The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
[2349] Here the 1st Pers. trs. (I.O. 215 f. 214) mentions that
it was Chalma who wrote and despatched the exact particulars
of the defeat of the Aūzbegs. This information explains the
presumption Bābur expresses. It shows that Chalma was in Ḥiṣār
where he may have written his letter to give news to Humāyūn.
At the time Bīān Shaikh left, the Mīrzā was near Kishm; if he
had been the enterprising man he was not, one would surmise
that he had moved to seize the chance of the sulṯāns'
abandonment of Ḥiṣār, without waiting for his father's urgency
(f. 348_b_). Whether he had done so and was the cause of the
sulṯāns' flight, is not known from any chronicle yet come to
our hands. Chalma's father Ibrāhīm _Jānī_ died fighting for
Bābur against Shaibāq Khān in 906 AH. (f. 90_b_).
As the sense of the name-of-office Chalma is still in doubt, I
suggest that it may be an equivalent of _aftābachī_, bearer of
the water-bottle on journeys. _T. chalma_ can mean a
water-vessel carried on the saddle-bow; one Chalma on record
was a _safarchī_; if, in this word, _safar_ be read to mean
journey, an approach is made to _aftābachī_ (fol. 15_b_ and
note; Blochmann's A.-i-A. p. 378 and n. 3).
[2350] The copies of Bābur's Turkī letter to Humāyūn and the
later one to Khwāja Kalān (f. 359) are in some MSS. of the
Persian text translated only (I.O. 215 f. 214); in others
appear in Turkī only (I.O. 217 f. 240); in others appear in
Turkī and Persian (B. M. Add. 26,000 and I.O. 2989); while in
Muḥ. Shīrāzī's lith. ed. they are omitted altogether (p. 228).
[2351] Trans- and Cis-Hindukush. Pāyanda-ḥasan (in one of his
useful glosses to the 1st Pers. trs.) amplifies here by
"Khurāsān, Mā warā'u'n-nahr and Kābul".
[2352] The words Bābur gives as mispronunciations are somewhat
uncertain in sense; manifestly both are of ill-omen:—Al-amān
itself [of which the _alāmā_ of the Ḥai. MS. and Ilminsky
maybe an abbreviation,] is the cry of the vanquished,
"Quarter! mercy!"; _Aīlāmān_ and also _ālāman_ can represent a
Turkmān raider.
[2353] Presumably amongst Tīmūrids.
[2354] Perhaps Bābur here makes a placatory little joke.
[2355] _i.e._ that offered by T̤ahmāsp's rout of the Aūzbegs
at Jām.
[2356] He was an adherent of Bābur. Cf. f. 353.
[2357] The plural "your" will include Humāyūn and Kāmrān.
Neither had yet shewn himself the heritor of his father's
personal dash and valour; they had lacked the stress which
shaped his heroism.
[2358] My husband has traced these lines to Niẕāmī's _Khusrau_
and _Shīrīn_. [They occur on f. 256_b_ in his MS. of 317
folios.] Bābur may have quoted from memory, since his version
varies. The lines need their context to be understood; they
are part of Shīrīn's address to Khusrau when she refuses to
marry him because at the time he is fighting for his sovereign
position; and they say, in effect, that while all other work
stops for marriage (_kadkhudāī_), kingly rule does not.
[2359] _Aūlūghlār kūtārīmlīk kīrāk_; 2nd Pers. trs. _buzurgān
bardāsht mī bāīd kardand_. This dictum may be a quotation. I
have translated it to agree with Bābur's reference to the ages
of the brothers, but _aūlūghlār_ expresses greatness of
position as well as seniority in age, and the dictum may be
taken as a Turkī version of "_Noblesse oblige_", and may also
mean "The great must be magnanimous". (Cf. de C.'s Dict.
_s.n._ _kūtārīmlīk_.) [It may be said of the verb _bardāshlan_
used in the Pers. trs., that Abū'l-faẓl, perhaps translating
_kūtārīmlīk_ reported to him, puts it into Bābur's mouth when,
after praying to take Humāyūn's illness upon himself, he cried
with conviction, "I have borne it away" (A.N. trs. H.B. i,
276).]
[2360] If Bābur had foreseen that his hard-won rule in
Hindūstān was to be given to the winds of one son's
frivolities and the other's disloyalty, his words of scant
content with what the Hindūstān of his desires had brought
him, would have expressed a yet keener pain (_Rāmpūr Dīwān_
E.D.R.'s ed. p. 15 l. 5 fr. ft.).
[2361] _Bostān_, cap. _Advice of Noshirwān to Hurmuz_ (H.B.).
[2362] A little joke at the expense of the mystifying letter.
[2363] For _yā_, Mr. Erskine writes _be_. What the mistake was
is an open question; I have guessed an exchange of _ī_ for
_ū_, because such an exchange is not infrequent amongst Turkī
long vowels.
[2364] That of reconquering Tīmūrid lands.
[2365] of _Kūlāb_; he was the father of Ḥaram Begīm, one of
Gul-badan's personages.
[2366] _aūn altī gūnlūk m:ljār bīla_, as on f. 354_b_, and
with exchange of T. _m:ljār_ for P. _mī`ād_, f. 355_b_.
[2367] Probably into Rājpūt lands, notably into those of
Ṣalāḥu'd-dīn.
[2368] _tukhmalīq chakmānlār_; as _tukhma_ means both button
and gold-embroidery, it may be right, especially of Hindūstān
articles, to translate sometimes in the second sense.
[2369] These statements of date are consistent with Bābur's
earlier explicit entries and with Erskine's equivalents of the
Christian Era, but at variance with Gladwin's and with
Wüstenfeldt's calculation that Rabī` II. 1st was Dec. 13th.
Yet Gladwin (_Revenue Accounts_, ed. 1790 AD. p. 22) gives
Rabī` I. 30 days. Without in the smallest degree questioning
the two European calculations, I follow Bābur, because in his
day there may have been allowed variation which finds no entry
in methodical calendars. Erskine followed Bābur's statements;
he is likely nevertheless to have seen Gladwin's book.
[2370] Erskine estimated this at £500, but later cast doubts
on such estimates as being too low (_History of India_, vol.
i, App. D.).
[2371] The bearer of the stamp (_ṯamghā_) who by impressing it
gave quittance for the payment of tolls and other dues.
[2372] Either 24ft. or 36ft. according to whether the short or
long _qārī_ be meant (_infra_). These towers would provide
resting-place, and some protection against ill-doers. They
recall the two _mīl-i-rādagān_ of Persia (f. 347 _n._ 9), the
purpose of which is uncertain. Bābur's towers were not "_kos
mīnārs_", nor is it said that he ordered each _kuroh_ to be
marked on the road. Some of the _kos mīnārs_ on the "old
Mughal roads" were over 30ft. high; a considerable number are
entered and depicted in the _Annual Progress Report_ of the
Archæological Survey for 1914 (Northern Circle, p. 45 and
Plates 44, 45). Some at least have a _lower_ chamber.
[2373] Four-doored, open-on-all-sides. We have not found the
word with this meaning in Dictionaries. It may translate H.
_chaukandī_.
[2374] Erskine makes 9 _kos_ (_kurohs_) to be 13-14 miles,
perhaps on the basis of the smaller _gaz_ of 24 inches.
[2375] _altī yām-ātī bāghlāghāīlār_ which, says one of
Erskine's manuscripts, is called a _dāk-choki_.
[2376] Neither Erskine (_Mems._ p. 394), nor de Courteille
(_Méms._ ii, 370) recognized the word _Mubīn_ here, although
each mentions the poem later (p. 431 and ii, 461), deriving
his information about it from the _Akbar-nāma_, Erskine
direct, de Courteille by way of the Turkī translation of the
same _Akbar-nāma_ passage, which Ilminsky found in Kehr's
volume and which is one of the much discussed "Fragments", at
first taken to be extra writings of Bābur's (cf. Index _in
loco_ _s.n._ Fragments). Ilminsky (p. 455) prints the word
clearly, as one who knows it; he may have seen that part of
the poem itself which is included in Berésine's _Chrestomathie
Turque_ (p. 226 to p. 272), under the title _Fragment d'un
poème inconnu de Bābour_, and have observed that Bābur himself
shews his title to be _Mubīn_, in the lines of his colophon
(p. 271),
_Chū bīān qīldīm āndā shar`īyāt,
Nī `ajab gar Mubīn dīdīm āt?_
(Since in it I have made exposition of Laws, what wonder if I
named it _Mubīn_ (exposition)?) Cf. _Translator's Note_, p.
437. [Berésine says (Ch. T.) that he prints half of his
"_unique manuscrit_" of the poem.]
[2377] The passage Bābur quotes comes from the _Mubīn_ section
on _tayammum masā'la_ (purification with sand), where he tells
his son sand may be used, _Sū yurāq būlsā sīndīn aīr bīr mīl_
(if from thee water be one _mīl_ distant), and then interjects
the above explanation of what the _mīl_ is. Two lines of his
original are not with the _Bābur-nāma_.
[2378] The _ṯanāb_ was thus 120 ft. long. Cf. A.-i-A. Jarrett
i, 414; Wilson's _Glossary of Indian Terms_ and Gladwin's
_Revenue Accounts_, p. 14.
[2379] Bābur's customary method of writing allows the
inference that he recorded, in due place, the coming and
reception of the somewhat surprising group of guests now
mentioned as at this entertainment. That preliminary record
will have been lost in one or more of the small gaps in his
diary of 935 AH. The envoys from the Samarkand Aūzbegs and
from the Persian Court may have come in acknowledgment of the
_Fātḥ-nāma_ which announced victory over Rānā Sangā; the
guests from Farghāna will have accepted the invitation sent,
says Gul-badan, "in all directions," after Bābur's defeat of
Sl. Ibrāhīm _Lūdī_, to urge hereditary servants and Tīmūrid
and Chīngīz-khānid kinsfolk to come and see prosperity with
him now when "the Most High has bestowed sovereignty" (f.
293a; Gul-badan's H.N. f. 11).
[2380] Hindū here will represent Rājpūt. D'Herbélot's
explanation of the name Qīzīl-bāsh (Red-head) comes in
usefully here:—"KEZEL BASCH or KIZIL BASCH. Mot Turc qui
signifie _Tête rouge_. Les Turcs appellent les Persans de ce
nom, depuis qu'Ismaël Sofi, fondateur de la Dynastie des
princes qui regnent aujourd'hui en Perse, commanda à ses
soldats de porter un bonnet rouge autour duquel il y a une
écharpe ou Turban à douze plis, en mémoire et à l'honneur des
12 Imams, successeurs d'Ali, desquels il prétendoit descendre.
Ce bonnet s'appelle en Persan, _Tāj_, et fut institué l'an
907^e de l'Hég." T̤ahmāsp himself uses the name Qīzīl-bāsh;
Bābur does so too. Other explanations of it are found
(Steingass), but the one quoted above suits its use without
contempt. (Cf. f. 354 n. 3).
[2381] _cir._ 140-150ft. or more if the 36in. _qārī_ be the
unit.
[2382] _Andropogon muricatus_, the scented grass of which the
roots are fitted into window spaces and moistened to mitigate
dry, hot winds. Cf. _Hobson-Jobson_ _s.n._ _Cuscuss_.
[2383] A nephew and a grandson of Aḥrāri's second son Yahya
(f. 347_b_) who had stood staunch to Bābur till murdered in
906 AH.-1500 AD. (80_b_). They are likely to be those to whom
went a copy of the _Mubīn_ under cover of a letter addressed
to lawyers of Mā warā'u'n-nahr (f. 351 n. 1). The Khwājas were
in Āgra three weeks after Bābur finished his metrical version
of their ancestor's _Wālidiyyah-risāla_; whether their coming
(which must have been announced some time before their
arrival), had part in directing his attention to the tract can
only be surmised (f. 346).
[2384] He was an Aūzbeg (f. 371) and from his association here
with a Bāī-qarā, and, later with Qāsim-i-ḥusain who was half
Bāī-qarā, half Aūzbeg, seems likely to be of the latter's
family (Index _s.nn._).
[2385] _sāchāq kīūrdī_ (_kīltūrdī_?) No record survives to
tell the motive for this feast; perhaps the gifts made to
Bābur were congratulatory on the birth of a grandson, the
marriage of a son, and on the generally-prosperous state of