The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
and Aūzbegs and Turks in the singular, the Bengalī, the
Aūzbeg, the Turk, he seems here to mean `Ubaidu'l-lāh, the
then dominant Aūzbeg, although Kūchūm was Khāqān.
[2318] This muster preceded defeat near Jām of which Bābur
heard some 19 days later.
[2319] Humāyūn's wife was Bega Begīm, the later Ḥājī Begīm;
Kāmrān's bride was her cousin perhaps named Māh-afrūz
(Gul-badan's _Humāyūn-nāma_ f. 64_b_). The hear-say tense used
by the messenger allows the inference that he was not
accredited to give the news but merely repeated the rumour of
Kābul. The accredited bearer-of-good-tidings came later (f.
346_b_).
[2320] There are three enigmatic words in this section. The
first is the Sayyid's cognomen; was he _daknī_, rather dark of
hue, or _zaknī_, one who knows, or _ruknī_, one who props,
erects scaffolding, _etc._? The second mentions his
occupation; was he a _ghaiba-gar_, diviner (Erskine,
water-finder), a _jība-gar_, cuirass-maker, or a _jibā-gar_,
cistern-maker, which last suits with well-making? The third
describes the kind of well he had in hand, perhaps the stone
one of f. 353_b_; had it scaffolding, or was it for
drinking-water only (_khwāralīq_); had it an arch, or was it
chambered (_khwāzalīq_)? If Bābur's orders for the work had
been preserved,—they may be lost from f. 344_b_, trouble would
have been saved to scribes and translators, as an example of
whose uncertainty it may be mentioned that from the third word
(_khwāralīq_?) Erskine extracted "jets d'eau and artificial
water-works", and de Courteille "_taillé dans le roc vif_".
[2321] All Bābur's datings in Ṣafar are inconsistent with his
of Muḥarram, if a Muḥarram of 30 days [as given by Gladwin and
others].
[2322] _ḥarārat._ This Erskine renders by "so violent an
illness" (p. 388), de Courteille by "_une inflammation
d'entrailles_" (ii, 357), both swayed perhaps by the earlier
mention, on Muh. 10th, of Bābur's medicinal quick-silver, a
drug long in use in India for internal affections (Erskine).
Some such ailment may have been recorded and the record lost
(f. 345_b_ and n. 8), but the heat, fever, and trembling in
the illness of Ṣafar 23rd, taken with the reference to last's
year's attack of fever, all point to climatic fever.
[2323] _aīndīnī_ (or, _āndīnī_). Consistently with the
readings quoted in the preceding note, E. and de C. date the
onset of the fever as Sunday and translate _aīndīnī_ to mean
"two days after". It cannot be necessary however to specify
the interval between Friday and Sunday; the text is not
explicit; it seems safe to surmise only that the cold fit was
less severe on Sunday; the fever had ceased on the following
Thursday.
[2324] Anglicé, Monday after 6 p.m.
[2325] The _Rashaḥāt-i-´aīnu'l-ḥayāt_ (Tricklings from the
fountain of life) contains an interesting and almost
contemporary account of the Khwāja and of his
_Wālidiyyah-risāla_. A summary of what in it concerns the
Khwāja can be read in the JRAS. Jan. 1916, H. Beveridge's art.
The tract, so far as we have searched, is now known in
European literature only through Bābur's metrical translation
of it; and this, again, is known only through the _Rāmpūr
Dīwān_. [It may be noted here, though the topic belongs to the
beginning of the _Bābur-nāma_ (f. 2), that the _Rashaḥāt_
contains particulars about Aḥrārī's interventions for peace
between Bābur's father ´Umar Shaikh and those with whom he
quarrelled.]
[2326] "Here unfortunately, Mr. Elphinstone's Turki copy
finally ends" (Erskine), that is to say, the Elphinstone Codex
belonging to the Faculty of Advocates of Edinburgh.
[2327] This work, Al-buṣīrī's famous poem in praise of the
Prophet, has its most recent notice in M. René Basset's
article of the _Encyclopædia of Islām_ (Leyden and London).
[2328] Bābur's technical terms to describe the metre he used
are, _ramal musaddas makhbūn ´arūẓ_ and _ẓarb gāh abtar gāh
makhbūn muhẕūf wazn_.
[2329] _aūtkān yīl (u) har maḥal mūndāq ´āriẓat kīm būldī_,
from which it seems correct to omit the _u_ (and), thus
allowing the reference to be to last year's illnesses only;
because no record, of any date, survives of illness lasting
even one full month, and no other year has a _lacuna_ of
sufficient length unless one goes improbably far back: for
these attacks seem to be of Indian climatic fever. One in last
year (934 AH.) lasting 25-26 days (f. 331) might be called a
month's illness; another or others may have happened in the
second half of the year and their record be lost, as several
have been lost, to the detriment of connected narrative.
[2330] Mr. Erskine's rendering (_Memoirs_ p. 388) of the above
section shows something of what is gained by acquaintance
which he had not, with the _Rashaḥāt-i-´āinu'l-ḥayāt_ and with
Bābur's versified _Wālidiyyah-risāla_.
[2331] This gap, like some others in the diary of 935 AH. can
be attributed safely to loss of pages, because preliminaries
are now wanting to several matters which Bābur records shortly
after it. Such are (1) the specification of the three articles
sent to Naṣrat Shāh, (2) the motive for the feast of f.
351_b_, (3) the announcement of the approach of the surprising
group of envoys, who appear without introduction at that
entertainment, in a manner opposed to Bābur's custom of
writing, (4) an account of their arrival and reception.
[2332] Land-holder (_see_ _Hobson-Jobson_ _s.n._ talookdar).
[2333] The long detention of this messenger is mentioned in
Bābur's letter to Humāyūn (f. 349).
[2334] These words, if short _a_ be read in Shăh, make 934 by
_abjad_. The child died in infancy; no son of Humāyūn's had
survived childhood before Akbar was born, some 14 years later.
Concerning Abū'l-wajd _Fārighī_, _see_ _Ḥabību's-siyar_, lith.
ed. ii, 347; _Muntakhabu't-tawārikh_, Bib. Ind. ed. i, 3; and
Index _s.n._
[2335] I am indebted to Mr. A. E. Hinks, Secretary of the
Royal Geographical Society, for the following approximate
estimate of the distances travelled by Bīān Shaikh:—(_a_) From
Kishm to Kābul 240m.—from Kābul to Peshāwar 175m.—from
Peshāwar to Āgra (railroad distance) 759 m.—total 1174 m.;
daily average _cir._ 38 miles; (_b_) Qila`-i-ẕafar to Kābul
264m.—Kābul to Qandahār 316m.—total 580m.; daily average
_cir._ 53 miles. The second journey was made probably in 913
AH. and to inform Bābur of the death of the Shāh of Badakhshān
(f. 213_b_).
[2336] On Muḥ. 10th 934 AH.-Sep. 26th 1528 AD. For accounts of
the campaign _see_ Rieu's Suppl. Persian Cat. under _Histories
of T̤ahmāsp_ (Churchill Collection); the _Ḥabību's-siyar_ and
the _`Ālam-ārāī-`abbāsī_, the last a highly rhetorical work,
Bābur's accounts (Index _s.n._ Jām) are merely repetitions of
news given to him; he is not responsible for mistakes he
records, such as those of f. 354. It must be mentioned that
Mr. Erskine has gone wrong in his description of the battle,
the starting-point of error being his reversal of two events,
the encampment of T̤ahmāsp at Rādagān and his passage through
Mashhad. A century ago less help, through maps and travel, was
available than now.
[2337] _tufak u arāba_, the method of array Bābur adopted from
the Rūmī-Persian model.
[2338] T̤ahmāsp's main objective, aimed at earlier than the
Aūzbeg muster in Merv, was Herāt, near which `Ubaid Khān had
been for 7 months. He did not take the shortest route for
Mashhad, _viz._ the Dāmghān-Sabzawār-Nīshāpūr road, but went
from Dāmghān for Mashhad by way of Kālpūsh (_`Ālam-ārāī_ lith.
ed. p. 45) and Rādagān. Two military advantages are obvious on
this route; (1) it approaches Mashhad by the descending road
of the Kechef-valley, thus avoiding the climb into that valley
by a pass beyond Nīshāpūr on the alternative route; and (2) it
passes through the fertile lands of Rādagān. [For Kālpūsh and
the route _see_ Fr. military map, Sheets Astarābād and Merv,
n.e. of Basṯām.]
[2339] 7 m. from Kushan and 86 m. from Mashhad. As Lord Curzon
reports (_Persia_, ii, 120) that his interlocutors on the spot
were not able to explain the word "Radkan," it may be useful
to note here that the town seems to borrow its name from the
ancient tower standing near it, the _Mīl-i-rādagān_, or, as
Réclus gives it, _Tour de méimandan_, both names meaning,
Tower of the bounteous (or, beneficent, highly-distinguished,
_etc._). (Cf. Vullers Dict. _s.n._ _rād_; Réclus' _L'Asie
Antérieure_ p. 219; and O'Donovan's _Merv Oasis_.) Perhaps
light on the distinguished people (_rādagān_) is given by the
_Dābistān's_ notice of an ancient sect, the Rādīyān, seeming
to be fire-worshippers whose chief was Rād-gūna, an eminently
brave hero of the latter part of Jāmshīd's reign (800 B.C.?).
Of the town Rādagān Daulat Shāh makes frequent mention. A
second town so-called and having a tower lies north of
Ispahān.
[2340] In these days of trench-warfare it would give a wrong
impression to say that T̤ahmāsp entrenched himself; he did
what Bābur did before his battles at Panīpat and Kānwa
(_q.v._).
[2341] The Aūzbegs will have omitted from their purview of
affairs that T̤ahmāsp's men were veterans.
[2342] The holy city had been captured by `Ubaid Khān in 933
AH. (1525 AD.), but nothing in Bīān Shaikh's narrative
indicates that they were now there in force.
[2343] Presumably the one in the Rādagān-meadow.
[2344] using the _yada-tāsh_ to ensure victory (Index _s.n._).
[2345] If then, as now, Scorpio's appearance were expected in
Oct.-Nov., the Aūzbegs had greatly over-estimated their power
to check T̤ahmāsp's movements; but it seems fairly clear that
they expected Scorpio to follow Virgo in Sept.-Oct. according
to the ancient view of the Zodiacal Signs which allotted two
houses to the large Scorpio and, if it admitted Libra at all,
placed it between Scorpio's claws (Virgil's _Georgics_ i, 32
and Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, ii, 195.—H. B.).
[2346] It would appear that the Aūzbegs, after hearing that
T̤ahmāsp was encamped at Rādagān, expected to interpose
themselves in his way at Mashhad and to get their 20,000 to
Rādagān before he broke camp. T̤āhmāsp's swiftness spoiled
their plan; he will have stayed at Rādagān a short time only,
perhaps till he had further news of the Aūzbegs, perhaps also
for commissariat purposes and to rest his force. He visited
the shrine of Imām Reza, and had reached Jām in time to
confront his adversaries as they came down to it from
Zawarābād (Pilgrims'-town).
[2347] or, Khirjard, as many MSS. have it. It seems to be a
hamlet or suburb of Jām. The _`Ālam-ārāī_ (lith. ed. p. 40)
writes Khusrau-jard-i-Jām (the Khusrau-throne of Jām), perhaps
rhetorically. The hamlet is Maulānā `Abdu'r-raḥmān _Jāmī's_
birthplace (Daulat Shāh's _Taẕkirat_, E. G. Browne's ed. p.
483). Jām now appears on maps as Turbat-i-Shaikh Jāmī, the
tomb (_turbat_) being that of the saintly ancestor of Akbar's
mother Ḥamīda-bānū.
[2348] The _`Ālam-ārāī_ (lith. ed. p. 31) says, but in
grandiose language, that `Ubaid Khān placed at the foot of his
standard 40 of the most eminent men of Transoxania who prayed
for his success, but that as his cause was not good, their
supplications were turned backwards, and that all were slain
where they had prayed.