The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
[1153] Āhī (sighing) was with Shāh-i-gharīb before
Ibn-i-ḥusain and to him dedicated his _dīwān_. The words
_sāḥib-i-dīwān_ seem likely to be used here with double
meaning _i.e._ to express authorship and finance office.
Though Bābur has made frequent mention of authorship of a
_dīwān_ and of office in the _Dīwān_, he has not used these
words hitherto in either sense; there may be a play of words
here.
[1154] Muḥammad _Ṣāliḥ_ Mīrzā _Khwārizmī_, author of the
_Shaibānī-nāma_ which manifestly is the poem (_mas̤nawī_)
mentioned below. This has been published with a German
translation by Professor Vambéry and has been edited with
Russian notes by Mr. Platon Melioransky (Rieu's Turkish Cat.
p. 74; Ḥ.S. iii, 301).
[1155] Jāmī's _Subḥatu'l-abrār_ (Rosary of the righteous).
[1156] The reference may be to things said by Muḥ. _Ṣāliḥ_ the
untruth of which was known to Bābur through his own part in
the events. A crying instance of misrepresentation is Ṣāliḥ's
assertion, in rhetorical phrase, that Bābur took booty in
jewels from Khusrau Shāh; other instances concern the affairs
of The Khāns and of Bābur in Transoxiana (f. 124b and index
_s.nn._ Aḥmad and Maḥmūd _Chaghatāī_ _etc._; T.R. index
_s.nn._)
[1157] The name Fat-land (Taṃbal-khāna) has its parallel in
Fat-village (Sīmīz-kīnt) a name of Samarkand; in both cases
the nick-name is accounted for by the fertility of irrigated
lands. We have not been able to find the above-quoted couplet
in the _Shaibānī-nāma_ (Vambéry); needless to say, the pun is
on the nick-name (_taṃbal_, fat) of Sl. Aḥmad _Taṃbal_.
[1158] Muḥ. Ṣāliḥ does not show well in his book; he is
sometimes coarse, gloats over spoil whether in human captives
or goods, and, his good-birth not-forbidding, is a servile
flatterer. Bābur's word "heartless" is just; it must have had
sharp prompting from Ṣāliḥ's rejoicing in the downfall of The
Khāns, Bābur's uncles.
[1159] the Longer (Ḥ.S. iii, 349).
[1160] Maulānā Badru'd-dīn (Full-moon of the Faith) whose
pen-name was Hilālī, was of Astarābād. It may be noted that
two dates of his death are found, 936 and 939 AH. the first
given by de Saçy, the second by Rieu, and that the second
seems to be correct (_Not. et Extr._ p. 285; Pers. Cat. p.
656; Hammer's _Geschichte_ p. 368).
[1161] B.M. Add. 7783.
[1162] Opinions differ as to the character of this
work:—Bābur's is uncompromising; von Hammer (p. 369) describes
it as "_ein romantisches Gedicht, welches eine sentimentale
Männerliebe behandelt_"; Sprenger (p. 427), as a mystical
_mas̤nawī_ (poem); Rieu finds no spiritual symbolism in it and
condemns it (Pers. Cat. p. 656 and, quoting the above passage
of Bābur, p. 1090); Ethé, who has translated it, takes it to
be mystical and symbolic (I.O. Cat. p. 783).
[1163] Of four writers using the pen-name Ahlī
(Of-the-people), _viz._ those of Turān, Shīrāz, Tarshīz (in
Khurāsān), and 'Irāq, the one noticed here seems to be he of
Tarshīz. Ahlī of Tarshīz was the son of a locally-known pious
father and became a Superintendent of the Mint; Bābur's `_āmī_
may refer to Ahlī's first patrons, tanners and shoe-makers by
writing for whom he earned his living (Sprenger, p. 319).
Erskine read _'ummī_, meaning that Ahlī could neither read nor
write; de Courteille that he was _un homme du commun_.
[1164] He was an occasional poet (Ḥ.S. iii, 350 and iv, 118;
Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 531; Ethé's I.O. Cat. p. 428).
[1165] Ustād Kamālu'd-dīn Bih-zād (well-born; Ḥ.S. iii, 350).
Work of his is reproduced in Dr. Martin's _Painting and
Painters of Persia_ of 1913 AD.
[1166] This sentence is not in the Elph. MS.
[1167] Perhaps he could reproduce tunes heard and say where
heard.
[1168] M. Belin quotes quatrains exchanged by `Alī-sher and
this man (_J. Asiatique_ xvii, 199).
[1169] _i.e._ from his own camp to Bābā Ilāhī.
[1170] f. 121 has a fuller quotation. On the dual succession,
_see_ T.R. p. 196.
[1171] Elph. MS. f. 144; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 148_b_ and 217 f.
125_b_; Mems. p. 199.
[1172] News of Ḥusain's death in 911 AH. (f. 163b) did not
reach Bābur till 912 AH. (f. 184_b_).
[1173] Lone-meadow (f. 195_b_). Jahāngīr will have come over
the `Irāq-pass, Bābur's baggage-convoy, by Shibr-tū. Cf. T. R.
p. 199 for Bābur and Jahāngīr at this time.
[1174] Servant-of-the-mace; but perhaps, Qilinj-chāq,
swords-man.
[1175] One of four, a fourth. Chār-yak may be a component of
the name of the well-known place, n. of Kābul, "Chārikār"; but
also the _Chār_ in it may be Hindūstānī and refer to the
permits-to-pass after tolls paid, given to caravans halted
there for taxation. Raverty writes it Chārlākār.
[1176] Amongst the disruptions of the time was that of the
Khānate of Qībchāq (Erskine).
[1177] The nearest approach to _kipkī_ we have found in
Dictionaries is _kupaki_, which comes close to the Russian
_copeck_. Erskine notes that the _casbeké_ is an oval copper
coin (Tavernier, p. 121); and that a _tūmān_ is a myriad
(10,000). _Cf._ Manucci (Irvine), i, 78 and iv, 417 note;
Chardin iv, 278.
[1178] Muḥarram 912 AH.-June 1506 AD. (Ḥ.S. iii, 353).
[1179] I take Murgh-āb here to be the fortified place at the
crossing of the river by the main n.e. road; Bābur when in
Dara-i-bām was on a tributary of the Murgh-āb. Khwānd-amīr
records that the information of his approach was hailed in the
Mīrzās' camp as good news (Ḥ.S. iii, 354).
[1180] Bābur gives the Mīrzās precedence by age, ignoring
Muz̤affar's position as joint-ruler.
[1181] _mubālgha qīldī_; perhaps he laid stress on their
excuse; perhaps did more than was ceremonially incumbent on
him.
[1182] _`irq_, to which estrade answers in its sense of a
carpet on which stands a raised seat.
[1183] Perhaps it was a recess, resembling a gate-way (W.-i-B.
I.O. 215 f. 151 and 217 f. 127_b_). The impression conveyed by
Bābur's words here to the artist who in B.M. Or. 3714, has
depicted the scene, is that there was a vestibule opening into
the tent by a door and that the Mīrzā sat near that door. It
must be said however that the illustration does not closely
follow the text, in some known details.
[1184] _shīra_, fruit-syrups, sherbets. Bābur's word for wine
is _chāghīr_ (_q.v._ index) and this reception being public,
wine could hardly have been offered in Sunnī Herī. Bābur's
strictures can apply to the vessels of precious metal he
mentions, these being forbidden to Musalmāns; from his
reference to the Tūra it would appear to repeat the same
injunctions. Bābur broke up such vessels before the battle of
Kanwāha (f. 315). Shāh-i-jahān did the same; when sent by his
father Jahāngīr to reconquer the Deccan (1030 AH.-1621 AD.) he
asked permission to follow the example of his ancestor Bābur,
renounced wine, poured his stock into the Chaṃbal, broke up
his cups and gave the fragments to the poor (_`Amal-i-ṣāliḥ_,
Hughes' _Dict. of Islām_ quoting the _Hidāyah_ and _Mishkāt_,
_s.nn._ Drinkables, Drinking-vessels, and Gold; Lane's _Modern
Egyptians_ p. 125 n.).
[1185] This may be the Rabāṯ-i-sanghī of some maps, on a near
road between the "Forty-daughters" and Harāt; or Bābur may
have gone out of his direct way to visit Rabāṯ-i-sang-bast, a
renowned halting place at the Carfax of the Herī-T̤ūs and
Nishāpūr-Mashhad roads, built by one Arslān _Jazāla_ who lies
buried near, and rebuilt with great magnificence by `Alī-sher
_Nawā'i_ (Daulat-shāh, Browne, p. 176).
[1186] The wording here is confusing to those lacking family
details. The paternal-aunt begīms can be Pāyanda-sulṯān
(named), Khadīja-sulṯān, Apāq-sulṯān, and Fakhr-jahān Begīms,
all daughters of Abū-sa`īd. The Apāq Begīm named above (also
on f. 168_b_ _q.v._) does not now seem to me to be Abū-sa`īd's
daughter (Gul-badan, trs. Bio. App.).
[1187] _yūkūnmāī._ Unless all copies I have seen reproduce a
primary clerical mistake of Bābur's, the change of salutation
indicated by there being no kneeling with Apāq Begīm, points
to a _nuance_ of etiquette. Of the verb _yūkūnmāk_ it may be
noted that it both describes the ceremonious attitude of
intercourse, _i.e._ kneeling and sitting back on both heels
(Shaw), and also the kneeling on meeting. From Bābur's phrase
_Begīm bīla yūkūnūb_ [having kneeled with], it appears that
each of those meeting made the genuflection; I have not found
the phrase used of other meetings; it is not the one used when
a junior or a man of less degree meets a senior or superior in
rank (_e.g._ Khusrau and Bābur f. 123, or Bābur and
Badī`u'z-zamān f. 186).
[1188] Musalmāns employ a set of readers who succeed one
another in reading (reciting) the Qorān at the tombs of their
men of eminence. This reading is sometimes continued day and
night. The readers are paid by the rent of lands or other
funds assigned for the purpose (Erskine).
[1189] A suspicion that Khadīja put poison in Jahāngīr's wine
may refer to this occasion (T.R. p. 199).
[1190] These are _jharokha-i-darsān_, windows or balconies
from which a ruler shews himself to the people.
[1191] Mas`ūd was then blind.
[1192] Bābur first drank wine not earlier than 917 AH. (f. 49
and note), therefore when nearing 30.
[1193] _aīchkīlār_, French, _intérieur_.
[1194] The obscure passage following here is discussed in
Appendix I, _On the weeping-willows of_ f. 190_b_.
[1195] Here this may well be a gold-embroidered garment.
[1196] This, the tomb of Khwāja `Abdu'l-lāh _Anṣari_ (d. 481
AH.) stands some 2m. north of Herī. Bābur mentions one of its
numerous attendants of his day, Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain
_Gāzur-gāhī_. Mohan Lall describes it as he saw it in 1831;
says the original name of the locality was Kār-zār-gāh,
place-of-battle; and, as perhaps his most interesting detail,
mentions that Jalālu'd-dīn _Rūmī's Maṣnawī_ was recited every
morning near the tomb and that people fainted during the
invocation (_Travels in the Panj-āb_ etc. p. 252). Colonel
Yate has described the tomb as he saw it some 50 years later
(JASB 1887); and explains the name Gāzur-gāh (lit.
bleaching-place) by the following words of an inscription
there found; "His tomb (Anṣarī's) is a washing-place
(_gāzur-gāh_) wherein the cloud of the Divine forgiveness
washes white the black records of men" (p. 88 and p. 102).
[1197] _juāz-i-kaghazlār_ (f. 47_b_ and note).
[1198] The _Ḥabību's-siyār_ and Ḥai. MS. write this name with
medial "round _hā_"; this allows it to be Kahad-stān, a
running-place, race-course. Khwānd-amīr and Daulat-shāh call
it a meadow (_aūlāng_); the latter speaks of a feast as held
there; it was Shaibānī's head-quarters when he took Harāt.
[1199] _var._ Khatīra; either an enclosure (_qūrūq_?) or a
fine and lofty building.
[1200] This may have been a usual halting-place on a journey
(_safar_) north. It was built by Ḥusain _Bāī-qarā_, overlooked
hills and fields covered with _arghwān_ (f. 137_b_) and seems
once to have been a Paradise (Mohan Lall, p. 256).
[1201] Jāmī's tomb was in the `Īd-gah of Herī (Ḥ.S. ii, 337),
which appears to be the Muṣalla (Praying-place) demolished by
Amīr `Abdu'r-raḥmān in the 19th century. Col. Yate was shewn a
tomb in the Muṣalla said to be Jāmī's and agreeing in the age,
81, given on it, with Jāmī's at death, but he found a _crux_