The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
of dying in Āgra, he had returned to Kābul, had pushed his way on from
Badakhshān, whether as far as Samarkand or less, had given Humāyūn a
seat in those parts,—action foreshadowed by the records—a reasonable
interpretation of the story that Humāyūn and his brothers were not to
govern Hindūstān, is that he had considered with Khalīfa the
apportionment of his territories according to the example of his
ancestors Chīngīz Khān, Tīmūr and Abū-sa`īd; that by his plan of
apportionment Humāyūn was not to have Hindūstān but something
Tramontane; Kāmrān had already Qandahār; Sulaimān, if Humāyūn had moved
beyond the out-post of Badakhshān, would have replaced him there; and
Hindūstān would have gone to "Bābur Pādshāh's _dāmād_".
(3) Muḥammad-i-zamān had much to recommend him for
Hindūstān:—Tīmūrid-born, grandson and heir of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, husband
of Ma`ṣūma who was a Tīmūrid by double descent,[2734] protected by Bābur
after the Bāī-qarā _débacle_ in Herāt, a landless man leading such other
exiles as Muḥammad Sulṯān Mīrzā,[2735] `Ādil Sulṯān, and Qāsim-i-ḥusain
Sulṯān, half-Tīmūrids all, who with their Khurāsānī following, had been
Bābur's guests in Kābul, had pressed on its poor resources, and thus had
helped in 932 AH. (1525 AD.) to drive him across the Indus. This
Bāī-qarā group needed a location; Muḥammad-i-zamān's future had to be
cared for and with his, Ma`ṣūma's.
(4) It is significant of intention to give Muḥammad-i-zamān ruling
status that in April 1529 AD. (Sha`bān 935 AH.) Bābur bestowed on him
royal insignia, including the umbrella-symbol of sovereignty.[2736] This
was done after the Mīrzā had raised objections, unspecified now in the
_Bābur-nāma_ against Bihār; they were overcome, the insignia were given
and, though for military reasons he was withheld from taking up that
appointment, the recognition of his royal rank had been made. His next
appointment was to Jūnpūr, the capital of the fallen Sharqī dynasty. No
other chief is mentioned by Bābur as receiving the insignia of royalty.
(5) It appears to have been within a Pādshāh's competence to select his
successor; and it may be inferred that choice was made between Humāyūn
and another from the wording of more than one writer that Khalīfa
"supported" Humāyūn, and from the word "selected" used in
Aḥmad-i-yādgār's anecdote.[2737] Much more would there be freedom of
choice in a division of territory such as there is a good deal to
suggest was the basis of Niẕāmu'd-dīn Aḥmad's story. Whatever the extent
of power proposed for the _dāmād_, whether, as it is difficult to
believe, the Pādshāh's whole supremacy, or whether the limited
sovereignty of Hindūstān, it must have been known to Bābur as well as to
Khalīfa. Whatever their earlier plan however, it was changed by the
sequel of Humāyūn's illness which led to his becoming Pādshāh. The
_dāmād_ was dropped, on grounds it is safe to believe more impressive
than his threat to flay Khalīfa or than the remonstrance of that high
official's subordinate Muqīm of Herāt.
Humāyūn's arrival and continued stay in Hindūstān modified earlier
dispositions which included his remaining in Badakhshān. His actions may
explain why Bābur, when in 936 AH. he went as far as Lāhor, did not go
on to Kābul. Nothing in the sources excludes the surmise that Māhīm knew
of the bestowal of royal insignia on the Bāī-qarā Mīrzā, that she
summoned her son to Āgra and there kept him, that she would do this the
more resolutely if the _dāmād_ of the plan she must have heard of, were
that Bāī-qarā, and that but for Humāyūn's presence in Āgra and its
attendant difficulties, Bābur would have gone to Kābul, leaving his
_dāmād_ in charge of Hindūstān.
Bābur, however, turned back from Lāhor for Āgra, and there he made the
self-surrender which, resulting in Humāyūn's "selection" as Pādshāh,
became a turning point in history.
Humāyūn's recovery and Bābur's immediate illness will have made the
son's life seem Divinely preserved, the father's as a debt to be paid.
Bābur's impressive personal experience will have dignified Humāyūn as
one whom God willed should live. Such distinction would dictate the
bestowal on him of all that fatherly generosity had yet to give. The
imminence of death defeating all plans made for life, Humāyūn was
nominated to supreme power as Pādshāh.
_g. Bābur's death._
Amongst other family matters mentioned by Gul-badan as occurring shortly
before her Father's death, was his arrangement of marriages for Gul-rang
with Aīsān-tīmūr and for Gul-chihra with Tūkhta-būghā _Chaghatāī_. She
also writes of his anxiety to see Hind-āl who had been sent for from
Kābul but did not arrive till the day after the death.
When no remedies availed, Humāyūn was summoned from Saṃbhal. He reached
Āgra four days before the death; on the morrow Bābur gathered his chiefs
together for the last of many times, addressed them, nominated Humāyūn
his successor and bespoke their allegiance for him. Abū'l-faẓl thus
summarizes his words, "Lofty counsels and weighty mandates were
imparted. Advice was given (to Humāyūn) to be munificent and just, to
acquire God's favour, to cherish and protect subjects, to accept
apologies from such as had failed in duty, and to pardon transgressors.
And, he (Bābur) exclaimed, the cream of my testamentary dispositions is
this, 'Do naught against your brothers, even though they may deserve
it.' In truth," continues the historian, "it was through obedience to
this mandate that his Majesty Jannat-ashiyānī suffered so many injuries
from his brothers without avenging himself." Gul-badan's account of her
Father's last address is simple:—"He spoke in this wise, 'For years it
has been in my heart to make over the throne to Humāyūn and to retire to
the Gold-scattering Garden. By the Divine grace I have obtained in
health of body everything but the fulfilment of this wish. Now that
illness has laid me low, I charge you all to acknowledge Humāyūn in my
stead. Fail not in loyalty towards him. Be of one heart and mind towards
him. I hope to God that he, for his part, will bear himself well towards
men. Moreover, Humāyūn, I commit you and your brothers and all my
kinsfolk and your people and my people to God's keeping, and entrust
them all to you.'"
It was on Monday Jumāda 1. 5th 937 AH. (Dec. 26th 153O AD.) that Bābur
made answer to his summons with the _Adsum_ of the Musalmān, "Lord! I am
here for Thee."
"Black fell the day for children and kinsfolk and all," writes his
daughter;
"Alas! that time and the changeful heaven should exist without thee;
Alas! and Alas! that time should remain and thou shouldst be gone;"
mourns Khwāja Kalān in the funeral ode from which Badāyūnī quoted these
lines.[2738]
The body was laid in the Garden-of-rest (_Ārām-bāgh_) which is opposite
to where the Tāj-i-maḥāll now stands. Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī _`asas_[2739]
was made the guardian of the tomb, and many well-voiced readers and
reciters were appointed to conduct the five daily Prayers and to offer
supplication for the soul of the dead. The revenues of Sīkrī and 5
_laks_ from Bīāna were set aside for the endowment of the tomb, and
Māhīm Begīm, during the two and a half years of her remaining life, sent
twice daily from her own estate, an allowance of food towards the
support of its attendants.
In accordance with the directions of his will, Bābur's body was to be
conveyed to Kābul and there to be laid in the garden of his choice, in a
grave open to the sky, with no building over it, no need of a
door-keeper.
Precisely when it was removed from Āgra we have not found stated. It is
known from Gul-badan that Kāmrān visited his Father's tomb in Āgra in
1539 AD. (946 AH.) after the battle of Chausa; and it is known from
Jauhar that the body had been brought to Kābul before 1544 AD. (952
AH.), at which date Humāyūn, in Kābul, spoke with displeasure of
Kāmrān's incivility to "Bega Begīm", the "Bībī" who had conveyed their
Father's body to that place.[2740] That the widow who performed this
duty was the Afghān Lady, Bībī Mubārika[2741] is made probable by
Gul-badan's details of the movements of the royal ladies. Bābur's family
left Āgra under Hind-āl's escort, after the defeat at Chausa (June 7th,
1539 AD.); whoever took charge of the body on its journey to Kābul must
have returned at some later date to fetch it. It would be in harmony
with Sher Shāh's generous character if he safe-guarded her in her task.
The terraced garden Bābur chose for his burial-place lies on the slope
of the hill Shāh-i-Kābul, the Sher-darwāza of European writers.[2742] It
has been described as perhaps the most beautiful of the Kābul gardens,
and as looking towards an unsurpassable view over the Chār-dih plain
towards the snows of Paghmān and the barren, rocky hills which have been
the hunting-grounds of rulers in Kābul. Several of Bābur's descendants
coming to Kābul from Āgra have visited and embellished his
burial-garden. Shāh-i-jahān built the beautiful mosque which stands near
the grave; Jahāngīr seems to have been, if not the author, at least the
prompter of the well-cut inscription adorning the upright slab of white
marble of Māīdān, which now stands at the grave-head. The tomb-stone
itself is a low grave-covering, not less simple than those of relations
and kin whose remains have been placed near Bābur's. In the thirties of
the last century [the later Sir] Alexander Burnes visited and admirably
described the garden and the tomb. With him was Munshī Mohan Lāl who
added to his own account of the beauties of the spot, copies of the
inscriptions on the monumental slab and on the portal of the
Mosque.[2743] As is shown by the descriptions these two visitors give,
and by Daniel's drawings of the garden and the tomb, there were in their
time two upright slabs, one behind the other, near the head of the
grave. Mr. H. H. Hayden who visited the garden in the first decade of
the present century, shows in his photograph of the grave, one upright
stone only, the place of one of the former two having been taken by a
white-washed lamp holder (_chirāghdān_).
The purport of the verses inscribed on the standing-slab is as follows:—
A ruler from whose brow shone the Light of God was that[2744]
Back-bone of the Faith (_ẕahīru'd-dīn_) Muḥammad Bābur
Pādshāh. Together with majesty, dominion, fortune, rectitude,
the open-hand and the firm Faith, he had share in prosperity,
abundance and the triumph of victorious arms. He won the
material world and became a moving light; for his every
conquest he looked, as for Light, towards the world of souls.
When Paradise became his dwelling and Ruẓwān[2745] asked me
the date, I gave him for answer, "Paradise is forever Bābur
Pādshāh's abode."
_h. Bābur's wives and children._[2746]
Bābur himself mentions several of his wives by name, but Gul-badan is
the authority for complete lists of them and their children.
1. `Āyisha Sulṯān Begīm, daughter of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā _Mīrān-shāhī_ was
betrothed, when Bābur was _cir._ 5 years old, in 894 AH. (1488-89 AD.),
bore Fakhru'n-nisa' in 906 AH. [who died in about one month], left Bābur
before 909 AH. (1503 AD.).
2. Zainab Sl. Begīm, daughter of Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā _Mīrān-shāhī_, was
married in 910 AH. (1504-5 AD.), died childless two or three years
later.
3. Māhīm Begīm, whose parentage is not found stated, was married in 912
AH. (1506 AD.), bore Bār-būd, Mihr-jān, Āīsān-daulat, Farūq [who all
died in infancy], and Humāyūn.
4. Ma`ṣūma Sl. Begīm, daughter of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā _Mīrān-shāhī_, was
married in 913 AH. (1507 AD.), bore Ma`ṣūma and died at her birth,
presumably early in the _lacuna_ of 914-925 AH. (1508-19 AD.).
5. Gul-rukh Begīm, whose parentage is not found stated, was perhaps a