The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
The world being full of divisions,[1176] things were being taken from
country and people with the long arm; we ourselves began to take
something, by laying an impost on the Turks and clans of those parts, in
two or three months taking perhaps 300 _tūmāns_ of _kipkī_.[1177]
(_d. Coalition of the Khurāsān Mīrzās._)
A few days before our arrival (in Bām-valley?) some of the Khurāsān
light troops and of Ẕū'n-nūn Beg's men had well beaten Aūzbeg raiders in
Pand-dih (Panj-dih?) and Marūchāq, killing a mass of men.[1178]
Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā with Muḥammad Barandūq
_Barlās_, Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_ and his son Shāh Beg resolved to move on
Shaibāq Khān, then besieging Sl. Qul-i-nachāq (?) in Balkh. Accordingly
they summoned all Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's sons, and got out of Herī to effect
their purpose. At Chihil-dukhtarān Abū'l-muḥsin M. joined them from
Marv; Ibn-i-ḥusain M. followed, coming up from Tūn and Qāīn. Kūpuk
(Kīpik) M. was in Mashhad; often though they sent to him, he behaved
unmanly, spoke senseless words, and did not come. Between him and
Muz̤affar Mīrzā, there was jealousy; when Muz̤affar M. was made
(joint-)ruler, he said, "How should _I_ go to _his_ presence?" Through
this disgusting jealousy he did not come now, even at this crisis when
all his brethren, older and younger, were assembling in concord,
resolute against such a foe [Sidenote: Fol. 185b.] as Shaibāq Khān.
Kūpuk M. laid his own absence to rivalry, but everybody else laid it to
his cowardice. One word! In this world acts such as his outlive the man;
if a man have any share of intelligence, why try to be ill-spoken of
after death? if he be ambitious, why not try so to act that, he gone,
men will praise him? In the honourable mention of their names, wise men
find a second life!
Envoys from the Mīrzās came to me also, Mūh. Barandūq _Barlās_ himself
following them. As for me, what was to hinder my going? It was for that
very purpose I had travelled one or two hundred _yīghāch_ (500-600
miles)! I at once started with Muḥ. Barandūq Beg for Murgh-āb[1179]
where the Mīrzās were lying.
(_e. Bābur meets the Mīrzās._)
The meeting with the Mīrzās was on Monday the 8th of the latter Jumāda
(Oct. 26th 1506 AH.). Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā came out a mile to meet me; we
approached one another; on my side, I dismounted, on his side, he; we
advanced, saw one another and remounted. Near the camp Muz̤affar Mīrzā
and Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā met us; they, being younger than Abū'l-muḥsin
Mīrzā ought to have come out further than he to meet me.[1180] Their
dilatoriness may not have been due to pride, but to heaviness [Sidenote:
Fol. 186.] after wine; their negligence may have been no slight on me,
but due to their own social pleasures. On this Muz̤affar Mīrzā laid
stress;[1181] we two saw one another without dismounting, so did
Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā and I. We rode on together and, in an amazing crowd
and press, dismounted at Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's Gate. Such was the
throng that some were lifted off the ground for three or four steps
together, while others, wishing for some reason to get out, were
carried, willy-nilly, four or five steps the other way.
We reached Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's Audience-tent. It had been agreed that
I, on entering, should bend the knee (_yūkūnghāī_) once, that the Mīrzā
should rise and advance to the edge of the estrade,[1182] and that we
should see one another there. I went in, bent the knee once, and was
going right forward; the Mīrzā rose rather languidly and advanced rather
slowly; Qāsim Beg, as he was my well-wisher and held my reputation as
his own, gave my girdle a tug; I understood, moved more slowly, and so
the meeting was on the appointed spot.
Four divans (_tūshuk_) had been placed in the tent. Always in the
Mīrzā's tents one side was like a gate-way[1183] and at the edge of this
gate-way he always sat. A divan was set there now [Sidenote: Fol. 186b.]
on which he and Muz̤affar Mīrzā sat together. Abū'l-muḥsin, Mīrzā and I
sat on another, set in the right-hand place of honour (_tūr_). On
another, to Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's left, sat Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā with
Qāsim Sl. _Aūzbeg_, a son-in-law of the late Mīrzā and father of
Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sulṯān. To my right and below my divan was one on which
sat Jahāngīr Mīrzā and `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā. To the left of Qāsim Sl.
and Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā, but a good deal lower, were Muḥ. Barandūq Beg,
Ẕū'n-nūn Beg and Qāsim Beg.
Although this was not a social gathering, cooked viands were brought in,
drinkables[1184] were set with the food, and near them gold and silver
cups. Our forefathers through a long space of time, had respected the
Chīngīz-tūrā (ordinance), doing nothing opposed to it, whether in
assembly or Court, in sittings-down or risings-up. Though it has not
Divine authority so that a man obeys it of necessity, still good rules
of conduct must be obeyed by whom-soever they are left; just in the same
way that, if a forefather have done ill, his ill must be changed for
good.
After the meal I rode from the Mīrzā's camp some 2 miles to [Sidenote:
Fol. 187.] our own dismounting-place.
(_f. Bābur claims due respect._)
At my second visit Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā shewed me less respect than at
my first. I therefore had it said to Muḥ. Barandūq Beg and to Ẕū'n-nūn
Beg that, small though my age was (_aet._ 24), my place of honour was
large; that I had seated myself twice on the throne of our forefathers
in Samarkand by blow straight-dealt; and that to be laggard in shewing
me respect was unreasonable, since it was for this (Tīmūrid) dynasty's
sake I had thus fought and striven with that alien foe. This said, and
as it was reasonable, they admitted their mistake at once and shewed the
respect claimed.
(_g. Bābur's temperance._)
There was a wine-party (_chāghīr-majlisī_) once when I went after the
Mid-day Prayer to Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's presence. At that time I drank
no wine. The party was altogether elegant; every sort of relish to wine
(_gazak_) was set out on the napery, with brochettes of fowl and goose,
and all sorts of viands. The Mīrzā's entertainments were much renowned;
truly was this one free from the pang of thirst (_bī ghall_), reposeful
and tranquil. I was at two or three of his wine-parties while we were on
the bank of the Murgh-āb; once it was known I did not drink, no pressure
to do so was put on me.
I went to one wine-party of Muz̤affar Mīrzā's. Ḥusain of `Alī _Jalāīr_
and Mīr Badr were both there, they being in his service. When Mīr Badr
had had enough (_kaifīyat_), he danced, [Sidenote: Fol. 187b.] and
danced well what seemed to be his own invention.
(_h. Comments on the Mīrzās._)
Three months it took the Mīrzās to get out of Herī, agree amongst
themselves, collect troops, and reach Murgh-āb. Meantime Sl.
Qul-i-nachāq (?), reduced to extremity, had surrendered Balkh to the
Aūzbeg but that Aūzbeg, hearing of our alliance against him, had hurried
back to Samarkand. The Mīrzās were good enough as company and in social
matters, in conversation and parties, but they were strangers to war,
strategy, equipment, bold fight and encounter.
(_i. Winter plans._)
While we were on the Murgh-āb, news came that Ḥaq-naẕīr _Chapā_ (var.
Ḥiān) was over-running the neighbourhood of Chīchīk-tū with 4 or 500
men. All the Mīrzās there present, do what they would, could not manage
to send a light troop against those raiders! It is 10 _yīghāch_ (50-55
m.) from Murgh-āb to Chīchīk-tū. I asked the work; they, with a thought
for their own reputation, would not give it to me.
The year being almost at an end when Shaibāq Khān retired, the Mīrzās
decided to winter where it was convenient and to reassemble next summer
in order to repel their foe.
They pressed me to winter in Khurāsān, but this not one of my
well-wishers saw it good for me to do because, while Kābul and Ghaznī
were full of a turbulent and ill-conducted medley of [Sidenote: Fol.
188.] people and hordes, Turks, Mughūls, clans and nomads (_aīmāq u
aḥsham_), Afghāns and Hazāra, the roads between us and that not yet
desirably subjected country of Kābul were, one, the mountain-road, a
month's journey even without delay through snow or other cause,—the
other, the low-country road, a journey of 40 or 50 days.
Consequently we excused ourselves to the Mīrzās, but they would accept
no excuse and, for all our pleas, only urged the more. In the end
Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā, Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā and Muz̤affar Mīrzā themselves
rode to my tent and urged me to stay the winter. It was impossible to
refuse men of such ruling position, come in person to press us to stay
on. Besides this, the whole habitable world has not such a town as Herī
had become under Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, whose orders and efforts had
increased its splendour and beauty as ten to one, rather, as twenty to
one. As I greatly wished to stay, I consented to do so.
Abū'l-muḥsin M. went to Marv, his own district; Ibn-i-ḥusain M. went to
his, Tūn and Qāīn; Badī`u'z-zamān M. and Muz̤affar M. set off for Herī;
I followed them a few days later, taking the road by Chihil-dukhtarān
and Tāsh-rabāṯ.[1185]
(_j. Bābur visits the Begīms in Herī._)
All the Begīms, _i.e._ my paternal-aunt Pāyanda-sulṯān Begīm, Khadīja
Begīm, Apāq Begīm, and my other paternal-aunt Begīms, daughters of Sl.
Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā,[1186] were gathered together, at the time I went to see
them, in Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's College at his [Sidenote: Fol. 188b.]
Mausoleum. Having bent the knee with (_yūkūnūb bīla_) Pāyanda-sulṯān
Begīm first of all, I had an interview with her; next, not bending the
knee,[1187] I had an interview with Apāq Begīm; next, having bent the
knee with Khadīja Begīm, I had an interview with her. After sitting
there for some time during recitation of the Qorān,[1188] we went to the
South College where Khadīja Begīm's tents had been set up and where food
was placed before us. After partaking of this, we went to Pāyanda-sulṯān
Begīm's tents and there spent the night.
The New-year's Garden was given us first for a camping-ground; there our
camp was arranged; and there I spent the night of the day following my
visit to the Begīms, but as I did not find it a convenient place,
`Alī-sher Beg's residence was assigned to me, where I was as long as I
stayed in Herī, every few days shewing myself in Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's
presence in the World-adorning Garden.
(_k. The Mīrzās entertain Bābur in Herī._)
A few days after Muz̤affar Mīrzā had settled down in the White-garden,
he invited me to his quarters; Khadīja Begīm was also there, and with me
went Jahāngīr Mīrzā. When we had eaten a meal in the Begīm's
presence,[1189] Muz̤affar Mīrzā took me to where there was a wine-party,
in the T̤arab-khāna (Joy-house) built by Bābur Mīrzā, a sweet little
abode, a smallish, two-storeyed house in the middle of a smallish
garden. Great pains have been taken with its upper storey; this has a
retreat (_ḥujra_) in each of its four corners, the space between each
two retreats being like a _shāh-nīshīn_[1190]; in between these retreats
and [Sidenote: Fol. 189.] _shāh-nīshīns_ is one large room on all sides
of which are pictures which, although Bābur Mīrzā built the house, were
commanded by Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā and depict his own wars and encounters.
Two divans had been set in the north _shāh-nīshīn_, facing each other,
and with their sides turned to the north. On one Muz̤affar Mīrzā and I
sat, on the other Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā[1191] and Jahāngīr Mīrzā. We being
guests, Muz̤affar Mīrzā gave me place above himself. The social cups
were filled, the cup-bearers ordered to carry them to the guests; the
guests drank down the mere wine as if it were water-of-life; when it
mounted to their heads, the party waxed warm.
They thought to make me also drink and to draw me into their own circle.