The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
any quantity of bridge material together," and "Well watch the ferries
above Tūqūz-aūlūm,"[688] so that men whose spirit years of Aūzbeg
oppression had broken, might be cheered to hope again.[689] But how
could hope live in tribe or horde when a great ruler like Sl. Ḥusain
Mīrzā, sitting in the place of Tīmūr Beg, spoke, not of marching forth
to meet the enemy, but only of defence against his attack?
When we had deposited in Ajar what had come with us of hungry train (_aj
aūrūq_) and household (_awī-aīl_), together with the families of Bāqī
Beg, his son, Muḥ. Qāsim, his soldiers and his tribesmen, with all their
goods, we moved out with our men.
(_e. Increase of Bābur's following._)
One man after another came in from Khusrau Shāh's Mughūls and said, "We
of the Mughūl horde, desiring the royal welfare, have drawn off from
T̤āīkhān (T̤ālīkān) towards Ishkīmīsh and Fūlūl. Let the Pādshāh advance
as fast as possible, for the greater part of Khusrau Shāh's force has
broken up and is ready to take service with him." Just then news arrived
that Shaibāq Khān, after taking Andijān,[690] was getting to horse again
against Ḥiṣār and Qūndūz. On hearing [Sidenote: Fol. 123.] this, Khusrau
Shāh, unable to stay in Qūndūz, marched out with all the men he had, and
took the road for Kābul. No sooner had he left than his old servant, the
able and trusted Mullā Muḥammad _Turkistānī_ made Qūndūz fast for
Shaibāq Khān.
Three or four thousand heads-of-houses in the Mughūl horde, former
dependants of Khusrau Shāh, brought their families and joined us when,
going by way of Sham-tū, we were near the Qīzīl-sū.[691]
(_f. Qaṃbar-`alī, the Skinner, dismissed._)
Qaṃbar-`alī Beg's foolish talk has been mentioned several times already;
his manners were displeasing to Bāqī Beg; to gratify Bāqī Beg, he was
dismissed. Thereafter his son, `Abdu'l-shukūr, was in Jahāngīr Mīrzā's
service.
(_g. Khusrau Shāh waits on Bābur._)
Khusrau Shāh was much upset when he heard that the Mughūl horde had
joined me; seeing nothing better to do for himself, he sent his
son-in-law, Ayūb's Yaq`ūb, to make profession of well-wishing and
submission to me, and respectfully to represent that he would enter my
service if I would make terms and compact with him. His offer was
accepted, because Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ was a man of weight, and, however
steady in his favourable disposition to me, did not overlook his
brother's side in this matter. Compact was made that Khusrau Shāh's
life should be safe, and that whatever amount of his goods he selected,
should not be refused him. After giving Yaq`ūb leave to go, we marched
down the Qīzīl-sū and dismounted near to where it joins the water of
Andar-āb. [Sidenote: Fol. 123b.]
Next day, one in the middle of the First Rabī` (end of August, 1504
AD.), riding light, I crossed the Andar-āb water and took my seat under
a large plane-tree near Dūshī, and thither came Khusrau Shāh, in pomp
and splendour, with a great company of men. According to rule and
custom, he dismounted some way off and then made his approach. Three
times he knelt when we saw one another, three times also on taking
leave; he knelt once when asking after my welfare, once again when he
offered his tribute, and he did the same with Jahāngīr Mīrzā and with
Mīrzā Khān (Wais). That sluggish old mannikin who through so many years
had just pleased himself, lacking of sovereignty one thing only, namely,
to read the _Khuṯba_ in his own name, now knelt 25 or 26 times in
succession, and came and went till he was so wearied out that he
tottered forward. His many years of begship and authority vanished from
his view. When we had seen one another and he had offered his gift, I
desired him to be seated. We stayed in that place for one or two
_garīs_,[692] exchanging tale and talk. His conversation was vapid and
empty, presumably because he was a coward and false to his salt. Two
things he said were extraordinary for the time when, under his eyes, his
trusty and trusted retainers were becoming mine, and when his affairs
had reached the point that he, the sovereign-aping mannikin, had had to
come, willy-nilly, abased and unhonoured, to what sort [Sidenote: Fol.
124.] of an interview! One of the things he said was this:—When condoled
with for the desertion of his men, he replied, "Those very servants have
four times left me and returned." The other was said when I had asked
him where his brother Walī would cross the Amū and when he would arrive.
"If he find a ford, he will soon be here, but when waters rise, fords
change; the (Persian) proverb has it, 'The waters have carried down the
fords.'" These words God brought to his tongue in that hour of the
flowing away of his own authority and following!
After sitting a _garī_ or two, I mounted and rode back to camp, he for
his part returning to his halting-place. On that day his begs, with
their servants, great and small, good and bad, and tribe after tribe
began to desert him and come, with their families, to me. Between the
two Prayers of the next afternoon not a man remained in his presence.
"Say,—O God! who possessest the kingdom! Thou givest it to whom Thou
wilt and Thou takest it from whom Thou wilt! In Thy hand is good, for
Thou art almighty."[693]
Wonderful is His power! This man, once master of 20 or 30,000 retainers,
once owning Sl. Maḥmūd's dominions from Qaḥlūgha,—known also as the
Iron-gate,—to the range of [Sidenote: Fol. 124b.] Hindū-kush, whose old
mannikin of a tax-gatherer, Ḥasan _Barlās_ by name, had made us march,
had made us halt, with all the tax-gatherer's roughness, from Aīlāk to
Aūbāj,[694] that man He so abased and so bereft of power that, with no
blow struck, no sound made, he stood, without command over servants,
goods, or life, in the presence of a band of 200 or 300 men, defeated
and destitute as we were.
In the evening of the day on which we had seen Khusrau Shāh and gone
back to camp, Mīrzā Khān came to my presence and demanded vengeance on
him for the blood of his brothers.[695] Many of us were at one with him,
for truly it is right, both by Law and common justice, that such men
should get their desserts, but, as terms had been made, Khusrau Shāh was
let go free. An order was given that he should be allowed to take
whatever of his goods he could convey; accordingly he loaded up, on
three or four strings of mules and camels, all jewels, gold, silver, and
precious things he had, and took them with him.[696] Sherīm T̤aghāī was
told off to escort him, who after setting Khusrau Shāh on his road for
Khurāsān, by way of Ghūrī and Dahānah, was to go to Kāhmard and bring
the families after us to Kābul.
(_h. Bābur marches for Kābul._)
Marching from that camp for Kābul, we dismounted in Khwāja Zaid.
On that day, Ḥamza Bī _Mangfīt_,[697] at the head of Aūzbeg raiders, was
over-running round about Dūshī. Sayyid Qāsim, the Lord of the Gate, and
Aḥmad-i-qāsim _Kohbur_ were sent [Sidenote: Fol. 125.] with several
braves against him; they got up with him, beat his Aūzbegs well, cut off
and brought in a few heads.
In this camp all the armour (_jība_) of Khusrau Shāh's armoury was
shared out. There may have been as many as 7 or 800 coats-of-mail
(_joshan_) and horse accoutrements (_kūhah_);[698] these were the one
thing he left behind; many pieces of porcelain also fell into our hands,
but, these excepted, there was nothing worth looking at.
With four or five marches we reached Ghūr-bund, and there dismounted in
Ushtur-shahr. We got news there that Muqīm's chief beg, Sherak (var.
Sherka) _Arghūn_, was lying along the Bārān, having led an army out, not
through hearing of me, but to hinder `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā from passing
along the Panjhīr-road, he having fled from Kābul[699] and being then
amongst the Tarkalānī Afghāns towards Lamghān. On hearing this we
marched forward, starting in the afternoon and pressing on through the
dark till, with the dawn, we surmounted the Hūpīān-pass.[700]
I had never seen Suhail;[701] when I came out of the pass I saw a star,
bright and low. "May not that be Suhail?" said I. Said they, "It is
Suhail." Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ recited this couplet;—[702]
"How far dost thou shine, O Suhail, and where dost thou rise?
A sign of good luck is thine eye to the man on whom it may light."
The Sun was a spear's-length high[703] when we reached the foot of the
Sanjid (Jujube)-valley and dismounted. Our scouting [Sidenote: Fol.
125b.] braves fell in with Sherak below the Qarā-bāgh,[704] near
Aīkarī-yār, and straightway got to grips with him. After a little of
some sort of fighting, our men took the upper hand, hurried their
adversaries off, unhorsed 70-80 serviceable braves and brought them in.
We gave Sherak his life and he took service with us.
(_i. Death of Walī of Khusrau._)
The various clans and tribes whom Khusrau Shāh, without troubling
himself about them, had left in Qūndūz, and also the Mughūl horde, were
in five or six bodies (_būlāk_). One of those belonging to
Badakhshān,—it was the Rūstā-hazāra,:—came, with Sayyidīm `Alī
_darbān_,[705] across the Panjhīr-pass to this camp, did me obeisance
and took service with me. Another body came under Ayūb's Yūsuf and
Ayūb's Bihlūl; it also took service with me. Another came from Khutlān,
under Khusrau Shāh's younger brother, Walī; another, consisting of the
(Mughūl) tribesmen (_aīmāq_) who had been located in Yīlānchaq, Nikdiri
(?), and the Qūndūz country, came also. The last-named two came by
Andar-āb and Sar-i-āb,[706] meaning to cross by the Panjhīr-pass; at
Sar-i-āb the tribesmen were ahead; Walī came up behind; they held the
road, fought and beat him. He himself fled to the Aūzbegs,[707] and
Shaibāq Khān had his head struck off in the Square (_Chār-sū_) of
Samarkand; his followers, beaten and plundered, came on with the
tribesmen, and like these, took service with me. With them came Sayyid
[Sidenote: Fol. 126.] Yūsuf Beg (the Grey-wolfer).
(_j. Kābul gained._)
From that camp we marched to the Āq-sarāī meadow of the Qarā-bāgh and
there dismounted. Khusrau Shāh's people were well practised in
oppression and violence; they tyrannized over one after another till at
last I had up one of Sayyidīm `Alī's good braves to my Gate[708] and
there beaten for forcibly taking a jar of oil. There and then he just
died under the blows; his example kept the rest down.
We took counsel in that camp whether or not to go at once against Kābul.
Sayyid Yūsuf and some others thought that, as winter was near, our first
move should be into Lamghān, from which place action could be taken as
advantage offered. Bāqī Beg and some others saw it good to move on Kābul
at once; this plan was adopted; we marched forward and dismounted in
Ābā-qūrūq.
My mother and the belongings left behind in Kāhmard rejoined us at
Ābā-qūrūq. They had been in great danger, the particulars of which are
these:—Sherīm T̤aghāī had gone to set Khusrau Shāh on his way for
Khurāsān, and this done, was to fetch the families from Kāhmard. When he
reached Dahānah, he found he was not his own master; Khusrau Shāh went
on with him into Kāhmard, where was his sister's son, Aḥmad-i-qāsim.
These two took up an altogether wrong [Sidenote: Fol. 126b.] position
towards the families in Kāhmard. Hereupon a number of Bāqī Beg's
Mughūls, who were with the families, arranged secretly with Sherīm
T̤aghāī to lay hands on Khusrau Shāh and Aḥmad-i-qāsim. The two heard of
it, fled along the Kāhmard-valley on the Ajar side[709] and made for
Khurāsān. To bring this about was really what Sherīm T̤aghāī and the
Mughūls wanted. Set free from their fear of Khusrau Shāh by his flight,
those in charge of the families got them out of Ajar, but when they
reached Kāhmard, the Sāqānchī (var. Asīqanchī) tribe blocked the road,