The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
head held fast, especially as for it to fall would make the
better story.
[466] Tūqā appears to have been the son of a T̤aghāī, perhaps
of Sherīm; his name may imply blood-relationship.
[467] For the verb _awīmāq_, to trepan, _see_ f. 67 note 5.
[468] The Fr. map of 1904 shews a hill suiting Bābur's
location of this Hill of Pleasure.
[469] A place near Kābul bears the same name; in both the name
is explained by a legend that there Earth opened a refuge for
forty menaced daughters.
[470] Elph. MS. f. 47b; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 53 and 217 f. 43;
Mems. p. 70.
[471] From Andijān to Aūsh is a little over 33 miles. Taṃbal's
road was east of Bābur's and placed him between Andijān and
Aūzkīnt where was the force protecting his family.
[472] mod. Mazy, on the main Aūsh-Kāshghar road.
[473] _āb-duzd_; de C. i, 144, _prise d'eau_.
[474] This simile seems the fruit of experience in Hindūstān.
_See_ f. 333, concerning Chānderi.
[475] These two Mughūls rebelled in 914 AH. with Sl. Qulī
_Chūnāq_ (T.R. _s.n._).
[476] _awīdī._ The head of Captain Dow, fractured at Chunār by
a stone flung at it, was trepanned (_Saiyār-i-muta`akhirīn_,
p. 577 and Irvine l .c. p. 283). Yār-`alī was alive in 910 AH.
He seems to be the father of the great Bairām Khān-i-khānān of
Akbar's reign.
[477] _chasht-gāh_; midway between sunrise and noon.
[478] _ṯaurī_; because providing prisoners for exchange.
[479] _shakh tūtūlūr īdī_, perhaps a palisade.
[480] _i.e._ from Ḥiṣār where he had placed him in 903 AH.
[481] _qūba yūzlūq_ (f. 6b and note 4). The Turkmān features
would be a maternal inheritance.
[482] He is "Saifī Maulānā `Arūzī" of Rieu's Pers. Cat. p.
525. _Cf._ Ḥ.S. ii, 341. His book, _`Arūz-i-saifī_ has been
translated by Blochmann and by Ranking.
[483] _namāz aūtār īdī._ I understand some irony from this (de
Meynard's Dict. _s.n._ _aūtmāq_).
[484] The _maṯla`_ of poems serve as an index of first lines.
[485] _Cf._ f. 30.
[486] _Cf._ f. 37b.
[487] _i.e._ scout and in times of peace, huntsman. On the
margin of the Elph. Codex here stands a note, mutilated in
rebinding;—_Sl. Aḥmad pidr-i-Qūch Beg ast * * *
pidr-i-Sher-afgan u Sher-afgan * * * u Sl. Ḥusain Khān * * *
Qūch Beg ast. Hamesha * * * dar khāna Shaham Khān * * *_.
[488] _pītīldī_; W.-i-B. _navishta shud_, words indicating the
use by Bābur of a written record.
[489] _Cf._ f. 6b and note and f. 17 and note.
[490] _tūlūk_; _i.e._ other food than grain. Fruit, fresh or
preserved, being a principal constituent of food in Central
Asia, _tūlūk_ will include several, but chiefly melons. "Les
melons constituent presque seuls vers le fin d'été, la
nourriture des classes pauvres" (Th. Radloff. l.c. p. 343).
[491] _Cf._ f. 6b and note.
[492] _tūlkī_ var. _tūlkū_, the yellow fox. Following this
word the Ḥai. MS. has _u dar kamīn dūr_ instead of _u rangīn
dūr_.
[493] _bī ḥadd_; with which I.O. 215 agrees but I.O. 217 adds
_farbih_, fat, which is right in fact (f. 2b) but less
pertinent here than an unlimited quantity.
[494] Here a pun on _`ajab_ may be read.
[495] _Cf._ f. 15, note to T̤aghāī.
[496] Apparently not the usual Kīndīr-līk pass but one n.w. of
Kāsān.
[497] A ride of at least 40 miles, followed by one of 20 to
Kāsān.
[498] _Cf._ f. 72 and f. 72b. Tīlba would seem to have left
Taṃbal.
[499] _Taṃbalnīng qarāsī._
[500] _i.e._ the Other (Mid-afternoon) Prayer.
[501] _ātīnīng būīnīnī qātīb._ _Qātmāq_ has also the
here-appropriate meaning of _to stiffen_.
[502] _aīlīk qūshmāq_, _i.e._ Bābur's men with the Kāsān
garrison. But the two W.-i-B. write merely _dast burd_ and
_dast kardan_.
[503] The meaning of _Ghazna_ here is uncertain. The Second
W.-i-B. renders it by ar. _qaryat_ but up to this point Bābur
has not used _qaryat_ for _village_. Ghazna-namangān cannot be
modern Namangān. It was 2 m. from Archīān where Taṃbal was,
and Bābur went to Bīshkhārān to be between Taṃbal and Machamī,
coming from the south. Archīān and Ghazna-namangān seem both
to have been n. or n.w. of Bīshkārān (see maps).
It may be mentioned that at Archīān, in 909 AH. the two
Chaghatāī Khāns and Bābur were defeated by Shaibānī.
[504] _bīzlār._ The double plural is rare with Bābur; he
writes _bīz_, we, when action is taken in common; he rarely
uses _mīn_, I, with autocratic force; his phrasing is largely
impersonal, _e.g._ with rare exceptions, he writes the
impersonal passive verb.
[505] _bāshlīghlār._ Teufel was of opinion that this word is
not used as a noun in the B.N. In this he is mistaken; it is
so used frequently, as here, in apposition. _See_ ZDMG,
xxxvii, art. Bābur und Abū`l-faẓl.
[506] _Cf._ f. 54 foot.
[507] _Cf._ f. 20. She may have come from Samarkand and `Alī's
household or from Kesh and the Tarkhān households.
[508] _Cf._ f. 26 l. 2 for the same phrase.
[509] He is the author of the _Shaibānī-nāma_.
[510] _dāng_ and _fils_ (_infra_) are small copper coins.
[511] _Cf._ f. 25 l. 1 and note 1.
[512] Probably the poet again; he had left Harāt and was in
Samarkand (Sh. N. Vambéry, p. 34 l. 14).
[513] From what follows, this Mughūl advance seems a sequel to
a Tarkhān invitation.
[514] By omitting the word _Mīr_ the Turkī text has caused
confusion between this father and son (Index _s.nn._).
[515] _bīz khūd kharāb bū mu`āmla aīdūk._ These words have
been understood earlier, as referring to the abnormal state of
Bābur's mind described under Sec. _r_. They better suit the
affairs of Samarkand because Bābur is able to resolve on
action and also because he here writes _bīz_, we, and not
_mīn_, I, as in Sec. _r_.
[516] For _būlghār_, rendezvous, _see_ also f. 78 l. 2 fr. ft.
[517] 25 m. only; the halts were due probably to belated
arrivals.
[518] Some of his ties would be those of old acquaintance in
Ḥiṣār with `Alī's father's begs, now with him in Samarkand.
[519] Point to point, some 90 m. but further by road.
[520] _Bū waqi` būlghāch_, manifestly ironical.
[521] Sangzār to Aūrā-tīpā, by way of the hills, some 50
miles.
[522] The Sh. N. Vambéry, p. 60, confirms this.
[523] _Cf._ f. 74b.
[524] Macham and Awīghūr, presumably.
[525] _gūzlār tūz tūtī_, _i.e._ he was blinded for some
treachery to his hosts.
[526] Muḥ. Ṣāliḥ's well-informed account of this episode has
much interest, filling out and, as by Shaibānī's Boswell,
balancing Bābur's. Bābur is obscure about what country was to
be given to `Alī. Pāyanda-ḥasan paraphrases his brief
words;—Shaibānī was to be as a father to `Alī and when he had
taken `Alī's father's _wilāyāt_, he was to give a country to
`Alī. It has been thought that the gift to `Alī was to follow
Shaibānī's recovery of his own ancestral camping-ground
(_yūrt_) but this is negatived, I think, by the word,
_wilāyāt_, cultivated land.
[527] Elp. MS. f. 57b; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 63b and I.O. 217 f.
52; Mems. p. 82.
Two contemporary works here supplement the B.N.; (1) the
(_Tawārikh-i-guzīda_) _Naṣrat-nāma_, dated 908 AH. (B.M. Turkī
Or. 3222) of which Berezin's _Shaibāni-nāma_ is an abridgment;
(2) Muḥ. Ṣāliḥ Mīrzā's _Shaibānī-nāma_ (Vambéry trs. cap. xix
_et seq._). The Ḥ.S. (Bomb. ed. p. 302, and Tehran ed. p. 384)
is also useful.
[528] _i.e._ on his right. The Ḥ.S. ii, 302 represents that
`Alī was well-received. After Shaibāq had had Zuhra's
overtures, he sent an envoy to `Alī and Yaḥya; the first was
not won over but the second fell in with his mother's scheme.
This difference of view explains why `Alī slipped away while
Yaḥya was engaged in the Friday Mosque. It seems likely that
mother and son alike expected their Aūzbeg blood to stand them
in good stead with Shaibāq.
[529] He tried vainly to get the town defended. "Would to God
Bābur Mīrzā were here!" he is reported as saying, by Muḥ.
Ṣāliḥ.
[530] Perhaps it is for the play of words on `Alī and `Alī's
life (_jān_) that this man makes his sole appearance here.
[531] _i.e._ rich man or merchant, but _Bī_ (_infra_) is an
equivalent of Beg.
[532] Muḥ. Ṣāliḥ, invoking curses on such a mother, mentions
that Zuhra was given to a person of her own sort.
[533] The Sh. N. and _Naṣrat-nāma_ attempt to lift the blame
of `Alī's death from Shaibāq; the second saying that he fell
into the Kohik-water when drunk.
[534] Harāt might be his destination but the Ḥ.S. names Makka.
Some dismissals towards Khurāsān may imply pilgrimage to
Meshhed.
[535] Used also by Bābur's daughter, Gul-badan (l.c. f. 31).
[536] Cut off by alien lands and weary travel.
[537] The Pers. annotator of the Elph. Codex has changed Alāī
to _wīlāyat_, and _dābān_ (pass) to _yān_, side. For the
difficult route _see_ Schuyler, i, 275, Kostenko, i, 129 and
Rickmers, JRGS. 1907, art. Fan Valley.
[538] Amongst Turks and Mughūls, gifts were made by nines.
[539] Ḥiṣār was his earlier home.
[540] Many of these will have been climbed in order to get
over places impassable at the river's level.
[541] Schuyler quotes a legend of the lake. He and Kostenko
make it larger.
[542] The second occasion was when he crossed from Sūkh for
Kābul in 910 AH. (fol. 120).
[543] This name appears to indicate a Command of 10,000
(Bretschneider's _Mediæval Researches_, i, 112).
[544] It seems likely that the cloth was soiled. _Cf._ f. 25
and Hughes Dict. of Islām _s.n._ Eating.
[545] As, of the quoted speech, one word only, of three, is
Turkī, others may have been dreamed. Shaikh Maṣlaḥat's tomb is
in Khujand where Bābur had found refuge in 903 AH.; it had
been circumambulated by Tīmūr in 790 AH. (1390 AD.) and is
still honoured.
This account of a dream compares well for naturalness with
that in the seemingly-spurious passage, entered with the Ḥai.
MS. on f. 118. For examination of the passage _see_ JRAS, Jan.
1911, and App. D.
[546] He was made a Tarkhān by diploma of Shaibānī (Ḥ.S. ii,
306, l. 2).
[547] Here the Ḥai. MS. begins to use the word _Shaibāq_ in
place of its previously uniform _Shaibānī_. As has been noted
(f. 5b n. 2), the Elph. MS. writes _Shaibāq_. It may be
therefore that a scribe has changed the earlier part of the
Ḥai. MS. and that Bābur wrote _Shaibāq_. From this point my
text will follow the double authority of the Elph. and Ḥai.
MSS.
[548] In 875 AH. (1470 AD.). Ḥusain was then 32 years old.
Bābur might have compared his taking of Samarkand with Tīmūr's
capture of Qarshī, also with 240 followers (Z̤.N. i, 127).
Firishta (lith. ed. p. 196) ascribes his omission to do so to
reluctance to rank himself with his great ancestor.
[549] This arrival shews that Shaibānī expected to stay in
Samarkand. He had been occupying Turkistān under The Chaghatāī
Khān.
[550] `Alī-sher died Jan. 3rd. 1501. It is not clear to what
disturbances Bābur refers. He himself was at ease till after
April 20th. 1502 and his defeat at Sar-i-pul. Possibly the
reference is to the quarrels between Binā'ī and `Alī-sher.
_Cf._ Sām Mīrzā's Anthology, trs. S. de Saçy, _Notices et
Extraits_ iv, 287 _et seq._
[551] I surmise a double play-of-words in this verse. One is
on two rhyming words, _ghala_ and _mallah_ and is illustrated