The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
Fol. 59b.] Wais _Lāgharī_, Sherīm T̤aghāī and some of the household and
braves to make an expedition amongst the Yār-yīlāq forts and get them
into our hands. Yār-yīlāq, at that time was Sayyid Yūsuf Beg's,[436] he
having remained in Samarkand at the exodus and been much favoured by Sl.
`Ali Mīrzā. To manage the forts, Sayyid Yūsuf had sent his younger
brother's son, Aḥmad-i-yūsuf, now[437] Governor of Sialkot, and
Aḥmad-i-yūsuf was then in occupation. In the course of that winter, our
begs and braves made the round, got possession of some of the forts
peacefully, fought and took others, gained some by ruse and craft. In
the whole of that district there is perhaps not a single village without
its defences because of the Mughūls and the Aūzbegs. Meantime Sl. `Alī
Mīrzā became suspicious of Sayyid Yūsuf and his nephew on my account and
dismissed both towards Khurāsān.
The winter passed in this sort of tug-of-war; with the oncoming
heats,[438] they sent Khwāja Yaḥya to treat with me, while they, urged
on by the (Samarkand) army, marched out to near Shīrāz and Kabud. I may
have had 200 or 300 soldiers (_sipāhī_); powerful foes were on my every
side; Fortune had [Sidenote: Fol. 60.] not favoured me when I turned to
Andijān; when I put a hand out for Samarkand, no work was opened out. Of
necessity, some sort of terms were made and I went back from Pashāghar.
Khujand is a poor place; one beg would have a hard time in it; there we
and our families and following had been for half a year[439] and during
the time the Musalmāns of the place had not been backward in bearing our
charges and serving us to the best of their power. With what face could
we go there again? and what, for his own part, could a man do there? 'To
what home to go? For what gain to stay?'[440]
In the end and with the same anxieties and uncertainty, we went to the
summer-pastures in the south of Aūrā-tīpā. There we spent some days in
amazement at our position, not knowing where to go or where to stay, our
heads in a whirl. On one of those days, Khwāja Abū'l-makāram came to see
me, he like me, a wanderer, driven from his home.[441] He questioned us
about our goings and stayings, about what had or had not been done and
about our whole position. He was touched with compassion for our state
and recited the _fātiḥa_ for me before he left. I also was much touched;
I pitied him.
(_b. Bābur recovers Marghīnān._)
Near the Afternoon Prayer of that same day, a horseman appeared at the
foot of the valley. He was a man named Yūl-chūq, presumably `Ali-dost
T̤aghāī's own servant, and had been sent with this written message,
'Although many great misdeeds have had their rise in me, yet, if you
will do me the [Sidenote: Fol. 60b.] favour and kindness of coming to
me, I hope to purge my offences and remove my reproach, by giving you
Marghīnān and by my future submission and single-minded service.'
Such news! coming on such despair and whirl-of-mind! Off we hurried,
that very hour,—it was sun-set,—without reflecting, without a moment's
delay, just as if for a sudden raid, straight for Marghīnān. From where
we were to Marghīnān may have been 24 or 25 _yīghāch_ of road.[442]
Through that night it was rushed without delaying anywhere, and on next
day till at the Mid-day Prayer, halt was made at Tang-āb (Narrow-water),
one of the villages of Khujand. There we cooled down our horses and gave
them corn. We rode out again at beat of (twilight-) drum[443] and on
through that night till shoot of dawn, and through the next day till
sunset, and on through that night till, just before dawn, we were one
_yīghāch_ from Marghīnān. Here Wais Beg and others represented to me
with some anxiety what sort of an evil-doer `Ali-dost was. 'No-one,'
they said, 'has come and gone, time and again, between him and us; no
terms and compact have been made; trusting to what are we going?' In
truth their fears were just! After waiting awhile to consult, we at last
agreed that [Sidenote: Fol. 61.] reasonable as anxiety was, it ought to
have been earlier; that there we were after coming three nights and two
days without rest or halt; in what horse or in what man was any strength
left?—from where we were, how could return be made? and, if made, where
were we to go?—that, having come so far, on we must, and that nothing
happens without God's will. At this we left the matter and moved on, our
trust set on Him.
At the Sunnat Prayer[444] we reached Fort Marghīnān. `Alī-dost T̤aghāī
kept himself behind (_arqa_) the closed gate and asked for terms; these
granted, he opened it. He did me obeisance between the (two) gates.[445]
After seeing him, we dismounted at a suitable house in the walled-town.
With me, great and small, were 240 men.
As Aūzūn Ḥasan and Taṃbal had been tyrannical and oppressive, all the
clans of the country were asking for me. We therefore, after two or
three days spent in Marghīnān, joined to Qāsim Beg over a hundred men of
the Pashāgharīs, the new retainers of Marghīnān and of `Alī-dost's
following, and sent them to bring over to me, by force or fair words,
such hill-people of the south of Andijān as the Ashpārī, Tūrūqshār,
[Sidenote: Fol. 61b.] Chīkrāk and others roundabout. Ibrāhīm Sārū and
Wais _Lāgharī_ and Sayyidī Qarā were also sent out, to cross the
Khujand-water and, by whatever means, to induce the people on that side
to turn their eyes to me.
Aūzūn Ḥasan and Taṃbal, for their parts, gathered together what soldiers
and Mughūls they had and called up the men accustomed to serve in the
Andijān and Akhsī armies. Then, bringing Jahāngīr Mīrzā with them, they
came to Sapān, a village 2 m. east of Marghīnān, a few days after our
arrival, and dismounted there with the intention of besieging Marghīnān.
They advanced a day or two later, formed up to fight, as far as the
suburbs. Though after the departure of the Commanders, Qāsim Beg,
Ibrāhīm _Sārū_ and Wais _Lāgharī_, few men were left with me, those
there were formed up, sallied out and prevented the enemy from advancing
beyond the suburbs. On that day, Page Khalīl, the turban-twister, went
well forward and got his hand into the work. They had come; they could
do nothing; on two other days they failed to get near the fort.
[Sidenote: Fol. 62.]
When Qāsim Beg went into the hills on the south of Andijān, all the
Ashpārī, Tūrūqshār, Chīkrāk, and the peasants and highland and lowland
clans came in for us. When the Commanders, Ibrāhīm _Sārū_ and Wais
_Lāgharī_, crossed the river to the Akhsī side, Pāp and several other
forts came in.
Aūzūn Ḥasan and Taṃbal being the heathenish and vicious tyrants they
were, had inflicted great misery on the peasantry and clansmen.
One of the chief men of Akhsī, Ḥasan-dīkcha by name,[446] gathered
together his own following and a body of the Akhsī mob and rabble,
black-bludgeoned[447] Aūzūn Ḥasan's and Taṃbal's men in the outer fort
and drubbed them into the citadel. They then invited the Commanders,
Ibrāhīm _Sārū_, Wais _Lāgharī_ and Sayyidī Qarā and admitted them into
the fort.
Sl. Maḥmūd Khān had appointed to help us, Ḥaidar _Kūkūldāsh's_ (son)
Banda-`alī and Ḥājī Ghāzī _Manghīt_,[448] the latter just then a
fugitive from Shaibānī Khān, and also the Bārīn _tūmān_ with its begs.
They arrived precisely at this time.
[Sidenote: Fol. 62b.] These news were altogether upsetting to Aūzūn
Ḥasan; he at once started off his most favoured retainers and most
serviceable braves to help his men in the citadel of Akhsī. His force
reached the brow of the river at dawn. Our Commanders and the (Tāshkīnt)
Mughūls had heard of its approach and had made some of their men strip
their horses and cross the river (to the Andijān side). Aūzūn Ḥasan's
men, in their haste, did not draw the ferry-boat up-stream;[449] they
consequently went right away from the landing-place, could not cross for
the fort and went down stream.[450] Here-upon, our men and the
(Tāshkīnt) Mughūls began to ride bare-back into the water from both
banks. Those in the boat could make no fight at all. Qārlūghāch (var.
Qārbūghāch) _Bakhshī_ (Pay-master) called one of Mughūl Beg's sons to
him, took him by the hand, chopped at him and killed him. Of what use
was it? The affair was past that! His act was the cause why most of
those in the boat went to their death. Instantly our men seized them all
(_arīq_) and killed all (but a few).[451] Of Aūzūn Ḥasan's confidants
escaped Qārlūghāch _Bakhshī_ and Khalīl _Dīwān_ and Qāẓī _Ghulām_, the
last getting off by pretending to be a slave (_ghulām_); and of his
trusted braves, Sayyid `Alī, now in trust in my own service,[452] and
Ḥaidar-i-qulī and Qilka _Kāshgharī_ escaped. Of his 70 or 80 men, no
more than this [Sidenote: Fol. 63.] same poor five or six got free.
On hearing of this affair, Aūzūn Ḥasan and Taṃbal, not being able to
remain near Marghīnān, marched in haste and disorder for Andijān. There
they had left Nāṣir Beg, the husband of Aūzūn Ḥasan's sister. He, if not
Aūzūn Ḥasan's second, what question is there he was his third?[453] He
was an experienced man, brave too; when he heard particulars, he knew
their ground was lost, made Andijān fast and sent a man to me. They
broke up in disaccord when they found the fort made fast against them;
Aūzūn Ḥasan drew off to his wife in Akhsī, Taṃbal to his district of
Aūsh. A few of Jahāngīr Mīrzā's household and braves fled with him from
Aūzūn Ḥasan and joined Taṃbal before he had reached Aūsh.
(_c. Bābur recovers Andijān._)
Directly we heard that Andijān had been made fast against them, I rode
out, at sun-rise, from Marghīnān and by mid-day was in Andijān.[454]
There I saw Nāṣir Beg and his two sons, that is to say, Dost Beg and
Mīrīm Beg, questioned them and uplifted their heads with hope of favour
and kindness. In this way, by God's grace, my father's country, lost to
me for two years, was regained and re-possessed, in the month Ẕū'l-qa`da
of [Sidenote: Fol. 63b.] the date 904 (June 1498).[455]
Sl. Aḥmad Taṃbal, after being joined by Jahāngīr Mīrzā, drew away for
Aūsh. On his entering the town, the red rabble (_qīzīl ayāq_) there, as
in Akhsī, black-bludgeoned (_qarā tīyāq qīlīb_) and drubbed his men out,
blow upon blow, then kept the fort for me and sent me a man. Jahāngīr
and Taṃbal went off confounded, with a few followers only, and entered
Aūzkīnt Fort.
Of Aūzūn Ḥasan news came that after failing to get into Andijān, he had
gone to Akhsī and, it was understood, had entered the citadel. He had
been head and chief in the rebellion; we therefore, on getting this
news, without more than four or five days' delay in Andijān, set out for
Akhsī. On our arrival, there was nothing for him to do but ask for peace
and terms, and surrender the fort.
We stayed in Akhsī[456] a few days in order to settle its affairs and
those of Kāsān and that country-side. We gave the Mughūls who had come
in to help us, leave for return (to Tāshkīnt), then went back to
Andijān, taking with us Aūzūn Ḥasan and his family and dependants. In
Akhsī was left, for a time, Qāsim-i-`ajab (Wonderful Qāsim), formerly
one of the household circle, now arrived at beg's rank.
(_d. Renewed rebellion of the Mughūls._)
As terms had been made, Aūzūn Ḥasan, without hurt to life [Sidenote:
Fol. 64.] or goods, was allowed to go by the Qarā-tīgīn road for Ḥiṣār.
A few of his retainers went with him, the rest parted from him and
stayed behind. These were the men who in the throneless times had
captured and plundered various Musalmān dependants of my own and of the
Khwāja. In agreement with several begs, their affair was left at
this;—'This very band have been the captors and plunderers of our
faithful Musalmān dependants;[457] what loyalty have they shown to their
own (Mughūl) begs that they should be loyal to us? If we had them seized