The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
private departure. As Adik died shortly after 908 AH. his
daughters were born before that date and not after it as has
been understood. _Cf._ T.R. and G.B.'s H.N. _s.nn._; also
Mems. p. 14 and _Méms._ i, 24.
[158] Presumably by tribal custom, _yīnkālīk_, marriage with a
brother's widow. Such marriages seem to have been made
frequently for the protection of women left defenceless.
[159] Sa`īd's power to protect made him the refuge of several
kinswomen mentioned in the B.N. and the T.R. This mother and
child reached Kāshghar in 932 AH. (1526 AD.).
Here Bābur ends his [interpolated] account of his mother's
family and resumes that of his father's.
[160] Bābur uses a variety of phrases to express Lordship in
the Gate. Here he writes _aīshīknī bāshlātīb_; elsewhere,
_aīshīk ikhtiyārī qīlmāq_ and _mīnīng aīshīkīmdā ṣāḥib
ikhtiyārī qīlmāq_. Von Schwarz (p. 159) throws light on the
duties of the Lord of the Gate (_Aīshīk Āghāsī_). "Das Thür
... führt in eine grosse, vier-eckige, höhe Halle, deren Boden
etwa 2 m. über den Weg erhoben ist. In dieser Halle, welche
alle passieren muss, der durch das Thor eingeht, reitet oder
fahrt, ist die Thorwache placiert. Tagsüber sind die Thore
beständig öffen, nach Eintritt der Dunkelheit aber werden
dieselben geschlossen und die Schlüssel dem zuständigen
Polizeichef abgeliefert.... In den erwähnten Thorhallen nehmen
in den hoch unabhängigen Gebieten an Bazar-tagen haufig die
Richter Platz, um jedem der irgend ein Anliegen hat, so fort
Recht zu sprechen. Die zudiktierten Strafen werden auch gleich
in diesem selben locale vollzogen und eventuell die zum Hangen
verurteilten Verbrecher an den Deckbalken aufgehängt, so dass
die Besucher des Bazars unter den gehenkten durchpassieren
müssen."
[161] _bu khabarnī `Abdu'l-wahhāb shaghāwaldīn `arẓa-dāsht
qīlīb Mīrzāghā chāptūrdīlār._ This passage has been taken to
mean that the _shaghāwal_, _i.e._ chief scribe, was the
courier, but I think Bābur's words shew that the _shaghāwal's_
act preceded the despatch of the news. Moreover the only
accusative of the participle and of the verb is _khabarnī_.
`Abdu'l-wahhāb had been `Umar Shaikh's and was now Aḥmad's
officer in Khujand, on the main road for Aūrā-tīpā whence the
courier started on the rapid ride. The news may have gone
verbally to `Abdu'l-wahhāb and he have written it on to Aḥmad
and Abū-sa`īd.
[162] Measured from point to point even, the distance appears
to be over 500 miles. Concerning Bābā Khākī _see_ Ḥ.S. ii.
224; for rapid riding _i.a._ Kostenko iii, cap. Studs.
[163] _qūshūqlārnī yakhshī aītūrā īkān dūr._ Elph. MS. for
_qūshūq_, _tūyūk_. _Qūshūq_ is allowed, both by its root and
by usage, to describe improvisations of combined dance and
song. I understand from Bābur's tense, that his information
was hearsay only.
[164] _i.e._ of the military class. _Cf._ Vullers _s.n._ and
T.R. p. 301.
[165] The Hūma is a fabulous bird, overshadowing by whose
wings brings good-fortune. The couplet appears to be addressed
to some man, under the name Hūma, from whom Ḥasan of Yaq`ūb
hoped for benefit.
[166] _khāk-bīla_; the _Sanglākh_, (quoting this passage)
gives _khāk-p:l:k_ as the correct form of the word.
[167] _Cf._ f. 99b.
[168] One of Tīmūr's begs.
[169] _i.e._ uncle on the mother's side, of any degree, here a
grandmother's brother. The title appears to have been given
for life to men related to the ruling House. Parallel with it
are Madame Mère, Royal Uncle, Sulṯān Wālida.
[170] _kīm dīsā būlghāī_, perhaps meaning, "Nothing of service
to me."
[171] Wais the Thin.
[172] _Cf._ Chardin ed. Langlès v, 461 and ed. 1723 AD. v,
183.
[173] n.e. of Kāsān. _Cf._ f. 74. Ḥai MS., erroneously,
Samarkand.
[174] An occasional doubt arises as to whether a _ṯaurī_ of
the text is Arabic and dispraises or Turkī and laudatory.
_Cf._ Mems. p. 17 and _Méms._ i, 3.
[175] Elph. and Ḥai. MSS. _aftābachī_, water-bottle bearer on
journeys; Kehr (p. 82) _aftābchī_, ewer-bearer; Ilminsky (p.
19) _akhtachi_, squire or groom. Circumstances support
_aftābachī_. Yūnas was town-bred, his ewer-bearer would hardly
be the rough Mughūl, Qaṃbar-`alī, useful as an _aftābachī_.
[176] Bābur was Governor of Andijān and the month being June,
would be living out-of-doors. _Cf._ Ḥ.S. ii. 272 and Schuyler
ii, 37.
[177] To the word Sherīm applies Abū'l-ghāzī's explanation of
Nurūm and Ḥājīm, namely, that they are abbreviations of Nūr
and Ḥājī Muḥammad. It explains Sulṯānīm also when used (f. 72)
of Sl. Muḥammad Khānika but of Sulṯānīm as the name is common
with Bābur, Ḥaidar and Gul-badan, _i.e._ as a woman's,
Busbecq's explanation is the better, namely, that it means My
Sulṯān and is applied to a person of rank and means. This
explains other women's titles _e.g._ Khānīm, my Khān and Ākām
(Ākīm), My Lady. A third group of names formed like the last
by enclitic _'m_ (my), may be called names of affection,
_e.g._ Māhīm, My Moon, Jānīm, My Life. (_Cf._ Persian
equivalents.) Cf. Abū'l-ghāzī's _Shajarat-i-Turkī_ (Désmaisons
p. 272); and Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq's _Life and Letters_
(Forster and Daniel i, 38.)
[178] _Namāz-gāh_; generally an open terrace, with a wall
towards the Qibla and outside the town, whither on festival
days the people go out in crowds to pray. (Erskine.)
[179] _Bēglār (nīng) mīnī u wilāyatnī tāpshūrghūlārī dūr_;
a noticeably idiomatic sentence. _Cf._ f. 16b 1. 6 and 1. 7
for a repetition.
[180] Maḥmūd was in Tāshkīnt, Aḥmad in Kāshghār or on the
Āq-sū.
[181] The B.N. contains a considerable number of what are
virtually footnotes. They are sometimes, as here, entered in
the middle of a sentence and confuse the narrative; they are
introduced by _kīm_, a mere sign of parenthetical matter to
follow, and some certainly, known not to be Bābur's own, must
have stood first on the margin of his text. It seems best to
enter them as Author's notes.
[182] _i.e._ the author of the Hidāyat. _Cf._ f. 3b and note;
Blochmann _Āyīn-i-akbarī s.n. qulij_ and note; Bellew's
_Afghan Tribes_ p. 100, _Khilich_.
[183] Ar. dead, gone. The precision of Bābur's words
_khānwādalār_ and _yūsūnlūq_ is illustrated by the existence
in the days of Tīmūr, in Marghīnān, (Burhānu'd-dīn's township)
of a ruler named Aīlīk Khān, apparently a descendant of
Sātūq-būghrā Khān (b. 384 AH.-994 AD.) so that in Khwāja Qāẓī
were united two dynasties, (_khānwādalār_), one priestly,
perhaps also regal, the other of bye-gone ruling Khāns. Cf.
D'Herbélot p. 433; _Yarkand Mission_, Bellew p. 121;
_Taẕkirat-i Sulṯān Sātūq-būghrā Khān Ghāzī Pādshāh_ and
_Tārīkh-i-nāṣirī_ (Raverty _s.n._)
[184] _darzī_; Ḥ.S. _khaiyāṯ_.
[185] _bīr yīrgā_ (_qūyūb_), lit. to one place.
[186] _i.e._ reconstructed the earthern defences. _Cf._ Von
Schwarz _s.n._ loess.
[187] They had been sent, presumably, before `Umar Shaikh's
death, to observe Sl. Aḥmad M.'s advance. _Cf._ f. 6.
[188] The time-table of the Andijān Railway has a station,
Kouwa (Qabā).
[189] Bābur, always I think, calls this man Long Ḥasan;
Khwānd-amīr styles him Khwāja Ḥasan; he seems to be the
brother of one of `Umar Shaikh's fathers-in-law, Khwāja
Ḥusain.
[190] _bātqāq._ This word is underlined in the Elph. MS. by
_dil-dil_ and in the Ḥai. MS. by _jam-jama_. It is translated
in the W.-i-B. by _āb pur hīla_, water full of deceit; it is
our Slough of Despond. It may be remarked that neither Zenker
nor Steingass gives to _dil-dil_ or _jam-jama_ the meaning of
morass; the _Akbar-nāma_ does so. (H.B. ii, 112.)
[191] _ṯawīla ṯawīla ātlār yīghīlīb aūlā kīrīshtī_. I
understand the word _yīghīlīb_ to convey that the massing led
to the spread of the murrain.
[192] _jān tārātmāqlār_ _i.e._ as a gift to their over-lord.
[193] Perhaps, Bābur's maternal great-uncle. It would suit the
privileges bestowed on Tarkhāns if their title meant _Khān of
the Gifts_ (Turkī _tar_, gift). In the _Bāburnāma_, it
excludes all others. Most of Aḥmad's begs were Tarkhāns,
Arghūns and Chīngīz Khānids, some of them ancestors of later
rulers in Tatta and Sind. Concerning the Tarkhāns _see_ T.R.
p. 55 and note; A.N. (H.B. _s.n._) Elliot and Dowson's
_History of India_, 498.
[194] _Cf._ f. 6.
[195] _beg ātākā_, lit. beg for father.
[196] T.R. _s.n._ Ābā-bikr.
[197] _Cf._ f. 6b and note.
[198] _faqra u masākin_, _i.e._ those who have food for one
day and those who have none in hand. (Steingass.)
[199] For fashions of sitting, _see_ _Tawārīkh-i-guzīda
Naṣrat-nāma_ B.M. Or. 3222. Aḥmad would appear to have
maintained the deferential attitude by kneeling and sitting
back upon his heels.
[200] _bīr sūnkāk bār īkān dūr._ I understand that something
defiling must have been there, perhaps a bone.
[201] _Khwājanīng ham āyāghlārī ārādā īdī._
[202] _īlbāsūn_, a kind of mallard (_Abūshqa_), here perhaps a
popinjay. _Cf._ Ḥ.S. ii, 193 for Aḥmad's skill as an archer,
and Payne-Gallwey's _Cross-bow_ p. 225.
[203] _qabāq_, an archer's mark. Abū'l-ghāzī (Kāsān ed. p.
181. 5) mentions a hen (_tūqūq_) as a mark. _Cf._
Payne-Gallwey _l.c._ p. 231.
[204] _qīrghīcha, astar palumbarius._ (Shaw's Voc. Scully.)
[205] Perhaps, not quarrelsome.
[206] The T.R. (p. 116) attributes the rout to Shaibānī's
defection. The Ḥ.S. (ii, 192) has a varied and confused
account. An error in the T.R. trs. making Shaibānī plunder the
Mughūls, is manifestly clerical.
[207] _i.e._ condiment, _ce qu'on ajoute au pain_.
[208] _Cf._ f. 6.
[209] _qāzāqlār_; here, if Bābur's, meaning his conflicts with
Taṃbal, but as the Begīm may have been some time in Khujand,
the _qāzāqlār_ may be of Samarkand.
[210] All the (Turkī) Bābur-nāma MSS. and those examined of
the W.-i-B. by writing _aūltūrdī_ (killed) where I suggest to
read _aūlnūrdī_ (_devenir comme il faut_) state that Aḥmad
killed Qātāq. I hesitate to accept this (1) because the only
evidence of the murder is one diacritical point, the removal
of which lifts Aḥmad's reproach from him by his return to the
accepted rules of a polygamous household; (2) because no
murder of Qātāq is chronicled by Khwānd-amīr or other writers;
and (3) because it is incredible that a mild, weak man living
in a family atmosphere such as Bābur, Ḥaidar and Gul-badan
reproduce for us, should, while possessing facility for
divorce, kill the mother of four out of his five children.
Reprieve must wait however until the word _tīrīklīk_ is
considered. This Erskine and de C. have read, with
consistency, to mean _life-time_, but if _aūlnūrdī_ be read in
place of _aūltūrdī_ (killed), _tīrīklīk_ may be read,
especially in conjunction with Bābur's _`āshīqlīklār_, as
meaning _living power_ or _ascendancy_. Again, if read as from
_tīrik_, a small arrow and a consuming pain, _tīrīklīk_ may
represent Cupid's darts and wounds. Again it might be taken as
from _tīrāmāk_, to hinder, or forbid.
Under these considerations, it is legitimate to reserve
judgment on Aḥmad.
[211] It is customary amongst Turks for a bride, even amongst
her own family, to remain veiled for some time after marriage;
a child is then told to pluck off the veil and run away, this
tending, it is fancied, to the child's own success in
marriage. (Erskine.)