The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
against his district and carried him along. Here the (Turkī) proverb
fits, 'Distrust your friend! he'll stuff your hide with straw.' While
Qaṃbar-`alī was being made to go to Khujand, he escaped on foot and
after a hundred difficulties reached Aūrā-tīpā.
News came to us there that Shaibānī Khān had beaten Bāqī Tarkhān in
Dabūsī and was moving on Bukhārā. We went on from Aūrā-tīpā, by way of
Burka-yīlāq, to Sangzār[521] which the sub-governor surrendered. There
we placed Qaṃbar-`alī, as, after effecting his own capture and betrayal,
he had come to us. We then passed on.
(_u. Affairs of Samarkand and the end of `Alī-dost._)
On our arrival in Khān-yūrtī, the Samarkand begs under Muḥ. Mazīd
Tarkhān came and did me obeisance. Conference was held with them as to
details for taking the town; they said, 'Khwāja Yaḥya also is wishing
for the _pādshāh_;[522] with his consent the town may be had easily
without fighting or disturbance.' The Khwāja did not say decidedly to
our messengers that he had resolved to admit us to the town but at the
same time, he said nothing likely to lead us to despair.
Leaving Khān-yūrtī, we moved to the bank of the Dar-i-gham (canal) and
from there sent our librarian, Khwāja Muḥammad [Sidenote: Fol. 79.] `Alī
to Khwāja Yaḥya. He brought word back, 'Let them come; we will give them
the town.' Accordingly we rode from the Dar-i-gham straight for the
town, at night-fall, but our plan came to nothing because Sl. Muḥammad
_Dūldāī's_ father, Sl. Maḥmūd had fled from our camp and given such
information to (Sl. `Alī's party) as put them on their guard. Back we
went to the Dar-i-gham bank.
While I had been in Yār-yīlāq, one of my favoured begs, Ibrāhīm _Sārū_
who had been plundered and driven off by `Alī-dost,[523] came and did me
obeisance, together with Muḥ. Yūsuf, the elder son of Sayyid Yūsuf
(_Aūghlāqchī_). Coming in by ones and twos, old family servants and begs
and some of the household gathered back to me there. All were enemies of
`Alī-dost; some he had driven away; others he had plundered; others
again he had imprisoned. He became afraid. For why? Because with
Taṃbal's backing, he had harassed and persecuted me and my well-wishers.
As for me, my very nature sorted ill with the manikin's! From shame and
fear, he could stay no longer with us; he asked leave; I took it as a
personal favour; I gave it. On this leave, he and his son, Muḥammad-dost
went to Taṃbal's presence. They became his intimates, [Sidenote: Fol.
79b.] and from father and son alike, much evil and sedition issued.
`Alī-dost died a few years later from ulceration of the hand.
Muḥammad-dost went amongst the Aūzbegs; that was not altogether bad but,
after some treachery to his salt, he fled from them and went into the
Andijān foot-hills.[524] There he stirred up much revolt and trouble. In
the end he fell into the hands of Aūzbeg people and they blinded him.
The meaning of 'The salt took his eyes,' is clear in his case.[525]
After giving this pair their leave, we sent Ghūrī _Barlās_ toward
Bukhārā for news. He brought word that Shaibānī Khān had taken Bukhārā
and was on his way to Samarkand. Here-upon, seeing no advantage in
staying in that neighbourhood, we set out for Kesh where, moreover, were
the families of most of the Samarkand begs.
When we had been a few weeks there, news came that Sl. `Alī Mīrzā had
given Samarkand to Shaibānī Khān. The particulars are these;—The Mīrzā's
mother, Zuhra Begī Āghā (_Aūzbeg_), in her ignorance and folly, had
secretly written to [Sidenote: Fol. 80.] Shaibānī Khān that if he would
take her (to wife) her son should give him Samarkand and that when
Shaibānī had taken (her son's) father's country, he should give her son
a country.[526] Sayyid Yūsuf _Arghūn_ must have known of this plan,
indeed will have been the traitor inventing it.
906 AH.—JULY 28TH. 1500 TO JULY 17TH. 1501 AD.[527]
(_a. Samarkand in the hands of the Aūzbegs._)
When, acting on that woman's promise, Shaibānī Khān went to Samarkand,
he dismounted in the Garden of the Plain. About mid-day Sl. `Alī Mīrzā
went out to him through the Four-roads Gate, without a word to any of
his begs or unmailed braves, without taking counsel with any-one soever
and accompanied only by a few men of little consideration from his own
close circle. The Khān, for his part, did not receive him very
favourably; when they had seen one another, he seated him on his less
honourable hand.[528] Khwāja Yaḥya, on hearing of the Mīrzā's departure,
became very anxious but as he could find no remedy,[529] went out also.
The Khān looked at him without rising and said a few words in which
blame had part, but when the Khwāja rose to leave, showed him the
respect of rising.
As soon as Khwāja `Alī[530] Bāy's[531] son, Jān-`alī heard in
Rabāṯ-i-khwāja of the Mīrzā's going to Shaibānī Khān, he also went. As
for that calamitous woman who, in her folly, gave her son's [Sidenote:
Fol. 80b.] house and possessions to the winds in order to get herself a
husband, Shaibānī Khān cared not one atom for her, indeed did not regard
her as the equal of a mistress or a concubine.[532]
Confounded by his own act, Sl. `Alī Mīrzā's repentance was extreme. Some
of his close circle, after hearing particulars, planned for him to
escape with them but to this he would not agree; his hour had come; he
was not to be freed. He had dismounted in Tīmūr Sulṯān's quarters; three
or four days later they killed him in Plough-meadow.[533] For a matter
of this five-days' mortal life, he died with a bad name; having entered
into a woman's affairs, he withdrew himself from the circle of men of
good repute. Of such people's doings no more should be written; of acts
so shameful, no more should be heard.
The Mīrzā having been killed, Shaibānī Khān sent Jān-`alī after his
Mīrzā. He had apprehensions also about Khwāja Yaḥya and therefore
dismissed him, with his two sons, Khwāja Muḥ. Zakarīya and Khwāja Bāqī,
towards Khurāsān.[534] A few Aūzbegs followed them and near Khwāja
Kārdzan martyred both the Khwāja and his two young sons. Though
Shaibānī's [Sidenote: Fol. 81.] words were, 'Not through me the Khwāja's
affair! Qaṃbar Bī and Kūpuk Bī did it,' this is worse than that! There
is a proverb,[535] 'His excuse is worse than his fault,' for if begs,
out of their own heads, start such deeds, unknown to their Khāns or
Pādshāhs, what becomes of the authority of khānship and sovereignty?
(_b. Bābur leaves Kesh and crosses the Mūra pass._)
Since the Aūzbegs were in possession of Samarkand, we left Kesh and went
in the direction of Ḥiṣār. With us started off Muḥ. Mazīd Tārkhān and
the Samarkand begs under his command, together with their wives and
families and people, but when we dismounted in the Chultū meadow of
Chaghānīān, they parted from us, went to Khusrau Shāh and became his
retainers.
Cut off from our own abiding-town and country,[536] not knowing where
(else) to go or where to stay, we were obliged to traverse the very
heart of Khusrau Shāh's districts, spite of what measure of misery he
had inflicted on the men of our dynasty!
One of our plans had been to go to my younger Khān dādā, _i.e._ Alacha
Khān, by way of Qarā-tīgīn and the Alāī,[537] but this was not managed.
Next we were for going up the valley of the Kām torrent and over the
Sara-tāq pass (_dābān_). When we were near Nūnḍāk, a servant of Khusrau
Shāh brought me one set of nine horses[538] and one of nine pieces of
cloth. When we dismounted at the mouth of the Kām valley, Sher-`alī.
[Sidenote: Fol. 81b.] the page, deserted to Khusrau Shāh's brother, Walī
and, next day, Qūch Beg parted from us and went to Ḥiṣār.[539]
We entered the valley and made our way up it. On its steep and narrow
roads and at its sharp and precipitous saddles[540] many horses and
camels were left. Before we reached the Sara-tāq pass we had (in 25 m.)
to make three or four night-halts. A pass! and what a pass! Never was
such a steep and narrow pass seen; never were traversed such ravines and
precipices. Those dangerous narrows and sudden falls, those perilous
heights and knife-edge saddles, we got through with much difficulty and
suffering, with countless hardships and miseries. Amongst the Fān
mountains is a large lake (Iskandar); it is 2 miles in circumference, a
beautiful lake and not devoid of marvels.[541]
News came that Ibrāhīm Tarkhān had strengthened Fort Shīrāz and was
seated in it; also that Qaṃbar-`alī (the Skinner) and Abū'l-qāsim
_Kohbur_, the latter not being able to stay in Khwāja Dīdār with the
Aūzbegs in Samarkand,—had both come into Yār-yīlāq, strengthened its
lower forts and occupied them.
Leaving Fān on our right, we moved on for Keshtūd. The head-man of Fān
had a reputation for hospitality, generosity, [Sidenote: Fol. 82.]
serviceableness and kindness. He had given tribute of 70 or 80 horses to
Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā at the time the Mīrzā, when Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā made
attack on Ḥiṣār, went through Fān on his way to his younger brother,
Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā in Samarkand. He did like service to others. To me he
sent one second-rate horse; moreover he did not wait on me himself. So
it was! Those renowned for liberality became misers when they had to do
with me, and the politeness of the polite was forgotten. Khusrau Shāh
was celebrated for liberality and kindness; what service he did
Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā has been mentioned; to Bāqī Tarkhān and other begs
he shewed great generosity also. Twice I happened to pass through his
country;[542] not to speak of courtesy shewn to my peers, what he shewed
to my lowest servants he did not shew to me, indeed he shewed less
regard for us than for them.
(_Turkī_) Who, o my heart! has seen goodness from worldlings?
Look not for goodness from him who has none.
Under the impression that the Aūzbegs were in Keshtūd, we made an
excursion to it, after passing Fān. Of itself it seemed [Sidenote: Fol.
82b.] to have gone to ruin; no-one seemed to be occupying it. We went on
to the bank of the Kohik-water (Zar-afshān) and there dismounted. From
that place we sent a few begs under Qāsim _Qūchīn_ to surprise
Rabāṯ-i-khwāja; that done, we crossed the river by a bridge from
opposite Yārī, went through Yārī and over the Shunqār-khāna
(Falcons'-home) range into Yār-yīlāq. Our begs went to Rabāṯ-i-khwāja
and had set up ladders when the men within came to know about them and
forced them to retire. As they could not take the fort, they rejoined
us.
(_c. Bābur renews attack on Samarkand._)
Qaṃbar-`alī (the Skinner) was (still) holding Sangzār; he came and saw
us; Abū'l-qāsim _Kohbur_ and Ibrāhīm Tarkhān showed loyalty and
attachment by sending efficient men for our service. We went into
Asfīdik (var. Asfīndik), one of the Yār-yīlāq villages. At that time
Shaibāq Khān lay near Khwāja Dīdār with 3 or 4000 Aūzbegs and as many
more soldiers gathered in locally. He had given the Government of
Samarkand to Jān-wafā, and Jān-wafā was then in the fort with 500 or 600
men. Ḥamza Sl. and Mahdī Sl. were lying near the fort, in the
Quail-reserve. Our men, good and bad were 240. [Sidenote: Fol. 83.]
Having discussed the position with all my begs and unmailed braves, we
left it at this;—that as Shaibānī Khān had taken possession of Samarkand
so recently, the Samarkandīs would not be attached to him nor he to
them; that if we made an effort at once, we might do the thing; that if
we set ladders up and took the fort by surprise, the Samarkandīs would
be for us; how should they not be? even if they gave us no help, they
would not fight us for the Aūzbegs; and that Samarkand once in our
hands, whatever was God's will, would happen.
Acting on this decision, we rode out of Yār-yīlāq after the Mid-day
Prayer, and on through the dark till mid-night when we reached