḥiṣār. One
daughter only[1023] was born of that marriage; she was named Shād (Joy)
Begīm and given to `Ādil Sl.[1024] when she came to Kābul later on.
Ḥaidar Mīrzā departed from the world in his father's [Sidenote: Fol.
167b.] life-time.
Muḥammad Ma`ṣūm Mīrzā was another. He had Qandahār given to him and, as
was fitting with this, a daughter of Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā, (Bega Begīm), was
set aside for him; when she went to Herī (902 AH.), Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā
made a splendid feast, setting up a great _chār-ṯāq_ for it.[1025]
Though Qandahār was given to Muḥ. Ma`ṣūm Mīrzā, he had neither power nor
influence there, since, if black were done, or if white were done, the
act was Shāh Beg _Arghūn's_. On this account the Mīrzā left Qandahār and
went into Khurāsān. He died before his father.
Farrukh-i-ḥusain Mīrzā was another. Brief life was granted to him; he
bade farewell to the world before his younger brother Ibrāhīm-i-ḥusain
Mīrzā.
Ibrāhīm-i-ḥusain Mīrzā was another. They say his disposition was not
bad; he died before his father from bibbing and bibbing Herī wines.
Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā and Muḥ. Qāsim Mīrzā were others;[1026] their story
will follow. Pāpā Āghācha was the mother of the five sons last-named.
Of all the Mīrzā's daughters, Sulṯānīm Begīm was the oldest. She had no
brother or sister of the full-blood. Her mother, known as Chūlī (Desert)
Begīm, was a daughter of one of the Aẕāq begs. Sulṯānīm Begīm had great
acquaintance with words (_soz bīlūr aīdī_); she was never at fault for a
word. Her father sent her out[1027] to Sl. Wais Mīrzā, the middle son of
his own elder brother Bāī-qarā Mīrzā; she had a son and a daughter by
him; the daughter was sent out to Aīsān-qulī Sl. younger brother of
Yīlī-bārs of the Shabān sulṯāns;[1028] the son is that Muḥammad Sl.
Mīrzā to whom I have given the Qanauj district.[1029] At that same date
Sulṯānīm Begīm, when on her way with her grandson [Sidenote: Fol. 168.]
from Kābul to Hindūstān, went to God's mercy at Nīl-āb. Her various
people turned back, taking her bones; her grandson came on.[1030]
Four daughters were by Payānda-sulṯān Begīm. Āq Begīm, the oldest, was
sent out to Muḥammad Qāsim _Arlāt_, a grandson of Bega Begīm the younger
sister of Bābur Mīrzā;[1031] there was one daughter (_bīr gīna qīz_),
known as Qarā-gūz (Dark-eyed) Begīm, whom Nāṣir Mīrzā (_Mīrān-shāhī_)
took. Kīchīk Begīm was the second; for her Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā had great
desire but, try as he would, Payānda-sulṯān Begīm, having an aversion
for him, would not give her to him;[1032] she sent Kīchīk Begīm out
afterwards to Mullā Khwāja of the line of Sayyid Ātā.[1033] Her third
and fourth daughters Bega Begīm and Āghā Begīm, she gave to Bābur Mīrzā
and Murād Mīrzā the sons of her younger sister, Rābī`a-sulṯān
Begīm.[1034]
Two other daughters of the Mīrzā were by Mīnglī Bībī Āghācha. They gave
the elder one, Bairam-sulṯān Begīm to Sayyid `Abdu'l-lāh, one of the
sayyids of Andikhūd who was a grandson of Bāī-qarā Mīrzā[1035] through a
daughter. A son of this marriage, Sayyid Barka[1036] was in my service
when Samarkand was taken (917 AH.-1511 AD.); he went to Aūrganj later
and there made claim to rule; the Red-heads[1037] killed him in
Astarābād. Mīnglī Bībī's second daughter was Fāṯima-sulṯān Begīm; her
they gave to Yādgār(-i-farrukh) Mīrzā of Tīmūr Beg's line.[1038]
Three daughters[1039] were by Pāpā Āghācha. Of these the oldest,
Sulṯān-nizhād Begīm was made to go out to Iskandar Mīrzā, youngest son
of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's elder brother Bāī-qarā Mīrzā. The second,
(Sa`ādat-bakht, known as) Begīm Sulṯān, [Sidenote: Fol. 168b.] was given
to Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā after his blinding.[1040] By Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā she
had one daughter and one son. The daughter was brought up by Apāq Begīm
of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's _ḥaram_; from Herī she came to Kābul and was there
given to Sayyid Mīrzā Apāq.[1041] (Sa`ādat-bakht) Begīm Sulṯān after the
Aūzbeg killed her husband, set out for the _ka`ba_ with her son.[1042]
News has just come (_circa_ 934 AH.) that they have been heard of as in
Makka and that the boy is becoming a bit of a great personage.[1043]
Pāpā Āghācha's third daughter was given to a sayyid of Andikhūd,
generally known as Sayyid Mīrzā.[1044]
Another of the Mīrzā's daughters, `Āyisha-sulṯān Begīm, was by a
mistress, Zubaida Āghācha the grand-daughter of Ḥusain-i-Shaikh
Tīmūr.[1045] They gave her to Qāsim Sl. of the Shabān sulṯāns; she had
by him a son, named Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sl. who came to serve me in
Hindūstān, was in the Holy Battle with Rānā Sangā, and was given
Badāyūn.[1046] When Qāsim Sl. died, (his widow) `Āyisha-sulṯān Begīm was
taken by Būrān Sl. one of his relations,[1047] by whom she had a son,
named `Abdu'l-lāh Sl. now serving me and though young, not doing badly.
(_f. His wives and concubines._)
The wife he first took was Bega Sulṯān Begīm, a daughter of Sl. Sanjar
of Marv. She was the mother of Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā. She was very
cross-tempered and made the Mīrzā endure much wretchedness, until
driven at last to despair, he set himself [Sidenote: Fol. 169.] free by
divorcing her. What was he to do? Right was with him.[1048]
A bad wife in a good man's house
Makes this world already his hell.[1049]
God preserve every Musalmān from this misfortune! Would that not a
single cross or ill-tempered wife were left in the world!
Chūlī Begīm was another; she was a daughter of the Aẕāq begs and was the
mother of Sulṯānīm Begīm.
Shahr-bānū Begīm was another; she was Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's daughter,
taken after Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā took the throne (873 AH.). When the Mīrzā's
other ladies got out of their litters and mounted horses, at the battle
of Chīkmān, Shahr-bānū Begīm, putting her trust in her younger brother
(Sl. Maḥmūd M.), did not leave her litter, did not mount a horse;[1050]
people told the Mīrzā of this, so he divorced her and took her younger
sister Payānda-sulṯān Begīm. When the Aūzbegs took Khurāsān (913 AH.),
Payānda-sulṯān Begīm went into `Irāq, and in `Irāq she died in great
misery.
Khadīja Begīm was another.[1051] She had been a mistress of Sl.
Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā and by him had had a daughter, Āq Begīm; after his
defeat (873 AH.-1468 AD.) she betook herself to Herī where Sl. Ḥusain
Mīrzā took her, made her a great favourite, and promoted her to the rank
of Begīm. Very dominant indeed she became later on; she it was wrought
Muḥ. Mūmin Mīrzā's death;[1052] she in chief it was caused Sl. Ḥusain
Mīrzā's sons to rebel against him. She took herself for a sensible woman
but was a silly chatterer, may also have been a heretic. Of her were
[Sidenote: Fol. 169b.] born Shāh-i-gharīb Mīrzā and Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain
Mīrzā.
Apāq Begīm was another;[1053] she had no children; that Pāpā Āghācha the
Mīrzā made such a favourite of was her foster-sister. Being childless,
Apāq Begīm brought up as her own the children of Pāpā Āghācha. She
nursed the Mīrzā admirably when he was ill; none of his other wives
could nurse as she did. The year I came into Hindūstān (932 AH.)[1054]
she came into Kābul from Herī and I shewed her all the honour and
respect I could. While I was besieging Chandīrī (934 AH.) news came that
in Kābul she had fulfilled God's will.[1055]
One of the Mīrzā's mistresses was Laṯīf-sulṯān Āghācha of the
Chār-shamba people[1056]; she became the mother of Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā
and Kūpuk (or Kīpik) Mīrzā (_i.e._ Muḥammad Muḥsin).
Another mistress was Mīnglī Bībī Āghācha,[1057] an Aūzbeg and one of
Shahr-bānū Begīm's various people. She became the mother of Abū-turāb
Mīrzā, Muḥammad-i-ḥusain Mīrzā, Farīdūn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā and of two
daughters.
Pāpā Āghācha, the foster-sister of Apāq Begīm was another mistress. The
Mīrzā saw her, looked on her with favour, took her and, as has been
mentioned, she became the mother of five of his sons and four of his
daughters.[1058]
Begī Sulṯān Āghācha was another mistress; she had no child. There were
also many concubines and mistresses held in little respect; those
enumerated were the respected wives and mistresses of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā.
Strange indeed it is that of the 14 sons born to a ruler so great as Sl.
Ḥusain Mīrzā, one governing too in such a town as Herī, three only were
born in legal marriage.[1059] In him, in his sons, and in his tribes and
hordes vice and debauchery were [Sidenote: Fol. 170.] extremely
prevalent. What shews this point precisely is that of the many sons born
to his dynasty not a sign or trace was left in seven or eight years,
excepting only Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā.[1060]
(_g. His amīrs._)
There was Muḥammad Barandūq _Barlās_, descending from Chākū _Barlās_ as
follows,—Muḥammad Barandūq, son of `Alī, son of Barandūq, son of
Jahān-shāh, son of Chākū _Barlās_.[1061] He had been a beg of Bābur
Mīrzā's presence; later on Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā favoured him, gave him
Kābul conjointly with Jahāngīr _Barlās_, and made him Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā's
guardian. After the death of Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā, Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā
formed designs against the two Barlās; they got to know this, kept tight
hold of him, made the tribes and hordes march,[1062] moved as for
Qūndūz, and when up on Hindū-kush, courteously compelled Aūlūgh Beg
Mīrzā to start back for Kābul, they themselves going on to Sl. Ḥusain
Mīrzā in Khurāsān, who, in his turn, shewed them great favour. Muḥammad
Barandūq was remarkably intelligent, a very leaderlike man indeed! He
was extravagantly fond of a hawk; so much so, they say, that if a hawk
of his had strayed or had died, he would ask, taking the names of his
sons on his lips, what it would have mattered if such or such a son had
died or had broken his neck, rather than this or that bird had died or
had strayed.
Muz̤affar _Barlās_ was another.[1063] He had been with the Mīrzā in the
guerilla fighting and, for some cause unknown, had received extreme
favour. In such honour was he in those guerilla days that the compact
was for the Mīrzā to take four _dāng_ (sixths) [Sidenote: Fol. 170b.] of
any country conquered, and for him to take two _dāng_. A strange compact
indeed! How could it be right to make even a faithful servant a
co-partner in rule? Not even a younger brother or a son obtains such a
pact; how then should a beg?[1064] When the Mīrzā had possession of the
throne, he repented the compact, but his repentance was of no avail;
that muddy-minded mannikin, favoured so much already, made growing
assumption to rule. The Mīrzā acted without judgment; people say
Muz̤affar _Barlās_ was poisoned in the end.[1065] God knows the truth!
`Alī-sher _Nawā'ī_ was another, the Mīrzā's friend rather than his beg.
They had been learners together in childhood and even then are said to
have been close friends. It is not known for what offence Sl. Abū-sa`īd
Mīrzā drove `Alī-sher Beg from Herī; he then went to Samarkand where he
was protected and supported by Aḥmad Ḥājī Beg during the several years
of his stay.[1066] He was noted for refinement of manner; people fancied
this due to the pride of high fortune but it may not have been so, it
may have been innate, since it was equally noticeable also in
Samarkand.[1067] `Alī-sher Beg had no match. For as long as verse has
been written in the Turkī tongue, no-one has written so much or so well
as he. He wrote six books of poems (mas̤nawī), five of them answering to
the Quintet (_Khamsah_),[1068] the sixth, entitled the _Lisānu'ṯ-ṯair_
(Tongue of the birds), was in the same metre as the _Manṯiqu'ṯ-ṯair_
(Speech of the birds).[1069] He put together four _dīwāns_ (collections)
of odes, bearing the names, _Curiosities of Childhood_, _Marvels of
Youth_, _Wonders of Manhood_ and _Advantages of Age_.[1070] There are
good quatrains of his also. Some others of his compositions rank below
those [Sidenote: Fol. 171.] mentioned; amongst them is a collection of
his letters, imitating that of Maulānā `Abdu'r-raḥmān _Jāmī_ and aiming
at gathering together every letter on any topic he had ever written to
any person. He wrote also the _Mīzānu'l-aūzān_ (Measure of measures) on
prosody; it is very worthless; he has made mistake in it about the
metres of four out of twenty-four quatrains, while about other measures
he has made mistake such as any-one who has given attention to prosody,
will understand. He put a Persian _dīwān_ together also, Fānī
(transitory) being his pen-name for Persian verse.[1071] Some couplets
in it are not bad but for the most part it is flat and poor. In music
also he composed good things (_nīma_), some excellent airs and preludes
(_nakhsh u peshrau_). No such patron and protector of men of parts and
accomplishments is known, nor has one such been heard of as ever
appearing. It was through his instruction and support that Master
(Ustād) Qul-i-muḥammad the lutanist, Shaikhī the flautist, and Ḥusain
the lutanist, famous performers all, rose to eminence and renown. It was
through his effort and supervision that Master Bih-zād and Shāh
Muz̤affar became so distinguished in painting. Few are heard of as
having helped to lay the good foundation for future excellence he helped
to lay. He had neither son nor daughter, wife or family; he let the
world pass by, alone and unencumbered. At first he was Keeper of the
Seal; in middle-life he became a beg and for a time was Commandant in
Astarābād; later on he forsook soldiering. He took nothing from the
Mīrzā, on the contrary, he each year [Sidenote: Fol. 171b.] offered
considerable gifts. When the Mīrzā was returning from the Astarābād
campaign, `Alī-sher Beg went out to give him meeting; they saw one
another but before `Alī-sher Beg should have risen to leave, his
condition became such that he could not rise. He was lifted up and
carried away; the doctors could not tell what was wrong; he went to
God's mercy next day,[1072] one of his own couplets suiting his case:—
I was felled by a stroke out of their ken and mine;
What, in such evils, can doctors avail?
Aḥmad the son of Tawakkal _Barlās_ was another;[1073] for a time he held
Qandahār.
Walī Beg was another; he was of Ḥājī Saifu'd-dīn Beg's line,[1074] and
had been one of the Mīrzā's father's (Manṣūr's) great begs.[1075] Short
life was granted to him after the Mīrzā took the throne (973 AH.); he
died directly afterwards. He was orthodox and made the Prayers, was
rough (_turk_) and sincere.
Ḥusain of Shaikh Tīmūr was another; he had been favoured and raised to
the rank of beg[1076] by Bābur Mīrzā.
Nuyān Beg was another. He was a Sayyid of Tīrmīẕ on his father's side;
on his mother's he was related both to Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā and to Sl.
Ḥusain Mīrzā.[1077] Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā had favoured him; he was the beg
honoured in Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's presence and he met with very great favour
when he went to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's. He was a bragging, easy-going,
wine-bibbing, jolly person. Through being in his father's service,[1078]
Ḥasan of Ya`qūb used to be called also Nuyān's Ḥasan.