The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
mouth. The wicker-work fixed and the rice-straw making the pond fast,
whatever fish are inside can be taken out;[865] any also which, trying
to escape may have gone into the wicker-work, are taken in it, because
they have no way out. This method of catching fish we have seen nowhere
else.[866]
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE RESUMED.[867]
(_a. Departure of Muqīm and allotment of lands._)
A few days after the taking of Kābul, Muqīm asked leave to set off for
Qandahār. As he had come out of the town on terms and conditions, he was
allowed to go to his father (Ẕu'n-nūn) and his elder brother (Shāh Beg),
with all his various people, his goods and his valuables, safe and
sound.
Directly he had gone, the Kābul-country was shared out to the Mīrzās and
the guest-begs.[868] To Jahāngīr Mīrzā was given Ghaznī with its
dependencies and appurtenancies; to Nāṣir Mīrzā, the Nīngnahār _tūmān_,
Mandrāwar, Nūr-valley, Kūnār, Nūr-gal (Rock-village?) and Chīghān-sarāī.
To some of the begs who had been with us in the guerilla-times and had
come to Kābul with us, were given villages, fief-fashion.[869] _Wilāyat_
[Sidenote: Fol. 144b.] itself was not given at all.[870] It was not only
then that I looked with more favour on guest-begs and stranger-begs than
I did on old servants and Andijānīs; this I have always done whenever
the Most High God has shown me His favour; yet it is remarkable that,
spite of this, people have blamed me constantly as though I had favoured
none but old servants and Andijānīs. There is a proverb, (Turkī) "What
will a foe not say? what enters not into dream?" and (Persian) "A
town-gate can be shut, a foe's mouth never."
(_b. A levy in grain._)
Many clans and hordes had come from Samarkand, Ḥiṣār and Qūndūz into the
Kābul-country. Kābul is a small country; it is also of the sword, not of
the pen;[871] to take in money from it for all these tribesmen was
impossible. It therefore seemed advisable to take in grain, provision
for the families of these clans so that their men could ride on forays
with the army. Accordingly it was decided to levy 30,000 ass-loads[872]
of grain on Kābul, Ghaznī and their dependencies; we knew nothing at
that time about the harvests and incomings; the impost was excessive,
and under it the country suffered very grievously.
In those days I devised the Bāburī script.[873]
(_c. Foray on the Hazāra._)
A large tribute in horses and sheep had been laid on the Sulṯān Mas`ūdī
Hazāras;[874] word came a few days after collectors [Sidenote: Fol.
145.] had gone to receive it, that the Hazāras were refractory and would
not give their goods. As these same tribesmen had before that come down
on the Ghaznī and Gīrdīz roads, we got to horse, meaning to take them by
surprise. Riding by the Maidān-road, we crossed the Nirkh-pass[875] by
night and at the Morning-prayer fell upon them near Jāl-tū (var.
Chā-tū). The incursion was not what was wished.[876] We came back by the
Tunnel-rock (Sang-i-sūrākh); Jahāngīr Mīrzā (there?) took leave for
Ghaznī. On our reaching Kābul, Yār-i-ḥusain, son of Daryā Khān, coming
in from Bhīra, waited on me.[877]
(_d. Bābur's first start for Hindūstān._)
When, a few days later, the army had been mustered, persons acquainted
with the country were summoned and questioned about its every side and
quarter. Some advised a march to the Plain (Dasht);[878] some approved
of Bangash; some wished to go into Hindūstān. The discussion found
settlement in a move on Hindūstān.
It was in the month of Sha`bān (910 AH.-Jan. 1505 AD.), the Sun being in
Aquarius, that we rode out of Kābul for Hindūstān. We took the road
by Bādām-chashma and Jagdālīk and reached Adīnapūr in six marches. Till
that time I had never seen a hot country or the Hindūstān border-land.
In Nīngnahār[879] another world came to view,—other grasses, other
trees, other animals, other birds, and other manners and customs of clan
and horde. We were amazed, and truly there was ground for amaze.
[Sidenote: Fol. 145b.]
Nāṣir Mīrzā, who had gone earlier to his district, waited on me in
Adīnapūr. We made some delay in Adīnapūr in order to let the men from
behind join us, also a contingent from the clans which had come with us
into Kābul and were wintering in the Lamghānāt.[880] All having joined
us, we marched to below Jūī-shāhī and dismounted at Qūsh-guṃbaz.[881]
There Nāṣir Mīrzā asked for leave to stay behind, saying he would follow
in a few days after making some sort of provision for his dependants and
followers. Marching on from Qūsh-guṃbaz, when we dismounted at
Hot-spring (Garm-chashma), a head-man of the Gāgīānī was brought in, a
_Fajjī_[882] presumably with his caravan. We took him with us to point
out the roads. Crossing Khaibar in a march or two, we dismounted at
Jām.[883]
Tales had been told us about Gūr-khattrī;[884] it was said to be a holy
place of the Jogīs and Hindūs who come from long distances to shave
their heads and beards there. I rode out at once from Jām to visit
Bīgrām,[885] saw its great tree,[886] and all the country round, but,
much as we enquired about Gūr-khattrī, our guide, one Malik Bū-sa`īd
_Kamarī_,[887] would say nothing [Sidenote: Fol. 146.] about it. When we
were almost back in camp, however, he told Khwāja Muḥammad-amīn that it
was in Bīgrām and that he had said nothing about it because of its
confined cells and narrow passages. The Khwāja, having there and then
abused him, repeated to us what he had said, but we could not go back
because the road was long and the day far spent.
(_e. Move against Kohāt._)
Whether to cross the water of Sind, or where else to go, was discussed
in that camp.[888] Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ represented that it seemed we
might go, without crossing the river and with one night's halt, to a
place called Kohāt where were many rich tribesmen; moreover he brought
Kābulīs forward who represented the matter just as he had done. We had
never heard of the place, but, as he, my man in great authority, saw it
good to go to Kohāt and had brought forward support of his
recommendation,—this being so! we broke up our plan of crossing the
Sind-water into Hindūstān, marched from Jām, forded the Bāra-water, and
dismounted not far from the pass (_dābān_) through the Muḥammad-mountain
(_fajj_). At the time the Gāgīānī Afghāns were located in Parashawār
but, in dread of our army, had drawn off to the skirt-hills. One of
their headmen, coming into this camp, did me obeisance; we took him, as
well as the Fajjī, with us, so that, between them, they might
[Sidenote: Fol. 146b.] point out the roads. We left that camp at
midnight, crossed Muḥammad-fajj at day-rise[889] and by breakfast-time
descended on Kohāt. Much cattle and buffalo fell to our men; many
Afghāns were taken but I had them all collected and set them free. In
the Kohāt houses corn was found without limit. Our foragers raided as
far as the Sind-river (_daryā_), rejoining us after one night's halt. As
what Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ had led us to expect did not come to hand, he
grew rather ashamed of his scheme.
When our foragers were back and after two nights in Kohāt, we took
counsel together as to what would be our next good move, and we decided
to over-run the Afghāns of Bangash and the Bannū neighbourhood, then to
go back to Kābul, either through Naghr (Bāghzān?), or by the Farmūl-road
(Tochī-valley?).
In Kohāt, Daryā Khān's son, Yār-i-ḥusain, who had waited on me in Kābul
made petition, saying, "If royal orders were given me for the
Dilazāk,[890] the Yūsuf-zāī, and the Gāgīānī, these would not go far
from my orders if I called up the Pādshāh's swords on the other side of
the water of Sind."[891] The farmān he petitioned for being given, he
was allowed to go from Kohāt.
(_f. March to Thāl._)
Marching out of Kohāt, we took the Hangū-road for Bangash. [Sidenote:
Fol. 147.] Between Kohāt and Hangū that road runs through a valley shut
in on either hand by the mountains. When we entered this valley, the
Afghāns of Kohāt and thereabouts who were gathered on both hill-skirts,
raised their war-cry with great clamour. Our then guide, Malik Bū-sa`īd
_Kamarī_ was well-acquainted with the Afghān locations; he represented
that further on there was a detached hill on our right, where, if the
Afghāns came down to it from the hill-skirt, we might surround and take
them. God brought it right! The Afghāns, on reaching the place, did come
down. We ordered one party of braves to seize the neck of land between
that hill and the mountains, others to move along its sides, so that
under attack made from all sides at once, the Afghāns might be made to
reach their doom. Against the allround assault, they could not even
fight; a hundred or two were taken, some were brought in alive but of
most, the heads only were brought. We had been told that when Afghāns
are powerless to resist, they go before their foe with grass between
their teeth, this being as much as to say, "I am your cow."[892] Here
[Sidenote: Fol. 147b.] we saw this custom; Afghāns unable to make
resistance, came before us with grass between their teeth. Those our men
had brought in as prisoners were ordered to be beheaded and a pillar of
their heads was set up in our camp.[893]
Next day we marched forward and dismounted at Hangū, where local Afghāns
had made a _sangur_ on a hill. I first heard the word _sangur_ after
coming to Kābul where people describe fortifying themselves on a hill as
making a _sangur_. Our men went straight up, broke into it and cut off a
hundred or two of insolent Afghān heads. There also a pillar of heads
was set up.
From Hangū we marched, with one night's halt, to Tīl (Thāl),[894] below
Bangash; there also our men went out and raided the Afghāns near-by;
some of them however turned back rather lightly from a _sangur_.[895]
(_g. Across country into Bannū._)
On leaving Tīl (Thāl) we went, without a road, right down a steep
descent, on through out-of-the-way narrows, halted one night, and next
day came down into Bannū,[896] man, horse and camel all worn out with
fatigue and with most of the booty in cattle left on the way. The
frequented road must have been a few miles to our right; the one we came
by did not seem a riding-road at all; it was understood to be called
the Gosfandliyār [Sidenote: Fol. 148.] (Sheep-road),—_liyār_ being
Afghānī for a road,—because sometimes shepherds and herdsmen take their
flocks and herds by it through those narrows. Most of our men regarded
our being brought down by that left-hand road as an ill-design of Malik
Bū-sa`īd _Kamarī_.[897]
(_h. Bannū and the `Īsa-khail country._)
The Bannū lands lie, a dead level, immediately outside the Bangash and
Naghr hills, these being to their north. The Bangash torrent (the Kūrām)
comes down into Bannū and fertilizes its lands. South(-east) of them are
Chaupāra and the water of Sind; to their east is Dīn-kot; (south-)west
is the Plain (Dasht), known also as Bāzār and Tāq.[898] The Bannū lands
are cultivated by the Kurānī, Kīwī, Sūr, `Īsa-khail and Nīā-zāī of the
Afghān tribesmen.
After dismounting in Bannū, we heard that the tribesmen in the Plain
(Dasht) were for resisting and were entrenching themselves on a hill to
the north. A force headed by Jahāngīr Mīrzā, went against what seemed to
be the Kīwī _sangur_, took it at once, made general slaughter, cut off
and brought in many heads. Much white cloth fell into (their) hands. In
Bannū also a pillar of heads was set up. After the _sangur_ had been
taken, the Kīwī head-man, Shādī Khān, came to my presence, with grass
between his teeth, and did me obeisance. I pardoned all the prisoners.
After we had over-run Kohāt, it had been decided that Bangash and Bannū
should be over-run, and return to Kābul [Sidenote: Fol. 148b.] made