The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
[1087] This is an idiom expressive of great keenness
(Erskine).
[1088] Ḥ.S. iii, 250, _kitābdār_, librarian; so too Ḥai. MS.
f. 174b.
[1089] _mutaiyam_ (f. 7b and note). Mīr Mughūl Beg was put to
death for treachery in `Irāq (Ḥ.S. iii, 227, 248).
[1090] Bābur speaks as an eye-witness (f. 187b). For a single
combat of Sayyid Badr, Ḥ. S. iii, 233.
[1091] f. 157 and note to _bātmān_.
[1092] A level field in which a gourd (_qabaq_) is set on a
pole for an archer's mark to be hit in passing at the gallop
(f. 18b and note).
[1093] Or possibly during the gallop the archer turned in the
saddle and shot backwards.
[1094] Junaid was the father of Niẕāmu'd-dīn `Alī, Bābur's
Khalīfa (Vice-gerent). That Khalīfa was of a religious house
on his mother's side may be inferred from his being styled
both Sayyid and Khwāja neither of which titles could have come
from his Turkī father. His mother may have been a sayyida of
one of the religious families of Marghīnān (f. 18 and note),
since Khalīfa's son Muḥibb-i-`alī writes his father's name
"Niẕāmu'd-din `Alī _Marghīlānī_" (_Marghīnānī_) in the Preface
of his _Book on Sport_ (Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 485).
[1095] This northward migration would take the family into
touch with Bābur's in Samarkand and Farghāna.
[1096] He was left in charge of Jaunpūr in Rabī` I, 933 AH.
(Jan. 1527 AD.) but exchanged for Chunār in Ramẓān 935 AH.
(June 1529 AD.); so that for the writing of this part of the
_Bābur-nāma_ we have the major and minor limits of Jan. 1527
and June 1529.
[1097] Ḥ.S. iii, 227.
[1098] _See_ Appendix H, _On the counter-mark Bih-būd on
coins_.
[1099] Niẕāmu'd-dīn Amīr Shaikh Aḥmadu's-suhailī was surnamed
Suhailī through a _fāl_ (augury) taken by his spiritual guide,
Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain _Gāzur-gāhī_; it was he induced Ḥusain
_Kashīfī_ to produce his _Anwār-i-suhailī_ (Lights of Canopus)
(f. 125 and note; Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 756; and for a couplet
of his, Ḥ.S. iii, 242 l. 10).
[1100] Index _s.n._
[1101] Did the change complete an analogy between `Alī
_Jalāīr_ and his (perhaps) elder son with `Alī Khalīfa and his
elder son Ḥasan?
[1102] The Qūsh-begī is, in Central Asia, a high official who
acts for an absent ruler (Shaw); he does not appear to be the
Falconer, for whom Bābur's name is Qūshchī (f. 15 n.).
[1103] He received this sobriquet because when he returned
from an embassy to the Persian Gulf, he brought, from Bahrein,
to his Tīmūrid master a gift of royal pearls (Sām Mīrzā). For
an account of Marwārīd _see_ Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 1094 and
(_re_ portrait) p. 787.
[1104] Sām Mīrzā specifies this affliction as _ābla-i-farang_,
thus making what may be one of the earliest Oriental
references to _morbus gallicus_ [as de Saçy here translates
the name], the foreign or European pox, the "French disease of
Shakespeare" (H.B.).
[1105] Index _s.n._ Yūsuf.
[1106] Ramẓān 3rd 918 AH.-Nov. 12th 1512.
[1107] _i.e._ of the White-sheep Turkmāns.
[1108] His paternal line was, `Abdu'l-bāqī, son of `Us̤mān,
son of Sayyidī Aḥmad, son of Mīrān-shāh. His mother's people
were begs of the White-sheep (Ḥ.S. iii, 290).
[1109] Sulṯānīm had married Wais (f. 157) not later than 895
or 896 AH. (Ḥ. S. iii, 253); she married `Abdu'l-bāqī in 908
AH. (1502-3 AD.).
[1110] Sayyid Shamsu'd-dīn Muḥammad, Mīr Sayyid
_Sar-i-barahna_ owed his sobriquet of Bare-head to love-sick
wanderings of his youth (Ḥ.S. iii, 328). The Ḥ.S. it is clear,
recognizes him as a sayyid.
[1111] Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 760; it is immensely long and
"filled with tales that shock all probability" (Erskine).
[1112] f. 94 and note. Sl. Ḥusain M. made him curator of
Anṣārī's shrine, an officer represented, presumably, by Col.
Yate's "Mīr of Gāzur-gāh", and he became Chief Justice in 904
AH. (1498-99 AD.). _See_ Ḥ.S. iii, 330 and 340; JASB 1887,
art. _On the city of Harāt_ (C. E. Yate) p. 85.
[1113] _mutasauwif_, perhaps meaning not a professed Ṣūfī.
[1114] He was of high birth on both sides, of religious houses
of T̤abas and Nishāpūr (D.S. pp. 161, 163).
[1115] In agreement with its preface, Dr. Rieu entered the
book as written by Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā; in his Addenda, however,
he quotes Bābur as the authority for its being by Gāzur-gāhī;
Khwānd-amīr's authority can be added to Bābur's (Ḥ.S. 340;
Pers. Cat. pp. 351, 1085).
[1116] _Dīwān._ The Wazīr is a sort of Minister of Finance;
the Dīwān is the office of revenue receipts and issues
(Erskine).
[1117] a secretary who writes out royal orders (Ḥ.S. iii,
244).
[1118] Count von Noer's words about a cognate reform of later
date suit this man's work, it also was "a bar to the
defraudment of the Crown, a stumbling-block in the path of
avaricious chiefs" (_Emperor Akbar_ trs. i, 11). The
opposition made by `Alī-sher to reform so clearly to Ḥusain's
gain and to Ḥusain's begs' loss, stirs the question, "What was
the source of his own income?" Up to 873 AH. he was for some
years the dependant of Aḥmad Ḥājī Beg; he took nothing from
the Mīrzā, but gave to him; he must have spent much in
benefactions. The question may have presented itself to M.
Belin for he observes, "`Alī-sher qui sans doute, à son retour
de l'exil, recouvra l'héritage de ses pères, et depuis occupa
de hautes positions dans le gouvernement de son pays, avait
acquis une grande fortune" (_J. Asiatique_ xvii, 227). While
not contradicting M. Belin's view that vested property such as
can be described as "paternal inheritance", may have passed
from father to son, even in those days of fugitive prosperity
and changing appointments, one cannot but infer, from Nawā'i's
opposition to Majdu'd-dīn, that he, like the rest, took a
partial view of the "rights" of the cultivator.
[1119] This was in 903 AH. after some 20 years of service
(Ḥ.S. iii, 231; Ethé I.O. Cat. p. 252).
[1120] Amīr Jamālu'd-dīn `Atā'u'l-lāh, known also as
Jamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain, wrote a _History of Muhammad_ (Ḥ.S. iii,
345; Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 147 & (a correction) p. 1081).
[1121] Amongst noticeable omissions from Bābur's list of Herī
celebrities are Mīr Khwānd Shāh ("Mirkhond"), his grandson
Khwānd-amīr, Ḥusain _Kashifī_ and Muinu'd-dīn al Zamjī, author
of a _History of Harāt_ which was finished in 897 AH.
[1122] Sa'du`d-dīn Mas`ūd, son of `Umar, was a native of Taft
in Yazd, whence his cognomen (Bahār-i-`ajam); he died in 792
AH.-1390 AD. (Ḥ.S. iii, 59, 343; T.R. p. 236; Rieu's Pers.
Cat. pp. 352, 453).
[1123] These are those connected with grammar and rhetoric
(Erskine).
[1124] This is one of the four principal sects of
Muḥammadanism (Erskine).
[1125] T.R. p. 235, for Shāh Ismā`īl's murders in Herī.
[1126] Superintendent of Police, who examines weights,
measures and provisions, also prevents gambling, drinking and
so on.
[1127] f. 137.
[1128] The rank of Mujtahid, which is not bestowed by any
individual or class of men but which is the result of slow and
imperceptible opinion, finally prevailing and universally
acknowledged, is one of the greatest peculiarities of the
religion of Persia. The Mujtahid is supposed to be elevated
above human fears and human enjoyments, and to have a certain
degree of infallibility and inspiration. He is consulted with
reverence and awe. There is not always a Mujtahid necessarily
existing. _See_ Kaempfer, _Amoenitates Exoticae_ (Erskine).
[1129] _muḥaddas̤_, one versed in the traditional sayings and
actions of Muḥammad.
[1130] Ḥ.S. iii, 340.
[1131] B.M. Or. 218 (Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 350). The Commentary
was made in order to explain the _Nafaḥāt_ to Jāmī's son.
[1132] He was buried by the Mullā's side.
[1133] Amīr Burhānu'd-dīn `Atā'u'l-lāh bin Maḥmūdu'l-ḥusainī
was born in Nishāpūr but known as Mashhadī because he retired
to that holy spot after becoming blind.
[1134] f. 144_b_ and note. Qāẓī Ikhtiyāru'd-dīn Ḥasan (Ḥ.S.
iii, 347) appears to be the Khwāja Ikhtiyār of the
_Āyīn-i-akbarī_, and, if so, will have taken professional
interest in the script, since Abū'l-faẓl describes him as a
distinguished calligrapher in Sl. Ḥusain M.'s presence
(Blochmann, p. 101).
[1135] Saifu'd-dīn (Sword of the Faith) Aḥmad, presumably.
[1136] A sister of his, Apāq Bega, the wife of `Alī-sher's
brother Darwīsh-i-`alī _kitābdār_, is included as a poet in
the _Biography of Ladies_ (Sprenger's Cat. p. 11). Amongst the
20 women named one is a wife of Shaibāq Khān, another a
daughter of Hilālī.
[1137] He was the son of Khw. Ni`amatu'l-lāh, one of Sl.
Abū-sa`īd M.'s wazīrs. When dying _aet._ 70 (923 AH.), he made
this chronogram on his own death, "With 70 steps he measured
the road to eternity." The name Āsaf, so frequent amongst
wazīrs, is that of Solomon's wazīr.
[1138] Other interpretations are open; _wādī_, taken as
_river_, might refer to the going on from one poem to another,
the stream of verse; or it might be taken as _desert_, with
disparagement of collections.
[1139] Maulānā Jamālu'd-dīn _Banā'i_ was the son of a
_sabz-banā_, an architect, a good builder.
[1140] Steingass's Dictionary allows convenient reference for
examples of metres.
[1141] Other jokes made by _Banā'i_ at the expense of Nawā'i
are recorded in the various sources.
[1142] Bābur saw Banā'i in Samarkand at the end of 901 AH.
(1496 AD. f. 38).
Here Dr. Leyden's translation ends; one other fragment which
he translated will be found under the year 925 AH. (Erskine).
This statement allows attention to be drawn to the inequality
of the shares of the work done for the Memoirs of 1826 by
Leyden and by Erskine. It is just to Mr. Erskine, but a
justice he did not claim, to point out that Dr. Leyden's share
is slight both in amount and in quality; his essential
contribution was the initial stimulus he gave to the great
labours of his collaborator.
[1143] So of Lope de Vega (b. 1562; d. 1635 AD.), "It became a
common proverb to praise a good thing by calling it _a Lope_,
so that jewels, diamonds, pictures, _etc._ were raised into
esteem by calling them his" (Montalvan in Ticknor's _Spanish
Literature_ ii, 270).
[1144] Maulānā Saifī, known as 'Arūẓī from his mastery in
prosody (Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 525).
[1145] Here pedantry will be implied in the mullahood.
[1146] _Khamsatīn_ (_infra_ f. 180_b_ and note).
[1147] This appears to mean that not only the sparse
diacritical pointing common in writing Persian was dealt with
but also the fuller Arabic.
[1148] He is best known by his pen-name Hātifī. The B.M. and
I.O. have several of his books.
[1149] _Khamsatīn._ Hātifī regarded himself as the successor
of Niẕāmī and Khusrau; this, taken with Bābur's use of the
word _Khamsatīn_ on f. 7 and here, and Saifī's just above,
leads to the opinion that the _Khamsatīn_ of the _Bābur-nāma_
are always those of Niẕāmī and Khusrau, _the_ Two Quintets
(Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 653).
[1150] Maulānā Mīr Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain of Nishāpūr (Rieu l.c.
index s.n.; Ethé's I.O. Cat. pp. 433 and 1134).
[1151] One of his couplets on good and bad fortune is
striking; "The fortune of men is like a sand-glass; one hour
up, the next down." _See_ D'Herbélot in his article (Erskine).
[1152] Ḥ.S. iii, 336; Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 1089.