The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
charges the enemy and drives them out with blow upon blow. He cut off a
few heads and sent to me. Though such a careless lying down was bad
leadership, yet, with so few, just by force of drubbing, to chase off
such a mass of men in mail was very brave indeed.
Meantime The Khāns were busy with the siege of Andijān but the garrison
would not let them get near it. The Andijān braves used to make sallies
and blows would be exchanged.
(_j. Bābur invited into Akhsī._)
Shaikh Bāyazīd now began to send persons to us from Akhsī to testify to
well-wishing and pressingly invite us to Akhsī. His object was to
separate me from The Khāns, by any artifice, because without me, they
had no standing-ground. [Sidenote: Fol. 110b] His invitation may have
been given after agreeing with his elder brother, Taṃbal that if I were
separated from The Khāns, it might be possible, in my presence, to come
to some arrangement with them. We gave The Khāns a hint of the
invitation. They said, 'Go! and by whatever means, lay hands on Shaikh
Bāyazīd.' It was not my habit to cheat and play false; here above all
places, when promises would have been made, how was I to break them? It
occurred to me however, that if we could get into Akhsī, we might be
able, by using all available means, to detach Shaikh Bāyazīd from
Taṃbal, when he might take my side or something might turn up to favour
my fortunes. We, in our turn, sent a man to him; compact was made, he
invited us into Akhsī and when we went, came out to meet us, bringing my
younger brother, Nāṣir Mīrzā with him. Then he took us into the town,
gave us ground to camp in (_yūrt_) and to me one of my father's houses
in the outer fort[654] where I dismounted.
(_k. Taṃbal asks help of Shaibāq Khān._)
Taṃbal had sent his elder brother, Beg Tīlba, to Shaibāq Khān with
proffer of service and invitation to enter Farghāna. At this very time
Shaibāq Khān's answer arrived; 'I will come,' he wrote. On hearing this,
The Khāns were all upset; they could sit no longer before Andijān and
rose from before it.
The Younger Khān himself had a reputation for justice and orthodoxy, but
his Mughūls, stationed, contrary to the expectations of the
towns-people, in Aūsh, Marghīnān and other places,—places that had come
in to me,—began to behave ill [Sidenote: Fol. 111.] and oppressively.
When The Khāns had broken up from before Andijān, the Aūshīs and
Marghīnānīs, rising in tumult, seized the Mughūls in their forts,
plundered and beat them, drove them out and pursued them.
The Khāns did not cross the Khujand-water (for the Kīndīrlīk-pass) but
left the country by way of Marghīnān and Kand-i-badām and crossed it at
Khujand, Taṃbal pursuing them as far as Marghīnān. We had had much
uncertainty; we had not had much confidence in their making any stand,
yet for us to go away, without clear reason, and leave them, would not
have looked well.
(_l. Bābur attempts to defend Akhsī._)
Early one morning, when I was in the Hot-bath, Jahāngīr Mīrzā came into
Akhsī, from Marghīnān, a fugitive from Taṃbal. We saw one another,
Shaikh Bāyazīd also being present, agitated and afraid. The Mīrzā and
Ibrāhīm Beg said, 'Shaikh Bāyazīd must be made prisoner and we must get
the citadel into our hands.' In good sooth, the proposal was wise. Said
I, 'Promise has been made; how can we break it?' Shaikh Bāyazīd went
into the citadel. Men ought to have been posted on the bridge; not even
there did we post any-one! These blunders were the fruit of
inexperience. At the top of the morning came Taṃbal himself with 2 or
3000 men in mail, crossed the bridge and went into the citadel. To begin
with I had had rather few men; when I first went into Akhsī some had
been sent to other forts and some had been made commandants and
summoners all round. Left with me in Akhsī may have been something over
100 men. We [Sidenote: Fol. 111b.] had got to horse with these and were
posting braves at the top of one lane after another and making ready for
the fight, when Shaikh Bāyazīd and Qaṃbar-`alī (the Skinner), and
Muḥammad-dost[655] came gallopping from Taṃbal with talk of peace.
After posting those told off for the fight, each in his appointed place,
I dismounted at my father's tomb for a conference, in which I invited
Jahāngīr Mīrzā to join. Muḥammad-dost went back to Taṃbal but
Qaṃbar-`alī and Shaikh Bāyazīd were present. We sat in the south porch
of the tomb and were in consultation when the Mīrzā, who must have
settled beforehand with Ibrāhīm _Chāpūk_ to lay hands on those other
two, said in my ear, 'They must be made prisoner.' Said I, 'Don't hurry!
matters are past making prisoners. See here! with terms made, the affair
might be coaxed into something. For why? Not only are they many and we
few, but they with their strength are in the citadel, we with our
weakness, in the outer fort.' Shaikh Bāyazīd and Qaṃbar-`alī both being
present, Jahāngīr Mīrzā looked at Ibrāhīm Beg and made him a sign to
refrain. Whether he misunderstood to the contrary or whether he
pretended to misunderstand, is not known; suddenly he did the ill-deed
of seizing Shaikh Bāyazīd. Braves [Sidenote: Fol. 112.] closing in from
all sides, flung those two to the ground. Through this the affair was
taken past adjustment; we gave them into charge and got to horse for the
coming fight.
One side of the town was put into Jahāngīr Mīrzā's charge; as his men
were few, I told off some of mine to reinforce him. I went first to his
side and posted men for the fight, then to other parts of the town.
There is a somewhat level, open space in the middle of Akhsī; I had
posted a party of braves there and gone on when a large body of the
enemy, mounted and on foot, bore down upon them, drove them from their
post and forced them into a narrow lane. Just then I came up (the lane),
gallopped my horse at them, and scattered them in flight. While I was
thus driving them out from the lane into the flat, and had got my sword
to work, they shot my horse in the leg; it stumbled and threw me there
amongst them. I got up quickly and shot one arrow off. My squire, Kahil
(lazy) had a weakly pony; he got off and led it to me. Mounting this, I
started for another lane-head. Sl. Muḥ. Wais noticed the weakness of my
mount, dismounted and led me his own. I mounted that horse. Just then,
Qāsim Beg's son, Qaṃbar-`alī came, wounded, from Jahāngīr Mīrzā and said
the Mīrzā had [Sidenote: Fol. 112b.] been attacked some time before,
driven off in panic, and had gone right away. We were thunderstruck! At
the same moment arrived Sayyid Qāsim, the commandant of Pāp! His was a
most unseasonable visit, since at such a crisis it was well to have such
a strong fort in our hands. Said I to Ibrāhīm Beg, 'What's to be done
now?' He was slightly wounded; whether because of this or because of
stupefaction, he could give no useful answer. My idea was to get across
the bridge, destroy it and make for Andijān. Bābā Sher-zād did very well
here. 'We will storm out at the gate and get away at once,' he said. At
his word, we set off for the Gate. Khwāja Mīr Mīrān also spoke boldly at
that crisis. In one of the lanes, Sayyid Qāsim and Nāṣir's Dost chopped
away at Bāqī Khīz,[656] I being in front with Ibrāhīm Beg and Mīrzā Qulī
_Kūkūldāsh_.
As we came opposite the Gate, we saw Shaikh Bāyazīd, wearing his
pull-over shirt[657] above his vest, coming in with three or four
horsemen. He must have been put into the charge of Jahāngīr's men in the
morning when, against my will, he was made prisoner, and they must have
carried him off when they got away. They had thought it would be well to
kill him; they set him free alive. He had been released just when I
chanced upon him in the Gate. I drew and shot off the arrow on my thumb;
it grazed his neck, a good shot! He came confusedly in at the Gate,
turned to the right and fled down a lane. We followed him instantly.
Mīrzā Qulī _Kūkūldāsh_ got at one man with his rugged-mace and went on.
Another man took [Sidenote: Fol. 113.] aim at Ibrāhīm Beg, but when the
Beg shouted 'Hāī! Hāī!' let him pass and shot me in the arm-pit, from as
near as a man on guard at a Gate. Two plates of my Qālmāq mail were cut;
he took to flight and I shot after him. Next I shot at a man running
away along the ramparts, adjusting for his cap against the battlements;
he left his cap nailed on the wall and went off, gathering his
turban-sash together in his hand. Then again,—a man was in flight
alongside me in the lane down which Shaikh Bāyazīd had gone. I pricked
the back of his head with my sword; he bent over from his horse till he
leaned against the wall of the lane, but he kept his seat and with some
trouble, made good his flight. When we had driven all the enemy's men
from the Gate, we took possession of it but the affair was past
discussion because they, in the citadel, were 2000 or 3000, we, in the
outer fort, 100 or 200. Moreover they had chased off Jahāngīr Mīrzā, as
long before as it takes milk to boil, and with him had gone half my men.
This notwithstanding, we sent a man, while we were in the Gate, to say
to him, 'If you are near at hand, come, let us attack again.' But the
matter had gone past that! Ibrāhīm Beg, either because his horse was
really weak or because of his wound, said, 'My horse is done.' On this,
Sulaimān, one of Muḥ. `Alī's _Mubashir's_ servants, did a plucky thing,
for with matters [Sidenote: Fol. 113b.] as they were and none
constraining him, while we were waiting in the Gate, he dismounted and
gave his horse to Ibrāhīm Beg. Kīchīk (little) `Alī, now the Governor of
Koel,[658] also shewed courage while we were in the Gate; he was a
retainer of Sl. Muḥ. Wais and twice did well, here and in Aūsh. We
delayed in the Gate till those sent to Jahāngīr Mīrzā came back and said
he had gone off long before. It was too late to stay there; off we
flung; it was ill-judged to have stayed as long as we did. Twenty or
thirty men were with me. Just as we hustled out of the Gate, a number of
armed men[659] came right down upon us, reaching the town-side of the
drawbridge just as we had crossed. Banda-`alī, the maternal grandfather
of Qāsim Beg's son, Ḥamza, called out to Ibrāhīm Beg, 'You are always
boasting of your zeal! Let's take to our swords!' 'What hinders? Come
along!' said Ibrāhīm Beg, from beside me. The senseless fellows were for
displaying their zeal at a time of such disaster! Ill-timed zeal! That
was no time to make stand or delay! We went off quickly, the enemy
following and unhorsing our men.
(_m. Bābur a fugitive before Taṃbal's men._)
When we were passing Meadow-dome (Guṃbaz-i-chaman), two miles out of
Akhsī, Ibrāhīm Beg called out to me. Looking [Sidenote: Fol. 114.] back,
I saw a page of Shaikh Bāyazīd's striking at him and turned rein, but
Bayān-qulī's Khān-qulī, said at my side, 'This is a bad time for going
back,' seized my rein and pushed ahead. Many of our men had been
unhorsed before we reached Sang, 4 miles (2 _shar`ī_) out of Akhsī.[660]
Seeing no pursuers at Sang, we passed it by and turned straight up its
water. In this position of our affairs there were eight men of
us;—Nāṣir's Dost, Qāsim Beg's Qaṃbar-`alī, Bayān-qulī's Khān-qulī, Mīrzā
Qulī _Kūkūldāsh_, Nāṣir's Shāham, Sayyidī Qarā's `Abdu'l-qadūs, Khwāja
Ḥusainī and myself, the eighth. Turning up the stream, we found, in the
broad valley, a good little road, far from the beaten track. We made
straight up the valley, leaving the stream on the right, reached its
waterless part and, near the Afternoon Prayer, got up out of it to level
land. When we looked across the plain, we saw a blackness on it, far
away. I made my party take cover and myself had gone to look out from
higher ground, when a number of men came at a gallop up the hill behind