The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
Khān-yūrtī. Here we had word that the Samarkandīs knew of our coming;
for this reason we went no nearer to the town but made straight back
from Khān-yūrtī. It was dawn when, after crossing the Kohik-water below
Rabāṯ-i-khwāja, we were once more in Yār-yīlāq.
One day in Fort Asfīdik a household party was sitting in my presence;
Dost-i-nāṣir and Nuyān[543] _Kūkūldāsh_ and Khān-qulī-i-Karīm-dād and
Shaikh Darwesh and Mīrīm-i-nāṣir were all there. Words were crossing
from all sides when (I said), 'Come now! say when, if God bring it
right, we shall take [Sidenote: Fol. 83b.] Samarkand.' Some said, 'We
shall take it in the heats.' It was then late in autumn. Others said,
'In a month,' 'Forty days,' 'Twenty days.' Nuyān _Kūkūldāsh_ said, 'We
shall take it in 14.' God shewed him right! we did take it in exactly 14
days.
Just at that time I had a wonderful dream;—His Highness Khwāja
`Ubaid'l-lāh (_Aḥrārī_) seemed to come; I seemed to go out to give him
honourable meeting; he came in and seated himself; people seemed to lay
a table-cloth before him, apparently without sufficient care and, on
account of this, something seemed to come into his Highness Khwāja's
mind. Mullā Bābā (? _Pashāgharī_) made me a sign; I signed back, 'Not
through me! the table-layer is in fault!' The Khwāja understood and
accepted the excuse.[544] When he rose, I escorted him out. In the hall
of that house he took hold of either my right or left arm and lifted me
up till one of my feet was off the ground, saying, in Turkī, 'Shaikh
Maṣlaḥat has given (Samarkand).'[545] I really took Samarkand a few days
later.
(_d. Bābur takes Samarkand by surprise._)
In two or three days move was made from Fort Asfīdik to Fort Wasmand.
Although by our first approach, we had let [Sidenote: Fol. 84.] our plan
be known, we put our trust in God and made another expedition to
Samarkand. It was after the Mid-day Prayer that we rode out of Fort
Wasmand, Khwāja Abū'l-makāram accompanying us. By mid-night we reached
the Deep-fosse-bridge in the Avenue. From there we sent forward a
detachment of 70 or 80 good men who were to set up ladders opposite the
Lovers'-cave, mount them and get inside, stand up to those in the
Turquoise Gate, get possession of it and send a man to me. Those braves
went, set their ladders up opposite the Lovers'-cave, got in without
making anyone aware, went to the Gate, attacked Fāẓil Tarkhān, chopped
at him and his few retainers, killed them, broke the lock with an axe
and opened the Gate. At that moment I came up and went in.
(_Author's note on Fāẓil Tarkhān._) He was not one of those
(Samarkand) Tarkhāns; he was a merchant-tarkhān of Turkistān.
He had served Shaibānī Khān in Turkistān and had found favour
with him.[546]
Abū'l-qāsim _Kohbur_ himself had not come with us but had sent 30 or 40
of his retainers under his younger brother, Aḥmad-i-qāsim. No man of
Ibrāhīm Tarkhān's was with us; his younger brother, Aḥmad Tarkhān came
with a few retainers after I had entered the town and taken post in the
Monastery. [Sidenote: Fol. 84b.]
The towns-people were still slumbering; a few traders peeped out of
their shops, recognized me and put up prayers. When, a little later, the
news spread through the town, there was rare delight and satisfaction
for our men and the towns-folk. They killed the Aūzbegs in the lanes and
gullies with clubs and stones like mad dogs; four or five hundred were
killed in this fashion. Jān-wafā, the then governor, was living in
Khwāja Yaḥya's house; he fled and got away to Shaibāq Khān.[547]
On entering the Turquoise Gate I went straight to the College and took
post over the arch of the Monastery. There was a hubbub and shouting of
'Down! down!' till day-break. Some of the notables and traders, hearing
what was happening, came joyfully to see me, bringing what food was
ready and putting up prayers for me. At day-light we had news that the
Aūzbegs were fighting in the Iron Gate where they had made themselves
fast between the (outer and inner) doors. With 10, 15 or 20 men, I at
once set off for the Gate but before I came up, the town-rabble, busy
ransacking every corner of the newly-taken town for loot, had driven the
Aūzbegs out through [Sidenote: Fol. 85.] it. Shaibāq Khān, on hearing
what was happening, hurried at sun-rise to the Iron Gate with 100 or 140
men. His coming was a wonderful chance but, as has been said, my men
were very few. Seeing that he could do nothing, he rode off at once.
From the Iron Gate I went to the citadel and there dismounted, at the
Bū-stān palace. Men of rank and consequence and various head-men came to
me there, saw me and invoked blessings on me.
Samarkand for nearly 140 years had been the capital of our dynasty. An
alien, and of what stamp! an Aūzbeg foe, had taken possession of it! It
had slipped from our hands; God gave it again! plundered and ravaged,
our own returned to us.
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā took Harāt[548] as we took Samarkand, by surprise, but
to the experienced, and discerning, and just, it will be clear that
between his affair and mine there are distinctions and differences, and
that his capture and mine are things apart.
Firstly there is this;—He had ruled many years, passed through much
experience and seen many affairs.
Secondly;—He had for opponent, Yādgār Muḥ. Nāṣir Mīrzā, [Sidenote: Fol.
85b.] an inexperienced boy of 17 or 18.
Thirdly;—(Yādgār Mīrzā's) Head-equerry, Mīr `Alī, a person
well-acquainted with the particulars of the whole position, sent a man
out from amongst Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's opponents to bring him to surprise
them.
Fourthly;—His opponent was not in the fort but was in the
Ravens'-garden. Moreover Yādgār Muḥ. Nāṣir Mīrzā and his followers are
said to have been so prostrate with drink that three men only were in
the Gate, they also drunk.
Fifthly;—he surprised and captured Harāt the first time he approached
it.
On the other hand: firstly;—I was 19 when I took Samarkand.
Secondly;—I had as my opponent, such a man as Shaibāq Khān, of mature
age and an eye-witness of many affairs.
Thirdly;—No-one came out of Samarkand to me; though the heart of its
people was towards me, no-one could dream of coming, from dread of
Shaibāq Khān.
Fourthly;—My foe was in the fort; not only was the fort taken but he was
driven off.
Fifthly;—I had come once already; my opponent was on his guard about me.
The second time we came, God brought it right! Samarkand was won.
In saying these things there is no desire to be-little the reputation of
any man; the facts were as here stated. In [Sidenote: Fol. 86.] writing
these things, there is no desire to magnify myself; the truth is set
down.
The poets composed chronograms on the victory; this one remains in my
memory;—Wisdom answered, 'Know that its date is the _Victory_ (_Fatḥ_)
_of Bābur Bahādur_.'
Samarkand being taken, Shavdār and Soghd and the _tūmāns_ and nearer
forts began, one after another, to return to us. From some their Aūzbeg
commandants fled in fear and escaped; from others the inhabitants drove
them and came in to us; in some they made them prisoner, and held the
forts for us.
Just then the wives and families of Shaibāq Khān and his Aūzbegs arrived
from Turkistān;[549] he was lying near Khwāja Dīdār and `Alī-ābād but
when he saw the forts and people returning to me, marched off towards
Bukhārā. By God's grace, all the forts of Soghd and Miyān-kāl returned
to me within three or four months. Over and above this, Bāqī Tarkhān
seized this opportunity to occupy Qarshī; Khuzār and Qarshī (? Kesh)
both went out of Aūzbeg hands; Qarā-kūl [Sidenote: Fol. 86b.] also was
taken from them by people of Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā (_Bāī-qarā_), coming up
from Merv. My affairs were in a very good way.
(_e. Birth of Bābur's first child._)
After our departure (last year) from Andijān, my mothers and my wife and
relations came, with a hundred difficulties and hardships, to Aūrātīpā.
We now sent for them to Samarkand. Within a few days after their
arrival, a daughter was born to me by `Āyisha-sulṯān Begīm, my first
wife, the daughter of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā. They named the child
Fakhru'n-nisā' (Ornament of women); she was my first-born, I was 19. In
a month or 40 days, she went to God's mercy.
(_f. Bābur in Samarkand._)
On taking Samarkand, envoys and summoners were sent off at once, and
sent again and again, with reiterated request for aid and reinforcement,
to the khāns and sulṯāns and begs and marchers on every side. Some,
though experienced men, made foolish refusal; others whose relations
towards our family had been discourteous and unpleasant, were afraid for
themselves and took no notice; others again, though they sent help, sent
it insufficient. Each such case will be duly mentioned.
When Samarkand was taken the second time, `Alī-sher Beg [Sidenote: Fol.
87.] was alive. We exchanged letters once; on the back of mine to him I
wrote one of my Turkī couplets. Before his reply reached me, separations
(_tafarqa_) and disturbances (_ghūghā_) had happened.[550] Mullā Binā'ī
had been taken into Shaibāq Khān's service when the latter took
possession of Samarkand; he stayed with him until a few days after I
took the place, when he came into the town to me. Qāsim Beg had his
suspicions about him and consequently dismissed him towards Shahr-i-sabz
but, as he was a man of parts, and as no fault of his came to light, I
had him fetched back. He constantly presented me with odes (_qaṣīda u
ghazal_). He brought me a song in the Nawā mode composed to my name and
at the same time the following quatrain;—[551]
No grain (_ghala_) have I by which I can be fed (_noshīd_);
No rhyme of grain (_mallah_, nankeen) wherewith I can be
clad (_poshīd_);
The man who lacks both food and clothes,
In art or science where can he compete (_koshīd_)?
In those days of respite, I had written one or two couplets but had not
completed an ode. As an answer to Mullā Binā'ī I made up and set this
poor little Turkī quatrain;—[552]
As is the wish of your heart, so shall it be (_būlghūsīdūr_);
For gift and stipend both an order shall be made (_buyurūlghūsīdūr_);
I know the grain and its rhyme you write of;
The garments, you, your house, the corn shall fill (_tūlghūsīdūr_).
The Mullā in return wrote and presented a quatrain to me in [Sidenote:
Fol. 87b.] which for his refrain, he took a rhyme to (the _tūlghūsīdūr_
of) my last line and chose another rhyme;—
Mīrzā-of-mine, the Lord of sea and land shall be (_yīr būlghūsīdūr_);
His art and skill, world o'er, the evening tale shall be
(_samar būlghūsīdūr_);
If gifts like these reward one rhyming (_or_ pointless) word;
For words of sense, what guerdon will there be (_nilār būlghūsīdūr_)?
Abū'l-barka, known as _Farāqi_ (Parted), who just then had come to
Samarkand from Shahr-i-sabz, said Binā'ī ought to have rhymed. He made
this verse;—
Into Time's wrong to you quest shall be made (_sūrūlghūsīdūr_);
Your wish the Sulṯān's grace from Time shall ask (_qūlghūsīdūr_);
O Ganymede! our cups, ne'er filled as yet,
In this new Age, brimmed-up, filled full shall be (_tūlghūsīdūr_).
Though this winter our affairs were in a very good way and Shaibāq
Khān's were on the wane, one or two occurrences were somewhat of a
disservice; (1) the Merv men who had taken Qarā-kūl, could not be
persuaded to stay there and it went back into the hands of the Aūzbegs;
(2) Shaibāq Khān besieged Ibrāhīm Tarkhān's younger brother, Aḥmad in
Dabūsī, stormed the place and made a general massacre of its inhabitants
before the army we were collecting was ready to march.
With 240 proved men I had taken Samarkand; in the next [Sidenote: Fol.
88.] five or six months, things so fell out by the favour of the Most