The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
U. The Inscriptions in Bābur's Mosque at Ajodhya (Oude).
V. Bābur's Gardens in and near Kābul.
Indices:—I. Personal, II. Geographical, III. General, p. 717
_et seq._
Omissions, Corrigenda, Additional Notes.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Plane-tree Avenue in Babur's (later)
Burial-garden[1] _facing_ p. xxvii
View from above his grave and Shah-jahan's
Mosque[1] _facing_ p. 367
His Grave[2] _facing_ p. 445
Babur in Prayer[3] _facing_ p. 702
His Signature App. Q, lxi
Plans of Chandiri and Gualiar App. R, lxvii
PREFACE.
O Spring of work! O Source of power to Be!
Each line, each thought I dedicate to Thee;
Each time I fail, the failure is my own,
But each success, a jewel in Thy Throne.
JESSIE E. CADELL.
INTRODUCTORY.
This book is a translation of Babur Padshah's Autobiography, made from
the original Turki text. It was undertaken after a purely-Turki
manuscript had become accessible in England, the Haidarabad Codex (1915)
which, being in Babur's _ipsissima verba_, left to him the control of
his translator's diction—a control that had been impracticable from the
time when, under Akbar (1589), his book was translated into Persian.
What has come down to us of pure text is, in its shrunken amount, what
was translated in 1589. It is difficult, here and there, to interpret
owing to its numerous and in some places extensive _lacunae_, and
presents more problems than one the solution of which has real
importance because they have favoured suggestions of malfeasance by
Babur.
My translation has been produced under considerable drawback, having
been issued in four _fasciculi_, at long intervals, respectively in June
1912, May 1914, October 1917, and September 1921. I have put with it of
supplementary matter what may be of service to those readers whom
Babur's personality attracts and to those who study Turki as a
linguistic entertainment, but owing to delays in production am unable to
include the _desiderata_ of maps.
CHAPTER I.
BABUR'S EXEMPLARS IN THE ARTS OF PEACE.
Babur's civilian aptitudes, whether of the author and penman, the maker
of gardens, the artist, craftsman or sportsman, were nourished in a
fertile soil of family tradition and example. Little about his teaching
and training is now with his mutilated book, little indeed of any kind
about his præ-accession years, not the date of his birth even, having
escaped destruction.[4] Happily Haidar Mirza (_q.v._) possessed a more
complete Codex than has come down to us through the Timurid libraries,
and from it he translated many episodes of Baburiana that help to bridge
gaps and are of special service here where the personalities of Bābur's
early environment are being named.
Babur's home-milieu favoured excellence in the quiet Arts and set before
its children high standard and example of proficiency. Moreover, by
schooling him in obedience to the Law, it planted in him some of Art's
essentials, self-restraint and close attention. Amongst primal
influences on him, his mother Qut-luq-nigar's ranked high; she,
well-born and a scholar's daughter, would certainly be educated in Turki
and Persian and in the home-accomplishments her governess possessed
_(ātūn_ q.v.). From her and her mother Aisan-daulat, the child would
learn respect for the attainments of his wise old grandfather Yunas
Khan. Aisan-daulat herself brought to her grandson much that goes to the
making of a man; nomad-born and sternly-bred, she was brave to obey her
opinion of right, and was practically the boy's ruling counsellor
through his early struggle to hold Farghana. With these two in fine
influence must be counted Khan-zada, his five-years elder sister who
from his birth to his death proved her devotion to him. Her life-story
tempts, but is too long to tell; her girlish promise is seen fulfilled
in Gul-badan's pages. `Umar Shaikh's own mother Shah Sultan Begim
brought in a type of merit widely differing from that of Aisan-daulat
Begim; as a town-lady of high Tarkhan birth, used to the amenities of
life in a wealthy house of Samarkand, she was, doubtless, an
accomplished and cultured woman.
`Umar Shaikh's environment was dominated for many years by two great
men, the scholar and lover of town-life Yunas Khan and the saintly
Ahrari (_i.e._ Khwaja `Ubaidu'l-lah) who were frequently with him in
company, came at Babur's birth and assisted at his naming. Ahrari died
in 895-1491 when the child was about seven years old but his influence
was life-long; in 935-1529 he was invoked as a spiritual helper by the
fever-stricken Babur and his mediation believed efficacious for recovery
(pp. 619, 648). For the babe or boy to be where the three friends held
social session in high converse, would be thought to draw blessing on
him; his hushed silence in the presence would sow the seed of reverence
for wisdom and virtue, such, for example, as he felt for Jami (_q.v._).
It is worth while to tell some part at least of Yunas' attainments in
the gentler Arts, because the biography from which they are quoted may
well have been written on the information of his wife Aisan-daulat, and
it indicates the breadth of his exemplary influence. Yunas was many
things—penman, painter, singer, instrumentalist, and a past master in
the crafts. He was an expert in good companionship, having even temper
and perfect manners, quick perception and conversational charm. His
intellectual distinction was attributed to his twelve years of wardship
under the learned and highly honoured Yazdi (Sharafu'd-din 'Ali), the
author of the _Zafar-nama_ [Timur's Book of Victory]. That book was in
hand during four years of Yunas' education; he will thus have known it
and its main basis Timur's Turki _Malfūzāt_ (annals). What he learned of
either book he would carry with him into `Umar Shaikh's environment,
thus magnifying the family stock of Timuriya influence. He lived to be
some 74 years old, a length of days which fairly bridged the gap between
Timur's death [807-1404] and Babur's birth (888-1483). It is said that
no previous Khan of his (Chaghatai) line had survived his 40th year; his
exceptional age earned him great respect and would deepen his influence
on his restless young son-in-law `Umar Shaikh. It appears to have been
in `Umar's 20th year (_cir._) that Yunas Khan began the friendly
association with him that lasted till Yunas' death (892-1483), a
friendship which, as disparate ages would dictate, was rather that of
father and son than of equal companionship. One matter mentioned in the
Khan's biography would come to Babur's remembrance in the future days
when he, like Yunas, broke the Law against intoxicants and, like him,
repented and returned.
That two men of the calibre and high repute of Ahrari and Yunas
maintained friendly guidance so long over `Umar cannot but be held an
accreditment and give fragrance of goodness to his name. Apart from the
high justice and generosity his son ascribes to him, he could set other
example, for he was a reader of great books, the Qoran and the _Masnawi_
being amongst his favourites. This choice, it may be, led Abu'l-faẓl to
say he had the darwesh-mind. Babur was old enough before `Umar's death
to profit by the sight of his father enjoying the perusal of such books.
As with other parents and other children, there would follow the happy
stilling to a quiet mood, the piquing of curiosity as to what was in the
book, the sight of refuge taken as in a haven from self and care, and
perhaps, Babur being intelligent and of inquiring mind and `Umar a
skilled reciter, the boy would marvel at the perennial miracle that a
lifeless page can become eloquent—gentle hints all, pointers of the way
to literary creation.
Few who are at home in Baburiana but will take Timur as Babur's great
exemplar not only as a soldier but as a chronicler. Timur cannot have
seemed remote from that group of people so well-informed about him and
his civilian doings; his Shahrukhi grandchildren in Samarkand had
carried on his author-tradition; the 74 years of Yunas Khan's life had
bridged the gap between Timur's death in 807-1405 and Babur's birth in
888-1483. To Babur Timur will have been exemplary through his grandson
Aulugh Beg who has two productions to his credit, the _Char-ulus_ (Four
Hordes) and the Kurkani Astronomical Tables. His sons, again, Babur
(_qalandar_) and Ibrahim carried on the family torch of letters, the
first in verse and the second by initiating and fostering Yazdi's
labours on the _Zafar-nama_. Wide-radiating and potent influence for the
Arts of Peace came forth from Herat during the reign of that Sultan
Husain Mirza whose Court Babur describes in one of the best supplements
to his autobiography. Husain was a Timurid of the elder branch of
Bai-qara, an author himself but far more effective as a Macænas; one man
of the shining galaxy of competence that gave him fame, set pertinent
example for Babur the author, namely, the Andijani of noble Chaghatai
family, 'Ali-sher _Nawa'i_ who, in classic Turki verse was the master
Babur was to become in its prose. That the standard of effort was high
in Herat is clear from Babur's dictum (p. 233) that whatever work a man
took up, he aspired to bring it to perfection. Elphinstone varies the
same theme to the tune of equality of excellence apart from social
status, writing to Erskine (August, 1826), that "it gives a high notion
of the time to find" (in Babur's account of Husain's Court) "artists,
musicians and others, described along with the learned and great of the
Age".
My meagre summary of Babur's exemplars would be noticeably incomplete if
it omitted mention of two of his life-long helpers in the gentler Arts,
his love of Nature and his admiration for great architectural creations.
The first makes joyous accompaniment throughout his book; the second is
specially called forth by Timur's ennoblement of Samarkand. Timur had
built magnificently and laid out stately gardens; Babur made many a
fruitful pleasaunce and gladdened many an arid halting-place; he built a
little, but had small chance to test his capacity for building greatly;
never rich, he was poor in Kabul and several times destitute in his
home-lands. But his sword won what gave wealth to his Indian Dynasty,
and he passed on to it the builder's unused dower, so that Samarkand was
surpassed in Hindustan and the spiritual conception Timur's creations
embodied took perfect form at Sikandra where Akbar lies entombed.
CHAPTER II.
PROBLEMS OF THE MUTILATED BABUR-NAMA.
Losses from the text of Babur's book are the more disastrous because it
truly embodies his career. For it has the rare distinction of being
contemporary with the events it describes, is boyish in his boyhood,
grows with his growth, matures as he matured. Undulled by retrospect, it
is a fresh and spontaneous recital of things just seen, heard or done.
It has the further rare distinction of shewing a boy who, setting a
future task before him—in his case the revival of Timurid power,—began
to chronicle his adventure in the book which through some 37 years was
his twinned comrade, which by its special distinctions has attracted
readers for nearly a half-millennium, still attracts and still is a
thing apart from autobiographies which look back to recall dead years.
Much circumstance makes for the opinion that Babur left his life-record
complete, perhaps repaired in places and recently supplemented, but