The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
was when, coming in from Khurāsān (912 AH.), we raided these same
Turkmān Hazāras. Our foragers brought in masses of sheep and horses. The
Hazāra wives and their little children had gone off up the snowy slopes
and stayed there; we were rather idle and it was getting late in the
day; so we turned back and dismounted in their very dwellings. Deep
indeed was the snow that winter! Off the road it was up to a horse's
_qāptāl_,[972] so deep that the night-watch was in the saddle all
through till shoot of dawn.
Going out of the valley, we spent the next night just inside the mouth,
in the Hazāra winter-quarters. Marching from there, we dismounted at
Janglīk. At Janglīk Yārak T̤aghāī and other late-comers were ordered to
take the Hazāras who had killed Shaikh Darwīsh and who, luckless and
death-doomed, seemed still to be in the cave. Yārak T̤aghāī and his band
by sending smoke into the cave, took 70 to 80 Hazāras who mostly died by
the sword.
(_g. Collection of the Nijr-aū tribute._)
On the way back from the Hazāra expedition we went to the Āī-tūghdī
neighbourhood below Bārān[973] in order to collect the revenue of
Nijr-aū. Jahāngīr Mīrzā, come up from Ghaznī, [Sidenote: Fol. 162.]
waited on me there. At that time, on Ramẓān 13th (Feb. 7th) such
sciatic-pain attacked me that for 40 days some-one had to turn me over
from one side to the other.
Of the (seven) valleys of the Nijr-water the Pīchkān-valley,—and of the
villages in the Pīchkān-valley Ghain,—and of Ghain its head-man Ḥusain
_Ghainī_ in particular, together with his elder and younger brethren,
were known and notorious for obstinacy and daring. On this account a
force was sent under Jahāngīr Mīrzā, Qāsim Beg going too, which went to
Sar-i-tūp (Hill-top), stormed and took a _sangur_ and made a few meet
their doom.
Because of the sciatic pain, people made a sort of litter for me in
which they carried me along the bank of the Bārān and into the town to
the Būstān-sarāī. There I stayed for a few days; before that trouble was
over a boil came out on my left cheek; this was lanced and for it I also
took a purge. When relieved, I went out into the Chār-bāgh.
(_h. Misconduct of Jahāngīr Mīrzā._)
At the time Jahāngīr Mīrzā waited on me, Ayūb's sons Yūsuf and Buhlūl,
who were in his service, had taken up a strifeful and seditious attitude
towards me; so the Mīrzā was not found to be what he had been earlier.
In a few days he marched out of Tīpa in his mail,[974] hurried back to
Ghaznī, there took Nānī, killed some of its people and plundered all.
[Sidenote: Fol. 162b.] After that he marched off with whatever men he
had, through the Hazāras,[975] his face set for Bāmīān. God knows that
nothing had been done by me or my dependants to give him ground for
anger or reproach! What was heard of later on as perhaps explaining his
going off in the way he did, was this;—When Qāsim Beg went with other
begs, to give him honouring meeting as he came up from Ghaznī, the Mīrzā
threw a falcon off at a quail. Just as the falcon, getting close, put
out its pounce to seize the quail, the quail dropped to the ground.
Hereupon shouts and cries, "Taken! is it taken?" Said Qāsim Beg, "Who
looses the foe in his grip?" Their misunderstanding of this was their
sole reason for going off, but they backed themselves on one or two
other worse and weaker old cronish matters.[976] After doing in Ghaznī
what has been mentioned, they drew off through the Hazāras to the Mughūl
clans.[977] These clans at that time had left Nāṣir Mīrzā but had not
joined the Aūzbeg, and were in Yāī, Astar-āb and the summer-pastures
thereabouts.
(_i. Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā calls up help against Shaibāq Khān._)
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, having resolved to repel Shaibāq Khān, summoned all
his sons; me too he summoned, sending to me Sayyid Afẓal, son of Sayyid
`Alī _Khwāb-bīn_ (Seer-of-dreams). It was right on several grounds for
us to start for Khurāsān. One ground was that when a great ruler,
sitting, as Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā sat, in Tīmūr Beg's place, had resolved to
act against [Sidenote: Fol. 163.] such a foe as Shaibāq Khān and had
called up many men and had summoned his sons and his begs, if there were
some who went on foot it was for us to go if on our heads! if some took
the bludgeon, we would take the stone! A second ground was that, since
Jahāngīr Mīrzā had gone to such lengths and had behaved so badly,[978]
we had either to dispel his resentment or to repel his attack.
(_j. Chīn Ṣūfī's death._)
This year Shaibāq Khān took Khwārizm after besieging Chīn Sūfī in it for
ten months. There had been a mass of fighting during the siege; many
were the bold deeds done by the Khwārizmī braves; nothing soever did
they leave undone. Again and again their shooting was such that their
arrows pierced shield and cuirass, sometimes the two cuirasses.[979] For
ten months they sustained that siege without hope in any quarter. A few
bare braves then lost heart, entered into talk with the Aūzbeg and were
in the act of letting him up into the fort when Chīn Ṣūfī had the news
and went to the spot. Just as he was beating and forcing down the
Aūzbegs, his own page, in a discharge of arrows, shot him from behind.
No man was left to fight; the Aūzbegs took Khwārizm. God's mercy on
Chīn Ṣūfī, who never for one moment ceased to stake his life [Sidenote:
Fol. 163b.] for his chief![980]
Shaibāq Khān entrusted Khwārizm to Kūpuk (_sic_) Bī and went back to
Samarkand.
(_k. Death of Sultān Ḥusain Mīrzā._)
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā having led his army out against Shaibāq Khān as far as
Bābā Ilāhī[981] went to God's mercy, in the month of Ẕū'l-ḥijja
(Ẕū'l-ḥijja 11th 911 AH.-May 5th 1506 AD.).
SULT̤ĀN ḤUSAIN MĪRZĀ AND HIS COURT.[982]
(_a._) _His birth and descent._
He was born in Herī (Harāt), in (Muḥarram) 842 (AH.-June-July, 1438 AD.)
in Shāhrukh Mīrzā's time[983] and was the son of Manṣūr Mīrzā, son of
Bāī-qarā Mīrzā, son of `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā, son of Amīr Tīmūr. Manṣūr
Mīrzā and Bāī-qarā Mīrzā never reigned.
His mother was Fīrūza Begīm, a (great-)grandchild (_nabīra_) of Tīmūr
Beg; through her he became a grandchild of Mīrān-shāh also.[984] He was
of high birth on both sides, a ruler of royal lineage.[985] Of the
marriage (of Manṣūr with Fīrūza) were born two sons and two daughters,
namely, Bāī-qarā Mīrzā and Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, Ākā Begīm and another
daughter, Badka Begīm whom Aḥmad Khān took.[986]
Bāī-qarā Mīrzā was older than Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā; he was his younger
brother's retainer but used not to be present as head of the Court;[987]
except in Court, he used to share his brother's divan (_tūshak_). He was
given Balkh by his younger brother and was its Commandant for several
years. He had three sons, Sl. Muḥammad Mīrzā, Sl. Wais Mīrzā and Sl.
Iskandar Mīrzā.[988]
Ākā Begīm was older than the Mīrzā; she was taken by [Sidenote: Fol.
164.] Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā,[989] a grandson (_nabīra_) of Mīrān-shāh; by him
she had a son (Muḥammad Sulṯān Mīrzā), known as Kīchīk (Little) Mīrzā,
who at first was in his maternal-uncle's service, but later on gave up
soldiering to occupy himself with letters. He is said to have become
very learned and also to have taste in verse.[990] Here is a Persian
quatrain of his:—
For long on a life of devotion I plumed me,
As one of the band of the abstinent ranged me;
Where when Love came was devotion? denial?
By the mercy of God it is I have proved me!
This quatrain recalls one by the Mullā.[991] Kīchīk Mīrzā made the
circuit of the _ka'ba_ towards the end of his life.
Badka (Badī`u'l-jamāl) Begīm also was older[992] than the Mīrzā. She was
given in the guerilla times to Aḥmad Khān of Ḥājī-tarkhān;[993] by him
she had two sons (Sl. Maḥmūd Khān and Bahādur Sl.) who went to Herī and
were in the Mīrzā's service.
(_b._) _His appearance and habits._
He was slant-eyed (_qīyik gūzlūq_) and lion-bodied, being slender from
the waist downwards. Even when old and white-bearded, he wore silken
garments of fine red and green. He used to wear either the black
lambskin cap (_būrk_) or the _qālpāq_,[994] but on a Feast-day would
sometimes set up a little three-fold turban, wound broad and badly,[995]
stick a heron's plume in it and so go to Prayers.
When he first took Herī, he thought of reciting the names of [Sidenote:
Fol. 164b.] the Twelve Imāms in the _khuṯba_,[996] but `Alī-sher Beg and
others prevented it; thereafter all his important acts were done in
accordance with orthodox law. He could not perform the Prayers on
account of a trouble in the joints,[997] and he kept no fasts. He was
lively and pleasant, rather immoderate in temper, and with words that
matched his temper. He shewed great respect for the law in several
weighty matters; he once surrendered to the Avengers of blood a son of
his own who had killed a man, and had him taken to the Judgment-gate
(_Dāru'l-qaẓā_). He was abstinent for six or seven years after he took
the throne; later on he degraded himself to drink. During the almost 40
years of his rule[998] in Khurāsān, there may not have been one single
day on which he did not drink after the Mid-day prayer; earlier than
that however he did not drink. What happened with his sons, the soldiers
and the town was that every-one pursued vice and pleasure to excess.
Bold and daring he was! Time and again he got to work with his own
sword, getting his own hand in wherever he arrayed to fight; no man of
Tīmūr Beg's line has been known to match him in the slashing of swords.
He had a leaning to poetry and even put a _dīwān_ together, writing in
Turkī with Ḥusainī for his pen-name.[999] Many couplets in his _dīwān_
are not bad; it is however in one and the same metre throughout. Great
ruler though he was, [Sidenote: Fol. 165.] both by the length of his
reign (_yāsh_) and the breadth of his dominions, he yet, like little
people kept fighting-rams, flew pigeons and fought cocks.
(_c._) _His wars and encounters._[1000]
He swam the Gurgān-water[1001] in his guerilla days and gave a party of
Aūzbegs a good beating.
Again,—with 60 men he fell on 3000 under Pay-master Muḥammad `Alī, sent
ahead by Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā, and gave them a downright good beating
(868 AH.). This was his one fine, out-standing feat-of-arms.[1002]
Again,—he fought and beat Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā near Astarābād (865
AH.).[1003]
Again,—this also in Astarābād, he fought and beat Sa`īdlīq Sa`īd, son of
Ḥusain _Turkmān_ (873 AH.?).
Again,—after taking the throne (of Herī in Ramẓān 873 AH.-March 1469
AD.), he fought and beat Yādgār-i-muḥammad Mīrzā at Chanārān (874
AH.).[1004]
Again,—coming swiftly[1005] from the Murgh-āb bridge-head (Sar-i-pul),
he fell suddenly on Yādgār-i-muḥammad Mīrzā where he lay drunk in the
Ravens'-garden (875 AH.), a victory which kept all Khurāsān quiet.
Again,—he fought and beat Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā at Chīkmān-sarāī in the
neighbourhood of Andikhūd and Shibrghān (876 AH.).[1006]
Again,—he fell suddenly on Abā-bikr Mīrzā[1007] after that Mīrzā, joined
by the Black-sheep Turkmāns, had come out of `Irāq, beaten Aūlūgh Beg
Mīrzā (_Kābulī_) in Takāna and Khimār (var. Ḥimār), taken Kābul, left it
because of turmoil in `Irāq, crossed Khaibar, gone on to Khūsh-āb and
Multān, on again to [Sidenote: Fol. 165b.] Sīwī,[1008] thence to Karmān
and, unable to stay there, had entered the Khurāsān country (884
AH.).[1009]
Again,—he defeated his son Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā at Pul-i-chirāgh (902
AH.); he also defeated his sons Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā and Kūpuk
(Round-shouldered) Mīrzā at Ḥalwā-spring (904 AH.).[1010]
Again,—he went to Qūndūz, laid siege to it, could not take it, and
retired; he laid siege to Ḥiṣār, could not take that either, and rose
from before it (901 AH.); he went into Ẕū'n-nūn's country, was given
Bast by its _dārogha_, did no more and retired (903 AH.).[1011] A ruler