Jahāngīr _Barlās_ was another.[1079] For a time he shared the Kābul

command with Muḥammad Barandūq _Barlās_, later on [Sidenote: Fol. 172.]

went to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's presence and received very great favour. His

movements and poses (_ḥarakāt u sakanāt_) were graceful and charming; he

was also a man of pleasant temper. As he knew the rules of hunting and

hawking, in those matters the Mīrzā gave him chief charge. He was a

favourite of Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and, bearing that Mīrzā's friendliness

in mind, used to praise him.

Mīrzā Aḥmad of `Alī _Farsī Barlās_ was another. Though he wrote no

verse, he knew what was poetry. He was a gay-hearted, elegant person,

one by himself.

`Abdu'l-khalīq Beg was another. Fīrūz Shāh, Shāhrukh Mīrzā's greatly

favoured beg, was his grandfather;[1080] hence people called him Fīrūz

Shāh's `Abdu'l-khalīq. He held Khwārizm for a time.

Ibrāhīm _Dūldāī_ was another. He had good knowledge of revenue matters

and the conduct of public business; his work was that of a second Muḥ.

Barandūq.

Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_ was another.[1081] He was a brave man, using his sword

well in Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's presence and later on getting his hand

into the work whatever the fight. As to his courage there was no

question at all, but he was a bit of a fool. After he left our

(_Mīrān-shāhī_) Mīrzās to go to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, the Mīrzā gave him

Ghūr and the Nikdīrīs. He did [Sidenote: Fol. 172b.] excellent work in

those parts with 70 to 80 men, with so few beating masses and masses of

Hazāras and Nikdīrīs; he had not his match for keeping those tribes in

order. After a while Zamīn-dāwar was given to him. His son Shāh-i-shujā`

_Arghūn_ used to move about with him and even in childhood used to chop

away with his sword. The Mīrzā favoured Shāh-i-shujā` and, somewhat

against Ẕū'n-nūn Beg's wishes, joined him with his father in the

government of Qandahār. Later on this father and son made dissension

between that father and that son,[1082] and stirred up much commotion.

After I had overcome Khusrau Shāh and parted his retainers from him, and

after I had taken Kābul from Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_'s son Muqīm, Ẕū'n-nūn Beg

and Khusrau Shāh both went, in their helplessness, to see Sl. Ḥusain

Mīrzā. Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_ grew greater after the Mīrzā's death when they

gave him the districts of the Herī Koh-dāman, such as Aūba (Ubeh) and

Chachcharān.[1083] He was made Lord of Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's Gate[1084]

and Muḥammad Barandūq _Barlās_ Lord of Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā's, when

the two Mīrzās became joint-rulers in Herī. Brave though he was, he was

a little crazed and shallow-pated; if he had not been so, would he have

accepted flattery as he did? would he have made himself so contemptible?

Here are the details of the matter:—While he was so dominant and so

trusted in Herī, a few shaikhs and mullās went to him and said, "The

Spheres are holding commerce with us; you are to be styled

_Hizabru'l-lāh_ (Lion of God); you will overcome the Aūzbeg." Fully

accepting this flattery, he put his _fūṯa_ (bathing-cloth) round his

neck[1085] and gave thanks. Then, after Shaibāq Khān, coming against the

Mīrzās, had beaten them one [Sidenote: Fol. 173.] by one near Bādghīs,

Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_ met him face to face near Qarā-rabāṯ and, relying on

that promise, stood up against him with 100 to 150 men. A mass of

Aūzbegs came up, overcame them and hustled them off; he himself was

taken and put to death.[1086] He was orthodox and no neglecter of the

Prayers, indeed made the extra ones. He was mad for chess; he played it

according to his own fancy and, if others play with one hand, he played

with both.[1087] Avarice and stinginess ruled in his character.

Darwīsh-i-`alī Beg was another,[1088] the younger full-brother of

`Alī-sher Beg. He had the Balkh Command for a time and there did good

beg-like things, but he was a muddle-head and somewhat wanting in merit.

He was dismissed from the Balkh Command because his muddle-headedness

had hampered the Mīrzā in his first campaign against Qūndūz and Ḥiṣār.

He came to my presence when I went to Qūndūz in 916 AH. (1510 AD.),

brutalized and stupefied, far from capable begship and out-side peaceful

home-life. Such favour as he had had, he appears to have had for

`Alī-sher Beg's sake.

Mughūl Beg was another. He was Governor of Herī for a time, later on was

given Astarābād, and from there fled to Ya`qūb Beg in `Irāq. He was of

amorous disposition[1089] and an incessant dicer.

Sayyid Badr (Full-moon) was another, a very strong man, [Sidenote: Fol.

173b.] graceful in his movements and singularly well-mannered. He danced

wonderfully well, doing one dance quite unique and seeming to be his own

invention.[1090] His whole service was with the Mīrzā whose comrade he

was in wine and social pleasure.

Islīm _Barlās_ was another, a plain (_turk_) person who understood

hawking well and did some things to perfection. Drawing a bow of 30 to

40 _bātmāns_ strength,[1091] he would make his shaft pass right through

the target (_takhta_). In the gallop from the head of the

_qabaq-maidān_,[1092] he would loosen his bow, string it again, and then

hit the gourd (_qabaq_). He would tie his string-grip (_zih-gīr_) to the

one end of a string from 1 to 1-1/2 yards long, fasten the other end to

a tree, let his shaft fly, and shoot through the string-grip while it

revolved.[1093] Many such remarkable feats he did. He served the Mīrzā

continuously and was at every social gathering.

Sl. Junaid _Barlās_ was another;[1094] in his latter days he went to Sl.

Aḥmad Mīrzā's presence.[1095] He is the father of the Sl. Junaid

_Barlās_ on whom at the present time[1096] the joint-government of

Jaunpūr depends.

Shaikh Abū-sa`īd Khān _Dar-miyān_ (In-between) was another. It is not

known whether he got the name of Dar-miyān because he took a horse to

the Mīrzā _in the middle_ of a fight, or whether because he put himself

_in between_ the Mīrzā and some-one designing on his life.[1097]

Bih-būd Beg was another. He had served in the pages' circle (_chuhra

jīrgasī_) during the guerilla times and gave such [Sidenote: Fol. 174.]

satisfaction by his service that the Mīrzā did him the favour of putting

his name on the stamp (_tamghā_) and the coin (_sikka_).[1098]

Shaikhīm Beg was another.[1099] People used to call him Shaikhīm

_Suhailī_ because Suhailī was his pen-name. He wrote all sorts of verse,

bringing in terrifying words and mental images. Here is a couplet of

his:—

In the anguish of my nights, the whirlpool of my sighs engulphs

the firmament;

Like a dragon, the torrent of my tears swallows the quarters of

the world.

Well-known it is that when he once recited that couplet in Maulānā

`Abdu'r-raḥmān _Jāmī's_ presence, the honoured Mullā asked him whether

he was reciting verse or frightening people. He put a _dīwān_ together;

_mas̤nawīs_ of his are also in existence.

Muḥammad-i-walī Beg was another, the son of the Walī Beg already

mentioned. Latterly he became one of the Mīrzā's great begs but, great

beg though he was, he never neglected his service and used to recline

(_yāstānīb_) day and night in the Gate. Through doing this, his free

meals and open table were always set just outside the Gate. Quite

certainly a man who was so constantly in waiting, _would_ receive the

favour he received! It is an evil noticeable today that effort must be

made before the man, dubbed Beg because he has five or six of the bald

and blind at his back, can be got into the Gate at all! Where this sort

of service is, it must be to their own misfortune! Muḥammad-i-walī Beg's

public table and free meals were good; he kept his servants neat and

well-dressed and with his own hands gave [Sidenote: Fol. 174b.] ample

portion to the poor and destitute, but he was foul-mouthed and

evil-spoken. He and also Darwīsh-i-`alī the librarian were in my service

when I took Samarkand in 917 AH. (Oct. 1511 AD.); he was palsied then;

his talk lacked salt; his former claim to favour was gone. His assiduous

waiting appears to have been the cause of his promotion.

Bābā `Alī the Lord of the Gate was another. First, `Alī-sher Beg showed

him favour; next, because of his courage, the Mīrzā took him into

service, made him Lord of the Gate, and promoted him to be a beg. One of

his sons is serving me now (_circa_ 934 AH.), that Yūnas of `Alī who is

a beg, a confidant, and of my household. He will often be

mentioned.[1100]

Badru'd-dīn (Full-moon of the Faith) was another. He had been in the

service of Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's Chief Justice Mīrak `Abdu'r-raḥīm; it

is said he was very nimble and sure-footed, a man who could leap over

seven horses at once. He and Bābā `Alī were close companions.

Ḥasan of `Alī _Jalāīr_ was another. His original name was Ḥusain

_Jalāīr_ but he came to be called `Alī's Ḥasan.[1101] His father `Alī

_Jalāīr_ must have been favoured and made a beg by Bābur Mīrzā; no man

was greater later on when Yādgār-i-muḥammad M. took Herī. Ḥasan-i-`alī

was Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's _Qūsh-begī_.[1102] He made T̤ufailī

(Uninvited-guest) his pen-name; wrote good odes and was the Master of

this art in his day. He wrote odes on my name when he came to my

presence at the time I took Samarkand in 917 AH. (1511 AD.). Impudent

(_bī bāk_) and [Sidenote: Fol. 175.] prodigal he was, a keeper of

catamites, a constant dicer and draught-player.

Khwāja `Abdu'l-lāh _Marwārīd_ (Pearl)[1103] was another; he was at first

Chief Justice but later on became one of the Mīrzā's favourite

household-begs. He was full of accomplishments; on the dulcimer he had

no equal, and he invented the shake on the dulcimer; he wrote in several

scripts, most beautifully in the _ta`līq_; he composed admirable

letters, wrote good verse, with Bayānī for his pen-name, and was a

pleasant companion. Compared with his other accomplishments, his verse

ranks low, but he knew what was poetry. Vicious and shameless, he became

the captive of a sinful disease through his vicious excesses, outlived

his hands and feet, tasted the agonies of varied torture for several

years, and departed from the world under that affliction.[1104]

Sayyid Muḥammad-i-aūrūs was another; he was the son of that Aūrūs

(Russian?) _Arghūn_ who, when Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā took the throne, was

his beg in chief authority. At that time there were excellent

archer-braves; one of the most distinguished was Sayyid

Muḥammad-i-aūrūs. His bow strong, his shaft long, he must have been a

bold (_yūrak_) shot and a good one. He was Commandant in Andikhūd for

some time.

Mir (Qaṃbar-i-)`alī the Master of the Horse was another. He it was who,

by sending a man to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, brought him down on the

defenceless Yādgār-i-muḥammad Mīrzā.

Sayyid Ḥasan _Aūghlāqchī_ was another, a son of Sayyid _Aūghlāqchī_ and

a younger brother of Sayyid Yūsuf Beg.[1105] He was the father of a

capable and accomplished son, named Mīrzā Farrukh. He had come to my

presence before I took Samarkand [Sidenote: Fol. 175b.] in 917 AH. (1511

AD.). Though he had written little verse, he wrote fairly; he understood

the astrolabe and astronomy well, was excellent company, his talk good

too, but he was rather a bad drinker (_bad shrāb_). He died in the fight

at Ghaj-dawān.[1106]

Tīngrī-bīrdī the storekeeper (_sāmānchī_) was another; he was a plain

(_turk_), bold, sword-slashing brave. As has been said, he charged out

of the Gate of Balkh on Khusrau Shāh's great retainer Naẕar Bahādur and

overcame him (903 AH.).

There were a few Turkmān braves also who were received with great favour

when they came to the Mīrzā's presence. One of the first to come was

`Alī Khān _Bāyandar_.[1107] Asad Beg and Taham-tan (Strong-bodied) Beg

were others, an elder and younger brother these; Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā

took Taham-tan Beg's daughter and by her had Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā. Mīr

`Umar Beg was another; later on he was in Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's

service; he was a brave, plain, excellent person. His son, Abū'l-fatḥ

by name, came from `Irāq to my presence, a very soft, unsteady and

feeble person; such a son from such a father!

Of those who came into Khurāsān after Shāh Ismā`īl took `Irāq and

Aẕarbāījān (_circa_ 906 AH.-1500 AD.), one was `Abdu'l-bāqī Mīrzā of

Tīmūr Beg's line. He was a Mīrān-shāhī[1108] whose ancestors will have

gone long before into those parts, put thought [Sidenote: Fol. 176.] of

sovereignty out of their heads, served those ruling there, and from them

have received favour. That Tīmūr `Us̤mān who was the great, trusted beg

of Ya`qūb Beg (_White-sheep Turkmān_) and who had once even thought of

sending against Khurāsān the mass of men he had gathered to himself,

must have been this `Abdu'l-bāqī Mīrzā's paternal-uncle. Sl. Ḥusain

Mīrzā took `Abdu'l-bāqī Mīrzā at once into favour, making him a

son-in-law by giving him Sulṯānīm Begīm, the mother of Muḥammad Sl.

Mīrzā.[1109] Another late-comer was Murād Beg _Bāyandarī_.

(_h. His Chief Justices_ (_ṣadūr_).)

One was Mīr Sar-i-barahna (Bare-head)[1110]; he was from a village in

Andijān and appears to have made claim to be a sayyid (_mutasayyid_). He

was a very agreeable companion, pleasant of temper and speech. His were

the judgment and rulings that carried weight amongst men of letters and

poets of Khurāsān. He wasted his time by composing, in imitation of the

story of Amīr Ḥamza,[1111] a work which is one long, far-fetched lie,

opposed to sense and nature.

Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain _Gāzur-gāhī_[1112] was another. Though not a Ṣūfī,

he was mystical.[1113] Such mystics as he will have gathered in

`Alī-sher Beg's presence and there have gone into their raptures and

ecstacies. Kamālu'd-dīn will have been better-born than most of them;

his promotion will have been due to his good birth, since he had no

other merit to speak of.[1114] A production of his exists, under the

name _Majālisu'l-`ushshāq_ (Assemblies of lovers), the authorship of

which he ascribes (in its preface) to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā.[1115] It is

mostly a lie and a tasteless lie. He has written such irreverent things

in it that some [Sidenote: Fol. 176b.] of them cast doubt upon his

orthodoxy; for example, he represents the Prophets,—Peace be on

them,—and Saints as subject to earthly passion, and gives to each a

minion and a mistress. Another and singularly absurd thing is that,

although in his preface he says, "This is Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's own written

word and literary composition," he, never-the-less, enters, in the body

of the book, "All by the sub-signed author", at the head of odes and

verses well-known to be his own. It was his flattery gave Ẕū'n-nūn

_Arghūn_ the title Lion of God.

(_i. His wazīrs._)

One was Majdu'd-dīn Muḥammad, son of Khwāja Pīr Aḥmad of Khwāf, the one

man (_yak-qalam_) of Shāhrukh Mīrzā's Finance-office.[1116] In Sl.

Ḥusain Mīrzā's Finance-office there was not at first proper order or

method; waste and extravagance resulted; the peasant did not prosper,

and the soldier was not satisfied. Once while Majdu'd-dīn Muḥammad was

still _parwānchī_[1117] and styled Mīrak (Little Mīr), it became a

matter of importance to the Mīrzā to have some money; when he asked the

Finance-officials for it, they said none had been collected and that

there was none. Majdu'd-dīn Muḥammad must have heard this and have

smiled, for the Mīrzā asked him why he smiled; privacy was made and he

told Mīrzā what was in his mind. Said he, "If the honoured Mīrzā will

pledge himself to strengthen [Sidenote: Fol. 177.] my hands by not

opposing my orders, it shall so be before long that the country shall

prosper, the peasant be content, the soldier well-off, and the Treasury

full." The Mīrzā for his part gave the pledge desired, put Majdu'd-dīn

Muḥammad in authority throughout Khurāsān, and entrusted all public

business to him. He in his turn by using all possible diligence and

effort, before long had made soldier and peasant grateful and content,

filled the Treasury to abundance, and made the districts habitable and

cultivated. He did all this however in face of opposition from the begs

and men high in place, all being led by `Alī-sher Beg, all out of temper

with what Majdu'd-dīn Muḥammad had effected. By their effort and evil

suggestion he was arrested and dismissed.[1118] In succession to him

Niẕāmu'l-mulk of Khwāf was made Dīwān but in a short time they got him

arrested also, and him they got put to death.[1119] They then brought

Khwāja Afẓal out of `Irāq and made him Dīwān; he had just been made a

beg when I came to Kābul (910 AH.), and he also impressed the Seal in

Dīwān.

Khwāja `Atā[1120] was another; although, unlike those already mentioned,

he was not in high office or Finance-minister (_dīwān_), nothing was

settled without his concurrence the whole Khura-sānāt over. He was a

pious, praying, upright (_mutadaiyin_) person; he must have been

diligent in business also.

(_j. Others of the Court._)

Those enumerated were Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's retainers and followers.[1121]

His was a wonderful Age; in it Khurāsān, and [Sidenote: Fol. 177b.] Herī

above all, was full of learned and matchless men. Whatever the work a

man took up, he aimed and aspired at bringing that work to perfection.

One such man was Maulānā `Abdu'r-raḥmān _Jāmī_, who was unrivalled in

his day for esoteric and exoteric knowledge. Famous indeed are his

poems! The Mullā's dignity it is out of my power to describe; it has

occurred to me merely to mention his honoured name and one atom of his

excellence, as a benediction and good omen for this part of my humble

book.

Shaikhu'l-islām Saifu'd-dīn Aḥmad was another. He was of the line of

that Mullā Sa`du'd-dīn (Mas`ūd) _Taftazānī_[1122] whose descendants from

his time downwards have given the Shaikhu'l-islām to Khurāsān. He was a

very learned man, admirably versed in the Arabian sciences[1123] and the

Traditions, most God-fearing and orthodox. Himself a Shafi`ī,[1124] he

was tolerant of all the sects. People say he never once in 70 years

omitted the Congregational Prayer. He was martyred when Shāh Ismā`īl

took Herī (916 AH.); there now remains no man of his honoured

line.[1125]

Maulānā Shaikh Ḥusain was another; he is mentioned here, although his

first appearance and his promotion were under Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā,

because he was living still under Sl. Ḥusain [Sidenote: Fol. 178.]

Mīrzā. Being well-versed in the sciences of philosophy, logic and

rhetoric, he was able to find much meaning in a few words and to bring

it out opportunely in conversation. Being very intimate and influential

with Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā, he took part in all momentous affairs of the

Mīrzā's dominions; there was no better _muḥtasib_[1126]; this will have

been why he was so much trusted. Because he had been an intimate of that

Mīrzā, the incomparable man was treated with insult in Sl. Ḥusain

Mīrzā's time.

Mullā-zāda Mullā `Us̤mān was another. He was a native of Chīrkh, in the

Luhūgur _tūmān_ of the _tūmān_ of Kābul[1127] and was called the Born

Mullā (_Mullā-zāda_) because in Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā's time he used to give

lessons when 14 years old. He went to Herī on his way from Samarkand to

make the circuit of the _ka`ba_, was there stopped, and made to remain

by Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā. He was very learned, the most so of his time.

People say he was nearing the rank of Ijtihād[1128] but he did not reach

it. It is said of him that he once asked, "How should a person forget a

thing heard?" A strong memory he must have had!

Mīr Jamālu'd-dīn the Traditionalist[1129] was another. He had no equal

in Khurāsān for knowledge of the Muḥammadan Traditions. He was advanced

in years and is still alive (934 to 937 AH.).

Mīr Murtāẓ was another. He was well-versed in the sciences [Sidenote:

Fol. 178b.] of philosophy and metaphysics; he was called _murtāẓ_

(ascetic) because he fasted a great deal. He was madly fond of chess, so

much so that if he had met two players, he would hold one by the skirt

while he played his game out with the other, as much as to say, "Don't

go!"

Mīr Mas`ūd of Sherwān was another.[1130]

Mīr `Abdu'l-ghafūr of Lār was another. Disciple and pupil both of

Maulānā `Abdu'r-raḥmān _Jāmī_, he had read aloud most of the Mullā's

poems (_mas̤nawī_) in his presence, and wrote a plain exposition of the

_Nafaḥāt_.[1131] He had good acquaintance with the exoteric sciences,

and in the esoteric ones also was very successful. He was a curiously

casual and unceremonious person; no person styled Mullā by any-one

soever was debarred from submitting a (Qorān) chapter to him for

exposition; moreover whatever the place in which he heard there was a

darwīsh, he had no rest till he had reached that darwīsh's presence. He

was ill when I was in Khurāsān (912 AH.); I went to enquire for him

where he lay in the Mullā's College,[1132] after I had made the circuit

of the Mullā's tomb. He died a few days later, of that same illness.

Mīr `Atā'u'l-lāh of Mashhad was another.[1133] He knew the Arabian

sciences well and also wrote a Persian treatise on rhyme. That treatise

is well-done but it has the defect that he brings into it, as his

examples, couplets of his own and, assuming them [Sidenote: Fol. 179.]

to be correct, prefixes to each, "As must be observed in the following

couplet by your slave" (_banda_). Several rivals of his find deserved

comment in this treatise. He wrote another on the curiosities of verse,

entitled _Badāi`u's-sanāi_; a very well-written treatise. He may have

swerved from the Faith.

Qāẓī Ikhtiyār was another. He was an excellent Qāẓī and wrote a treatise

in Persian on Jurisprudence, an admirable treatise; he also, in order to

give elucidation (_iqtibās_), made a collection of homonymous verses

from the Qorān. He came with Muḥammad-i-yūsuf to see me at the time I

met the Mīrzās on the Murgh-āb (912 AH.). Talk turning on the Bāburī

script,[1134] he asked me about it, letter by letter; I wrote it out,

letter by letter; he went through it, letter by letter, and having

learned its plan, wrote something in it there and then.

Mīr Muḥammad-i-yūsuf was another; he was a pupil of the

Shaikhu'l-islām[1135] and afterwards was advanced to his place. In some

assemblies he, in others, Qāẓī Ikhtiyār took the higher place. Towards

the end of his life he was so infatuated with soldiering and military

command, that except of those two tasks, what could be learned from his

conversation? what known from his pen? Though he failed in both, those

two ambitions ended by giving to the winds his goods and his life, his

house and his home. He may have been a Shī`a.

(_k. The Poets._)

[Sidenote: Fol. 179b.] The all-surpassing head of the poet-band was

Maulānā `Abdu'r-raḥmān _Jāmī_. Others were Shaikhīm Suhailī and Ḥasan of

`Alī _Jalāīr_[1136] whose names have been mentioned already as in the

circle of the Mīrzā's begs and household.

Āṣafī was another,[1137] he taking Āṣafī for his pen-name because he was

a wazīr's son. His verse does not want for grace or sentiment, but has

no merit through passion and ecstacy. He himself made the claim, "I have

never packed up (_būlmādī_) my odes to make the oasis (_wādī_) of a

collection."[1138] This was affectation, his younger brothers and his

intimates having collected his odes. He wrote little else but odes. He

waited on me when I went into Khurāsān (912 AH.).

Banā'i was another; he was a native of Herī and took such a pen-name

(Banā'i) on account of his father Ustād Muḥammad _Sabz-banā_.[1139] His

odes have grace and ecstacy. One poem (_mas̤nawī_) of his on the topic

of fruits, is in the _mutaqārib_ measure;[1140] it is random and not

worked up. Another short poem is in the _khafīf_ measure, so also is a

longer one finished towards the end of his life. He will have known

nothing of music in his young days and `Alī-sher Beg seems to have

taunted him about it, so one winter when the Mīrzā, taking `Alī-sher Beg

with him, went to winter in Merv, Banā'i stayed behind in Herī and so

applied himself to study music that before the heats he had composed

several works. These he played and sang, airs with variations, when the

Mīrzā came back to Herī in the heats. [Sidenote: Fol. 180.] All amazed,

`Alī-sher Beg praised him. His musical compositions are perfect; one was

an air known as _Nuh-rang_ (Nine modulations), and having both the theme

(_tūkānash_) and the variation (_yīla_) on the note called _rāst_(?).

Banā'i was `Alī-sher Beg's rival; it will have been on this account he

was so much ill-treated. When at last he could bear it no longer, he

went into Aẕarbāījān and `Irāq to the presence of Ya'qūb Beg; he did not

remain however in those parts after Ya`qūb Beg's death (896 AH.-1491

AD.) but went back to Herī, just the same with his jokes and retorts.

Here is one of them:—`Alī-sher at a chess-party in stretching his leg

touched Banā'i on the hinder-parts and said jestingly, "It is the sad

nuisance of Herī that a man can't stretch his leg without its touching a

poet's backside." "Nor draw it up again," retorted Banā'i.[1141] In the

end the upshot of his jesting was that he had to leave Herī again; he

went then to Samarkand.[1142] A great many good new things used to be

made for `Alī-sher Beg, so whenever any-one produced a novelty, he

called it `Alī-sher's in order to give it credit and vogue.[1143] Some

things were called after him in compliment _e.g._ because when he had

ear-ache, he wrapped his head up in one of the blue triangular kerchiefs

women tie over their heads in winter, that kerchief was called

`Alī-sher's comforter. Then again, Banā'i when he had decided to leave

Herī, ordered a quite new kind of pad for his ass and [Sidenote: Fol.

180b.] dubbed it `Alī-sher's.

Maulānā Saifī of Bukhārā was another;[1144] he was a Mullā

complete[1145] who in proof of his mullā-ship used to give a list of the

books he had read. He put two _dīwāns_ together, one being for the use

of tradesmen (_ḥarfa-kar_), and he also wrote many fables. That he wrote

no _mas̤nawī_ is shewn by the following quatrain:—

Though the _mas̤nawī_ be the orthodox verse,

_I_ know the ode has Divine command;

Five couplets that charm the heart

_I_ know to outmatch the Two Quintets.[1146]

A Persian prosody he wrote is at once brief and prolix, brief in the

sense of omitting things that should be included, and prolix in the

sense that plain and simple matters are detailed down to the diacritical

points, down even to their Arabic points.[1147] He is said to have been

a great drinker, a bad drinker, and a mightily strong-fisted man.

`Abdu'l-lāh the _mas̤nawī_-writer was another.[1148] He was from Jām and

was the Mullā's sister's son. Hātifī was his pen-name. He wrote poems

(_mas̤nawī_) in emulation of the Two Quintets,[1149] and called them

_Haft-manẕar_ (Seven-faces) in imitation of the _Haft-paikar_

(Seven-faces). In emulation of the _Sikandar-nāma_ he composed the

_Tīmūr-nāma_. His most renowned _mas̤nawī_ is _Laila and Majnūn_, but

its reputation is greater than its charm.

Mīr Ḥusain the Enigmatist[1150] was another. He seems to have had no

equal in making riddles, to have given his whole time to it, and to have

been a curiously humble, disconsolate (_nā-murād_) [Sidenote: Fol. 181.]

and harmless (_bī-bad_) person.

Mīr Muḥammad _Badakhshī_ of Ishkīmīsh was another. As Ishkīmīsh is not

in Badakhshān, it is odd he should have made it his pen-name. His verse

does not rank with that of the poets previously mentioned,[1151] and

though he wrote a treatise on riddles, his riddles are not first-rate.

He was a very pleasant companion; he waited on me in Samarkand (917

AH.).

Yūsuf the wonderful (_badī_)[1152] was another. He was from the Farghāna

country; his odes are said not to be bad.

Āhī was another, a good ode-writer, latterly in Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā's

service, and _ṣāḥib-i-dīwān_.[1153]

Muḥammad _Ṣāliḥ_ was another.[1154] His odes are tasty but

better-flavoured than correct. There is Turkī verse of his also, not

badly written. He went to Shaibāq Khān later on and found complete

favour. He wrote a Turkī poem (_mas̤nawī_), named from Shaibāq Khān, in

the _raml masaddas majnūn_ measure, that is to say the metre of the

_Subḥat_.[1155] It is feeble and flat; Muḥammad _Ṣāliḥ_'s reader soon

ceases to believe in him.[1156] Here is one of his good couplets:—

A fat man (Taṃbal) has gained the land of Farghāna,

Making Farghāna the house of the fat-man (Taṃbal-khāna).

Farghāna is known also as Taṃbal-khāna.[1157] I do not know whether the

above couplet is found in the _mas̤nawī_ mentioned.

Muḥammad _Ṣāliḥ_ was a very wicked, tyrannical and heartless

person.[1158]

Maulānā Shāh Ḥusain _Kāmī_[1159] was another. There are not-bad verses

of his; he wrote odes, and also seems to have put a _dīwān_ together.

Hilālī (New-moon) was another; he is still alive.[1160] Correct and

graceful though his odes are, they make little impression. There is a

_dīwān_ of his;[1161] and there is also the poem (_mas̤nawī_) in the

[Sidenote: Fol. 181b.] _khafīf_ measure, entitled _Shāh and Darwīsh_ of

which, fair though many couplets are, the basis and purport are hollow

and bad. Ancient poets when writing of love and the lover, have

represented the lover as a man and the beloved as a woman; but Hilālī

has made the lover a darwīsh, the beloved a king, with the result that

the couplets containing the king's acts and words, set him forth as

shameless and abominable. It is an extreme effrontery in Hilālī that for

a poem's sake he should describe a young man and that young man a king,

as resembling the shameless and immoral.[1162] It is heard-said that

Hilālī had a very retentive memory, and that he had by heart 30 or

40,000 couplets, and the greater part of the Two Quintets,—all most

useful for the minutiae of prosody and the art of verse.

Ahlī[1163] was another; he was of the common people (_`āmī_), wrote

verse not bad, even produced a _dīwān_.

(_l. Artists._)

Of fine pen-men there were many; the one standing-out in _nakhsh ta`līq_

was Sl. `Alī of Mashhad[1164] who copied many books for the Mīrzā and

for `Alī-sher Beg, writing daily 30 couplets for the first, 20 for the

second.

Of the painters, one was Bih-zād.[1165] His work was very dainty but he

did not draw beardless faces well; he used greatly to lengthen the

double chin (_ghab-ghab_); bearded faces he drew admirably.

Shāh Muz̤affar was another; he painted dainty portraits, [Sidenote: Fol.

182.] representing the hair very daintily.[1166] Short life was granted

him; he left the world when on his upward way to fame.

Of musicians, as has been said, no-one played the dulcimer so well as

Khwāja `Abdu'l-lāh _Marwārīd_.

Qul-i-muḥammad the lutanist (_`aūdī_) was another; he also played the

guitar (_ghichak_) beautifully and added three strings to it. For many

and good preludes (_peshrau_) he had not his equal amongst composers or

performers, but this is only true of his preludes.

Shaikhī the flautist (_nāyī_) was another; it is said he played also the

lute and the guitar, and that he had played the flute from his 12th or

13th year. He once produced a wonderful air on the flute, at one of

Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's assemblies; Qul-i-muḥammad could not reproduce it

on the guitar, so declared this a worthless instrument; Shaikhī _Nāyī_

at once took the guitar from Qul-i-muḥammad's hands and played the air

on it, well and in perfect tune. They say he was so expert in music that

having once heard an air, he was able to say, "This or that is the tune

of so-and-so's or so-and-so's flute."[1167] He composed few works; one

or two airs are heard of.

Shāh Qulī the guitar-player was another; he was of `Irāq, came into

Khurāsān, practised playing, and succeeded. He composed many airs,

preludes and works (_nakhsh, peshrau u aīshlār_).

Ḥusain the lutanist was another; he composed and played with taste; he

would twist the strings of his lute into one and play on that. His fault

was affectation about playing. He [Sidenote: Fol. 182b.] made a fuss

once when Shaibāq Khān ordered him to play, and not only played badly

but on a worthless instrument he had brought in place of his own. The

Khān saw through him at once and ordered him to be well beaten on the

neck, there and then. This was the one good action Shaibāq Khān did in

the world; it was well-done truly! a worse chastisement is the due of

such affected mannikins!

Ghulām-i-shādī (Slave of Festivity), the son of Shādī the reciter, was

another of the musicians. Though he performed, he did it less well than

those of the circle just described. There are excellent themes (_ṣūt_)

and beautiful airs (_nakhsh_) of his; no-one in his day composed such

airs and themes. In the end Shaibāq Khān sent him to the Qāzān Khān,

Muḥammad Amīn; no further news has been heard of him.

Mīr Azū was another composer, not a performer; he produced few works but

those few were in good taste.

Banā'i was also a musical composer; there are excellent airs and themes

of his.

An unrivalled man was the wrestler Muḥammad Bū-sa`īd; he was foremost

amongst the wrestlers, wrote verse too, composed themes and airs, one

excellent air of his being in _chār-gāh_ (four-time),—and he was

pleasant company. It is extraordinary that such accomplishments as his

should be combined with wrestling.[1168]

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE RESUMED.

(_a. Burial of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā._)

At the time Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā took his departure from the world, there

were present of the Mīrzās only Badī'u'z-zamān Mīrzā and

Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā. The latter had been his father's favourite

son; his leading beg was Muḥammad Barandūq _Barlās_; his mother Khadīja

Begīm had been the Mīrzā's most influential wife; and to him the

Mīrzā's people had gathered. [Sidenote: Fol. 183.] For these reasons

Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā had anxieties and thought of not coming,[1169] but

Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā and Muḥammad Barandūq Beg themselves rode out,

dispelled his fears and brought him in.

Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā was carried into Herī and there buried in his own

College with royal rites and ceremonies.

(_b. A dual succession._)

At this crisis Ẕū'n-nūn Beg was also present. He, Muḥ. Barandūq Beg, the

late Mīrzā's begs and those of the two (young) Mīrzās having assembled,

decided to make the two Mīrzās joint-rulers in Herī. Ẕū'n-nūn Beg was to

have control in Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's Gate, Muḥ. Barandūq Beg, in

Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā's. Shaikh `Alī T̤aghāī was to be _dārogha_ in

Herī for the first, Yūsuf-i-`alī for the second. Theirs was a strange

plan! Partnership in rule is a thing unheard of; against it stand Shaikh

Sa'dī's words in the Gulistān:—"Ten darwishes sleep under a blanket

(_gilīm_); two kings find no room in a clime" (_aqlīm_).[1170]

912 AH.-MAY 24TH 1506 TO MAY 13TH 1507 AD.[1171]

(_a. Bābur starts to join Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā._)

In the month of Muḥarram we set out by way of Ghūr-bund [Sidenote: Fol.

183b.] and Shibr-tū to oppose the Aūzbeg.

As Jahāngīr Mīrzā had gone out of the country in some sort of

displeasure, we said, "There might come much mischief and trouble if he

drew the clans (_aīmāq_) to himself;" and "What trouble might come of

it!" and, "First let's get the clans in hand!" So said, we hurried

forward, riding light and leaving the baggage (_aūrūq_) at Ushtur-shahr

in charge of Walī the treasurer and Daulat-qadam of the scouts. That day

we reached Fort [Z.]aḥāq; from there we crossed the pass of the

Little-dome (Guṃbazak-kūtal), trampled through Sāīghān, went over the

Dandān-shikan pass and dismounted in the meadow of Kāhmard. From Kāhmard

we sent Sayyid Afẓal the Seer-of-dreams (_Khwāb-bīn_) and Sl. Muḥammad

_Dūldāī_ to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā with a letter giving the particulars of our

start from Kābul.[1172]

Jahāngīr Mīrzā must have lagged on the road, for when he got opposite

Bāmīān and went with 20 or 30 persons to visit it, he saw near it the

tents of our people left with the baggage. Thinking we were there, he

and his party hurried back to their camp and, without an eye to

anything, without regard for their own people marching in the rear, made

off for Yaka-aūlāng.[1173]

(_b. Action of Shaibāq Khān._)

When Shaibāq Khān had laid siege to Balkh, in which was Sl.

Qul-i-nachāq,[1174] he sent two or three sulṯāns with 3 or 4000 men to

overrun Badakhshān. At the time Mubārak Shāh and Zubair had again

joined Nāṣir Mīrzā, spite of former resentments and bickerings, and they

all were lying at Shakdān, below Kishm [Sidenote: Fol. 184.] and east of

the Kishm-water. Moving through the night, one body of Aūzbegs crossed

that water at the top of the morning and advanced on the Mīrzā; he at

once drew off to rising-ground, mustered his force, sounded trumpets,

met and overcame them. Behind the Aūzbegs was the Kishm-water in flood,

many were drowned in it, a mass of them died by arrow and sword, more

were made prisoner. Another body of Aūzbegs, sent against Mubārak Shāh

and Zubair where they lay, higher up the water and nearer Kishm, made

them retire to the rising-ground. Of this the Mīrzā heard; when he had

beaten off his own assailants, he moved against theirs. So did the

Kohistān begs, gathered with horse and foot, still higher up the river.

Unable to make stand against this attack, the Aūzbegs fled, but of this

body also a mass died by sword, arrow, and water. In all some 1000 to

1500 may have died. This was Nāṣir Mīrzā's one good success; a man of

his brought us news about it while we were in the dale of Kāhmard.

(_c. Bābur moves on into Khurāsān._)

While we were in Kāhmard, our army fetched corn from Ghūrī and Dahāna.

There too we had letters from Sayyid [Sidenote: Fol. 184b.] Afẓal and

Sl. Muḥammad _Dūldāī_ whom we had sent into Khurāsān; their news was of

Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's death.

This news notwithstanding, we set forward for Khurāsān; though there

were other grounds for doing this, what decided us was anxious thought

for the reputation of this (Tīmūrid) dynasty. We went up the trough

(_aīchī_) of the Ājar-valley, on over Tūp and Mandaghān, crossed the

Balkh-water and came out on Ṣāf-hill. Hearing there that Aūzbegs were

overrunning Sān and Chār-yak,[1175] we sent a force under Qāsim Beg

against them; he got up with them, beat them well, cut many heads off,

and returned.

We lay a few days in the meadow of Ṣāf-hill, waiting for news of

Jahāngīr Mīrzā and the clans (_aīmāq_) to whom persons had been sent.

We hunted once, those hills being very full of wild sheep and goats

(_kiyīk_). All the clans came in and waited on me within a few days; it

was to me they came; they had not gone to Jahāngīr Mīrzā though he had

sent men often enough to them, once sending even `Imādu'd-dīn Mas`ūd. He

himself was forced to come at last; he saw me at the foot of the valley

when I came down off Ṣāf-hill. Being anxious about Khurāsān, we neither

paid him attention nor took thought for the clans, but went right on

through Gurzwān, Almār, Qaiṣār, Chīchīk-tū, and Fakhru'd-dīn's-death

(_aūlūm_) into the Bām-valley, [Sidenote: Fol. 185.] one of the

dependencies of Bādghīs.

The world being full of divisions,[1176] things were being taken from

country and people with the long arm; we ourselves began to take

something, by laying an impost on the Turks and clans of those parts, in

two or three months taking perhaps 300 _tūmāns_ of _kipkī_.[1177]

(_d. Coalition of the Khurāsān Mīrzās._)

A few days before our arrival (in Bām-valley?) some of the Khurāsān

light troops and of Ẕū'n-nūn Beg's men had well beaten Aūzbeg raiders in

Pand-dih (Panj-dih?) and Marūchāq, killing a mass of men.[1178]

Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā with Muḥammad Barandūq

_Barlās_, Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_ and his son Shāh Beg resolved to move on

Shaibāq Khān, then besieging Sl. Qul-i-nachāq (?) in Balkh. Accordingly

they summoned all Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's sons, and got out of Herī to effect

their purpose. At Chihil-dukhtarān Abū'l-muḥsin M. joined them from

Marv; Ibn-i-ḥusain M. followed, coming up from Tūn and Qāīn. Kūpuk

(Kīpik) M. was in Mashhad; often though they sent to him, he behaved

unmanly, spoke senseless words, and did not come. Between him and

Muz̤affar Mīrzā, there was jealousy; when Muz̤affar M. was made

(joint-)ruler, he said, "How should _I_ go to _his_ presence?" Through

this disgusting jealousy he did not come now, even at this crisis when

all his brethren, older and younger, were assembling in concord,

resolute against such a foe [Sidenote: Fol. 185b.] as Shaibāq Khān.

Kūpuk M. laid his own absence to rivalry, but everybody else laid it to

his cowardice. One word! In this world acts such as his outlive the man;

if a man have any share of intelligence, why try to be ill-spoken of

after death? if he be ambitious, why not try so to act that, he gone,

men will praise him? In the honourable mention of their names, wise men

find a second life!

Envoys from the Mīrzās came to me also, Mūh. Barandūq _Barlās_ himself

following them. As for me, what was to hinder my going? It was for that

very purpose I had travelled one or two hundred _yīghāch_ (500-600

miles)! I at once started with Muḥ. Barandūq Beg for Murgh-āb[1179]

where the Mīrzās were lying.

(_e. Bābur meets the Mīrzās._)

The meeting with the Mīrzās was on Monday the 8th of the latter Jumāda

(Oct. 26th 1506 AH.). Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā came out a mile to meet me; we

approached one another; on my side, I dismounted, on his side, he; we

advanced, saw one another and remounted. Near the camp Muz̤affar Mīrzā

and Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā met us; they, being younger than Abū'l-muḥsin

Mīrzā ought to have come out further than he to meet me.[1180] Their

dilatoriness may not have been due to pride, but to heaviness [Sidenote:

Fol. 186.] after wine; their negligence may have been no slight on me,

but due to their own social pleasures. On this Muz̤affar Mīrzā laid

stress;[1181] we two saw one another without dismounting, so did

Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā and I. We rode on together and, in an amazing crowd

and press, dismounted at Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's Gate. Such was the

throng that some were lifted off the ground for three or four steps

together, while others, wishing for some reason to get out, were

carried, willy-nilly, four or five steps the other way.

We reached Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's Audience-tent. It had been agreed that

I, on entering, should bend the knee (_yūkūnghāī_) once, that the Mīrzā

should rise and advance to the edge of the estrade,[1182] and that we

should see one another there. I went in, bent the knee once, and was

going right forward; the Mīrzā rose rather languidly and advanced rather

slowly; Qāsim Beg, as he was my well-wisher and held my reputation as

his own, gave my girdle a tug; I understood, moved more slowly, and so

the meeting was on the appointed spot.

Four divans (_tūshuk_) had been placed in the tent. Always in the

Mīrzā's tents one side was like a gate-way[1183] and at the edge of this

gate-way he always sat. A divan was set there now [Sidenote: Fol. 186b.]

on which he and Muz̤affar Mīrzā sat together. Abū'l-muḥsin, Mīrzā and I

sat on another, set in the right-hand place of honour (_tūr_). On

another, to Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's left, sat Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā with

Qāsim Sl. _Aūzbeg_, a son-in-law of the late Mīrzā and father of

Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sulṯān. To my right and below my divan was one on which

sat Jahāngīr Mīrzā and `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā. To the left of Qāsim Sl.

and Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā, but a good deal lower, were Muḥ. Barandūq Beg,

Ẕū'n-nūn Beg and Qāsim Beg.

Although this was not a social gathering, cooked viands were brought in,

drinkables[1184] were set with the food, and near them gold and silver

cups. Our forefathers through a long space of time, had respected the

Chīngīz-tūrā (ordinance), doing nothing opposed to it, whether in

assembly or Court, in sittings-down or risings-up. Though it has not

Divine authority so that a man obeys it of necessity, still good rules

of conduct must be obeyed by whom-soever they are left; just in the same

way that, if a forefather have done ill, his ill must be changed for

good.

After the meal I rode from the Mīrzā's camp some 2 miles to [Sidenote:

Fol. 187.] our own dismounting-place.

(_f. Bābur claims due respect._)

At my second visit Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā shewed me less respect than at

my first. I therefore had it said to Muḥ. Barandūq Beg and to Ẕū'n-nūn

Beg that, small though my age was (_aet._ 24), my place of honour was

large; that I had seated myself twice on the throne of our forefathers

in Samarkand by blow straight-dealt; and that to be laggard in shewing

me respect was unreasonable, since it was for this (Tīmūrid) dynasty's

sake I had thus fought and striven with that alien foe. This said, and

as it was reasonable, they admitted their mistake at once and shewed the

respect claimed.

(_g. Bābur's temperance._)

There was a wine-party (_chāghīr-majlisī_) once when I went after the

Mid-day Prayer to Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's presence. At that time I drank

no wine. The party was altogether elegant; every sort of relish to wine

(_gazak_) was set out on the napery, with brochettes of fowl and goose,

and all sorts of viands. The Mīrzā's entertainments were much renowned;

truly was this one free from the pang of thirst (_bī ghall_), reposeful

and tranquil. I was at two or three of his wine-parties while we were on

the bank of the Murgh-āb; once it was known I did not drink, no pressure

to do so was put on me.

I went to one wine-party of Muz̤affar Mīrzā's. Ḥusain of `Alī _Jalāīr_

and Mīr Badr were both there, they being in his service. When Mīr Badr

had had enough (_kaifīyat_), he danced, [Sidenote: Fol. 187b.] and

danced well what seemed to be his own invention.

(_h. Comments on the Mīrzās._)

Three months it took the Mīrzās to get out of Herī, agree amongst

themselves, collect troops, and reach Murgh-āb. Meantime Sl.

Qul-i-nachāq (?), reduced to extremity, had surrendered Balkh to the

Aūzbeg but that Aūzbeg, hearing of our alliance against him, had hurried

back to Samarkand. The Mīrzās were good enough as company and in social

matters, in conversation and parties, but they were strangers to war,

strategy, equipment, bold fight and encounter.

(_i. Winter plans._)

While we were on the Murgh-āb, news came that Ḥaq-naẕīr _Chapā_ (var.

Ḥiān) was over-running the neighbourhood of Chīchīk-tū with 4 or 500

men. All the Mīrzās there present, do what they would, could not manage

to send a light troop against those raiders! It is 10 _yīghāch_ (50-55

m.) from Murgh-āb to Chīchīk-tū. I asked the work; they, with a thought

for their own reputation, would not give it to me.

The year being almost at an end when Shaibāq Khān retired, the Mīrzās

decided to winter where it was convenient and to reassemble next summer

in order to repel their foe.

They pressed me to winter in Khurāsān, but this not one of my

well-wishers saw it good for me to do because, while Kābul and Ghaznī

were full of a turbulent and ill-conducted medley of [Sidenote: Fol.

188.] people and hordes, Turks, Mughūls, clans and nomads (_aīmāq u

aḥsham_), Afghāns and Hazāra, the roads between us and that not yet

desirably subjected country of Kābul were, one, the mountain-road, a

month's journey even without delay through snow or other cause,—the

other, the low-country road, a journey of 40 or 50 days.

Consequently we excused ourselves to the Mīrzās, but they would accept

no excuse and, for all our pleas, only urged the more. In the end

Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā, Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā and Muz̤affar Mīrzā themselves

rode to my tent and urged me to stay the winter. It was impossible to

refuse men of such ruling position, come in person to press us to stay

on. Besides this, the whole habitable world has not such a town as Herī

had become under Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, whose orders and efforts had

increased its splendour and beauty as ten to one, rather, as twenty to

one. As I greatly wished to stay, I consented to do so.

Abū'l-muḥsin M. went to Marv, his own district; Ibn-i-ḥusain M. went to

his, Tūn and Qāīn; Badī`u'z-zamān M. and Muz̤affar M. set off for Herī;

I followed them a few days later, taking the road by Chihil-dukhtarān

and Tāsh-rabāṯ.[1185]

(_j. Bābur visits the Begīms in Herī._)

All the Begīms, _i.e._ my paternal-aunt Pāyanda-sulṯān Begīm, Khadīja

Begīm, Apāq Begīm, and my other paternal-aunt Begīms, daughters of Sl.

Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā,[1186] were gathered together, at the time I went to see

them, in Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's College at his [Sidenote: Fol. 188b.]

Mausoleum. Having bent the knee with (_yūkūnūb bīla_) Pāyanda-sulṯān

Begīm first of all, I had an interview with her; next, not bending the

knee,[1187] I had an interview with Apāq Begīm; next, having bent the

knee with Khadīja Begīm, I had an interview with her. After sitting

there for some time during recitation of the Qorān,[1188] we went to the

South College where Khadīja Begīm's tents had been set up and where food

was placed before us. After partaking of this, we went to Pāyanda-sulṯān

Begīm's tents and there spent the night.

The New-year's Garden was given us first for a camping-ground; there our

camp was arranged; and there I spent the night of the day following my

visit to the Begīms, but as I did not find it a convenient place,

`Alī-sher Beg's residence was assigned to me, where I was as long as I

stayed in Herī, every few days shewing myself in Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's

presence in the World-adorning Garden.

(_k. The Mīrzās entertain Bābur in Herī._)

A few days after Muz̤affar Mīrzā had settled down in the White-garden,

he invited me to his quarters; Khadīja Begīm was also there, and with me

went Jahāngīr Mīrzā. When we had eaten a meal in the Begīm's

presence,[1189] Muz̤affar Mīrzā took me to where there was a wine-party,

in the T̤arab-khāna (Joy-house) built by Bābur Mīrzā, a sweet little

abode, a smallish, two-storeyed house in the middle of a smallish

garden. Great pains have been taken with its upper storey; this has a

retreat (_ḥujra_) in each of its four corners, the space between each

two retreats being like a _shāh-nīshīn_[1190]; in between these retreats

and [Sidenote: Fol. 189.] _shāh-nīshīns_ is one large room on all sides

of which are pictures which, although Bābur Mīrzā built the house, were

commanded by Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā and depict his own wars and encounters.

Two divans had been set in the north _shāh-nīshīn_, facing each other,

and with their sides turned to the north. On one Muz̤affar Mīrzā and I

sat, on the other Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā[1191] and Jahāngīr Mīrzā. We being

guests, Muz̤affar Mīrzā gave me place above himself. The social cups

were filled, the cup-bearers ordered to carry them to the guests; the

guests drank down the mere wine as if it were water-of-life; when it

mounted to their heads, the party waxed warm.

They thought to make me also drink and to draw me into their own circle.

Though up till then I had not committed the sin of wine-drinking[1192]

and known the cheering sensation of comfortable drunkenness, I was

inclined to drink wine and my heart was drawn to cross that stream

(_wāda_). I had had no inclination for wine in my childhood; I knew

nothing of its cheer and pleasure. If, as sometimes, my father pressed

wine on me, I excused myself; I did not commit the sin. After he

[Sidenote: Fol. 189b.] died, Khwāja Qāẓī's right guidance kept me

guiltless; as at that time I abstained from forbidden viands, what room

was there for the sin of wine? Later on when, with the young man's lusts

and at the prompting of sensual passion, desire for wine arose, there

was no-one to press it on me, no-one indeed aware of my leaning towards

it; so that, inclined for it though my heart was, it was difficult of

myself to do such a thing, one thitherto undone. It crossed my mind now,

when the Mīrzās were so pressing and when too we were in a town so

refined as Herī, "Where should I drink if not here? here where all the

chattels and utensils of luxury and comfort are gathered and in use." So

saying to myself, I resolved to drink wine; I determined to cross that

stream; but it occurred to me that as I had not taken wine in

Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's house or from his hand, who was to me as an elder

brother, things might find way into his mind if I took wine in his

younger brother's house and from his hand. Having so said to myself, I

mentioned my doubt and difficulty. Said they, "Both the excuse and the

obstacle are reasonable," pressed me no more to drink then but settled

that when I was in company with both Mīrzās, I should drink under the

insistance of both.

Amongst the musicians present at this party were Ḥāfiẓ Ḥājī, [Sidenote:

Fol. 190.] Jalālu'd-dīn Maḥmūd the flautist, and Ghulām _shādī_'s

younger brother, Ghulām _bacha_ the Jews'-harpist. Ḥāfiẓ Ḥājī sang well,

as Herī people sing, quietly, delicately, and in tune. With Jahāngīr

Mīrzā was a Samarkandī singer Mīr Jān whose singing was always loud,

harsh and out-of-tune. The Mīrzā, having had enough, ordered him to

sing; he did so, loudly, harshly and without taste. Khurāsānīs have

quite refined manners; if, under this singing, one did stop his ears,

the face of another put question, not one could stop the singer, out of

consideration for the Mīrzā.

After the Evening Prayer we left the T̤arab-khāna for a new house in

Muz̤affar Mīrzā's winter-quarters. There Yūsuf-i-`alī danced in the

drunken time, and being, as he was, a master in music, danced well. The

party waxed very warm there. Muz̤affar Mīrzā gave me a sword-belt, a

lambskin surtout, and a grey _tīpūchāq_ (horse). Jānak recited in

Turkī. Two slaves of the Mīrzā's, known as Big-moon and Little-moon, did

offensive, drunken tricks in the drunken time. The party was warm till

night when those assembled scattered, I, however, staying the night in

that house.

Qāsim Beg getting to hear that I had been pressed to drink wine, sent

some-one to Ẕū'n-nūn Beg with advice for him and for Muz̤affar Mīrzā,

given in very plain words; the result was [Sidenote: Fol. 190b.] that

the Mīrzās entirely ceased to press wine upon me.

Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā, hearing that Muz̤affar M. had entertained me,

asked me to a party arranged in the Maqauwī-khāna of the World-adorning

Garden. He asked also some of my close circle[1193] and some of our

braves. Those about me could never drink (openly) on my own account; if

they ever did drink, they did it perhaps once in 40 days, with doorstrap

fast and under a hundred fears. Such as these were now invited; here too

they drank with a hundred precautions, sometimes calling off my

attention, sometimes making a screen of their hands, notwithstanding

that I had given them permission to follow common custom, because this

party was given by one standing to me as a father or elder brother.

People brought in weeping-willows....[1194]

At this party they set a roast goose before me but as I was no carver or

disjointer of birds, I left it alone. "Do you not like it?" inquired the

Mīrzā. Said I, "I am a poor carver." On this he at once disjointed the

bird and set it again before [Sidenote: Fol. 191.] me. In such matters

he had no match. At the end of the party he gave me an enamelled

waist-dagger, a _chār-qāb_,[1195] and a _tīpūchāq_.

(_l. Bābur sees the sights of Herī._)

Every day of the time I was in Herī I rode out to see a new sight; my

guide in these excursions was Yūsuf-i-`alī Kūkūldāsh; wherever we

dismounted, he set food before me. Except Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's Almshouse,

not one famous spot, maybe, was left unseen in those 40 days.

I saw the Gāzur-gāh,[1196] `Alī-sher's Bāghcha (Little-garden), the

Paper-mortars,[1197] Takht-astāna (Royal-residence), Pul-i-gāh,

Kahad-stān,[1198] Naẕar-gāh-garden, Ni`matābād (Pleasure-place),

Gāzur-gāh Avenue, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's Ḥaẕirat,[1199] Takht-i-safar,[1200]

Takht-i-nawā'ī, Takht-i-barkar, Takht-i-Ḥājī Beg, Takht-i-Bahā'u'd-dīn

`Umar, Takht-i-Shaikh Zainu'd-dīn, Maulānā `Abdu'r-raḥmān _Jāmī_'s

honoured shrine and tomb,[1201] Namāz-gāh-i-mukhtār,[1202] the

Fish-pond,[1203] Sāq-i-sulaimān,[1204] Bulūrī (Crystal) which

originally may have been Abū'l-walīd,[1205] Imām Fakhr,[1206]

Avenue-garden, Mīrzā's Colleges and tomb, Guhār-shād Begīm's College,

tomb,[1207] and Congregational Mosque, the Ravens'-garden, New-garden,

Zubaida-garden,[1208] Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's White-house [Sidenote: Fol.

191b.] outside the `Iraq-gate, Pūrān,[1209] the Archer's-seat, Chargh

(hawk)-meadow, Amīr Wāḥid,[1210] Mālān-bridge,[1211] Khwāja-tāq,[1212]

White-garden, T̤arab-khāna, Bāgh-i-jahān-ārā, Kūshk,[1213]

Maqauwī-khāna, Lily-house, Twelve-towers, the great tank to the north of

Jahān-ārā and the four dwellings on its four sides, the five Fort-gates,

_viz._ the Malik, `Irāq, Fīrūzābād, Khūsh[1214] and Qībchāq Gates,

Chārsū, Shaikhu'l-islām's College, Maliks' Congregational Mosque,

Town-garden, Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's College on the bank of the

Anjīl-canal, `Alī-sher Beg's dwellings where we resided and which people

call Unsīya (Ease), his tomb and mosque which they call Qudsīya (Holy),

his College and Almshouse which they call Khalāṣīya and Akhlāṣīya

(Freedom and Sincerity), his Hot-bath and Hospital which they call

Ṣafā'īya and Shafā'īya. All these I visited in that space of time.

(_m. Bābur engages Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān in marriage._)

It must have been before those throneless times[1215] that Ḥabība-sulṯān

Begīm, the mother of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's youngest daughter Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān

Begīm, brought her daughter into Herī. One day when I was visiting my

Ākā, Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān Begīm came there with her mother and at once felt

arise in her a great inclination towards me. Private messengers having

been sent, my Ākā and my Yīnkā, as I used to call Pāyanda-sulṯān Begīm

[Sidenote: Fol. 192.] and Habība-sulṯān Begīm, settled between them that

the latter should bring her daughter after me to Kābul.[1216]

(_n. Bābur leaves Khurāsān._)

Very pressingly had Muḥ Barandūq Beg and Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_ said, "Winter

here!" but they had given me no winter-quarters nor had they made any

winter-arrangements for me. Winter came on; snow fell on the mountains

between us and Kābul; anxiety grew about Kābul; no winter-quarters were

offered, no arrangements made! As we could not speak out, of necessity

we left Herī!

On the pretext of finding winter-quarters, we got out of the town on the

7th day of the month of Sha`bān (Dec. 24th 1506 AD.), and went to near

Bādghīs. Such were our slowness and our tarryings that the Ramẓān-moon

was seen a few marches only beyond the Langar of Mir Ghiyāṣ.[1217] Of

our braves who were absent on various affairs, some joined us, some

followed us into Kābul 20 days or a month later, some stayed in Herī and

took service with the Mīrzās. One of these last was Sayyidīm `Alī the

gate-ward, who became Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's retainer. To no servant of

Khusrau Shāh had I shewn so much favour as to him; he had been given

Ghaznī when Jahāngīr Mīrzā abandoned it, and in it when he came away

with the army, had left his younger brother Dost-i-anjū (?) Shaikh.

There were in truth [Sidenote: Fol. 192b.] no better men amongst Khusrau

Shāh's retainers than this man Sayyidīm `Alī the gate-ward and

Muḥibb-i-`alī the armourer. Sayyidīm was of excellent nature and

manners, a bold swordsman, a singularly competent and methodical man.

His house was never without company and assembly; he was greatly

generous, had wit and charm, a variety of talk and story, and was a

sweet-natured, good-humoured, ingenious, fun-loving person. His fault

was that he practised vice and pederasty. He may have swerved from the

Faith; may also have been a hypocrite in his dealings; some of what

seemed double-dealing people attributed to his jokes, but, still, there

must have been a something![1218] When Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā had let

Shaibāq Khān take Herī and had gone to Shāh Beg (_Arghūn_), he had

Sayyidīm `Alī thrown into the Harmand because of his double-dealing

words spoken between the Mīrzā and Shāh Beg. Muḥibb-i-`alī's story will

come into the narrative of events hereafter to be written.

(_o. A perilous mountain-journey._)

From the Langar of Mīr Ghiyās̤ we had ourselves guided past the

border-villages of Gharjistān to Chach-charān.[1219] From the almshouse

to Gharjistān was an unbroken sheet of snow; it was deeper further on;

near Chach-charān itself it was above the horses' knees. Chach-charān

depended on Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_; his retainer Mīr Jān-aīrdī was in it now;

from him we took, on payment, the whole of Ẕū'n-nūn Beg's store of

provisions. A march or two further on, the snow was very deep, being

above [Sidenote: Fol. 193.] the stirrup, indeed in many places the

horses' feet did not touch the ground.

We had consulted at the Langar of Mīr Ghiyās̤ which road to take for

return to Kābul; most of us agreed in saying, "It is winter, the

mountain-road is difficult and dangerous; the Qandahār road, though a

little longer, is safe and easy." Qāsim Beg said, "That road is long;

you will go by this one." As he made much dispute, we took the

mountain-road.

Our guide was a Pashāī named Pīr Sulṯān (Old sultan?). Whether it was

through old age, whether from want of heart, whether because of the deep

snow, he lost the road and could not guide us. As we were on this route

under the insistance of Qāsim Beg, he and his sons, for his name's sake,

dismounted, trampled the snow down, found the road again and took the

lead. One day the snow was so deep and the way so uncertain that we

could not go on; there being no help for it, back we turned, dismounted

where there was fuel, picked out 60 or 70 good men and sent them down

the valley in our tracks to fetch any one soever of the Hazāra,

wintering in the valley-bottom, who might shew us the road. That place

could not be left till our men returned three or four days later. They

brought no [Sidenote: Fol. 193b.] guide; once more we sent Sulṯān

_Pashāī_ ahead and, putting our trust in God, again took the road by

which we had come back from where it was lost. Much misery and hardship

were endured in those few days, more than at any time of my life. In

that stress I composed the following opening couplet:—

Is there one cruel turn of Fortune's wheel unseen of me?

Is there a pang, a grief my wounded heart has missed?

We went on for nearly a week, trampling down the snow and not getting

forward more than two or three miles a day. I was one of the

snow-stampers, with 10 or 15 of my household, Qāsim Beg, his sons

Tīngrī-bīrdī and Qaṃbar-i-`alī and two or three of their retainers.

These mentioned used to go forward for 7 or 8 yards, stamping the snow

down and at each step sinking to the waist or the breast. After a few

steps the leading man would stand still, exhausted by the labour, and

another would go forward. By the time 10, 15, 20, men on foot had

stamped the snow down, it became so that a horse might be led over it. A

horse would be led, would sink to the stirrups, could do no more than 10

or 12 steps, and would be drawn aside to let another go on. After we,

10, 15, 20, men had stamped down the snow and had led horses forward in

this fashion, very serviceable [Sidenote: Fol. 194.] braves and men of

renowned name would enter the beaten track, hanging their heads. It was

not a time to urge or compel! the man with will and hardihood for such

tasks does them by his own request! Stamping the snow down in this way,

we got out of that afflicting place (_ānjūkān yīr_) in three or four

days to a cave known as the Khawāl-i-qūtī (Blessed-cave), below the

Zirrīn-pass.

That night the snow fell in such an amazing blizzard of cutting wind

that every man feared for his life. The storm had become extremely

violent by the time we reached the _khawāl_, as people in those parts

call a mountain-cave (_ghar_) or hollow (_khāwāk_). We dismounted at its

mouth. Deep snow! a one-man road! and even on that stamped-down and

trampled road, pitfalls for horses! the days at their shortest! The

first arrivals reached the cave by daylight; others kept coming in from

the Evening Prayer till the Bed-time one; later than that people

dismounted wherever they happened to be; dawn shot with many still in

the saddle.

The cave seeming to be rather small, I took a shovel and shovelled out a

place near its mouth, the size of a sitting-mat [Sidenote: Fol. 194b.]

(_takiya-namad_), digging it out breast-high but even then not reaching

the ground. This made me a little shelter from the wind when I sat right

down in it. I did not go into the cave though people kept saying, "Come

inside," because this was in my mind, "Some of my men in snow and storm,

I in the comfort of a warm house! the whole horde (_aūlūs_) outside in

misery and pain, I inside sleeping at ease! That would be far from a

man's act, quite another matter than comradeship! Whatever hardship and

wretchedness there is, I will face; what strong men stand, I will stand;

for, as the Persian proverb says, to die with friends is a nuptial."

Till the Bed-time Prayer I sat through that blizzard of snow and wind in

the dug-out, the snow-fall being such that my head, back, and ears were

overlaid four hands thick. The cold of that night affected my ears. At

the Bed-time Prayer some-one, looking more carefully at the cave,

shouted out, "It is a very roomy cave with place for every-body." On

hearing this I shook off my roofing of snow and, asking the braves near

to come also, went inside. There was room for 50 or 60! People brought

out their rations, cold meat, parched grain, whatever they had. From

such cold and tumult to a place so warm, cosy and quiet![1220]

Next day the snow and wind having ceased, we made an early start and we

got to the pass by again stamping down [Sidenote: Fol. 195.] a road in

the snow. The proper road seems to make a détour up the flank of the

mountain and to go over higher up, by what is understood to be called

the Zirrīn-pass. Instead of taking that road, we went straight up the

valley-bottom (_qūl_).[1221] It was night before we reached the further

side of the (Bakkak-)pass; we spent the night there in the mouth of the

valley, a night of mighty cold, got through with great distress and

suffering. Many a man had his hands and feet frost-bitten; that night's

cold took both Kīpa's feet, both Sīūndūk _Turkmān_'s hands, both Āhī's

feet. Early next morning we moved down the valley; putting our trust in

God, we went straight down, by bad slopes and sudden falls, knowing and

seeing it could not be the right way. It was the Evening Prayer when we

got out of that valley. No long-memoried old man knew that any-one had

been heard of as crossing that pass with the snow so deep, or indeed

that it had ever entered the heart of man to cross it at that time of

year. Though for a few days we had suffered greatly through the depth of

the snow, yet its depth, in the end, enabled us to reach our

destination. For why? How otherwise should we have traversed those

pathless slopes and sudden falls? [Sidenote: Fol. 195b.]

All ill, all good in the count, is gain if looked at aright!

The Yaka-aūlāng people at once heard of our arrival and our dismounting;

followed, warm houses, fat sheep, grass and horse-corn, water without

stint, ample wood and dried dung for fires! To escape from such snow and

cold to such a village, to such warm dwellings, was comfort those will

understand who have had our trials, relief known to those who have felt

our hardships. We tarried one day in Yaka-aūlāng, happy-of-heart and

easy-of-mind; marched 2 _yīghāch_ (10-12 m.) next day and dismounted.

The day following was the Ramẓān Feast[1222]; we went on through Bāmīān,

crossed by Shibr-tū and dismounted before reaching Janglīk.

(_p. Second raid on the Turkmān Hazāras._)

The Turkmān Hazāras with their wives and little children must have made

their winter-quarters just upon our road[1223]; they had no word about

us; when we got in amongst their cattle-pens and tents (_alāchūq_) two

or three groups of these went to ruin and plunder, the people themselves

drawing off with their little children and abandoning houses and goods.

News was [Sidenote: Fol. 196.] brought from ahead that, at a place where

there were narrows, a body of Hazāras was shooting arrows, holding up

part of the army, and letting no-one pass. We, hurrying on, arrived to

find no narrows at all; a few Hazāras were shooting from a naze,

standing in a body on the hill[1224] like very good soldiers.[1225]

They saw the blackness of the foe;

Stood idle-handed and amazed;

I arriving, went swift that way,

Pressed on with shout, "Move on! move on!"

I wanted to hurry my men on,

To make them stand up to the foe.

With a "Hurry up!" to my men,

I went on to the front.

Not a man gave ear to my words.

I had no armour nor horse-mail nor arms,

I had but my arrows and quiver.

I went, the rest, maybe all of them, stood,

Stood still as if slain by the foe!

Your servant you take that you may have use

Of his arms, of his life, the whole time;

Not that the servant stand still

While the beg makes advance to the front;

Not that the servant take rest

While his beg is making the rounds.

From no such a servant will come

Speed, or use in your Gate, or zest for your food.

At last I charged forward myself,

[Sidenote: Fol. 196b.] Herding the foe up the hill;

Seeing me go, my men also moved,

Leaving their terrors behind.

With me they swift spread over the slope,

Moving on without heed to the shaft;

Sometimes on foot, mounted sometimes,

Boldly we ever moved on,

Still from the hill poured the shafts.

Our strength seen, the foe took to flight.

We got out on the hill; we drove the Hazāras,

Drove them like deer by valley and ridge;

We shot those wretches like deer;

We shared out the booty in goods and in sheep;

The Turkmān Hazāras' kinsfolk we took;

We made captive their people of sorts (_qarā_);

We laid hands on their men of renown;

Their wives and their children we took.

I myself collected a few of the Hazāras' sheep, gave them into Yārak

T̤aghāī's charge, and went to the front. By ridge and valley, driving

horses and sheep before us, we went to Tīmūr Beg's Langar and there

dismounted. Fourteen or fifteen Hazāra thieves had fallen into our

hands; I had thought of having them put to death when we next

dismounted, with various torture, as a warning to all highwaymen and

robbers, but Qāsim Beg came across them on the road and, with mistimed

[Sidenote: Fol. 197.] compassion, set them free.

To do good to the bad is one and the same

As the doing of ill to the good;

On brackish soil no spikenard grows,

Waste no seed of toil upon it.[1226]

Out of compassion the rest of the prisoners were released also.

(_j. Disloyalty in Kābul._)

News came while we were raiding the Turkmān Hazāras, that Muḥammad

Ḥusain Mīrzā _Dūghlāt_ and Sl. Sanjar _Barlās_ had drawn over to

themselves the Mughūls left in Kābul, declared Mīrzā Khān (Wais) supreme

(_pādshāh_), laid siege to the fort and spread a _report_ that

Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and Muz̤affar Mīrzā had sent me, a prisoner, to

Fort Ikhtiyāru'd-dīn, now known as Ālā-qūrghān.

In command of the Kābul-fort there had been left Mullā Bābā of

Pashāghar, Khalīfa, Muḥibb-i-`alī the armourer, Aḥmad-i-yūsuf and

Aḥmad-i-qāsim. They did well, made the fort fast, strengthened it, and

kept watch.

(_k. Bābur's advance to Kābul._)

From Tīmūr Beg's Langar we sent Qāsim Beg's servant, Muḥ. of Andijān, a

_Tūqbāī_, to the Kābul begs, with written details of our arrival and of

the following arrangements:—"When we are out of the Ghūr-bund

narrows,[1227] we will fall on them suddenly; let our signal to you be

the fire we will light directly we have passed Minār-hill; do you in

reply light one in the citadel, on [Sidenote: Fol. 197b.] the old Kūshk

(kiosk)," now the Treasury, "so that we may be sure you know of our

coming. We will come up from our side; you come out from yours; neglect

nothing your hands can find to do!" This having been put into writing,

Muḥammad _Andijānī_ was sent off.

Riding next dawn from the Langar, we dismounted over against

Ushtur-shahr. Early next morning we passed the Ghūr-bund narrows,

dismounted at Bridge-head, there watered and rested our horses, and at

the Mid-day Prayer set forward again. Till we reached the

_tūtqāwal_,[1228] there was no snow, beyond that, the further we went

the deeper the snow. The cold between Ẕamma-yakhshī and Minār was such

as we had rarely felt in our lives.

We sent on Aḥmad the messenger (_yāsāwal_) and Qarā Aḥmad

_yūrūnchī_[1229] to say to the begs, "Here we are at the time promised;

be ready! be bold! "After crossing Minār-hill[1230] and dismounting on

its skirt, helpless with cold, we lit fires to warm ourselves. It was

not time to light the signal-fire; we just lit these because we were

helpless in that mighty cold. Near shoot of dawn we rode on from

Minār-hill; between it and Kābul the snow was up to the horses' knees

and had hardened, so off the road to move was difficult. Riding

single-file the whole way, we got to Kābul [Sidenote: Fol. 198.] in good

time undiscovered.[1231] Before we were at Bībī Māh-rūī (Lady

Moon-face), the blaze of fire on the citadel let us know that the begs

were looking out.

(_l. Attack made on the rebels._)

On reaching Sayyid Qāsim's bridge, Sherīm T̤aghāī and the men of the

right were sent towards Mullā Bābā's bridge, while we of the left and

centre took the Bābā Lūlī road. Where Khalīfa's garden now is, there was

then a smallish garden made by Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā for a Langar

(almshouse); none of its trees or shrubs were left but its enclosing

wall was there. In this garden Mīrzā Khān was seated, Muḥ. Ḥusain Mīrzā

being in Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā's great Bāgh-i-bihisht. I had gone as far

along the lane of Mullā Bābā's garden as the burial-ground when four men

met us who had hurried forward into Mīrzā Khān's quarters, been beaten,

and forced to turn back. One of the four was Sayyid Qāsim Lord of the

Gate, another was Qāsim Beg's son Qaṃbar-i-`alī, another was Sher-qulī

the scout, another was Sl. Aḥmad _Mughūl_ one of Sher-qulī's band. These

four, without a "God forbid!" (_taḥāshī_) had gone right into Mīrzā

Khān's quarters; thereupon he, hearing an uproar, had mounted and got

away. Abū'l-ḥasan the armourer's younger brother even, Muḥ. Ḥusain by

name, had taken service with Mīrzā Khān; he had slashed at Sher-qulī,

[Sidenote: Fol. 198b.] one of those four, thrown him down, and was just

striking his head off, when Sher-qulī freed himself. Those four, tasters

of the sword, tasters of the arrow, wounded one and all, came pelting

back on us to the place mentioned.

Our horsemen, jammed in the narrow lane, were standing still, unable to

move forward or back. Said I to the braves near, "Get off and force a

road". Off got Nāṣir's Dost, Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī the librarian, Bābā

Sher-zād (Tiger-whelp), Shāh Maḥmūd and others, pushed forward and at

once cleared the way. The enemy took to flight.

We had looked for the begs to come out from the Fort but they could not

come in time for the work; they only dropped in, by ones and twos, after

we had made the enemy scurry off. Aḥmad-i-yūsuf had come from them

before I went into the Chār-bāgh where Mīrzā Khān had been; he went in

with me, but we both turned back when we saw the Mīrzā had gone off.

Coming in at the garden-gate was Dost of Sar-i-pul, a foot-soldier I had

promoted for his boldness to be Kotwāl and had left in Kābul; he made

straight for me, sword in hand. I had my cuirass on but had not fastened

the _gharīcha_[1232] nor had I put on [Sidenote: Fol. 199.] my helm.

Whether he did not recognize me because of change wrought by cold and

snow, or whether because of the flurry of the fight, though I shouted

"Hāī Dost! hāī Dost!" and though Aḥmad-i-yūsuf also shouted, he, without

a "God forbid!" brought down his sword on my unprotected arm. Only by

God's grace can it have been that not a hairbreadth of harm was done to

me.

If a sword shook the Earth from her place,

Not a vein would it cut till God wills.

It was through the virtue of a prayer I had repeated that the Great God

averted this danger and turned this evil aside. That prayer was as

follows:—

"O my God! Thou art my Creator; except Thee there is no God.

On Thee do I repose my trust; Thou art the Lord of the mighty

throne. What God wills comes to pass; and what he does not

will comes not to pass; and there is no power or strength but

through the high and exalted God; and, of a truth, in all

things God is almighty; and verily He comprehends all things

by his knowledge, and has taken account of everything. O my

Creator! as I sincerely trust in Thee, do Thou seize by the

forelock all evil proceeding from within myself, and all evil

coming from without, and all evil proceeding from every man

who can be the occasion of evil, and all such evil as can

proceed from any living thing, and remove them far from me;

since, of a truth, Thou art the Lord of the exalted

throne!"[1233]

On leaving that garden we went to Muḥ. Ḥusain Mīrzā's quarters in the

Bāgh-i-bihisht, but he had fled and gone off to hide himself. Seven or

eight men stood in a breach of the [Sidenote: Fol. 199b.] garden-wall; I

spurred at them; they could not stand; they fled; I got up with them and

cut at one with my sword; he rolled over in such a way that I fancied

his head was off, passed on and went away; it seems he was Mīrzā Khān's

foster-brother, Tūlik Kūkūldāsh and that my sword fell on his shoulder.

At the gate of Muḥ. Ḥusain Mīrzā's quarters, a Mughūl I recognized for

one of my own servants, drew his bow and aimed at my face from a place

on the roof as near me as a gate-ward stands to a Gate. People on all

sides shouted, "Hāi! hāi! it is the Pādshāh." He changed his aim, shot

off his arrow and ran away. The affair was beyond the shooting of

arrows! His Mīrzā, his leaders, had run away or been taken; why was he

shooting?

There they brought Sl. Sanjar _Barlās_, led in by a rope round his neck;

he even, to whom I had given the Nīngnahār _tūmān_, had had his part in

the mutiny! Greatly agitated, he kept crying out, "Hāi! what fault is in

me?" Said I, "Can there be one clearer than that you are higher than the

purpose and counsels of this crew?"[1234] But as he was the sister's son

of my Khān _dādā's_ mother, Shāh Begīm, I gave the order, "Do not lead

him with such dishonour; it is not death."

On leaving that place, I sent Aḥmad-i-qasim _Kohbur_, one of the begs of

the Fort, with a few braves, in pursuit of [Sidenote: Fol. 200.] Mīrzā

Khān.

(_m. Bābur's dealings with disloyal women._)

When I left the Bāgh-i-bihisht, I went to visit Shāh Begīm and

(Mihr-nigār) Khānīm who had settled themselves in tents by the side of

the garden.

As townspeople and black-bludgeoners had raised a riot, and were putting

hands out to pillage property and to catch persons in corners and

outside places, I sent men, to beat the rabble off, and had it herded

right away.[1235]

Shāh Begīm and Khānīm were seated in one tent. I dismounted at the usual

distance, approached with my former deference and courtesy, and had an

interview with them. They were extremely agitated, upset, and ashamed;

could neither excuse themselves reasonably[1236] nor make the enquiries

of affection. I had not expected this (disloyalty) of them; it was not

as though that party, evil as was the position it had taken up,

consisted of persons who would not give ear to the words of Shāh Begīm

and Khānīm; Mīrzā Khān was the begīm's grandson, in her presence night

and day; if she had not fallen in with the affair, she could have kept

him with her.

Twice over when fickle Fortune and discordant Fate had parted

[Sidenote: Fol. 200b.] me from throne and country, retainer and

following, I, and my mother with me, had taken refuge with them and had

had no kindness soever from them. At that time my younger brother

(_i.e._ cousin) Mīrzā Khān and his mother Sulṯān-nigār Khānīm held

valuable cultivated districts; yet my mother and I,—to leave all

question of a district aside,—were not made possessors of a single

village or a few yoke of plough-oxen.[1237] Was my mother not Yūnas

Khān's daughter? was I not his grandson?

In my days of plenty I have given from my hand what matched the

blood-relationship and the position of whatsoever member of that

(Chaghatāī) dynasty chanced down upon me. For example, when the honoured

Shāh Begīm came to me, I gave her Pamghān, one of the best places in

Kābul, and failed in no sort of filial duty and service towards her.

Again, when Sl. Sa`īd Khān, Khān in Kāshghar, came [914 _AH._] with five

or six naked followers on foot, I looked upon him as an honoured guest

and gave him Mandrāwar of the Lamghān _tūmāns_. Beyond this also, when

Shāh Ismā`īl had killed Shaibāq Khān in Marv and I crossed over to

Qūndūz (916 _AH._-1511 _AD._), the Andijānīs, some driving their

(Aūzbeg) _dāroghas_ out, some making their places fast, turned their

eyes to me and sent me a man; at that time I trusted those old family

servants to that same Sl. Sa`īd Khān, gave him a force, made him Khān

and sped him forth. Again, down to the present time (_circa_ 934 _AH._)

I have not looked upon any member of that family who has come to me, in

any other light than as a blood-relation. For example, there [Sidenote:

Fol. 201.] are now in my service Chīn-tīmūr Sulṯān; Aīsān-tīmūr Sulṯān,

Tūkhtā-būghā Sulṯān, and Bābā Sulṯān;[1238] on one and all of these I

have looked with more favour than on blood-relations of my own.

I do not write this in order to make complaint; I have written the plain

truth. I do not set these matters down in order to make known my own

deserts; I have set down exactly what has happened. In this History I

have held firmly to it that the truth should be reached in every matter,

and that every act should be recorded precisely as it occurred. From

this it follows of necessity that I have set down of good and bad

whatever is known, concerning father and elder brother, kinsman and

stranger; of them all I have set down carefully the known virtues and

defects. Let the reader accept my excuse; let the reader pass on from

the place of severity!

(_n. Letters of victory._)

Rising from that place and going to the Chār-bāgh where Mīrzā Khān had

been, we sent letters of victory to all the countries, clans, and

retainers. This done, I rode to the citadel.

(_o. Arrest of rebel leaders._)

Muḥammad Ḥusain Mīrzā in his terror having run away into Khānīm's

bedding-room and got himself fastened up in a bundle of bedding, we

appointed Mīrīm _Dīwān_ with other begs of the fort, to take control in

those dwellings, capture, and bring him in. Mīrīm _Dīwān_ said some

plain rough words at Khānīm's [Sidenote: Fol. 201b.] gate, by some means

or other found the Mīrzā, and brought him before me in the citadel. I

rose at once to receive the Mīrzā with my usual deference, not even

shewing too harsh a face. If I had had that Muḥ. Ḥusain M. cut in

pieces, there was the ground for it that he had had part in base and

shameful action, started and spurred on mutiny and treason. Death he

deserved with one after another of varied pain and torture, but because

there had come to be various connexion between us, his very sons and

daughters being by my own mother's sister Khūb-nigār Khānīm, I kept this

just claim in mind, let him go free, and permitted him to set out

towards Khurāsān. The cowardly ingrate then forgot altogether the good I

did him by the gift of his life; he blamed and slandered me to Shaibāq

Khān. Little time passed, however, before the Khān gave him his deserts

by death.

Leave thou to Fate the man who does thee wrong,

For Fate is an avenging servitor.[1239]

Aḥmad-i-qāsim _Kohbur_ and the party of braves sent in pursuit of Mīrzā

Khān, overtook him in the low hills of Qargha-yīlāq, not able even to

run away, without heart or force to stir a finger! [Sidenote: Fol. 202.]

They took him, and brought him to where I sat in the northeast porch of

the old Court-house. Said I to him, "Come! let's have a look at one

another" (_kūrūshālīng_), but twice before he could bend the knee and

come forward, he fell down through agitation. When we had looked at one

another, I placed him by my side to give him heart, and I drank first of

the sherbet brought in, in order to remove his fears.[1240]

As those who had joined him, soldiers, peasants, Mughūls and

Chaghatāīs,[1241] were in suspense, we simply ordered him to remain for

a few days in his elder sister's house; but a few days later he was

allowed to set out for Khurāsān[1242] because those mentioned above were

somewhat uncertain and it did not seem well for him to stay in Kābul.

(_p. Excursion to Koh-dāman._)

After letting those two go, we made an excursion to Bārān, Chāsh-tūpa,

and the skirt of Gul-i-bahār.[1243] More beautiful in Spring than any

part even of Kābul are the open-lands of Bārān, the plain of Chāsh-tūpa,

and the skirt of Gul-i-bahār. Many sorts of tulip bloom there; when I

had them counted once, it came out at 34 different kinds as [has been

said].[1244] This couplet has been written in praise of these places,—

Kābul in Spring is an Eden of verdure and blossom;

Matchless in Kābul the Spring of Gul-i-bahār and Bārān.

On this excursion I finished the ode,—

_My heart, like the bud of the red, red rose,

Lies fold within fold aflame; [Sidenote: Fol. 202b.]

Would the breath of even a myriad Springs

Blow my heart's bud to a rose?_

In truth, few places are quite equal to these for spring-excursions, for

hawking (_qūsh sālmāq_) or bird-shooting (_qūsh ātmāq_), as has been

briefly mentioned in the praise and description of the Kābul and Ghaznī

country.

(_q. Nāṣir Mīrzā expelled from Badakhshān._)

This year the begs of Badakhshān _i.e._ Muḥammad the armourer, Mubārak

Shāh, Zubair and Jahāngīr, grew angry and mutinous because of the

misconduct of Nāṣir Mīrzā and some of those he cherished. Coming to an

agreement together, they drew out an army of horse and foot, arrayed it

on the level lands by the Kūkcha-water, and moved towards Yaftal and

Rāgh, to near Khamchān, by way of the lower hills. The Mīrzā and his

inexperienced begs, in their thoughtless and unobservant fashion, came

out to fight them just in those lower hills. The battle-field was uneven

ground; the Badakhshīs had a dense mass of men on foot who stood firm

under repeated charges by the Mīrzā's horse, and returned such attack

that the horsemen fled, unable to keep their ground. Having beaten the

Mīrzā, the Badakhshīs plundered his dependants and connexions.

Beaten and stripped bare, he and his close circle took the road through

Ishkīmīsh and Nārīn to Kīlā-gāhī, from there followed the Qīzīl-sū up,

got out on the Āb-dara road, crossed at Shibr-tū, and so came to Kābul,

he with 70 or 80 followers, worn-out, naked and famished.

That was a marvellous sign of the Divine might! Two or three years

earlier the Mīrzā had left the Kābul country like a [Sidenote: Fol.

203.] foe, driving tribes and hordes like sheep before him, reached

Badakhshān and made fast its forts and valley-strongholds. With what

fancy in his mind had he marched out?[1245] Now he was back, hanging the

head of shame for those earlier misdeeds, humbled and distraught about

that breach with me!

My face shewed him no sort of displeasure; I made kind enquiry about

himself, and brought him out of his confusion.

913 AH.-MAY 13TH 1507 TO MAY 2ND 1508 AD.[1246]

(_a. Raid on the Ghiljī Afghāns._)

We had ridden out of Kābul with the intention of over-running the

Ghiljī;[1247] when we dismounted at Sar-i-dih news was brought that a

mass of Mahmands (Afghāns) was lying in Masht and Sih-kāna one _yīghāch_

(_circa_ 5 m.) away from us.[1248] Our begs and braves agreed in saying,

"The Mahmands must be over-run", but I said, "Would it be right to turn

aside and raid our own peasants instead of doing what we set out to do?

It cannot be."

Riding at night from Sar-i-dih, we crossed the plain of Kattawāz in the

dark, a quite black night, one level stretch of land, no mountain or

rising-ground in sight, no known road or track, not a man able to lead

us! In the end I took the lead. I had been in those parts several times

before; drawing inferences from those times, I took the Pole-star on my

right shoulder-blade[1249] and, with some anxiety, moved on. God brought

it right! We went straight to the Qīāq-tū and the Aūlābā-tū torrent,

that is to say, straight for Khwāja Ismā`īl _Sirītī_ where the Ghiljīs

were lying, the road to which crosses the torrent named. Dismounting

near the torrent, we let ourselves and our horses sleep a little,

[Sidenote: Fol. 203b.] took breath, and bestirred ourselves at shoot of

dawn. The Sun was up before we got out of those low hills and

valley-bottoms to the plain on which the Ghiljī lay with a good

_yīghāch_[1250] of road between them and us; once out on the plain we

could see their blackness, either their own or from the smoke of their

fires.

Whether bitten by their own whim,[1251] or whether wanting to hurry, the

whole army streamed off at the gallop (_chāpqūn qūīdīlār_); off galloped

I after them and, by shooting an arrow now at a man, now at a horse,

checked them after a _kuroh_ or two (3 m.?). It is very difficult indeed

to check 5 or 6000 braves galloping loose-rein! God brought it right!

They were checked! When we had gone about one _shar`ī_ (2 m.) further,

always with the Afghān blackness in sight, the raid[1252] was allowed.

Masses of sheep fell to us, more than in any other raid.

After we had dismounted and made the spoils turn back,[1253] one body of

Afghāns after another came down into the plain, provoking a fight. Some

of the begs and of the household went against one body and killed every

man; Nāṣir Mīrzā did the same with another, and a pillar of Afghān heads

was set up. An arrow pierced the foot of that foot-soldier Dost the

Kotwāl who has been mentioned already;[1254] when we reached Kābul, he

died.

Marching from Khwāja Ismā`īl, we dismounted once more at Aūlābā-tū. Some

of the begs and of my own household were ordered to go forward and

carefully separate off the Fifth (_Khums_) of the enemy's spoils. By way

of favour, we did not [Sidenote: Fol. 204.] take the Fifth from Qāsim

Beg and some others.[1255] From what was written down,[1256] the Fifth

came out at 16,000, that is to say, this 16,000 was the fifth of 80,000

sheep; no question however but that with those lost and those not asked

for, a _lak_ (100,000) of sheep had been taken.

(_b. A hunting-circle._)

Next day when we had ridden from that camp, a hunting-circle was formed

on the plain of Kattawāz where deer (_kiyīk_)[1257] and wild-ass are

always plentiful and always fat. Masses went into the ring; masses were

killed. During the hunt I galloped after a wild-ass, on getting near

shot one arrow, shot another, but did not bring it down, it only running

more slowly for the two wounds. Spurring forwards and getting into

position[1258] quite close to it, I chopped at the nape of its neck

behind the ears, and cut through the wind-pipe; it stopped, turned over

and died. My sword cut well! The wild-ass was surprisingly fat. Its rib

may have been a little under one yard in length. Sherīm T̤aghāī and

other observers of _kiyīk_ in Mughūlistān said with surprise, "Even in

Mughūlistān we have seen few _kiyīk_ so fat!" I shot another wild-ass;

most of the wild-asses and deer brought down in that hunt were fat, but

not one of them was so fat as the one I first killed.

Turning back from that raid, we went to Kābul and there dismounted.

(_c. Shaibāq Khān moves against Khurāsān._)

Shaibāq Khān had got an army to horse at the end of last year, meaning

to go from Samarkand against Khurāsān, his [Sidenote: Fol. 204b.] march

out being somewhat hastened by the coming to him of a servant of that

vile traitor to his salt, Shāh Manṣūr the Paymaster, then in Andikhūd.

When the Khān was approaching Andikhūd, that vile wretch said, "I have

sent a man to the Aūzbeg," relied on this, adorned himself, stuck up an

aigrette on his head, and went out, bearing gift and tribute. On this

the leaderless[1259] Aūzbegs poured down on him from all sides, and

turned upside down (_tart-part_) the blockhead, his offering and his

people of all sorts.

(_d. Irresolution of the Khurāsān Mīrzās._)

Badī`u´z-zamān Mīrzā, Muz̤affar Mīrzā, Muḥ. Barandūq _Barlās_ and

Ẕū´n-nūn _Arghūn_ were all lying with their army in Bābā Khākī,[1260]

not decided to fight, not settled to make (Herī) fort fast, there they

sat, confounded, vague, uncertain what to do. Muḥammad Barandūq _Barlās_

was a knowledgeable man; he kept saying, "You let Muz̤affar Mīrzā and me

make the fort fast; let Badī`u´z-zamān Mīrzā and Ẕū´n-nūn Beg go into

the mountains near Herī and gather in Sl. `Alī _Arghūn_ from Sīstān and

Zamīn-dāwar, Shāh Beg and Muqīm from Qandahār with all their armies, and

let them collect also what there is of Nikdīrī and Hazāra force; this

done, let them make a swift and telling move. The enemy would find it

difficult to go into the mountains, and could not come against the

(Herī) fort because [Sidenote: Fol. 205.] he would be afraid of the army

outside." He said well, his plan was practical.

Brave though Ẕū´n-nūn _Arghūn_ was, he was mean, a lover-of-goods, far

from businesslike or judicious, rather shallow-pated, and a bit of a

fool. As has been mentioned,[1261] when that elder and that younger

brother became joint-rulers in Herī, he had chief authority in

Badī`u´z-zamān Mīrzā's presence. He was not willing now for Muḥ.

Barandūq Beg to remain inside Herī town; being the lover-of-goods he

was, he wanted to be there himself. But he could not make this seem one

and the same thing![1262] Is there a better sign of his shallow-pate and

craze than that he degraded himself and became contemptible by accepting

the lies and flattery of rogues and sycophants? Here are the

particulars[1263]:—While he was so dominant and trusted in Herī, certain

Shaikhs and Mullās went to him and said, "The Spheres are holding

commerce with us; you are styled _Hizabru´l-lāh_ (Lion of God); you will

overcome the Aūzbeg." Believing these words, he put his bathing-cloth

round his neck and gave thanks. It was through this he did not accept

Muḥammad Barandūq Beg's sensible counsel, did not strengthen the works

(_aīsh_) of the fort, get ready fighting equipment, set scout or

rearward to warn of the foe's approach, or plan out such method of array

that, should the foe appear, his men would fight with ready heart.

(_e. Shaibāq Khān takes Herī._)

Shaibāq Khān passed through Murgh-āb to near Sīr-kāī[1264] in [Sidenote:

Fol. 205b.] the month of Muḥarram (913 AH. May-June 1507 AD.). When the

Mīrzās heard of it, they were altogether upset, could not act, collect

troops, array those they had. Dreamers, they moved through a

dream![1265] Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_, made glorious by that flattery, went out

to Qarā-rabāṯ, with 100 to 150 men, to face 40,000 to 50,000 Aūzbegs: a

mass of these coming up, hustled his off, took him, killed him and cut

off his head.[1266]

In Fort Ikhtiyāru'd-dīn, it is known as Ālā-qūrghān,[1267] were the

Mīrzās' mothers, elder and younger sisters, wives and treasure. The

Mīrzās reached the town at night, let their horses rest till midnight,

slept, and at dawn flung forth again. They could not think about

strengthening the fort; in the respite and crack of time there was, they

just ran away,[1268] leaving mother, sister, wife and little child to

Aūzbeg captivity.

What there was of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's _ḥaram_, Pāyanda-sulṯān Begīm and

Khadīja Begīm at the head of it, was inside Ālā-qūrghān; there too were

the _ḥarams_ of Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā[1269] and Muz̤affar Mīrzā with

their little children, treasure, and households (_biyutāt_). What was

desirable for making the fort fast had not been done; even braves to

reinforce it had not arrived. `Āshiq-i-muḥammad _Arghūn_, the younger

brother of Mazīd Beg, had fled from the army on foot and gone into it;

[Sidenote: Fol. 206.] in it was also Amīr `Umar Beg's son `Alī Khān

(_Turkmān_); Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh the taster was there; Mīrzā Beg

_Kāī-khusraūī_ was there; and Mīrak _Gūr_ (or _Kūr_) the Dīwān was

there.

When Shaibāq Khān arrived two or three days later; the Shaikhu'l-islām

and notables went out to him with the keys of the outer-fort. That same

`Āshiq-i-muḥammad held Ālā-qūrghān for 16 or 17 days; then a mine, run

from the horse-market outside, was fired and brought a tower down; the

garrison lost heart, could hold out no longer, so let the fort be taken.

(_f. Shaibāq Khān in Herī._)

Shaibāq Khān, after taking Herī,[1270] behaved badly not only to the

wives and children of its rulers but to every person soever. For the

sake of this five-days' fleeting world, he earned himself a bad name.

His first improper act and deed in Herī was that, for the sake of this

rotten world (_chirk dunyā_), he caused Khadīja Begīm various miseries,

through letting the vile wretch Pay-master Shāh Manṣūr get hold of her

to loot. Then he let `Abdu'l-wahhāb _Mughūl_ take to loot a person so

saintly and so revered as Shaikh Pūrān, and each one of Shaikh Pūrān's

children be taken by a separate person. He let the band of poets be

seized by Mullā Banā'ī, a matter about which this verse is well-known in

Khurāsān:—

Except `Abdu'l-lāh the stupid fool (_kīr-khar_),

Not a poet to-day sees the colour of gold;

From the poets' band Banā'ī would get gold,

All he will get is _kīr-khar_.[1271] [Sidenote: Fol. 206b.]

Directly he had possession of Herī, Shaibāq Khān married and took

Muz̤affar Mīrzā's wife, Khān-zāda Khānīm, without regard to the

running-out of the legal term.[1272] His own illiteracy not forbidding,

he instructed in the exposition of the Qoran, Qāẓī Ikhtiyār and Muḥammad

Mīr Yūsuf, two of the celebrated and highly-skilled mullās of Herī; he

took a pen and corrected the hand-writing of Mullā Sl. `Alī of Mashhad

and the drawing of Bih-zād; and every few days, when he had composed

some tasteless couplet, he would have it read from the pulpit, hung in

the Chār-sū [Square], and for it accept the offerings of the

towns-people![1273] Spite of his early-rising, his not neglecting the

Five Prayers, and his fair knowledge of the art of reciting the Qorān,

there issued from him many an act and deed as absurd, as impudent, and

as heathenish as those just named.

(_g. Death of two Mīrzās._)

Ten or fifteen days after he had possession of Herī, Shaibāq Khān came

from Kahd-stān[1274] to Pul-i-sālār. From that place he sent Tīmūr Sl.

and `Ubaid Sl. with the army there present, against Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā

and Kūpuk (Kīpik) Mīrzā then seated carelessly in Mashhad. The two

Mīrzās had thought at one time of making Qalāt[1275] fast; at another,

this after they had had news of the approach of the Aūzbeg, they were

for moving on Shaibāq Khān himself, by forced marches and along a

different road,[1276]—which might have turned out an amazingly good

idea! But while they sit still there in Mashhad with nothing decided,

the Sulṯāns arrive by forced marches. The Mīrzās for their part

[Sidenote: Fol. 207.] array and go out; Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā is quickly

overcome and routed; Kūpuk Mīrzā charges his brother's assailants with

somewhat few men; him too they carry off; both brothers are dismounted

and seated in one place; after an embrace (_qūchūsh_), they kiss

farewell; Abū'l-muḥsin shews some want of courage; in Kūpuk Mirza it all

makes no change at all. The heads of both are sent to Shaibāq Khān in

Pul-i-sālār.

(_h. Bābur marches for Qandahār._)

In those days Shāh Beg and his younger brother Muḥammad Muqīm, being

afraid of Shaibāq Khān, sent one envoy after another to me with dutiful

letters (_`arz-dāsht_), giving sign of amity and good-wishes. Muqīm, in

a letter of his own, explicitly invited me. For us to look on at the

Aūzbeg over-running the whole country, was not seemly; and as by letters

and envoys, Shāh Beg and Muqīm had given me invitation, there remained

little doubt they would wait upon me.[1277] When all begs and

counsellors had been consulted, the matter was left at this:—We were to

get an army to horse, join the Arghūn begs and decide in accord and

agreement with them, whether to move into Khurāsān or elsewhere as might

seem good.

(_i. In Ghasnī and Qalāt-i-ghilzāī._)

Ḥabība-sulṯān Begīm, my aunt (_yīnkā_) as I used to call her, met us in

Ghaznī, having come from Herī, according to arrangement, in order to

bring her daughter Maṣ`ūma-sulṯān Begīm. [Sidenote: Fol. 207b.] With the

honoured Begīm came Khusrau Kūkūldāsh, Sl. Qulī _Chūnāq_ (One-eared) and

Gadāī _Balāl_ who had returned to me after flight from Herī, first to

Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā then to Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā,[1278] with neither of

whom they could remain.

In Qalāt the army came upon a mass of Hindūstān traders, come there to

traffic and, as it seemed, unable to go on. The general opinion about

them was that people who, at a time of such hostilities, are coming into

an enemy's country[1279] must be plundered. With this however I did not

agree; said I, "What is the traders' offence? If we, looking to God's

pleasure, leave such scrapings of gain aside, the Most High God will

apportion our reward. It is now just as it was a short time back when we

rode out to raid the Ghiljī; many of you then were of one mind to raid

the Mahmand Afghāns, their sheep and goods, their wives and families,

just because they were within five miles of you! Then as now I did not

agree with you. On the very next day the Most High God apportioned you

more sheep belonging to Afghān enemies, than had ever before fallen to

the share of the army." Something by way of _peshkash_ (offering) was

taken from each trader when we dismounted on the other side of Qalāt.

(_j. Further march south._)

Beyond Qalāt two Mīrzās joined us, fleeing from Qandahār. One was Mīrzā

Khān (Wais) who had been allowed to go into Khurāsān after his defeat at

Kābul. The other was `Abdu'r-razzāq [Sidenote: Fol. 208.] Mīrzā who had

stayed on in Khurāsān when I left. With them came and waited on me the

mother of Jahāngīr Mīrzā's son Pīr-i-muḥammad, a grandson of Pahār

Mīrzā.[1280]

(_k. Behaviour of the Arghūn chiefs._)

When we sent persons and letters to Shāh Beg and Muqīm, saying, "Here we

are at your word; a stranger-foe like the Aūzbeg has taken Khurāsān;

come! let us settle, in concert and amity, what will be for the general

good," they returned a rude and ill-mannered answer, going back from the

dutiful letters they had written and from the invitations they had

given. One of their incivilities was that Shāh Beg stamped his letter to

me in the middle of its reverse, where begs seal if writing to begs,

where indeed a great beg seals if writing to one of the lower

circle.[1281] But for such ill-manners and his rude answers, his affair

would never have gone so far as it did, for, as they say,—

A strife-stirring word will accomplish the downfall of

an ancient line.

By these their headstrong acts they gave to the winds house, family, and

the hoards of 30 to 40 years.

One day while we were near Shahr-i-ṣafā[1282] a false alarm being given

in the very heart of the camp, the whole army was made to arm and mount.

At the time I was occupied with a bath [Sidenote: Fol. 208b.] and

purification; the begs were much flurried; I mounted when I was ready;

as the alarm was false, it died away after a time.

March by march we moved on to Guzar.[1283] There we tried again to

discuss with the Arghūns but, paying no attention to us, they maintained

the same obstinate and perverse attitude. Certain well-wishers who knew

the local land and water, represented to me, that the head of the

torrents (_rūdlār_) which come down to Qandahār, being towards Bābā

Ḥasan Abdāl and Khalishak,[1284] a move ought to be made in that

direction, in order to cut off (_yīqmāq_) all those torrents.[1285]

Leaving the matter there, we next day made our men put on their mail,

arrayed in right and left, and marched for Qandahār.

(_l. Battle of Qandahār._)

Shāh Beg and Muqīm had seated themselves under an awning which was set

in front of the naze of the Qandahār-hill where I am now having a

rock-residence cut out.[1286] Muqīm's men pushed forward amongst the

trees to rather near us. T̤ūfān _Arghūn_ had fled to us when we were

near Shahr-i-ṣafā; he now betook himself alone close up to the Arghūn

array to where one named `Ashaqu'l-lāh was advancing rather fast leading

7 or 8 men. Alone, T̤ūfān _Arghūn_ faced him, slashed swords with him,

unhorsed him, cut off his head and brought it to me as we were passing

Sang-i-lakhshak;[1287] an omen we accepted! Not thinking it well to

fight where we were, amongst suburbs and trees, we went on along the

skirt of the hill. Just as we had settled on ground for the camp, in a

meadow on the Qandahār side of the [Sidenote: Fol. 209.] torrent,[1288]

opposite Khalishak, and were dismounting, Sher Qulī the scout hurried up

and represented that the enemy was arrayed to fight and on the move

towards us.

As on our march from Qalāt the army had suffered much from hunger and

thirst, most of the soldiers on getting near Khalishak scattered up and

down for sheep and cattle, grain and eatables. Without looking to

collect them, we galloped off. Our force may have been 2000 in all, but

perhaps not over 1000 were in the battle because those mentioned as

scattering up and down could not rejoin in time to fight.

Though our men were few I had them organized and posted on a first-rate

plan and method; I had never arrayed them before by such a good one. For

my immediate command (_khāṣa tābīn_) I had selected braves from whose

hands comes work[1289] and had inscribed them by tens and fifties, each

ten and each fifty under a leader who knew the post in the right or left

of the centre for his ten or his fifty, knew the work of each in the

battle, and was there on the observant watch; so that, after mounting,

the right and left, right and left hands, right and left sides, charged

right and left without the trouble of arraying them or the need of a

_tawāchī_.[1290]

(_Author's note on his terminology._) [Sidenote: Fol. 209b.]

Although _barānghār_, _aūng qūl_, _aūng yān_ and _aūng_ (right

wing, right hand, right side and right) all have the same

meaning, I have applied them in different senses in order to

vary terms and mark distinctions. As, in the battle-array, the

(Ar.) _maimana_ and _maisara_ _i.e._ what people call (Turkī)

_barānghār_ and _jawānghār_ (r. and l. wings) are not included

in the (Ar.) _qalb_, _i.e._ what people call (T.) _ghūl_

(centre), so it is in arraying the centre itself. Taking the

array of the centre only, its (Ar.) _yamīn_ and _yasār_ (r.

and l.) are called (by me) _aūng qūl_ and _sūl qūl_ (r. and l.

hands). Again,—the (Ar.) _khāṣa tābīn_ (royal troop) in the

centre has its _yamīn_ and _yasār_ which are called (by me)

_aūng yān_ and _sūl yān_ (r. and l. sides, T. _yān_).

Again,—in the _khāṣa tābīn_ there is the (T.) _būī_ (_nīng_)

_tīkīnī_ (close circle); its _yamīn_ and _yasār_ are called

_sūng_ and _sūl_. In the Turkī tongue they call one single

thing a _būī_,[1291] but that is not the _būī_ meant here;

what is meant here is close (_yāqīn_).

The right wing (_barānghār_) was Mīrzā Khān (Wais), Sherīm T̤aghāī,

Yārak T̤aghāī with his elder and younger brethren, Chilma _Mughūl_, Ayūb

Beg, Muḥammad Beg, Ibrāhīm Beg, `Alī Sayyid _Mughūl_ with his Mughūls,

Sl. Qulī _chuhra_, Khudā-bakhsh and Abū'l-ḥasan with his elder and

younger brethren.

The left (_jawānghār_) was `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā, Qāsim Beg,

Tīngrī-bīrdī, Qaṃbar-i-`alī, Aḥmad _Aīlchī-būghā_, Ghūrī _Barlās_,

Sayyid Ḥusain Akbar, and Mīr Shāh _Qūchin_.

The advance (_aīrāwal_) was Nāṣir Mīrzā, Sayyid Qāsim Lord of the Gate,

Muḥibb-i-`alī the armourer, Pāpā Aūghulī (Pāpā's son?), Allāh-wairan

_Turkmān_, Sher Qulī _Mughūl_ the scout with his elder and younger

brethren, and Muḥammad `Alī.

In the centre (_ghūl_), on my right hand, were Qāsim Kūkūldāsh, Khusrau

Kūkūldāsh, Sl. Muḥammad _Dūldāī_, Shāh Maḥmūd the secretary,

Qūl-i-bāyazīd the taster, and Kamāl the sherbet-server [Sidenote: Fol.

210.] server; on my left were Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī, Nāṣir's Dost,

Nāṣir's Mīrīm, Bābā Sher-zād, Khān-qulī, Walī the treasurer,

Qūtlūq-qadam the scout, Maqsūd the water-bearer (_sū-chī_), and Bābā

Shaikh. Those in the centre were all of my household; there were no

great begs; not one of those enumerated had reached the rank of beg.

Those inscribed in this _būī_[1292] were Sher Beg, Ḥātim the

Armoury-master, Kūpuk, Qulī Bābā, Abū'l-ḥasan the armourer;—of the

Mughūls, Aūrūs (Russian) `Alī Sayyid,[1293] Darwīsh-i-`alī Sayyid,

Khūsh-kīldī, Chilma, Dost-kīldī, Chilma _Tāghchī_, Dāmāchī, Mindī;—of

the Turkmāns, Manṣūr, Rustam-i-`alī with his elder and younger brother,

and Shāh Nāẕir and Sīūndūk.

The enemy was in two divisions, one under Shāh Shujā' _Arghūn_, known as

Shāh Beg and hereafter to be written of simply as Shāh Beg, the other

under his younger brother Muqīm.

Some estimated the dark mass of Arghūns[1294] at 6 or 7000 men; no

question whatever but that Shāh Beg's own men in mail were 4 or 5000. He

faced our right, Muqīm with a force smaller may-be than his brother's,

faced our left. Muqīm made a mightily strong attack on our left, that is

on Qāsim Beg from whom two or three persons came before fighting began,

to ask for reinforcement; we however could not detach a man because in

front of us also the enemy was very strong. We made our onset without

any delay; the enemy fell suddenly on our van, [Sidenote: Fol. 210b.]

turned it back and rammed it on our centre. When we, after a discharge

of arrows, advanced, they, who also had been shooting for a time,

seemed likely to make a stand (_tūkhtaghāndīk_). Some-one, shouting to

his men, came forward towards me, dismounted and was for adjusting his

arrow, but he could do nothing because we moved on without stay. He

remounted and rode off; it may have been Shāh Beg himself. During the

fight Pīrī Beg _Turkmān_ and 4 or 5 of his brethren turned their faces

from the foe and, turban in hand,[1295] came over to us.

(_Author's note on Pīrī Beg._) This Pīrī Beg was one of those

Turkmāns who came [into Herī] with the Turkmān Begs led by

`Abdu'l-bāqī Mīrzā and Murād Beg, after Shāh Ismā`īl

vanquished the Bāyandar sulṯāns and seized the `Irāq

countries.[1296]

Our right was the first to overcome the foe; it made him hurry off. Its

extreme point had gone pricking (_sānjīlīb_)[1297] as far as where I

have now laid out a garden. Our left extended as far as the great

tree-tangled[1298] irrigation-channels, a good way below Bābā Ḥasan

Abdāl. Muqīm was opposite it, its numbers very small compared with his.

God brought it right! Between it and Muqīm were three or four of the

tree-tangled water-channels going on to Qandahār;[1299] it held the

crossing-place and allowed no passage; small body though it was, it made

splendid stand [Sidenote: Fol. 211.] and kept its ground. Ḥalwāchī

Tarkhān[1300] slashed away in the water with Tīngrī-bīrdī and

Qaṃbar-i-`alī. Qaṃbar-i-`alī was wounded; an arrow stuck in Qāsim Beg's

forehead; another struck Ghūrī _Barlās_ above the eyebrow and came out

above his cheek.[1301]

We meantime, after putting our adversary to flight, had crossed those

same channels towards the naze of Murghān-koh (Birds'-hill). Some-one on

a grey _tīpūchāq_ was going backwards and forwards irresolutely along

the hill-skirt, while we were getting across; I likened him to Shāh

Beg; seemingly it was he.

Our men having beaten their opponents, all went off to pursue and

unhorse them. Remained with me eleven to count, `Abdu'l-lāh the

librarian being one. Muqīm was still keeping his ground and fighting.

Without a glance at the fewness of our men, we had the nagarets sounded

and, putting our trust in God, moved with face set for Muqīm.

(Turkī) For few or for many God is full strength;

No man has might in His Court.

(Arabic) How often, God willing it, a small force has vanquished

a large one!

Learning from the nagarets that we were approaching, Muqīm forgot his

fixed plan and took the road of flight. God brought it right!

After putting our foe to flight, we moved for Qandahār and dismounted in

Farrukh-zād Beg's Chār-bāgh, of which at this time not a trace remains!

(_m. Bābur enters Qandahār._) [Sidenote: Fol. 211b.]

Shāh Beg and Muqīm could not get into Qandahār when they took to flight;

Shāh Beg went towards Shāl and Mastūng (Quetta), Muqīm towards

Zamīn-dāwar. They left no-one able to make the fort fast. Aḥmad `Alī

Tarkhān was in it together with other elder and younger brethren of Qulī

Beg _Arghūn_ whose attachment and good-feeling for me were known. After

parley they asked protection for the families of their elder and younger

brethren; their request was granted and all mentioned were encompassed

with favour. They then opened the Māshūr-gate of the town; with

leaderless men in mind, no other was opened. At that gate were posted

Sherīm T̤aghāī and Yārīm Beg. I went in with a few of the household,

charged the leaderless men and had two or three put to death by way of

example.[1302]

(_n. The spoils of Qandahār._)

I got to Muqīm's treasury first, that being in the outer-fort;

`Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā must have been quicker than I, for he was just

dismounting there when I arrived; I gave him a few things from it. I put

Dost-i-nāṣir Beg, Qul-i-bāyazīd the taster and, of pay-masters, Muḥammad

_bakhshī_ in charge of it, then passed on into the citadel and posted

Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī, Shāh Maḥmūd and, of the pay-masters, T̤aghāī Shāh

_bakhshī_ in charge of Shāh Beg's treasury.

Nāṣir's Mīrīm and Maqṣūd the sherbet-server were sent to keep the house

of Ẕū'n-nūn's _Dīwān_ Mīr Jān for Nāṣir Mīrzā; for Mīrzā Khān was kept

Shaikh Abū-sa`īd _Tarkhānī's_; for `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā ... 's.[1303]

[Sidenote: Fol. 212.] Such masses of white money had never been seen in

those countries; no-one indeed was to be heard of who had seen so much.

That night, when we ourselves stayed in the citadel, Shāh Beg's slave

Saṃbhal was captured and brought in. Though he was then Shāh Beg's

intimate, he had not yet received his later favour.[1304] I had him

given into someone's charge but as good watch was not kept, he was

allowed to escape. Next day I went back to my camp in Farrukh-zād Beg's

Chār-bāgh.

I gave the Qandahār country to Nāṣir Mīrzā. After the treasure had been

got into order, loaded up and started off, he took the loads of white

_tankas_ off a string of camels (_i.e._ _7_ beasts) at the

citadel-treasury, and kept them. I did not demand them back; I just gave

them to him.

On leaving Qandahār, we dismounted in the Qūsh-khāna meadow. After

setting the army forward, I had gone for an excursion, so I got into

camp rather late. It was another camp! not to be recognized! Excellent

_tīpūchāqs_, strings and strings of he-camels, she-camels, and mules,

bearing saddle-bags (_khurzīn_) of silken stuffs and cloth,—tents of

scarlet (cloth) and velvet, all sorts of awnings, every kind of

work-shop, ass-load after ass-load of chests! The goods of the elder and

younger (Arghūn) brethren had been kept in separate treasuries; out of

each had come chest upon chest, bale upon bale of stuffs and

clothes-in-wear (_artmāq artmāq_), sack upon sack of white _tankas_. In

_aūtāgh_ and _chādar_ (lattice-tent and pole-tent) was much spoil for

every man soever; many sheep also had been taken but sheep were less

cared about!

I made over to Qāsim Beg Muqīm's retainers in Qalāt, under [Sidenote:

Fol. 212b.] Qūj _Arghūn_ and Tāju'd-dīn Maḥmūd, with their goods and

effects. Qāsim Beg was a knowing person; he saw it unadvisable for us to

stay long near Qandahār, so, by talking and talking, worrying and

worrying, he got us to march off. As has been said, I had bestowed

Qandahār on Nāṣir Mīrzā; he was given leave to go there; we started for

Kābul.

There had been no chance of portioning out the spoils while we were near

Qandahār; it was done at Qarā-bāgh where we delayed two or three days.

To count the coins being difficult, they were apportioned by weighing

them in scales. Begs of all ranks, retainers and household (_tābīn_)

loaded up ass-load after ass-load of sacks full of white _tankas_, and

took them away for their own subsistence and the pay of their soldiers.

We went back to Kābul with masses of goods and treasure, great honour

and reputation.

(_o. Bābur's marriage with Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān._)

After this return to Kābul I concluded alliance (_`aqd qīldīm_) with Sl.

Aḥmad Mīrzā's daughter Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān Begīm whom I had asked in marriage

at Khurāsān, and had had brought from there.

(_p. Shaibāq Khān before Qandahār._)

A few days later a servant of Nāṣir Mīrzā brought the news that Shaibāq

Khān had come and laid siege to Qandahār. That Muqīm had fled to

Zamīn-dāwar has been said already; from there he went on and saw Shaibāq

Khān. From Shāh Beg also one person after another had gone to Shaibāq

Khān. At the instigation and petition of these two, the Khān came

[Sidenote: Fol. 213.] swiftly down on Qandahār by the mountain

road,[1305] thinking to find me there. This was the very thing that

experienced person Qāsim Beg had in his mind when he worried us into

marching off from near Qandahār.

(Persian) What a mirror shews to the young man,

A baked brick shews to the old one!

Shaibāq Khān arriving, besieged Nāṣir Mīrzā in Qandahār.

(_q. Alarm in Kābul._)

When this news came, the begs were summoned for counsel. The matters for

discussion were these:—Strangers and ancient foes, such as are Shaibāq

Khān and the Aūzbegs, are in possession of all the countries once held

by Tīmūr Beg's descendants; even where Turks and Chaghatāīs[1306]

survive in corners and border-lands, they have all joined the Aūzbeg,

willingly or with aversion; one remains, I myself, in Kābul, the foe

mightily strong, I very weak, with no means of making terms, no strength

to oppose; that, in the presence of such power and potency, we had to

think of some place for ourselves and, at this crisis and in the crack

of time there was, to put a wider space between us and the strong

foeman; that choice lay between Badakhshān and Hindūstān and that

decision must now be made.

Qāsim Beg and Sherīm T̤aghāī were agreed for Badakhshān;

(_Author's note on Badakhshān._) Those holding their heads up

in Badakhshān at this crisis were, of Badakhshīs, Mubārak Shāh

and Zubair, Jahāngīr _Turkmān_ and Muḥammad the armourer. They

had driven Nāṣir Mīrzā out but had not joined the Aūzbeg.

[Sidenote: Fol. 213b.] I and several household-begs preferred going

towards Hindūstān and were for making a start to Lamghān.[1307]

(_r. Movements of some Mīrzās._)

After taking Qandahār, I had bestowed Qalāt and the Turnūk (Tarnak)

country on `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā and had left him in Qalāt, but with the

Aūzbeg besieging Qandahār, he could not stay in Qalāt, so left it and

came to Kābul. He arriving just as we were marching out, was there left

in charge.[1308]

There being in Badakhshān no ruler or ruler's son, Mīrzā Khān inclined

to go in that direction, both because of his relationship to Shāh

Begīm[1309] and with her approval. He was allowed to go and the honoured

Begīm herself started off with him. My honoured maternal-aunt Mihr-nigār

Khānīm also wished to go to Badakhshān, notwithstanding that it was more

seemly for her to be with me, a blood-relation; but whatever objection

was made, she was not to be dissuaded; she also betook[1310] herself to

Badakhshān.

(_s. Bābur's second start for Hindūstān._)

Under our plan of going to Hindūstān, we marched out of Kābul in the

month of the first Jumāda (September 1507 AD.), taking the road through

Little Kābul and going down by Sūrkh-rabāṯ to Qūrūq-sāī.

The Afghāns belonging between Kābul and Lamghān (Ningnahār) are thieves

and abettors of thieves even in quiet times; for just such a happening

as this they had prayed in vain. Said they, "He has abandoned Kābul",

and multiplied their misdeeds by ten, changing their very merits for

faults. To such [Sidenote: Fol. 214.] lengths did things go that on the

morning we marched from Jagdālīk, the Afghāns located between it and

Lamghān, such as the Khiẓr-khail, Shimū-khail, Khirilchī and Khūgīanī,

thought of blocking the pass, arrayed on the mountain to the north, and

advancing with sound of tambour and flourish of sword, began to shew

themselves off. On our mounting I ordered our men to move along the

mountain-side, each man from where he had dismounted;[1311] off they set

at the gallop up every ridge and every valley of the saddle.[1312] The

Afghāns stood awhile, but could not let even one arrow fly,[1313] and

betook themselves to flight. While I was on the mountain during the

pursuit, I shot one in the hand as he was running back below me. That

arrow-stricken man and a few others were brought in; some were put to

death by impalement, as an example.

We dismounted over against the Adīnapūr-fort in the Nīngnahār _tūmān_.

(_t. A raid for winter stores._)

Up till then we had taken no thought where to camp, where to go, where

to stay; we had just marched up and down, camping in fresh places, while

waiting for news.[1314] It was late in the autumn; most lowlanders had

carried in their rice. People knowing the local land and water

represented that the Mīl Kāfirs up the water of the `Alīshang _tūmān_

grow great quantities of rice, so that we might be able to collect

winter supplies from them for the army. Accordingly we rode out of the

Nīngnahār dale (_julga_), crossed (the Bārān-water) at Sāīkal, and went

swiftly as far as the Pūr-amīn (easeful) valley. [Sidenote: Fol. 214b.]

There the soldiers took a mass of rice. The rice-fields were all at the

bottom of the hills. The people fled but some Kāfirs went to their

death. A few of our braves had been sent to a look-out (_sar-kūb_)[1315]

on a naze of the Pūr-anīm valley; when they were returning to us, the

Kāfirs rushed from the hill above, shooting at them. They overtook Qāsim

Beg's son-in-law Pūrān, chopped at him with an axe, and were just taking

him when some of the braves went back, brought strength to bear, drove

them off and got Pūrān away. After one night spent in the Kāfirs'

rice-fields, we returned to camp with a mass of provisions collected.

(_u. Marriage of Muqīm's daughter._)

While we were near Mandrāwar in those days, an alliance was concluded

between Muqīm's daughter Māh-chūchūk, now married to Shāh Ḥasan

_Arghūn_, and Qāsim Kūkūldāsh.[1316]

(_v. Abandonment of the Hindūstān project._)

As it was not found desirable to go on into Hindūstān, I sent Mullā Bābā

of Pashāghar back to Kābul with a few braves. Meantime I marched from

near Mandrāwar to Atar and Shīwa and lay there for a few days. From Atar

I visited Kūnār and Nūr-gal; from Kūnār I went back to camp on a raft;

it was the first time I had sat on one; it pleased me much, and the raft

came into common use thereafter.

(_w. Shaibāq Khān retires from Qandahār._)

In those same days Mullā Bābā of Farkat came from Nāṣir Mīrzā with news

in detail that Shaibāq Khān, after taking the outer-fort of Qandahār,

had not been able to take the citadel but had retired; also that the

Mīrzā, on various accounts, had left Qandahār and gone to Ghaznī.

Shaibāq Khān's arrival before Qandahār, within a few days [Sidenote:

Fol. 215.] of our own departure, had taken the garrison by surprise, and

they had not been able to make fast the outer-fort. He ran mines several

times round about the citadel and made several assaults. The place was

about to be lost. At that anxious time Khwāja Muḥ. Amīn, Khwāja Dost

Khāwand, Muḥ. `Alī, a foot-soldier, and Shāmī (Syrian?) let themselves

down from the walls and got away. Just as those in the citadel were

about to surrender in despair, Shaibāq Khān interposed words of peace

and uprose from before the place. Why he rose was this:—It appears that

before he went there, he had sent his _ḥaram_ to Nīrah-tū,[1317] and

that in Nīrah-tū some-one lifted up his head and got command in the

fort; the Khān therefore made a sort of peace and retired from Qandahār.

(_x. Bābur returns to Kābul._)

Mid-winter though it was we went back to Kābul by the Bād-i-pīch road. I

ordered the date of that transit and that crossing of the pass to be cut

on a stone above Bād-i-pīch;[1318] Ḥāfiẓ Mīrak wrote the inscription,

Ustād Shāh Muḥammad did the cutting, not well though, through haste.

I bestowed Ghaznī on Nāṣir Mīrzā and gave `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā the

Nīngnahār _tūmān_ with Mandrāwar, Nūr-valley, Kūnār and Nūr-gal.[1319]

(_y. Bābur styles himself Pādshāh._)

Up to that date people had styled Tīmūr Beg's descendants _Mīrzā_, even

when they were ruling; now I ordered that people should style me

_Pādshāh_.[1320]

(_z. Birth of Bābur's first son._)

At the end of this year, on Tuesday the 4th day of the month of

Ẕū'l-qa`da (March 6th 1506 AD.), the Sun being in Pisces [Sidenote: Fol.

215b.] (_Ḥūt_), Humāyūn was born in the citadel of Kābul. The date of

his birth was found by the poet Maulānā Masnadī in the words _Sulṯān

Humāyūn Khān_,[1321] and a minor poet of Kābul found it in

_Shāh-i-fīrūs-qadr_ (Shāh of victorious might). A few days later he

received the name Humāyūn; when he was five or six days old, I went out

to the Chār-bāgh where was had the feast of his nativity. All the begs,

small and great, brought gifts; such a mass of white _tankas_ was heaped

up as had never been seen before. It was a first-rate feast!

914 AH.—MAY 2ND 1508 TO APRIL 21ST 1509 AD.[1322]

This spring a body of Mahmand Afghāns was over-run near Muqur.[1323]

(_a. A Mughūl rebellion._)

A few days after our return from that raid, Qūj Beg, Faqīr-i-`alī,

Karīm-dād and Bābā _chuhra_ were thinking about deserting, but their

design becoming known, people were sent who took them below Astar-ghach.

As good-for-nothing words of theirs had been reported to me, even during

Jahāngīr M.'s life-time,[1324] I ordered that they should be put to

death at the top of the _bāzār_. They had been taken to the place; the

ropes had been fixed; and they were about to be hanged when Qāsim Beg

sent Khalīfa to me with an urgent entreaty that I would pardon their

offences. To please him I gave them their lives, but I ordered them kept

in custody.

What there was of Khusrau Shāh's retainers from Ḥiṣār and Qūndūz,

together with the head-men of the Mughūls, Chilma, [Sidenote: Fol. 216.]

`Alī Sayyid,[1325] Sakma (?), Sher-qulī and Aīkū-sālam (?), and also

Khusrau Shāh's favourite Chaghatāī retainers under Sl. `Alī _chuhra_ and

Khudabakhsh, with also 2 or 3000 serviceable Turkmān braves led by

Sīūndūk and Shāh Naẕar,[1326] the whole of these, after consultation,

took up a bad position towards me. They were all seated in front of

Khwāja Riwāj, from the Sūng-qūrghān meadow to the Chālāk; `Abdu'r-razzāq

Mīrzā, come in from Nīng-nahār, being in Dih-i-afghān.[1327]

Earlier on Muḥibb-i-`alī the armourer had told Khalīfa and Mullā Bābā

once or twice of their assemblies, and both had given me a hint, but the

thing seeming incredible, it had had no attention. One night, towards

the Bed-time Prayer, when I was sitting in the Audience-hall of the

Chār-bāgh, Mūsa Khwāja, coming swiftly up with another man, said in my

ear, "The Mughūls are really rebelling! We do not know for certain

whether they have got `Abdu'r-razzāq M. to join them. They have

not settled to rise to-night." I feigned disregard and a little

later went towards the _ḥarams_ which at the time were in the

Yūrūnchqa-garden[1328] and the Bāgh-i-khilwat, but after page, servitor

and messenger (_yasāwal_) had turned back on getting [Sidenote: Fol.

216b.] near them, I went with the chief-slave towards the town, and on

along the ditch. I had gone as far as the Iron-gate when Khwāja Muḥ.

`Alī[1329] met me, he coming by the _bāzār_ road from the opposite

direction. He joined me ... of the porch of the Hot-bath

(_ḥammām_)....[1330]

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE ON 914 TO 925 AH.—1508 TO 1519 AD.

From several references made in the _Bābur-nāma_ and from a passage in

Gul-badan's _Humāyūn-nāma_ (f. 15), it is inferrible that Bābur was

composing the annals of 914 AH. not long before his last illness and

death.[1331]

Before the diary of 925 AH. (1519 AD.) takes up the broken thread of his

autobiography, there is a _lacuna_ of narrative extending over nearly

eleven years. The break was not intended, several references in the

_Bābur-nāma_ shewing Bābur's purpose to describe events of the

unchronicled years.[1332] Mr. Erskine, in the Leyden and Erskine

_Memoirs_, carried Bābur's biography through the major _lacunæ_, but

without firsthand help from the best sources, the _Habību's-siyar_ and

_Tārīkh-i-rashīdī_. He had not the help of the first even in his

_History of India_. M. de Courteille working as a translator only, made

no attempt to fill the gaps.

Bābur's biography has yet to be completed; much time is demanded by the

task, not only in order to exhaust known sources and seek others further

afield, but to weigh and balance the contradictory statements of writers

deep-sundered in sympathy and outlook. To strike such a balance is

essential when dealing with the events of 914 to 920 AH. because in

those years Bābur had part in an embittered conflict between Sunni and

Shī`a. What I offer below, as a stop-gap, is a mere summary of events,

mainly based on material not used by Mr. Erskine, with a few comments

prompted by acquaintance with Bāburiana.

_USEFUL SOURCES_

Compared with what Bābur could have told of this most interesting period

of his life, the yield of the sources is scant, a natural sequel from

the fact that no one of them had his biography for its main theme, still

less had his own action in crises of enforced ambiguity.

Of all known sources the best are Khwānd-amīr's _Ḥabību's-siyar_ and

Ḥaidar Mīrzā _Dūghlāt's Tārīkh-i-rashīdī_. The first was finished

nominally in 930 AH. (1524-5 AD.), seven years therefore before Bābur's

death, but it received much addition of matter concerning Bābur after

its author went to Hindūstān in 934 AH. (f. 339). Its fourth part, a

life of Shāh Ismā`īl _Ṣafawī_ is especially valuable for the years of

this _lacuna_. Ḥaidar's book was finished under Humāyūn in 953 AH. (1547

AD.), when its author had reigned five years in Kashmīr. It is the most

valuable of all the sources for those interested in Bābur himself, both

because of Ḥaidar's excellence as a biographer, and through his close

acquaintance with Bābur's family. From his eleventh to his thirteenth

year he lived under Bābur's protection, followed this by 19 years

service under Sa`īd Khān, the cousin of both, in Kāshghar, and after

that Khān's death, went to Bābur's sons Kāmrān and Humāyūn in Hindūstān.

A work issuing from a Sunnī Aūzbeg centre, Faẓl bin Ruzbahān _Isfahānī's

Sūlūku'l-mulūk_, has a Preface of special value, as shewing one view of

what it writes of as the spread of heresy in Māwarā'u'n-nahr through

Bābur's invasions. The book itself is a Treatise on Musalmān Law, and

was prepared by order of `Ubaidu'l-lāh Khān _Aūzbeg_ for his help in

fulfilling a vow he had made, before attacking Bābur in 918 AH., at the

shrine of Khwāja Aḥmad _Yasawī_ [in Haẓrat Turkistān], that, if he were

victorious, he would conform exactly with the divine Law and uphold it

in Māwarā'u'n-nahr (Rieu's Pers. Cat. ii, 448).

The _Tārīkh-i Ḥājī Muḥammad `Ārif Qandahārī_ appears, from the frequent

use Firishta made of it, to be a useful source, both because its author

was a native of Qandahār, a place much occupying Bābur's activities, and

because he was a servant of Bairām Khān-i-khānān, whose assassination

under Akbar he witnessed.[1333] Unfortunately, though his life of Akbar

survives no copy is now known of the section of his General History

which deals with Bābur's.

An early source is Yahya _Kazwīnī's Lubbu't-tawārīkh_, written in 948

AH. (1541 AD.), but brief only in the Bābur period. It issued from a

Shī`a source, being commanded by Shāh Ismā`īl _Ṣafawī_'s son Bahrām.

Another work issuing also from a _Ṣafawī_ centre is Mīr Sikandar's

_Tārīkh-i-`ālam-arāī_, a history of Shāh `Abbas I, with an introduction

treating of his predecessors which was completed in 1025 AH. (1616 AD.).

Its interest lies in its outlook on Bābur's dealings with Shāh Ismā`īl.

A later source, brief only, is Firishta's _Tārīkh-i-firishta_, finished

under Jahāngīr in the first quarter of the 17th century.

Mr. Erskine makes frequent reference to Kh(w)āfī Khān's _Tārīkh_, a

secondary authority however, written under Aurangzīb, mainly based on

Firishta's work, and merely summarizing Bābur's period. References to

detached incidents of the period are found in Shaikh `Abdu'l-qādir's

_Tārīkh-i-badāyūnī_ and Mīr Ma`ṣūm's _Tārīkh-i-sind_.

_EVENTS OF THE UNCHRONICLED YEARS_

914 AH.-MAY 2ND 1508 TO APRIL 21ST 1509 AD.

The mutiny, of which an account begins in the text, was crushed by the

victory of 500 loyalists over 3,000 rebels, one factor of success being

Bābur's defeat in single combat of five champions of his

adversaries.[1334] The disturbance was not of long duration; Kābul was

tranquil in Sha`bān (November) when Sl. Sa`īd Khān _Chaghatāī_, then 21,

arrived there seeking his cousin's protection, after defeat by his

brother Manṣūr at Almātū, escape from death, commanded by Shaibānī, in

Farghāna, a winter journey through Qarā-tīgīn to Mīrzā Khān in

Qilā'-i-ẓafar, refusal of an offer to put him in that feeble Mīrzā's

place, and so on to Kābul, where he came a destitute fugitive and

enjoyed a freedom from care never known by him before (f. 200_b_; T.R.

p. 226). The year was fatal to his family and to Ḥaidar's; in it

Shaibānī murdered Sl. Maḥmūd Khān and his six sons, Muḥammad Ḥusain

Mīrzā and other Dūghlāt sulṯāns.

915 AH.-APRIL 21ST 1509 TO APRIL 11TH 1510 AD.

In this year hostilities began between Shāh Ismā`īl _Ṣafawī_ and Muḥ.

Shaibānī Khān _Aūzbeg_, news of which must have excited keen interest in

Kābul.

In it occurred also what was in itself a minor matter of a child's

safety, but became of historical importance, namely, the beginning of

personal acquaintance between Bābur and his sympathetic biographer

Ḥaidar Mīrzā _Dūghlāt_. Ḥaidar, like Sa`īd, came a fugitive to the

protection of a kinsman; he was then eleven, had been saved by servants

from the death commanded by Shaibānī, conveyed to Mīrzā Khān in

Badakhshān, thence sent for by Bābur to the greater security of Kābul

(f. 11; Index _s.n._; T.R. p. 227).

916 AH.-APRIL 11TH 1510 TO MARCH 31ST 1510 AD.

_a. News of the battle of Merv._

Over half of this year passed quietly in Kābul; Ramẓān (December)

brought from Mīrzā Khān (Wāis) the stirring news that Ismā`īl had

defeated Shaibānī near Merv.[1335] "It is not known," wrote the Mīrzā,

"whether Shāhī Beg Khān has been killed or not. All the Aūzbegs have

crossed the Amū. Amīr Aūrūs, who was in Qūndūz, has fled. About 20,000

Mughūls, who left the Aūzbeg at Merv, have come to Qūndūz. I have come

there." He then invited Bābur to join him and with him to try for the

recovery of their ancestral territories (T.R. p. 237).

_b. Bābur's campaign in Transoxiana begun._

The Mīrzā's letter was brought over passes blocked by snow; Bābur, with

all possible speed, took the one winter-route through Āb-dara, kept the

Ramẓān Feast in Bāmīān, and reached Qūndūz in Shawwāl (Jan. 1511 AD.).

Ḥaidar's detail about the Feast seems likely to have been recorded

because he had read Bābur's own remark, made in Ramẓān 933 AH. (June

1527) that up to that date, when he kept it in Sīkrī, he had not since

his eleventh year kept it twice in the same place (f. 330).

_c. Mughūl affairs._

Outside Qūndūz lay the Mughūls mentioned by Mīrzā Khān as come from Merv

and so mentioned, presumably, as a possible reinforcement. They had been

servants of Bābur's uncles Maḥmūd and Aḥmad, and when Shaibānī defeated

those Khāns at Akhsī in 908 AH., had been compelled by him to migrate

into Khurāsān to places remote from Mughūlistān. Many of them had served

in Kāshghar; none had served a Tīmūrid Mīrzā. Set free by Shaibānī's

death, they had come east, a Khān-less 20,000 of armed and fully

equipped men and they were there, as Ḥaidar says, in their strength

while of Chaghatāīs there were not more than 5,000. They now, and with

them the Mughūls from Kābul, used the opportunity offering for return to

a more congenial location and leadership, by the presence in Qūndūz of a

legitimate Khāqān and the clearance in Andijān, a threshold of

Mughūlistān, of its Aūzbeg governors (f. 200_b_). The chiefs of both

bodies of Mughūls, Sherīm Taghāī at the head of one, Ayūb _Begchīk_ of

the other, proffered the Mughūl Khānship to Sa`īd with offer to set

Bābur aside, perhaps to kill him. It is improbable that in making their

offer they contemplated locating themselves in the confined country of

Kābul; what they seem to have wished was what Bābur gave, Sa`īd for

their Khāqān and permission to go north with him.

Sa`īd, in words worth reading, rejected their offer to injure Bābur,

doing so on the grounds of right and gratitude, but, the two men

agreeing that it was now expedient for them to part, asked to be sent to

act for Bābur where their friendship could be maintained for their

common welfare. The matter was settled by Bābur's sending him into

Andijān in response to an urgent petition for help there just arrived

from Ḥaidar's uncle. He "was made Khān" and started forth in the

following year, on Ṣafar 14th 917 AH. (May 13th 1511 AD.); with him went

most of the Mughūls but not all, since even of those from Merv, Ayūb

_Begchīk_ and others are found mentioned on several later occasions as

being with Bābur.

Bābur's phrase "I made him Khān" (f. 200_b_) recalls his earlier mention

of what seems to be the same appointment (f. 10_b_), made by Abū-sa`īd

of Yūnas as Khān of the Mughūls; in each case the meaning seems to be

that the Tīmūrid Mīrzā made the Chaghatāī Khān Khāqān of the Mughūls.

_d. First attempt on Ḥiṣār._

After spending a short time in Qūndūz, Bābur moved for Ḥiṣār in which

were the Aūzbeg sulṯāns Mahdī and Ḥamza. They came out into Wakhsh to

meet him but, owing to an imbroglio, there was no encounter and each

side retired (T.R. p. 238).

_e. Intercourse between Bābur and Ismā`īl Ṣafawī._

While Bābur was now in Qūndūz his sister Khān-zāda arrived there,

safe-returned under escort of the Shāh's troops, after the death in the

battle of Merv of her successive husbands Shaibānī and Sayyid Hādī, and

with her came an envoy from Ismā`īl proffering friendship, civilities

calculated to arouse a hope of Persian help in Bābur. To acknowledge his

courtesies, Bābur sent Mīrzā Khān with thanks and gifts; Ḥaidar says

that the Mīrzā also conveyed protestations of good faith and a request

for military assistance. He was well received and his request for help

was granted; that it was granted under hard conditions then stated later

occurrences shew.

917 AH.-MARCH 31ST 1511 TO MARCH 19TH 1512 AD.

_a. Second attempt on Ḥiṣār._

In this year Bābur moved again on Ḥiṣār. He took post, where once his

forbear Tīmūr had wrought out success against great odds, at the

Pul-i-sangīn (Stone-bridge) on the Sūrkh-āb, and lay there a month

awaiting reinforcement. The Aūzbeg sulṯāns faced him on the other side

of the river, they too, presumably, awaiting reinforcement. They moved

when they felt themselves strong enough to attack, whether by addition

to their own numbers, whether by learning that Bābur had not largely

increased his own. Concerning the second alternative it is open to

surmise that he hoped for larger reinforcement than he obtained; he

appears to have left Qūndūz before the return of Mīrzā Khān from his

embassy to Ismā`īl, to have expected Persian reinforcement with the

Mīrzā, and at Pul-i-sangīn, where the Mīrzā joined him in time to fight,

to have been strengthened by the Mīrzā's own following, and few, if any,

foreign auxiliaries. These surmises are supported by what Khwānd-amīr

relates of the conditions [specified later] on which the Shāh's main

contingent was despatched and by his shewing that it did not start until

after the Shāh had had news of the battle at Pul-i-sangīn.

At the end of the month of waiting, the Aūzbegs one morning swam the

Sūrkh-āb below the bridge; in the afternoon of the same day, Bābur

retired to better ground amongst the mountain fastnesses of a local

Āb-dara. In the desperate encounter which followed the Aūzbegs were

utterly routed with great loss in men; they were pursued to

Darband-i-ahanīn (Iron-gate) on the Ḥiṣār border, on their way to join a

great force assembled at Qarshī under Kūchūm Khān, Shaibānī's successor

as Aūzbeg Khāqān. The battle is admirably described by Ḥaidar, who was

then a boy of 12 with keen eye watching his own first fight, and that

fight with foes who had made him the last male survivor of his line. In

the evening of the victory Mahdī, Ḥamza and Ḥamza's son Mamak were

brought before Bābur who, says Ḥaidar, did to them what they had done to

the Mughūl Khāqāns and Chaghatāī Sulṯāns, that is, he retaliated in

blood for the blood of many kinsmen.

_b. Persian reinforcement._

After the battle Bābur went to near Ḥiṣār, was there joined by many

local tribesmen, and, some time later, by a large body of Ismā`īl's

troops under Aḥmad Beg _Ṣafawī_, `Alī Khān _Istiljū_ and Shāhrukh Sl.

_Afshār_, Ismā`īl's seal-keeper. The following particulars, given by

Khwānd-amīr, about the despatch of this contingent help to fix the order

of occurrences, and throw light on the price paid by Bābur for his

auxiliaries. He announced his victory over Mahdī and Ḥamza to the Shāh,

and at the same time promised that if he reconquered the rest of

Transoxiana by the Shāh's help, he would read his name in the _khuṯba_,

stamp it on coins together with those of the Twelve Imāms, and work to

destroy the power of the Aūzbegs. These undertakings look like a

response to a demand; such conditions cannot have been proffered; their

acceptance must have been compelled. Khwānd-amīr says that when Ismā`īl

fully understood the purport of Bābur's letter, [by which would seem to

be meant, when he knew that his conditions of help were accepted,] he

despatched the troops under the three Commanders named above.

The Persian chiefs advised a move direct on Bukhārā and Samarkand; and

with this Bābur's councillors concurred, they saying, according to

Ḥaidar, that Bukhārā was then empty of troops and full of fools. `Ubaid

Khān had thrown himself into Qarshī; it was settled not to attack him

but to pass on and encamp a stage beyond the town. This was done; then

scout followed scout, bringing news that he had come out of Qarshī and

was hurrying to Bukhārā, his own fief. Instant and swift pursuit

followed him up the 100 miles of caravan-road, into Bukhārā, and on

beyond, sweeping him and his garrison, plundered as they fled, into the

open land of Turkistān. Many sulṯāns had collected in Samarkand, some no

doubt being, like Tīmūr its governor, fugitives escaped from

Pul-i-sangīn. Dismayed by Bābur's second success, they scattered into

Turkistān, thus leaving him an open road.

_c. Samarkand re-occupied and relations with Ismā`īl Ṣafawī._

He must now have hoped to be able to dispense with his dangerous

colleagues, for he dismissed them when he reached Bukhārā, with gifts

and thanks for their services. It is Ḥaidar, himself present, who fixes

Bukhārā as the place of the dismissal (T.R. p. 246).

From Bukhārā Bābur went to Samarkand. It was mid-Rajab 917 AH. (October

1511 AD.), some ten months after leaving Kābul, and after 9 years of

absence, that he re-entered the town, itself gay with decoration for his

welcome, amidst the acclaim of its people.[1336]

Eight months were to prove his impotence to keep it against the forces

ranged against him,—Aūzbeg strength in arms compacted by Sunnī zeal,

Sunnī hatred of a Shī`a's suzerainty intensified by dread lest that

potent Shī`a should resolve to perpetuate his dominance. Both as a Sunnī

and as one who had not owned a suzerain, the position was unpleasant for

Bābur. That his alliance with Ismā`īl was dangerous he will have known,

as also that his risks grew as Transoxiana was over-spread by news of

Ismā`īl's fanatical barbarism to pious and learned Sunnīs, notably in

Herī. He manifested desire for release both now and later,—now when he

not only dismissed his Persian helpers but so behaved to the Shāh's

envoy Muḥammad Jān,—he was Najm S̤ānī's Lord of the Gate,—that the envoy

felt neglect and made report of Bābur as arrogant, in opposition, and

unwilling to fulfil his compact,—later when he eagerly attempted success

unaided against `Ubaid Khān, and was then worsted. It illustrates the

Shāh's view of his suzerain relation to Bābur that on hearing Muḥammad

Jān's report, he ordered Najm S̤ānī to bring the offender to order.

Meantime the Shāh's conditions seem to have been carried out in

Samarkand and Bābur's subservience clearly shewn.[1337] Of this there

are the indications,—that Bābur had promised and was a man of his word;

that Sunnī irritation against him waxed and did not wane as it might

have done without food to nourish it; that Bābur knew himself impotent

against the Aūzbegs unless he had foreign aid, expected attack, knew it

was preparing; that he would hear of Muḥammad Jān's report and of Najm

S̤ānī's commission against himself. Honesty, policy and necessity

combined to enforce the fulfilment of his agreement. What were the

precise terms of that agreement beyond the two as to the _khuṯba_ and

the coins, it needs close study of the wording of the sources to decide,

lest metaphor be taken for fact. Great passions,—ambition, religious

fervour, sectarian bigotry and fear confronted him. His problem was

greater than that of Henry of Navarre and of Napoleon in Egypt; they had

but to seem what secured their acceptance; he had to put on a guise that

brought him hate.

Khān-zāda was not the only member of Bābur's family who now rejoined him

after marriage with an Aūzbeg. His half-sister Yādgār-sulṯān had fallen

to the share of Ḥamza Sulṯān's son `Abdu'l-laṯīf in 908 AH. when

Shaibānī defeated the Khāns near Akhsī. Now that her half-brother had

defeated her husband's family, she returned to her own people (f. 9).

918 AH.-MARCH 19TH 1512 TO MARCH 9TH 1513 AD.

_a. Return of the Aūzbegs._

Emboldened by the departure of the Persian troops, the Aūzbegs, in the

spring of the year, came out of Turkistān, their main attack being

directed on Tāshkīnt, then held for Bābur.[1338] `Ubaid Khān moved for

Bukhārā. He had prefaced his march by vowing that, if successful, he

would thenceforth strictly observe Musalmān Law. The vow was made in

Ḥaẓrat Turkistān at the shrine of Khwāja Aḥmad _Yasawī_, a saint revered

in Central Asia through many centuries; he had died about 1120 AD.;

Tīmūr had made pilgrimage to his tomb, in 1397 AD., and then had founded

the mosque still dominating the town, still the pilgrim's

land-mark.[1339] `Ubaid's vow, like Bābur's of 933 AH., was one of

return to obedience. Both men took oath in the Ghāzī's mood, Bābur's set

against the Hindū whom he saw as a heathen, `Ubaid's set against Bābur

whom he saw as a heretic.

_b. Bābur's defeat at Kul-i-malik._