The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)

Perhaps in the latter a pun is made on Najm as the leader's name and as meaning _fortune_; if so it points the more directly at the Shāh. The second line is quoted by Badāyūnī on his f. 362 also. [1345] Some translators make Bābur go "naked" into the fort but, on his own authority (f. 106_b_), it seems safer to understand what others say, that he went stripped of attendance, because it was always his habit even in times of peace to lie down in his tunic; much more would he have done so at such a crisis of his affairs as this of his flight to Ḥiṣār. [1346] Ḥaidar gives a graphic account of the misconduct of the horde and of their punishment (T.R. p. 261-3). [1347] One of the mutineers named as in this affair (T.R. p. 257) was Sl. Qulī _chūnāq_, a circumstance attracting attention by its bearing on the cause of the _lacunae_ in the _Bābur-nāma_, inasmuch as Bābur, writing at the end of his life, expresses (f. 65) his intention to tell of this man's future misdeeds. These misdeeds may have been also at Ḥiṣār and in the attack there made on Bābur; they are known from Ḥaidar to have been done at Ghaznī; both times fall within this present gap. Hence it is clear that Bābur meant to write of the events falling in the gap of 914 AH. onwards. [1348] In 925 AH. (ff. 227 and 238) mention is made of courtesies exchanged between Bābur and Muḥammad-i-zamān in Balkh. The Mīrzā was with Bābur later on in Hindūstān. [1349] Mīr Ma`ṣūm's _Tārīkh-i-sind_ is the chief authority for Bābur's action after 913 AH. against Shāh Beg in Qandahār; its translation, made in 1846 by Major Malet, shews some manifestly wrong dates; they appear also in the B. M. MS. of the work. [1350] f. 216_b_ and note to "Monday". [1351] Elph. MS. f. 173_b_; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 178 and 217 f. 149; Mems. p. 246. The whole of the Ḥijra year is included in 1519 AD. (Erskine). What follows here and completes the Kābul section of the _Bābur-nāma_ is a diary of a little over 13 months' length, supplemented by matter of later entry. The product has the character of a draft, awaiting revision to harmonize it in style and, partly, in topic with the composed narrative that breaks off under 914 AH.; for the diary, written some 11 years earlier than that composed narrative, varies, as it would be expected _à priori_ to vary, in style and topic from the terse, lucid and idiomatic output of Bābur's literary maturity. A good many obscure words and phrases in it, several new from Bābur's pen, have opposed difficulty to scribes and translators. Interesting as such _minutiae_ are to a close observer of Turkī and of Bābur's diction, comment on all would be tedious; a few will be found noted, as also will such details as fix the date of entry for supplementary matter. [1352] Here Mr. Erskine notes that Dr. Leyden's translation begins again; it broke off on f. 180_b_, and finally ends on f. 223_b_. [1353] This name is often found transliterated as Chandul or [mod.] Jandul but the Ḥai. MS. supports Raverty's opinion that Chandāwal is correct. The year 925 AH. opens with Bābur far from Kābul and east of the Khahr (fort) he is about to attack. Afghān and other sources allow surmise of his route to that position; he may have come down into the Chandāwal-valley, first, from taking Chaghān-sarāī (f. 124, f. 134 and n.), and, secondly, from taking the Gibrī stronghold of Ḥaidar-i-`alī _Bajaurī_ which stood at the head of the Bābā Qarā-valley. The latter surmise is supported by the romantic tales of Afghān chroniclers which at this date bring into history Bābur's Afghān wife, Bībī Mubāraka (f. 220_b_ and note; Mems. p. 250 n.; and Appendix K, _An Afghān legend_). (It must be observed here that R.'s _Notes_ (pp. 117, 128) confuse the two sieges, _viz._ of the Gibrī fort in 924 AH. and of the Khahr of Bajaur in 925 AH.) [1354] Raverty lays stress on the circumstance that the fort Bābur now attacks has never been known as Bajaur, but always simply as Khahr, the fort (the Arabic name for the place being, he says, plain _Shahr_); just as the main stream is called simply Rūd (the torrent). The name Khahr is still used, as modern maps shew. There are indeed two neighbouring places known simply as Khahr (Fort), _i.e._ one at the mouth of the "Mahmand-valley" of modern campaigns, the other near the Malakand (Fincastle's map). [1355] This word the Ḥai. MS. writes, _passim_, Dilah-zāk. [1356] Either Ḥaidar-i-`alī himself or his nephew, the latter more probably, since no name is mentioned. [1357] Looking at the position assigned by maps to Khahr, in the _dū-āb_ of the Charmanga-water and the Rūd of Bajaur, it may be that Bābur's left moved along the east bank of the first-named stream and crossed it into the _dū-āb_, while his centre went direct to its post, along the west side of the fort. [1358] _sū-kīrīshī_; to interpret which needs local knowledge; it might mean where water entered the fort, or where water disembogued from narrows, or, perhaps, where water is entered for a ford. (The verb _kīrmāk_ occurs on f. 154_b_ and f. 227 to describe water coming down in spate.) [1359] _dīwānawār_, perhaps a jest on a sobriquet earned before this exploit, perhaps the cause of the man's later sobriquet _dīwāna_ (f. 245_b_). [1360] Text, t:r:k, read by Erskine and de Courteille as Turk; it might however be a Turkī component in Jān-i-`alī or Muḥibb-i-`alī. (Cf. Zenker _s.n. tirik_.) [1361] _aūshūl gūnī_, which contrasts with the frequent _aūshbū gūnī_ (this same day, today) of manifestly diary entries; it may indicate that the full account of the siege is a later supplement. [1362] This puzzling word might mean cow-horn (_kau-sarū_) and stand for the common horn trumpet. Erskine and de Courteille have read it as _gau-sar_, the first explaining it as _cow-head_, surmised to be a protection for matchlockmen when loading; the second, as _justaucorps de cuir_. That the word is baffling is shewn by its omission in I.O. 215 (f. 178_b_), in 217 (f. 149_b_) and in Muḥ. _Shīrāzī_'s lith. ed. (p. 137). [1363] or _farangī._ Much has been written concerning the early use of gun-powder in the East. There is, however, no well-authenticated fact to prove the existence of anything like artillery there, till it was introduced from Europe. Bābur here, and in other places (f. 267) calls his larger ordnance Firingī, a proof that they were then regarded as owing their origin to Europe. The Turks, in consequence of their constant intercourse with the nations of the West, have always excelled all the other Orientals in the use of artillery; and, when heavy cannon were first used in India, Europeans or Turks were engaged to serve them (Erskine). It is owing no doubt to the preceding gap in his writings that we are deprived of Bābur's account of his own introduction to fire-arms. _See_ E. & D.'s _History of India_, vi, Appendix _On the early use of gunpowder in India_. [1364] var. _quṯbī_, _qūchīnī_. [1365] This sobriquet might mean "ever a fighter", or an "argle-bargler", or a brass shilling (Zenker), or (if written _jing-jing_) that the man was visaged like the bearded reeding (Scully in Shaw's Vocabulary). The _T̤abaqāt-i-akbarī_ includes a Mīrak Khān _Jang-jang_ in its list of Akbar's Commanders. [1366] _ghūl-dīn (awwal) aūl qūrghān-gha chīqtī._ I suggest to supply _awwal_, first, on the warrant of Bābur's later statement (f. 234_b_) that Dost was first in. [1367] He was a son of Maulānā Muḥ. _Ṣadr_, one of the chief men of `Umar-shaikh M.'s Court; he had six brothers, all of whom spent their lives in Bābur's service, to whom, if we may believe Abū'l-faẓl, they were distantly related (Erskine). [1368] Bābur now returns towards the east, down the Rūd. The _chashma_ by which he encamped, would seem to be near the mouth of the valley of Bābā Qarā, one 30 miles long; it may have been, anglicé, a spring [not that of the main stream of the long valley], but the word may be used as it seems to be of the water supplying the Bāgh-i-ṣafā (f. 224), _i.e._ to denote the first considerable gathering-place of small head-waters. It will be observed a few lines further on that this same valley seems to be meant by "Khwāja Khiẓr". [1369] He will have joined Bābur previous to Muḥarram 925 AH. [1370] This statement, the first we have, that Bābur has broken Musalmān Law against stimulants (f. 49 and n.), is followed by many others more explicit, jotting down where and what and sometimes why he drank, in a way which arrests attention and asks some other explanation than that it is an unabashed record of conviviality such conceivably as a non-Musalmān might write. Bābur is now 37 years old; he had obeyed the Law till past early manhood; he wished to return to obedience at 40; he frequently mentions his lapses by a word which can be translated as "commitment of sin" (_irtqāb_); one gathers that he did not at any time disobey with easy conscience. Does it explain his singular record,—one made in what amongst ourselves would be regarded as a private diary,—that his sins were created by Law? Had he a balance of reparation in his thoughts? Detaching into their separate class as excesses, all his instances of confessed drunkenness, there remains much in his record which, seen from a non-Musalmān point of view, is venial; _e.g._ his _ṣubūhī_ appears to be the "morning" of the Scot, the _Morgen-trank_ of the Teuton; his afternoon cup, in the open air usually, may have been no worse than the sober glass of beer or local wine of modern Continental Europe. Many of these legal sins of his record were interludes in the day's long ride, stirrup-cups some of them, all in a period of strenuous physical activity. Many of his records are collective and are phrased impersonally; they mention that there was drinking, drunkenness even, but they give details sometimes such as only a sober observer could include. Bābur names a few men as drunkards, a few as entirely obedient; most of his men seem not to have obeyed the Law and may have been "temperate drinkers"; they effected work, Bābur amongst them, which habitual drunkards could not have compassed. Spite of all he writes of his worst excesses, it must be just to remember his Musalmān conscience, and also the distorting power of a fictitious sin. Though he broke the law binding all men against excess, and this on several confessed occasions, his rule may have been no worse than that of the ordinarily temperate Western. It cannot but lighten judgment that his recorded lapses from Law were often prompted by the bounty and splendour of Nature; were committed amidst the falling petals of fruit-blossom, the flaming fire of autumn leaves, where the eye rested on the _arghwān_ or the orange grove, the coloured harvest of corn or vine. [1371] As Mr. Erskine observes, there seems to be no valley except that of Bābā Qarā, between the Khahr and the Chandāwal-valley; "Khwāja Khiẓr" and "Bābā Qarā" may be one and the same valley. [1372] Time and ingenuity would be needed to bring over into English all the quips of this verse. The most obvious pun is, of course, that on Bajaur as the compelling cause (_ba jaur_)