The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
A few days later, my grandmother, Aīsān-daulat Begīm, who, when I left
Samarkand, had stayed behind, arrived in Dikh-kat [Sidenote: Fol. 98.]
with our families and baggage (_aūrūq_) and a few lean and hungry
followers.
(_d. Shaibāq Khān raids in The Khān's country._)
That winter Shaibāq Khān crossed the Khujand river on the ice and
plundered near Shāhrukhiya and Bīsh-kīnt. On hearing news of this, we
gallopped off, not regarding the smallness of our numbers, and made for
the villages below Khujand, opposite Hasht-yak (One-eighth). The cold
was mightily bitter,[589] a wind not less than the Hā-darwesh[590]
raging violently the whole time. So cold it was that during the two or
three days we were in those parts, several men died of it. When, needing
to make ablution, I went into an irrigation-channel, frozen along both
banks but because of its swift current, not ice-bound in the middle, and
bathed, dipping under 16 times, the cold of the water went quite through
me. Next day we crossed the river on the ice from opposite Khaṣlār and
went on through the dark to Bīsh-kīnt.[591] Shaibāq Khān, however, must
have gone straight back after plundering the neighbourhood of
Shāhrukhiya.
(_e. Death of Nuyān Kūkūldāsh._)
Bīsh-kīnt, at that time, was held by Mullā Ḥaidar's son, `Abdu'l-minān.
A younger son, named Mūmin, a worthless and dissipated person, had come
to my presence in Samarkand and had received all kindness from me. This
sodomite, Mūmin, for what sort of quarrel between them is not known,
cherished [Sidenote: Fol. 98b.] rancour against Nuyān _Kūkūldāsh_. At
the time when we, having heard of the retirement of the Aūzbegs, sent a
man to The Khān and marched from Bīsh-kīnt to spend two or three days
amongst the villages in the Blacksmith's-dale,[592] Mullā Ḥaidar's son,
Mūmin invited Nuyān _Kūkūldāsh_ and Aḥmad-i-qāsim and some others in
order to return them hospitality received in Samarkand. When I left
Bīsh-kīnt, therefore they stayed behind. Mūmin's entertainment to this
party was given on the edge of a ravine (_jar_). Next day news was
brought to us in Sām-sīrak, a village in the Blacksmith's-dale, that
Nuyān was dead through falling when drunk into the ravine. We sent his
own mother's brother, Ḥaq-naẕar and others, who searched out where he
had fallen. They committed Nuyān to the earth in Bīsh-kīnt, and came
back to me. They had found the body at the bottom of the ravine an
arrow's flight from the place of the entertainment. Some suspected that
Mūmin, nursing his trumpery rancour, had taken Nuyān's life. None knew
the truth. His death made me strangely sad; for few men have I felt such
grief; I wept unceasingly for a week or [Sidenote: Fol. 99.] ten days.
The chronogram of his death was found in _Nuyān is dead_.[593]
With the heats came the news that Shaibāq Khān was coming up into
Aūrā-tīpā. Hereupon, as the land is level about Dikh-kat, we crossed the
Āb-burdan pass into the Macha hill-country.[594] Āb-burdan is the last
village of Macha; just below it a spring sends its water down (to the
Zar-afshān); above the stream is included in Macha, below it depends on
Palghar. There is a tomb at the spring-head. I had a rock at the side of
the spring-head shaped (_qātīrīb_) and these three couplets inscribed on
it;—
I have heard that Jamshīd, the magnificent,
Inscribed on a rock at a fountain-head[595]
'Many men like us have taken breath at this fountain,
And have passed away in the twinkling of an eye;
We took the world by courage and might,
But we took it not with us to the tomb.'
There is a custom in that hill-country of cutting verses and things[596]
on the rocks.
While we were in Macha, Mullā Hijrī,[597] the poet, came from Ḥiṣār and
waited on me. At that time I composed the following opening lines;—
Let your portrait flatter you never so much, than it you are more
(_āndīn artūqsīn_);
Men call you their Life (_Jān_), than Life, without doubt, you are
more (_jāndīn artūqsīn_).[598]
After plundering round about in Aūrā-tīpā, Shaibāq Khān retired.[599]
While he was up there, we, disregarding the fewness [Sidenote: Fol.
99b.] of our men and their lack of arms, left our impedimenta (_aūrūq_)
in Macha, crossed the Āb-burdan pass and went to Dikh-kat so that,
gathered together close at hand, we might miss no chance on one of the
next nights. He, however, retired straightway; we went back to Macha.
It passed through my mind that to wander from mountain to mountain,
homeless and houseless, without country or abiding-place, had nothing to
recommend it. 'Go you right off to The Khān,' I said to myself. Qāsim
Beg was not willing for this move, apparently being uneasy because, as
has been told, he had put Mughūls to death at Qarā-būlāq, by way of
example. However much we urged it, it was not to be! He drew off for
Ḥiṣār with all his brothers and his whole following. We for our part,
crossed the Āb-burdan pass and set forward for The Khān's presence in
Tāshkīnt.
(_f. Bābur with The Khān._)
In the days when Taṃbal had drawn his army out and gone into the
Blacksmith's-dale,[600] men at the top of his army, such as Muḥ.
_Dūghlāt_, known as _Ḥiṣārī_, and his younger brother Ḥusain, and also
Qaṃbar-`alī, the Skinner, conspired to attempt his life. When he
discovered this weighty matter, they, unable to remain with him, had
gone to The Khān.
The Feast of Sacrifices (`Īd-i-qurbān) fell for us in Shāh-rukhiya
(Ẕū'l-ḥijja 10th.-June 16th. 1502).
I had written a quatrain in an ordinary measure but was in some doubt
about it, because at that time I had not studied [Sidenote: Fol. 100.]
poetic idiom so much as I have now done. The Khān was good-natured and
also he wrote verses, though ones somewhat deficient in the requisites
for odes. I presented my quatrain and I laid my doubts before him but
got no reply so clear as to remove them. His study of poetic idiom
appeared to have been somewhat scant. Here is the verse;—
One hears no man recall another in trouble (_miḥnat-ta kīshī_);
None speak of a man as glad in his exile (_ghurbat-ta kīshī_);
My own heart has no joy in this exile;
Called glad is no exile, man though he be (_albatta kīshī_).
Later on I came to know that in Turkī verse, for the purpose of rhyme,
_ta_ and _da_ are interchangeable and also _ghain_, _qāf_ and
_kāf_.[601]
(_g. The acclaiming of the standards._)
When, a few days later, The Khān heard that Taṃbal had gone up into
Aūrā-tīpā, he got his army to horse and rode out from Tāshkīnt. Between
Bīsh-kīnt and Sām-sīrak he formed up into array of right and left and
saw the count[602] of his men. This done, the standards were acclaimed
in Mughūl fashion.[603] The Khān dismounted and nine standards were set
up in front of him. A Mughūl tied a long strip of white cloth to the
thigh-bone (_aūrta aīlīk_) of a cow and took the other end in his hand.
Three other long strips of white cloth were tied to the staves of three
of the (nine) standards, just below the yak-tails, and their other ends
were brought for The Khān to stand on one and for me and Sl. Muḥ.
Khānika to stand each on one of the two others. The Mughūl who had hold
of the strip of cloth [Sidenote: Fol. 100b.] fastened to the cow's leg,
then said something in Mughūl while he looked at the standards and made
signs towards them. The Khān and those present sprinkled _qumīz_[604] in
the direction of the standards; hautbois and drums were sounded towards
them;[605] the army flung the war-cry out three times towards them,
mounted, cried it again and rode at the gallop round them.
Precisely as Chīngīz Khān laid down his rules, so the Mughūls still
observe them. Each man has his place, just where his ancestors had it;
right, right,—left, left,—centre, centre. The most reliable men go to
the extreme points of the right and left. The Chīrās and Begchīk clans
always demand to go to the point in the right.[606] At that time the Beg
of the Chīrās tūmān was a very bold brave, Qāshka (Mole-marked) Maḥmud
and the beg of the renowned Begchīk tūmān was Ayūb _Begchīk_. These two,
disputing which should go out to the point, drew swords on one another.
At last it seems to have been settled that one should take the highest
place in the hunting-circle, the other, in the battle-array.
Next day after making the circle, it was hunted near Sāmsīrak;
[Sidenote: Fol. 101.] thence move was made to the Tūrāk Four-gardens.
On that day and in that camp, I finished the first ode I ever finished.
Its opening couplet is as follows;—
Except my soul, no friend worth trust found I (_wafādār tāpmādīm_);
Except my heart, no confidant found I (_asrār tāpmādīm_).
There were six couplets; every ode I finished later was written just on
this plan.
The Khān moved, march by march, from Sām-sīrak to the bank of the
Khujand-river. One day we crossed the water by way of an excursion,
cooked food and made merry with the braves and pages. That day some-one
stole the gold clasp of my girdle. Next day Bayān-qulī's Khān-qulī and
Sl. Muḥ. Wais fled to Taṃbal. Every-one suspected them of that bad deed.
Though this was not ascertained, Aḥmad-i-qāsim _Kohbur_ asked leave and
went away to Aūrā-tīpā. From that leave he did not return; he too went
to Taṃbal.
908 AH.—JULY 7TH. 1502 TO JUNE 26TH. 1503 AD.[607]
(_a. Bābur's poverty in Tāshkīnt._)
This move of The Khān's was rather unprofitable; to take no fort, to
beat no foe, he went out and went back.
During my stay in Tāshkīnt, I endured much poverty and humiliation. No
country or hope of one! Most of my retainers dispersed, those left,
unable to move about with me because of their destitution! If I went to
my Khān dādā's Gate,[608] I went sometimes with one man, sometimes with
two. It was well he was no stranger but one of my own blood. [Sidenote:
Fol. 101b.] After showing myself[609] in his presence, I used to go to
Shāh Begīm's, entering her house, bareheaded and barefoot, just as if it
were my own.
This uncertainty and want of house and home drove me at last to despair.
Said I, 'It would be better to take my head[610] and go off than live in
such misery; better to go as far as my feet can carry me than be seen of
men in such poverty and humiliation.' Having settled on China to go to,
I resolved to take my head and get away. From my childhood up I had
wished to visit China but had not been able to manage it because of
ruling and attachments. Now sovereignty itself was gone! and my mother,
for her part, was re-united to her (step)-mother and her younger
brother. The hindrances to my journey had been removed; my anxiety for
my mother was dispelled. I represented (to Shāh Begīm and The Khān)
through Khwāja Abū'l-makāram that now such a foe as Shaibāq Khān had
made his appearance, Mughūl and Turk[611] alike must guard against him;
that thought about him must be taken while he had not well-mastered the
(Aūzbeg) horde or grown very strong, for as they have said;—[612]
To-day, while thou canst, quench the fire,
Once ablaze it will burn up the world;
Let thy foe not fix string to his bow,
While an arrow of thine can pierce him;
that it was 20 or 25 years[613] since they had seen the Younger Khān
(Aḥmad _Alacha_) and that I had never seen him; should I be able, if I
went to him, not only to see him myself, but to bring about the meeting
between him and them?
[Sidenote: Fol. 102.] Under this pretext I proposed to get out of those
surroundings;[614] once in Mughūlistān and Turfān, my reins would be in
my own hands, without check or anxiety. I put no-one in possession of my
scheme. Why not? Because it was impossible for me to mention such a
scheme to my mother, and also because it was with other expectations
that the few of all ranks who had been my companions in exile and