The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)

method. He must have served (_khidmat qīlghān dūr_) under Bābur Mīrzā (_Shāhrukhī_). There was no greater beg in `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's presence. He was a vicious person and kept catamites. `Alī-mazīd _Qūchīn_ was another;[164] he rebelled twice, once at Akhsī, once at Tāshkīnt. He was disloyal, untrue to his salt, vicious and good-for-nothing. Ḥasan (son of) Yaq`ūb was another, a small-minded, good-tempered, smart and active man. This verse is his:— "Return, O Huma, for without the parrot-down of thy lip, The crow will assuredly soon carry off my bones."[165] [Sidenote: Fol. 14.] He was brave, a good archer, played polo (_chaughān_) well and leapt well at leap-frog.[166] He had the control of my Gate after `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's accident. He had not much sense, was narrow-minded and somewhat of a strife-stirrer. Qāsim Beg _Qūchīn_, of the ancient army-begs of Andijān, was another. He had the control of my Gate after Ḥasan Yaq`ūb Beg. His life through, his authority and consequence waxed without decline. He was a brave man; once he gave some Aūzbegs a good beating when he overtook them raiding near Kāsān; his sword hewed away in `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's presence; and in the fight at the Broad Ford (Yāsī-kījīt _circa_ 904AH.-July, 1499AD.) he hewed away with the rest. In the guerilla days he went to Khusrau Shāh (907AH.) at the time I was planning to go from the Macha hill-country[167] to Sl. Maḥmūd Khān, but he came back to me in 910AH. (1504AD.) and I shewed him all my old favour and affection. When I attacked the Turkmān Hazāra raiders in Dara-i-khwush (911AH.) he made better advance, spite of his age, than the younger men; I gave him Bangash as a reward and later on, after returning to Kābul, made him Humāyūn's guardian. He went to God's mercy [Sidenote: Fol. 14b.] about the time Zamīn-dāwar was taken (_circa_ 928AH.-1522AD.). He was a pious, God-fearing Musalmān, an abstainer from doubtful aliments; excellent in judgment and counsel, very facetious and, though he could neither read nor write (_ummiy_), used to make entertaining jokes. Bābā Beg's Bābā Qulī (`Alī) was another, a descendant of Shaikh `Alī _Bahādur_.[168] They made him my guardian when Shaikh Mazīd Beg died. He went over to Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā when the Mīrzā led his army against Andijān (899AH.), and gave him Aūrā-tīpā. After Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā's death, he left Samarkand and was on his way to join me (900AH.) when Sl. `Alī Mīrzā, issuing out of Aūrā-tīpā, fought, defeated and slew him. His management and equipment were excellent and he took good care of his men. He prayed not; he kept no fasts; he was like a heathen and he was a tyrant. `Alī-dost T̤aghāī[169] was another, one of the Sāghārīchī _tumān_-begs and a relation of my mother's mother, Aīsān-daulat Begīm. I favoured him more than he had been favoured in `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's time. People said, "Work will come from his hand." But in the many years he was in my presence, no work to speak of[170] came to sight. He must have served Sl. [Sidenote: Fol. 15.] Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā. He claimed to have power to bring on rain with the jade-stone. He was the Falconer (_qūshchī_),worthless by nature and habit, a stingy, severe, strife-stirring person, false, self-pleasing, rough of tongue and cold-of-face. Wais _Lāgharī_,[171] one of the Samarkand _Tūghchī_ people, was another. Latterly he was much in `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's confidence; in the guerilla times he was with me. Though somewhat factious, he was a man of good judgment and counsel. Mīr Ghiyās̤ T̤aghāi was another, a younger brother of `Ali-dost T̤aghāī. No man amongst the leaders in Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's Gate was more to the front than he; he had charge of the Mīrzā's square seal[172] and was much in his confidence latterly. He was a friend of Wais _Lāgharī_. When Kāsān had been given to Sl. Maḥmūd Khān (899AH.-1494AD. ), he was continuously in The Khān's service and was in high favour. He was a laugher, a joker and fearless in vice. `Ali-darwesh _Khurāsānī_ was another. He had served in the Khurāsān Cadet Corps, one of two special corps of serviceable young men formed by Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā when he first began [Sidenote: Fol. 15b.] to arrange the government of Khurāsān and Samarkand, and, presumably, called by him the Khurāsān Corps and the Samarkand Corps. `Alī-darwesh was a brave man; he did well in my presence at the Gate of Bīshkārān.[173] He wrote the _naskh ta`līq_ hand clearly.[174] His was the flatterer's tongue and in his character avarice was supreme. Qaṃbar-`alī _Mughūl_ of the Equerries (_akhtachī_) was another. People called him The Skinner because his father, on first coming into the (Farghāna) country, worked as a skinner. Qaṃbar-`alī had been Yūnas Khān's water-bottle bearer,[175] later on he became a beg. Till he was a made man, his conduct was excellent; once arrived, he was slack. He was full of talk and of foolish talk,—a great talker is sure to be a foolish one,—his capacity was limited and his brain muddy. (_l. Historical narrative._) At the time of `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's accident, I was in the Four Gardens (_Chār-bāgh_) of Andijān.[176] The news reached Andijān on Tuesday, Ramẓan 5 (June 9th); I mounted at once, with my followers and retainers, intending to go into the fort but, on our getting near the Mīrzā's Gate, Shīrīm T̤aghāī[177] took hold of my bridle and moved off towards the Praying Place.[178] It had crossed his mind that if a great ruler like Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā came in force, the Andijān begs would make over to him [Sidenote: Fol. 16.] me and the country,[179] but that if he took me to Aūzkīnt and the foothills thereabouts, I, at any rate, should not be made over and could go to one of my mother's (half-) brothers, Sl. Maḥmūd Khān or Sl. Aḥmad Khān.[180] When Khwāja Maulānā-i-qāẓī[181] and the begs in the fort heard of (the intended departure), they sent after us Khwāja Muḥammad, the tailor,[184] an old servant (_bāyrī_) of my father and the foster-father of one of his daughters. He dispelled our fears and, turning back from near the Praying [Sidenote: Fol. 16b.] Place, took me with him into the citadel (_ark_) where I dismounted. Khwāja Maulānā-i-qāẓī and the begs came to my presence there and after bringing their counsels to a head,[185] busied themselves in making good the towers and ramparts of the fort.[186] A few days later, Ḥasan, son of Yaq`ūb, and Qāsim _Qūchīn_, arrived, together with other begs who had been sent to reconnoitre in Marghīnān and those parts.[187] They also, after waiting on me, set themselves with one heart and mind and with zeal and energy, to hold the fort. (_Author's note on Khwāja Maulānā-i-qāẓī._) He was the son of Sl. Aḥmad Qāẓī, of the line of Burhānu'd-dīn `Alī _Qīlīch_[182] and through his mother, traced back to Sl. Aīlīk _Māẓī_.[183] By hereditary right (_yūsūnlūq_) his high family (_khānwādalār_) must have come to be the Refuge (_marji`_) and Pontiffs (_Shaikhu'l-islām_) of the (Farghāna) country. Meantime Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā took Aūrā-tīpā, Khujand and Marghīnān, came on to Qabā,[188] 4 _yīghāch_ from Andijān and there made halt. At this crisis, Darwesh Gau, one of the Andijān notables, was put to death on account of his improper proposals; his punishment crushed the rest. Khwāja Qāẓī and Aūzūn (Long) Ḥasan,[189] (brother) of Khwāja Ḥusain, were then sent to Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā to say in effect that, as he himself would place one of his servants in the country and as I was myself both a servant and (as) a son, he would attain his end most readily and easily if he entrusted the service to me. He was a mild, weak man, of few words who, without his begs, decided no opinion or compact (_aun_), action or move; they paid attention to our proposal, gave it a harsh answer and moved forward. But the Almighty God, who, of His perfect power and without mortal aid, has ever brought my affairs to their right issue, made such things happen here that they became disgusted at having advanced (_i.e._ from Qabā), repented indeed that they had ever set out on this expedition and turned back with nothing done. One of those things was this: Qabā has a stagnant, morass-like Water,[190] passable only by the bridge. As they were many, there was crowding on the bridge and numbers of horses and [Sidenote: Fol. 17.] camels were pushed off to perish in the water. This disaster recalling the one they had had three or four years earlier when they were badly beaten at the passage of the Chīr, they gave way to fear. Another thing was that such a murrain broke out amongst their horses that, massed together, they began to die off in bands.[191] Another was that they found in our soldiers and peasants a resolution and single-mindedness such as would not let them flinch from making offering of their lives[192] so long as there was breath and power in their bodies. Need being therefore, when one _yīghāch_ from Andijān, they sent Darwesh Muḥammad Tarkhān[193] to us; Ḥasan of Yaq'ūb went out from those in the fort; the two had an interview near the Praying Place and a sort of peace was made. This done, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's force retired. Meantime Sl. Maḥmūd Khān had come along the north of the Khujand Water and laid siege to Akhsī.[194] In Akhsī was Jahāngīr Mīrzā (aet. 9) and of begs, `Alī-darwesh Beg, Mīrzā Qulī _Kūkūldāsh_, Muḥ. Bāqir Beg and Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh, Lord of the Gate. Wais _Lāgharī_ and Mīr Ghiyās̤ T̤aghāī had been there too, but being afraid of the (Akhsī) begs had gone off to Kāsān, Wais _Lāgharī's_ district, where, he being Nāṣir Mīrzā's guardian, the Mīrzā was.[195] They went over to Sl. Maḥmūd Khān when he got near Akhsī; Mīr Ghiyās̤ entered his service; [Sidenote: Fol. 17b.] Wais _Lāgharī_ took Nāṣir Mīrzā to Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā, who entrusted him to Muh. Mazīd Tarkhān's charge. The Khān, though he fought several times near Akhsī, could not effect anything because the Akhsī begs and braves made such splendid offering of their lives. Falling sick, being tired of fighting too, he returned to his own country (_i.e._ Tāshkīnt). For some years, Ābā-bikr _Kāshgharī Dūghlāt_,[196] bowing the head to none, had been supreme in Kāshgar and Khutan. He now, moved like the rest by desire for my country, came to the neighbourhood of Aūzkīnt, built a fort and began to lay the land waste. Khwāja Qāzī and several begs were appointed to drive him out. When they came near, he saw himself no match for such a force, made the Khwāja his mediator and, by a hundred wiles and tricks, got himself safely free. Throughout these great events, `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's former begs and braves had held resolutely together and made daring offer of their lives. The Mīrzā's mother, Shāh Sulṯān Begīm,[197] and Jaḥāngīr Mīrzā and the _ḥaram_ household and the begs came from Akhsī to Andijān; the customary mourning was fulfilled and food and victuals spread for the poor and destitute.[198] [Sidenote: Fol. 18.] In the leisure from these important matters, attention was given to the administration of the country and the ordering of the army. The Andijān Government and control of my Gate were settled (_mukarrar_) for Ḥasan (son) of Yaq'ūb; Aūsh was decided on (_qarār_) for Qāsim _Qūchīn_; Akhsī and Marghīnān assigned (_ta'īn_) to Aūzun Ḥasan and `Alī-dost T̤aghāī. For the rest of `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's begs and braves, to each according to his circumstances, were settled and assigned district (_wilāyat_) or land (_yīr_) or office (_mauja_) or charge (_jīrga_) or stipend (_wajh_). When Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā had gone two or three stages on his return-march, his health changed for the worse and high fever appeared. On his reaching the Āq Sū near Aūrā-tīpā, he bade farewell to this transitory world, in the middle of Shawwāl of the date 899 (mid July 1494 AD.) being then 44 (lunar) years old.