The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
`Aīsh-hill. When our scouts brought word that Sl. Muḥ. _Galpuk_ had come
out, with what men he had, beyond the suburbs and gardens to the skirt
of `Aīsh, I hurried to meet him, although our foragers were still
scattered. He may have had over 500 men; we had more but many had
scattered to forage. When we were face to face, his men and ours may
have been in equal number. Without caring about order or array, down we
rode on them, loose rein, at the gallop. When we got near, they could
not stand; there was not so much fighting as the crossing of a few
swords. My men followed them almost to the Khākān Gate, unhorsing one
after another.
It was at the Evening Prayer that, our foe outmastered, we reached
Khwāja Kitta, on the outskirts of the suburbs. My idea was to go quickly
right up to the Gate but Dost Beg's father, Nāṣir Beg and Qaṃbar-`alī
Beg, old and experienced begs both, represented to me, 'It is almost
night; it would be ill-judged to go in a body into the fort in the dark;
let us withdraw a little and dismount. What can they do to-morrow but
surrender the place?' Yielding at once to the opinion of these
experienced persons, we forthwith retired to the outskirts of the
suburbs. If we had gone to the Gate, undoubtedly, Andijān [Sidenote:
Fol. 106b.] would have come into our hands.
(_f. Bābur surprised by Taṃbal._)
After crossing the Khākān-canal, we dismounted, near the Bed-time
prayer, at the side of the village of Rabāṯ-i-zauraq (var. rūzaq).
Although we knew that Taṃbal had broken camp and was on his way to
Andijān, yet, with the negligence of inexperience, we dismounted on
level ground close to the village, instead of where the defensive canal
would have protected us.[638] There we lay down carelessly, without
scouts or rear-ward.
At the top (_bāsh_) of the morning, just when men are in sweet sleep,
Qaṃbar-`alī Beg hurried past, shouting, 'Up with you! the enemy is
here!' So much he said and went off without a moment's stay. It was my
habit to lie down, even in times of peace, in my tunic; up I got
instanter, put on sword and quiver and mounted. My standard-bearer had
no time to adjust my standard,[639] he just mounted with it in his hand.
There were ten or fifteen men with me when we started toward the enemy;
after riding an arrow's flight, when we came up with his scouts, there
may have been ten. Going rapidly forward, we overtook him, poured in
arrows on him, over-mastered his foremost men and hurried them off. We
followed them for another arrow's flight and came up with his centre
where Sl. Aḥmad _Taṃbal_ himself was, with as many as [Sidenote: Fol.
107.] 100 men. He and another were standing in front of his array, as if
keeping a Gate,[640] and were shouting, 'Strike, strike!' but his men,
mostly, were sidling, as if asking themselves, 'Shall we run away? Shall
we not?' By this time three were left with me; one was Nāṣir's Dost,
another, Mīrzā Qulī _Kūkūldāsh_, the third, Khudāī-bīrdī _Turkmān's_
Karīm-dād.[641] I shot off the arrow on my thumb,[642] aiming at
Taṃbal's helm. When I put my hand into my quiver, there came out a quite
new _gosha-gīr_[643] given me by my Younger Khān dādā. It would have
been vexing to throw it away but before I got it back into the quiver,
there had been time to shoot, maybe, two or three arrows. When once more
I had an arrow on the string, I went forward, my three men even holding
back. One of those two in advance, Taṃbal seemingly,[644] moved forward
also. The high-road was between us; I from my side, he, from his, got
upon it and came face to face, in such a way that his right hand was
towards me, mine towards him. His horse's mail excepted, he was fully
accoutred; but for sword and quiver, I was unprotected. I shot off the
arrow in my hand, adjusting for the attachment of his shield. With
matters in this position, they shot my right leg through. I had on the
cap of my helm;[645] Taṃbal chopped [Sidenote: Fol. 107b.] so violently
at my head that it lost all feeling under the blow. A large wound was
made on my head, though not a thread of the cap was cut.[646] I had not
bared[647] my sword; it was in the scabbard and I had no chance to draw
it. Single-handed, I was alone amongst many foes. It was not a time to
stand still; I turned rein. Down came a sword again; this time on my
arrows. When I had gone 7 or 8 paces, those same three men rejoined
me.[648] After using his sword on me, Taṃbal seems to have used it on
Nāṣir's Dost. As far as an arrrow flies to the butt, the enemy followed
us.
The Khākān-canal is a great main-channel, flowing in a deep cutting, not
everywhere to be crossed. God brought it right! we came exactly opposite
a low place where there was a passage over. Directly we had crossed, the
horse Nāṣir's Dost was on, being somewhat weakly, fell down. We stopped
and remounted him, then drew off for Aūsh, over the rising-ground
between Farāghīna and Khirābūk. Out on the rise, Mazīd T̤aghāī came up
and joined us. An arrow had pierced his right leg also and though it had
not gone through and come out again, he got to Aūsh with difficulty. The
enemy unhorsed (_tūshūrdīlār_) good men of mine; Nāṣir Beg, Muḥ. `Alī
_Mubashir_, Khwāja Muḥ. `Alī, Khusrau _Kūkūldāsh_, Na`man the page, all
fell (to them, _tūshtīlār_), and also many unmailed braves.[649]
(_g. The Khāns move from Kāsān to Andijān._)
The Khāns, closely following on Taṃbal, dismounted near Andijān,—the
Elder at the side of the Reserve (_qūrūq_) in the [Sidenote: Fol. 108.]
garden, known as Birds'-mill (_Qūsh-tīgīrmān_), belonging to my
grandmother, Aīsān-daulat Begīm,—the Younger, near Bābā Tawakkul's
Alms-house. Two days later I went from Aūsh and saw the Elder Khān in
Birds'-mill. At that interview, he simply gave over to the Younger Khān
the places which had come in to me. He made some such excuse as that for
our advantage, he had brought the Younger Khān, how far! because such a
foe as Shaibāq Khān had taken Samarkand and was waxing greater; that the
Younger Khān had there no lands whatever, his own being far away; and
that the country under Andijān, on the south of the Khujand-water, must
be given him to encamp in. He promised me the country under Akhsī, on
the north of the Khujand-water. He said that after taking a firm grip of
that country (Farghāna), they would move, take Samarkand, give it to me
and then the whole of the Farghāna country was to be the Younger Khan's.
These words seem to have been meant to deceive me, since there is no
knowing what they would have done when they had attained their object.
It had to be however! willy-nilly, I agreed.
When, leaving him, I was on my way to the Younger Khān's presence,
Qaṃbar-`alī, known as the Skinner, joined me in a friendly way and said,
'Do you see? They have taken the whole of the country just become yours.
There is no opening for you through them. You have in your hands Aūsh,
Marghīnān, [Sidenote: Fol. 108b.] Aūzkīnt and the cultivated land and
the tribes and the hordes; go you to Aūsh; make that fort fast; send a
man to Taṃbal, make peace with him, then strike at the Mughūl and drive
him out. After that, divide the districts into an elder and a younger
brother's shares.' 'Would that be right?' said I. 'The Khāns are my
blood relations; better serve them than rule for Taṃbal.' He saw that
his words had made no impression, so turned back, sorry he had spoken. I
went on to see my Younger Khān Dādā. At our first interview, I had come
upon him without announcement and he had no time to dismount, so it was
all rather unceremonious. This time I got even nearer perhaps, and he
ran out as far as the end of the tent-ropes. I was walking with some
difficulty because of the wound in my leg. We met and renewed
acquaintance; then he said, 'You are talked about as a hero, my young
brother!' took my arm and led me into his tent. The tents pitched were
rather small and through his having grown up in an out-of-the-way place,
he let the one he sat in be neglected; it was like a raider's, melons,
grapes, saddlery, every sort of thing, in his sitting-tent. I went from
his presence straight back to my own camp and there he sent his Mughūl
surgeon to examine my wound. Mughūls call a surgeon also a _bakhshī_;
this one was called Ātākā Bakhshī.[650]
He was a very skilful surgeon; if a man's brains had come [Sidenote:
Fol. 109.] out, he would cure it, and any sort of wound in an artery he
easily healed. For some wounds his remedy was in form of a plaister, for
some medicines had to be taken. He ordered a bandage tied on[651] the
wound in my leg and put no seton in; once he made me eat something like
a fibrous root (_yīldīz_). He told me himself, 'A certain man had his
leg broken in the slender part and the bone was shattered for the
breadth of the hand. I cut the flesh open and took the bits of bone out.
Where they had been, I put a remedy in powder-form. That remedy simply
became bone where there had been bone before.' He told many strange and
marvellous things such as surgeons in cultivated lands cannot match.
Three or four days later, Qaṃbar-`alī, afraid on account of what he had
said to me, fled (to Taṃbal) in Andijān. A few days later, The Khāns
joined to me Ayūb _Begchīk_ with his _tūmān_, and Jān-ḥasan _Bārīn_ with
the Bārīn _tūmān_ and, as their army-beg, Sārīgh-bāsh Mīrzā,—1000 to
2000 men in all, and sent us towards Akhsī.
(_h. Bābur's expedition to Akhsī._)
Shaikh Bāyazīd, a younger brother of Taṃbal, was in Akhsī; Shahbāz
_Qārlūq_ was in Kāsān. At the time, Shahbāz was lying before Nū-kīnt
fort; crossing the Khujand-water opposite Bīkhrātā, we hurried to fall
upon him there. When, a little [Sidenote: Fol. 109b.] before dawn, we
were nearing the place, the begs represented to me that as the man would
have had news of us, it was advisable not to go on in broken array. We
moved on therefore with less speed. Shahbāz may have been really unaware
of us until we were quite close; then getting to know of it, he fled
into the fort. It often happens so! Once having said, 'The enemy is on
guard!' it is easily fancied true and the chance of action is lost. In
short, the experience of such things is that no effort or exertion must
be omitted, once the chance for action comes. After-repentance is
useless. There was a little fighting round the fort at dawn but we
delivered no serious attack.
For the convenience of foraging, we moved from Nū-kīnt towards the hills
in the direction of Bīshkhārān. Seizing his opportunity, Shahbāz
_Qārlūq_ abandoned Nū-kīnt and returned to Kāsān. We went back and
occupied Nū-kīnt. During those days, the army several times went out and
over-ran all sides and quarters. Once they over-ran the villages of
Akhsī, once those of Kāsān. Shahbāz and Long Ḥasan's adopted son, Mīrīm
came out of Kāsān to fight; they fought, were beaten, and there Mīrīm
died.
(_i. The affairs of Pāp._)
Pāp is a strong fort belonging to Akhsī. The Pāpīs made it fast and sent
a man to me. We accordingly sent Sayyid Qāsim with a few braves to
occupy it. They crossed the river [Sidenote: Fol. 110.] (_daryā_)
opposite the upper villages of Akhsī and went into Pāp.[652] A few days
later, Sayyid Qāsim did an astonishing thing. There were at the time
with Shaikh Bāyazīd in Akhsī, Ibrāhīm _Chāpūk_ (Slash-face)
T̤aghāī,[653] Aḥmad-of-qāsim _Kohbur_, and Qāsim Khitika (?) _Arghūn_.
To these Shaikh Bāyazīd joins 200 serviceable braves and one night sends
them to surprise Pāp. Sayyid Qāsim must have lain down carelessly to
sleep, without setting a watch. They reach the fort, set ladders up, get
up on the Gate, let the drawbridge down and, when 70 or 80 good men in
mail are inside, goes the news to Sayyid Qāsim! Drowsy with sleep, he
gets into his vest (_kūnglāk_), goes out, with five or six of his men,