The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
and stripped bare, where would be the wrong? and this especially because
they might be going about, before our very eyes, riding our horses,
wearing our coats, eating our sheep. Who could put up with that? If, out
of humanity, they are not imprisoned and not plundered, they certainly
ought to take it as a favour if they get off with the order to give back
to our companions of the hard guerilla times, whatever goods of theirs
are known to be here.'
In truth this seemed reasonable; our men were ordered to take what they
knew to be theirs. Reasonable and just though the order was, (I now)
understand that it was a little hasty. [Sidenote: Fol. 64b.] With a
worry like Jahāngīr seated at my side, there was no sense in frightening
people in this way. In conquest and government, though many things may
have an outside appearance of reason and justice, yet 100,000
reflections are right and necessary as to the bearings of each one of
them. From this single incautious order of ours,[458] what troubles!
what rebellions arose! In the end this same ill-considered order was
the cause of our second exile from Andijān. Now, through it, the Mughūls
gave way to anxiety and fear, marched through Rabāṯik-aūrchīnī, that is,
Aīkī-sū-ārāsī, for Aūzkīnt and sent a man to Taṃbal.
In my mother's service were 1500 to 2000 Mughūls from the horde; as many
more had come from Ḥiṣār with Ḥamza Sl. and Mahdī Sl. and Muḥammad
_Dūghlāt Ḥiṣārī_.[459] Mischief and devastation must always be expected
from the Mughūl horde. Up to now[460] they have rebelled five times
against me. It must not be understood that they rebelled through not
getting on with me; they have done the same thing with their own Khāns,
again and again. Sl. Qulī _Chūnāq_[461] brought me the news. His late
father, Khudāī-bīrdī _Būqāq_[462] I had favoured amongst the Mughūls; he
was himself with the (rebel) Mughūls [Sidenote: Fol. 65.] and he did
well in thus leaving the horde and his own family to bring me the news.
Well as he did then however, he, as will be told,[463] did a thing so
shameful later on that it would hide a hundred such good deeds as this,
if he had done them. His later action was the clear product of his
Mughūl nature. When this news came, the begs, gathered for counsel,
represented to me, 'This is a trifling matter; what need for the pādshāh
to ride out? Let Qāsim Beg go with the begs and men assembled here.' So
it was settled; they took it lightly; to do so must have been an error
of judgment. Qāsim Beg led his force out that same day; Taṃbal meantime
must have joined the Mughūls. Our men crossed the Aīlāīsh river[464]
early next morning by the Yāsī-kījīt (Broad-crossing) and at once came
face to face with the rebels. Well did they chop at one another
(_chāpqūlāshūrlār_)! Qāsim Beg himself came face to face with Muḥammad
_Arghūn_ and did not desist from chopping at him in order to cut off his
head.[465] Most of our braves exchanged [Sidenote: Fol. 65b.] good blows
but in the end were beaten. Qāsim Beg, `Alī-dost T̤aghāī, Ibrāhīm
_Sārū_, Wais _Lāgharī_, Sayyidī Qarā and three or four more of our begs
and household got away but most of the rest fell into the hands of the
rebels. Amongst them were `Alī-darwesh Beg and Mīrīm _Lāgharī_ and
(Sherīm?) T̤aghāī Beg's (son) Tūqā[466] and `Alī-dost's son,
Muḥammad-dost and Mīr Shāh _Qūchīn_ and Mīrīm Dīwān.
Two braves chopped very well at one another; on our side, Samad, Ibrāhīm
_Sārū's_ younger brother, and on their side, Shāh-suwār, one of the
Ḥiṣārī Mughūls. Shāh-suwār struck so that his sword drove through
Samad's helm and seated itself well in his head; Samad, spite of his
wound, struck so that his sword cut off Shāh-suwār's head a piece of
bone as large as the palm of a hand. Shāh-suwār must have worn no helm;
they trepanned his head and it healed; there was no one to trepan
Samad's and in a few days, he departed simply through the wound.[467]
Amazingly unseasonable was this defeat, coming as it did just in the
respite from guerilla fighting and just when we had regained the
country. One of our great props, Qaṃbar-`alī _Mughūl_ (the Skinner) had
gone to his district when Andijān [Sidenote: Fol. 66.] was occupied and
therefore was not with us.
(_e. Taṃbal attempts to take Andijān._)
Having effected so much, Taṃbal, bringing Jahāngīr Mīrzā with him, came
to the east of Andijān and dismounted 2 miles off, in the meadow lying
in front of the Hill of Pleasure (`Aīsh).[468]
Once or twice he advanced in battle-array, past Chihil-dukhterān[469]
to the town side of the hill but, as our braves went out arrayed to
fight, beyond the gardens and suburbs, he could not advance further and
returned to the other side of the hill. On his first coming to those
parts, he killed two of the begs he had captured, Mīrīm _Lāgharī_ and
Tūqā Beg. For nearly a month he lay round-about without effecting
anything; after that he retired, his face set for Aūsh. Aūsh had been
given to Ibrāhīm _Sārū_ and his man in it now made it fast.
905 AH. AUG. 8TH. 1499 TO JULY 28TH. 1500 AD.[470]
(_a. Bābur's campaign against Aḥmad Taṃbal Mughūl._)
Commissaries were sent gallopping off at once, some to call up the horse
and foot of the district-armies, others to urge return on Qaṃbar-`alī
and whoever else was away in his own district, while energetic people
were told off to get together mantelets (_tūra_), shovels, axes and the
what-not of war-material and stores for the men already with us.
As soon as the horse and foot, called up from the various districts to
join the army, and the soldiers and retainers who had been scattered to
this and that side on their own affairs, were gathered together, I went
out, on Muḥarram 18th. (August 25th.), putting my trust in God, to Ḥāfiẓ
Beg's Four-gardens [Sidenote: Fol. 66b.] and there stayed a few days in
order to complete our equipment. This done, we formed up in array of
right and left, centre and van, horse and foot, and started direct for
Aūsh against our foe.
On approaching Aūsh, news was had that Taṃbal, unable to make stand in
that neighbourhood, had drawn off to the north, to the Rabāṯ-i-sarhang
sub-district, it was understood. That night we dismounted in Lāt-kīnt.
Next day as we were passing through Aūsh, news came that Taṃbal was
understood to have gone to Andijān. We, for our part, marched on as for
Aūzkīnt, detaching raiders ahead to over-run those parts.[471] Our
opponents went to Andijān and at night got into the ditch but being
discovered by the garrison when they set their ladders up against the
ramparts, could effect no more and retired. Our raiders retired also
after over-running round about Aūzkīnt without getting into their hands
anything worth their trouble.
Taṃbal had stationed his younger brother, Khalīl, with 200 or 300 men,
in Māḏū,[472] one of the forts of Aūsh, renowned in that centre (_ārā_)
for its strength. We turned back (on the [Sidenote: Fol. 67.] Aūzkīnt
road) to assault it. It is exceedingly strong. Its northern face stands
very high above the bed of a torrent; arrows shot from the bed might
perhaps reach the ramparts. On this side is the water-thief,[473] made
like a lane, with ramparts on both sides carried from the fort to the
water. Towards the rising ground, on the other sides of the fort, there
is a ditch. The torrent being so near, those occupying the fort had
carried stones in from it as large as those for large mortars.[474] From
no fort of its class we have ever attacked, have stones been thrown so
large as those taken into Māḏū. They dropped such a large one on
`Abdu'l-qāsim _Kohbur_, Kitta (Little) Beg's elder brother,[475] when he
went up under the ramparts, that he spun head over heels and came
rolling and rolling, without once getting to his feet, from that great
height down to the foot of the glacis (_khāk-rez_). He did not trouble
himself about it at all but just got on his horse and rode off. Again, a
stone flung from the double water-way, hit Yār-`alī _Balāl_ so hard on
the head that in the end it had to be trepanned.[476] Many of our men
perished by their stones. The assault began at dawn; the water-thief
[Sidenote: Fol. 67b.] had been taken before breakfast-time;[477]
fighting went on till evening; next morning, as they could not hold out
after losing the water-thief, they asked for terms and came out. We took
60 or 70 or 80 men of Khalīl's command and sent them to Andijān for
safe-keeping; as some of our begs and household were prisoners in their
hands, the Māḏū affair fell out very well.[478]
From there we went to Unjū-tūpa, one of the villages of Aūsh, and there
dismounted. When Taṃbal retired from Andijān and went into the
Rabāṯ-i-sarhang sub-district, he dismounted in a village called
Āb-i-khān. Between him and me may have been one _yīghāch_ (5 m.?). At
such a time as this, Qaṃbar-`alī (the Skinner) on account of some
sickness, went into Aūsh.
It was lain in Unjū-tūpa a month or forty days without a battle, but day
after day our foragers and theirs got to grips. All through the time our
camp was mightily well watched at night; a ditch was dug; where no ditch
was, branches were set close together;[479] we also made our soldiers go
out in their mail [Sidenote: Fol. 68.] along the ditch. Spite of such
watchfulness, a night-alarm was given every two or three days, and the
cry to arms went up. One day when Sayyidī Beg T̤aghāī had gone out with
the foragers, the enemy came up suddenly in greater strength and took
him prisoner right out of the middle of the fight.
(_b. Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā murdered by Khusrau Shāh._)
Khusrau Shāh, having planned to lead an army against Balkh, in this same
year invited Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā to go with him, brought him[480] to
Qūndūz and rode out with him for Balkh. But when they reached the Aubāj
ferry, that ungrateful infidel, Khusrau Shāh, in his aspiration to
sovereignty,—and to what sort of sovereignty, pray, could such a no-body
attain? a person of no merit, no birth, no lineage, no judgment, no
magnanimity, no justice, no legal-mindedness,—laid hands on Bāī-sunghar
Mīrzā with his begs, and bowstrung the Mīrzā. It was upon the 10th. of
the month of Muḥarram (August 17th.) that he martyred that scion of
sovereignty, so accomplished, so sweet-natured and so adorned by birth
and lineage. He killed also a few of the Mīrzā's begs and household.
(_c. Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā's birth and descent._)
He was born in 882 (1477 AD.), in the Ḥiṣār district. He was Sl. Maḥmūd
Mīrzā's second son, younger than Sl. Mas`ud M. and older than Sl. `Alī
M. and Sl. Ḥusain M. and Sl. Wais M. known as Khān Mīrzā. His mother was
Pasha Begīm. [Sidenote: Fol. 68b.]
(_d. His appearance and characteristics._)
He had large eyes, a fleshy face[481] and Turkmān features, was of
middle height and altogether an elegant young man (_aet._ 22).
(_e. His qualities and manners._)
He was just, humane, pleasant-natured and a most accomplished scion of
sovereignty. His tutor, Sayyid Maḥmūd,[482] presumably was a Shī`a;
through this he himself became infected by that heresy. People said that
latterly, in Samarkand, he reverted from that evil belief to the pure
Faith. He was much addicted to wine but on his non-drinking days, used
to go through the Prayers.[483] He was moderate in gifts and liberality.
He wrote the _naskh-ta`līq_ character very well; in painting also his
hand was not bad. He made `Ādilī his pen-name and composed good verses
but not sufficient to form a _dīwān_. Here is the opening couplet
(_maṯla`_) of one of them[484];—
Like a wavering shadow I fall here and there;
If not propped by a wall, I drop flat on the ground.
In such repute are his odes held in Samarkand, that they are to be found
in most houses.
(_f. His battles._)