The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
I waited on The Khān in the garden Ḥaidar _Kūkūldāsh_ had made outside
Shāhrukhiya. He was seated in a large four-doored [Sidenote: Fol. 32.]
tent set up in the middle of it. Having entered the tent, I knelt three
times,[274] he for his part, rising to do me honour. We looked one
another in the eyes;[275] and he returned to his seat. After I had
kneeled, he called me to his side and shewed me much affection and
friendliness. Two or three days later, I set off for Akhsī and Andijān
by the Kīndīrlīk Pass.[276] At Akhsī I made the circuit of my Father's
tomb. I left at the hour of the Friday Prayer (_i.e._, about midday)
and reached Andijān, by the Band-i-sālār Road between the Evening and
Bedtime Prayers. This road _i.e._ the Band-i-sālār, people call a nine
_yīghāch_ road.[277]
One of the tribes of the wilds of Andijān is the Jīgrāk[278] a numerous
people of five or six thousand households, dwelling in the mountains
between Kāshghar and Farghāna. They have many horses and sheep and also
numbers of yāks (_qūtās_), these hill-people keeping yāks instead of
common cattle. As their mountains are border-fastnesses, they have a
fashion of not paying tribute. An army was now sent against them under
(Sayyid) Qāsim Beg in order that out of the tribute taken from them
something might reach the soldiers. He took about 20,000 of their sheep
and between 1000 and 1500 of their horses and shared all out to the men.
After its return from the Jīgrāk, the army set out for Aūrā-tīpā.
[Sidenote: Fol. 34.] Formerly this was held by `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā but it
had gone out of hand in the year of his death and Sl. `Alī Mīrzā was now
in it on behalf of his elder brother, Bāīsunghar Mīrzā. When Sl. `Alī
Mīrzā heard of our coming, he went off himself to the Macha
hill-country, leaving his guardian, Shaikh Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_ behind.
From half-way between Khujand and Aūrā-tīpā, Khalīfa[279] was sent as
envoy to Shaikh Ẕū'n-nūn but that senseless mannikin, instead of giving
him a plain answer, laid hands on him and ordered him to death. For
Khalīfa to die cannot have been the Divine will; he escaped and came to
me two or three days later, stripped bare and having suffered a hundred
_tūmāns_ (1,000,000) of hardships and fatigues. We went almost to
Aūrā-tīpā but as, winter being near, people had carried away their corn
and forage, after a few days we turned back for Andijān. After our
retirement, The Khān's men moved on the place when the Aūrā-tīpā
person[280] unable to make a stand, surrendered and came out. The Khān
then gave it to Muḥammad Ḥusain _Kūrkān Dūghlāt_ and in his hands it
remained till 908 AH. (1503).[281]
901 AH.—SEP. 21ST. 1495 TO SEP. 9TH. 1496 AD.[282]
(_a. Sulṯān Ḥusain Mīrzā's campaign against Khusrau Shāh_).
In the winter of this year, Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā led his army out of
Khurāsān against Ḥiṣār and went to opposite Tīrmīẕ. Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā,
for his part, brought an army (from Ḥiṣār) and sat down over against him
in Tīrmīẕ. Khusrau Shāh strengthened himself in Qūndūz and to help Sl.
Mas`ūd Mīrzā sent his younger brother, Walī. They (_i.e._, the opposed
forces) spent most of that winter on the river's banks, no crossing
being effected. Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā was a shrewd and experienced commander;
he marched up the river,[283] his face set for Qūndūz and by this having
put Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā off his guard, sent `Abdu'l-laṯīf _Bakhshī_
(pay-master) with 5 or 600 serviceable men, down the river to the Kilīf
ferry. These crossed and had entrenched themselves on the other bank
before Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā had heard of their movement. When he did hear of
it, whether because of pressure put upon him by Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ to
spite (his half-brother) Walī, or whether from his own want of heart, he
did not march against those who had crossed but disregarding Walī's
urgency, at once broke up his camp and turned for Ḥiṣār.[284]
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā crossed the river and then sent, (1) against Khusrau
Shāh, Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and Ibrāhīm Ḥusain Mīrzā with Muḥammad Walī
Beg and Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_, and [Sidenote: Fol. 33b.] (2) against
Khutlān, Muz̤affar Ḥusain Mīrzā with Muḥammad _Barandūq Barlās_. He
himself moved for Ḥiṣār.
When those in Ḥiṣār heard of his approach, they took their precautions;
Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā did not judge it well to stay in the fort but went off
up the Kām Rūd valley[285] and by way of Sara-tāq to his younger
brother, Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā in Samarkand. Walī, for his part drew off to
(his own district) Khutlān. Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_, Maḥmūd _Barlās_ and Qūch
Beg's father, Sl. Aḥmad strengthened the fort of Ḥiṣār. Ḥamza Sl. and
Mahdī Sl. (_Aūzbeg_) who some years earlier had left Shaibānī Khān for
(the late) Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā's service, now, in this dispersion, drew off
with all their Aūzbegs, for Qarā-tīgīn. With them went Muḥammad
_Dūghlāt_[286] and Sl. Ḥusain _Dūghlāt_ and all the Mughūls located in
the Ḥiṣār country.
Upon this Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā sent Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā after Sl. Mas`ūd
Mīrzā up the Kām Rūd valley. They were not strong enough for such work
when they reached the defile.[287] There Mīrzā Beg _Fīringī-bāz_[288]
got in his sword. In pursuit of Ḥamza Sl. into Qarā-tīgīn, Sl. Ḥusain
Mīrzā sent Ibrāhīm Tarkhān and Yaq`ūb-i-ayūb. They overtook the sulṯāns
and [Sidenote: Fol. 33.] fought. The Mīrzā's detachment was defeated;
most of his begs were unhorsed but all were allowed to go free.
(_b. Bābur's reception of the Aūzbeg sulṯāns._)
As a result of this exodus, Ḥamza Sl. with his son, Mamāq Sl., and Mahdī
Sl. and Muḥammad _Dūghlāt_, later known as _Ḥiṣārī_ and his brother, Sl.
Ḥusain _Dūghlāt_ with the Aūzbegs dependent on the sulṯāns and the
Mughūls who had been located in Ḥiṣār as (the late) Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā's
retainers, came, after letting me know (their intention), and waited
upon me in Ramẓān (May-June) at Andijān. According to the custom of
Tīmūriya sulṯāns on such occasions, I had seated myself on a raised seat
(_tūshāk_); when Ḥamza Sl. and Mamāq Sl. and Mahdī Sl. entered, I rose
and went down to do them honour; we looked one another in the eyes and I
placed them on my right, _bāghīsh dā_.[289] A number of Mughūls also
came, under Muḥammad _Ḥiṣārī_; all elected for my service.
(_c. Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's affairs resumed_).
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, on reaching Ḥiṣār, settled down at once to besiege it.
There was no rest, day nor night, from the labours of mining and attack,
of working catapults and mortars. Mines were run in four or five places.
When one had gone well forward towards the Gate, the townsmen,
countermining, struck it and forced smoke down on the Mīrzā's men; they,
in turn, [Sidenote: Fol. 34b.] closed the hole, thus sent the smoke
straight back and made the townsmen flee as from the very maw of death.
In the end, the townsmen drove the besiegers out by pouring jar after
jar of water in on them. Another day, a party dashed out from the town
and drove off the Mīrzā's men from their own mine's mouth. Once the
discharges from catapults and mortars in the Mīrzā's quarters on the
north cracked a tower of the fort; it fell at the Bed-time Prayer; some
of the Mīrzā's braves begged to assault at once but he refused, saying,
"It is night." Before the shoot of the next day's dawn, the besieged had
rebuilt the whole tower. That day too there was no assault; in fact, for
the two to two and a half months of the siege, no attack was made except
by keeping up the blockade,[290] by mining, rearing head-strikes,[291]
and discharging stones.
When Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and whatever (_nī kīm_) troops had been sent
with him against Khusrau Shāh, dismounted some 16 m. (3 to 4 _yīghāch_)
below Qūndūz,[292] Khusrau Shāh arrayed whatever men (_nī kīm_) he had,
marched out, halted one night on the way, formed up to fight and came
down upon the Mīrzā and his men. The Khurāsānīs may not have been twice
as many as his men but what question is there they were half [Sidenote:
Fol. 35.] as many more? None the less did such Mīrzās and such
Commander-begs elect for prudence and remain in their entrenchments!
Good and bad, small and great, Khusrau Shāh's force may have been of 4
or 5,000 men!
This was the one exploit of his life,—of this man who for the sake of
this fleeting and unstable world and for the sake of shifting and
faithless followers, chose such evil and such ill-repute, practised such
tyranny and injustice, seized such wide lands, kept such hosts of
retainers and followers,—latterly he led out between 20 and 30,000 and
his countries and his districts (_parganāt_) exceeded those of his own
ruler and that ruler's sons,[293]—for an exploit such as this his name
and the names of his adherents were noised abroad for generalship and
for this they were counted brave, while those timorous laggards, in the
trenches, won the resounding fame of cowards.
Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā marched out from that camp and after a few stages
reached the Alghū Mountain of Tāliqān[294] and there made halt. Khusrau
Shāh, in Qūndūz, sent his brother, Walī, with serviceable men, to
Ishkīmīsh, Fulūl and the hill-skirts thereabouts to annoy and harass the
Mīrzā from outside also. Muḥibb-`alī, the armourer, (_qūrchī_) for his
part, came down [Sidenote: Fol. 35b.] (from Walī's Khutlān) to the bank
of the Khutlān Water, met in with some of the Mīrzā's men there,
unhorsed some, cut off a few heads and got away. In emulation of this,
Sayyidīm `Alī[295] the door-keeper, and his younger brother, Qulī Beg
and Bihlūl-i-ayūb and a body of their men got to grips with the
Khurāsānīs on the skirt of `Aṃbar Koh, near Khwāja Changāl but, many
Khurāsānīs coming up, Sayyidīm `Alī and Bābā Beg's (son) Qulī Beg and
others were unhorsed.
At the time these various news reached Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, his army was
not without distress through the spring rains of Ḥiṣār; he therefore
brought about a peace; Maḥmūd _Barlās_ came out from those in the fort;
Ḥājī Pīr the Taster went from those outside; the great commanders and
what there was (_nī kīm_) of musicians and singers assembled and the
Mīrzā took (Bega Begīm), the eldest[296] daughter of Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā by
Khān-zāda Begīm, for Ḥaidar Mīrzā, his son by Pāyanda Begīm and through
her the grandson of Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā. This done, he rose from before
Ḥiṣār and set his face for Qūndūz.
At Qūndūz also Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā made a few trenches and took up the
besieger's position but by Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's intervention peace at
length was made, prisoners were exchanged and the Khurāsānīs retired.
The twice-repeated[297] attacks made by Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā on Khusrau Shāh
and his unsuccessful retirements were the cause of Khusrau Shāh's
[Sidenote: Fol. 36.] great rise and of action of his so much beyond his
province.
When the Mīrzā reached Balkh, he, in the interests of [M.]ā
warā'u'n-nahr gave it to Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā, gave Badī`u'z-zamān
Mīrzā's district of Astarābād to (a younger son), Muz̤affar Ḥusain Mīrzā
and made both kneel at the same assembly, one for Balkh, the other for
Astarābād. This offended Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and led to years of
rebellion and disturbance.[298]
(_d. Revolt of the Tarkhānīs in Samarkand_).
In Ramẓān of this same year, the Tarkhānīs revolted in Samarkand. Here
is the story:—Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā was not so friendly and familiar with
the begs and soldiers of Samarkand as he was with those of Ḥiṣār.[299]
His favourite beg was Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh _Barlās_[300] whose sons were
so intimate with the Mīrzā that it made a relation as of Lover and
Beloved. These things displeased the Tarkhāns and the Samarkandī begs;
Darwesh Muḥammad Tarkhān went from Bukhārā to Qarshī, brought Sl. `Alī
Mīrzā to Samarkand and raised him to be supreme. People then went to the
New Garden where Bāī-sunghar [Sidenote: Fol. 36b.] Mīrzā was, treated