The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
Pass.[419] There I went also, from Khujand, and saw my Khān dādā.[420]
We then crossed the pass and halted on the Akhsī side. The enemy for
their part, gathered their men and went to Akhsī.
Just at that time, the people in Pāp[421] sent me word they had made
fast the fort but, owing to something misleading in The Khān's advance,
the enemy stormed and took it. Though The Khān had other good qualities
and was in other ways businesslike, he was much without merit as a
soldier and commander. Just when matters were at the point that if he
made one more march, it was most probable the country would be had
without fighting, at such a time! he gave ear to what the enemy said
with alloy of deceit, spoke of peace and, as his messengers, sent them
Khwāja Abū'l-makāram and his own [Sidenote: Fol. 55.] Lord of the Gate,
Beg _Tilba_ (Fool), _Taṃbal's_ elder brother. To save themselves those
others (_i.e._ Ḥasan and Taṃbal) mixed something true with what they
fabled and agreed to give gifts and bribes either to The Khān or to his
intermediaries. With this, The Khān retired.
As the families of most of my begs and household and braves were in
Andijān, 7 or 800 of the great and lesser begs and bare braves, left us
in despair of our taking the place. Of the begs were `Alī-darwesh Beg,
`Alī-mazīd _Qūchīn_, Muḥammad Bāqir Beg, Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh, Lord of the
Gate and Mīrīm _Lāgharī_. Of men choosing exile and hardship with me,
there may have been, of good and bad, between 200 and 300. Of begs there
were Qāsim _Qūchīn_ Beg, Wais _Lāgharī_ Beg, Ibrāhīm _Sārū Mīnglīgh_
Beg, Shīrīm T̤aghāī, Sayyidī Qarā Beg; and of my household, Mīr Shāh
_Qūchīn_, Sayyid Qāsim _Jalāīr_, Lord of the Gate, Qāsim-`ajab,
`Alī-dost T̤aghāī's (son) Muḥammad-dost, Muḥammad-`alī _Mubashir_,[422]
Khudāī-bīrdī _Tūghchī Mughūl_, Yārīk T̤aghāī, Bābā `Alī's (son) Bābā
Qulī, Pīr Wais, Shaikh Wais, [Sidenote: Fol. 55b.] Yār-`alī
_Balāl_,[423] Qāsim _Mīr Akhwūr_ (Chief Equerry) and Ḥaidar _Rikābdār_
(stirrup-holder).
It came very hard on me; I could not help crying a good deal. Back I
went to Khujand and thither they sent me my mother and my grandmother
and the families of some of the men with me.
That Ramẓān (April-May) we spent in Khujand, then mounted for Samarkand.
We had already sent to ask The Khān's help; he assigned, to act with us
against Samarkand, his son, Sl. Muḥammad (Sulṯānīm) Khānika and (his
son's guardian) Aḥmad Beg with 4 or 5000 men and rode himself as far as
Aūrā-tīpā. There I saw him and from there went on by way of Yār-yīlāq,
past the Būrka-yīlāq Fort, the head-quarters of the sub-governor
(_dārogha_) of the district. Sl. Muḥammad Sulṯān and Aḥmad Beg, riding
light and by another road, got to Yār-yīlāq first but on their hearing
that Shaibānī Khān was raiding Shīrāz and thereabouts, turned back.
There was no help for it! Back I too had to go. Again I went to Khujand!
As there was in me ambition for rule and desire of conquest, I did not
sit at gaze when once or twice an affair had made no progress. Now I
myself, thinking to make another move for [Sidenote: Fol. 56.] Andijān,
went to ask The Khān's help. Over and above this, it was seven or eight
years since I had seen Shāh Begīm[424] and other relations; they also
were seen under the same pretext. After a few days, The Khān appointed
Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusain (_Dūghlāt_) and Ayūb _Begchīk_ and Jān-ḥasan
_Bārīn_ with 7 or 8000 men to help us. With this help we started, rode
light, through Khujand without a halt, left Kand-i-badām on the left and
so to Nasūkh, 9 or 10 _yīghāch_ of road beyond Khujand and 3 _yīghāch_
(12-18 m.) from Kand-i-badām, there set our ladders up and took the
fort. It was the melon season; one kind grown here, known as Ismā`īl
Shaikhī, has a yellow rind, feels like shagreen leather, has seeds like
an apple's and flesh four fingers thick. It is a wonderfully delicate
melon; no other such grows thereabout. Next day the Mughūl begs
represented to me, 'Our fighting men are few; to what would holding this
one fort lead on?' In truth they were right; of what use was it to make
that fort fast and stay there? Back once more to Khujand!
(_f. Affairs of Khusrau Shāh and the Tīmūrid Mīrzās_.)[425]
This year Khusrau Shāh, taking Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā with him, led his army
(from Qūndūz) to Chaghānīān and with false and treacherous intent, sent
this message to Ḥiṣār for Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā, 'Come, betake yourself to
Samarkand; if [Sidenote: Fol. 56b.] Samarkand is taken, one Mīrzā may
seat himself there, the other in Ḥiṣār.' Just at the time, the Mīrzā's
begs and household were displeased with him, because he had shewn
excessive favour to his father-in-law, Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh _Barlās_ who
from Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā had gone to him. Small district though Ḥiṣār is,
the Mīrzā had made the Shaikh's allowance 1,000 _tūmāns_ of _fulūs_[426]
and had given him the whole of Khutlān in which were the holdings of
many of the Mīrzā's begs and household. All this Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh had;
he and his sons took also in whole and in part, the control of the
Mīrzā's gate. Those angered began, one after the other, to desert to
Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā.
By those words of false alloy, having put Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā off his
guard, Khusrau Shāh and Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā moved light out of Chaghānīān,
surrounded Ḥiṣār and, at beat of morning-drum, took possession of it.
Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā was in Daulat Sarāī, a house his father had built in
the suburbs. Not being able to get into the fort, he drew off towards
Khutlān with Shaikh `Abu'l-lāh _Barlās_, parted from him half-way,
crossed the river at the Aūbāj ferry and betook himself to Sl. Ḥusain
Mīrzā. Khusrau Shāh, having taken Ḥiṣār, set Bāī-sunghar [Sidenote: Fol.
57.] Mīrzā on the throne, gave Khutlān to his own younger brother, Walī
and rode a few days later, to lay siege to Balkh where, with many of his
father's begs, was Ibrāhīm Ḥusain Mīrzā (_Bāī-qarā_). He sent Naẕar
_Bahādur_, his chief retainer, on in advance with 3 or 400 men to near
Balkh, and himself taking Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā with him, followed and laid
the siege.
Walī he sent off with a large force to besiege Shabarghān and raid and
ravage thereabouts. Walī, for his part, not being able to lay close
siege, sent his men off to plunder the clans and hordes of the Zardak
Chūl, and they took him back over 100,000 sheep and some 3000 camels. He
then came, plundering the Sān-chīrīk country on his way, and raiding and
making captive the clans fortified in the hills, to join Khusrau Shāh
before Balkh.
One day during the siege, Khusrau Shāh sent the Naẕar _Bahādur_ already
mentioned, to destroy the water-channels[427] of [Sidenote: Fol. 57b.]
Balkh. Out on him sallied Tīngrī-bīrdī _Samānchī_,[428] Sl. Ḥusain
Mīrzā's favourite beg, with 70 or 80 men, struck him down, cut off his
head, carried it off, and went back into the fort. A very bold sally,
and he did a striking deed.
(_g. Affairs of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā and Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā._)
This same year, Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā led his army out to Bast and there
encamped,[429] for the purpose of putting down Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_ and his
son, Shāh Shujā`, because they had become Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's
retainers, had given him a daughter of Ẕū'n-nūn in marriage and taken up
a position hostile to himself. No corn for his army coming in from any
quarter, it had begun to be distressed with hunger when the sub-governor
of Bast surrendered. By help of the stores of Bast, the Mīrzā got back
to Khurāsān.
Since such a great ruler as Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā had twice led a splendid
and well-appointed army out and twice retired, without taking Qūndūz, or
Ḥiṣār or Qandahār, his sons and his begs waxed bold in revolt and
rebellion. In the spring of this year, he sent a large army under
Muḥammad Walī Beg to put down (his son) Muḥammad Ḥusain Mīrzā who,
supreme in Astarābād, had taken up a position hostile to himself. While
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā was still lying in the Nīshīn meadow (near Harāt), he
was surprised by Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and Shāh Shujā` Beg (_Arghūn_). By
unexpected good-fortune, he had been [Sidenote: Fol. 58.] joined that
very day by Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā, a refugee after bringing about the loss of
Ḥiṣār,[430] and also rejoined by a force of his own returning from
Astarābād. There was no question of fighting. Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and
Shāh Beg, brought face to face with these armies, took to flight.
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā looked kindly on Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā, made him kneel as a
son-in-law and gave him a place in his favour and affection.
None-the-less Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā, at the instigation of Bāqī
_Chaghānīānī_, who had come earlier into Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's service,
started off on some pretext, without asking leave, and went from the
presence of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā to that of Khusrau Shāh!
Khusrau Shāh had already invited and brought from Ḥiṣār, Bāī-sunghar
Mīrzā; to him had gone Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā's son,[431] Mīrān-shāh Mīrzā
who, having gone amongst the Hazāra in rebellion against his father, had
been unable to remain amongst them because of his own immoderate acts.
Some short-sighted persons were themselves ready to kill these three
(Tīmūrid) Mīrzās and to read Khusrau Shāh's name in the _khuṯba_ but he
himself did not think this combination desirable. The ungrateful
[Sidenote: Fol. 58b.] manikin however, for the sake of gain in this five
days' fleeting world,—it was not true to him nor will it be true to any
man soever,—seized that Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā whom he had seen grow up in his
charge from childhood, whose guardian he had been, and blinded him with
the lancet.
Some of the Mīrzā's foster-brethren and friends of affection and old
servants took him to Kesh intending to convey him to his (half)-brother
Sl. `Alī Mīrzā in Samarkand but as that party also (_i.e._ `Alī's)
became threatening, they fled with him, crossed the river at the Aūbāj
ferry and went to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā.
A hundred thousand curses light on him who planned and did a deed so
horrible! Up to the very verge of Resurrection, let him who hears of
this act of Khusrau Shāh, curse him; and may he who hearing, curses not,
know cursing equally deserved!
This horrid deed done, Khusrau Shāh made Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā ruler in
Ḥiṣār and dismissed him; Mīrān-shāh Mīrzā he despatched for Bāmīān with
Sayyid Qāsim to help him.
904 AH.—AUG. 19TH. 1498 TO AUG. 8TH. 1499 AD.[432]
(_a. Bābur borrows Pashāghar and leaves Khujand._)
Twice we had moved out of Khujand, once for Andijān, once for Samarkand,
and twice we had gone back to it because our work was not opened
out.[433] Khujand is a poor place; a man with 2 or 300 followers would
have a hard time there; with [Sidenote: Fol. 59.] what outlook would an
ambitious man set himself down in it?
As it was our wish to return to Samarkand, we sent people to confer with
Muḥammad Ḥusain _Kūrkān Dūghlāt_ in Aūrā-tīpā and to ask of him the loan
for the winter of Pashāghar where we might sit till it was practicable
to make a move on Samarkand. He consenting, I rode out from Khujand for
Pashāghar.
(_Author's note on Pashāghar._) Pashāghar is one of the
villages of Yār-yīlāq; it had belonged to his Highness the
Khwāja,[434] but during recent interregna,[435] it had become
dependent on Muḥammad Ḥusain Mīrzā.
I had fever when we reached Zamīn, but spite of my fever we hurried off
by the mountain road till we came over against Rabāṯ-i-khwāja, the
head-quarters of the sub-governor of the Shavdār _tūmān_, where we hoped
to take the garrison at unawares, set our ladders up and so get into the
fort. We reached it at dawn, found its men on guard, turned back and
rode without halt to Pashāghar. The pains and misery of fever
notwithstanding, I had ridden 14 or 15 _yīghāch_ (70 to 80 miles).
After a few days in Pashāghar, we appointed Ibrāhīm _Sārū_, [Sidenote: