The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
shot an arrow into the Aūzbeg camp which carried the following couplet,
expressive of his ill-will to the Shāh and perhaps also of his rejection
of the Shī`a guise he himself had worn.
I made the Shāh's Najm road-stuff for the Aūzbegs;
If fault has been mine, I have now cleansed the road.[1344]
_g. The Mughūls attack Bābur._
On his second return to Ḥiṣār Bābur was subjected to great danger by a
sudden attack made upon him by the Mughūls where he lay at night in his
camp outside the town. Firishta says, but without particulars of their
offence, that Bābur had reproached them for their misconduct; the
absence of detail connecting the affair with the defeat just sustained,
leads to the supposition that their misdeeds were a part of the tyranny
over the country-people punished later by `Ubaidu'l-lāh Khān. Roused
from his sleep by the noise of his guards' resistance to the Mughūl
attack, Bābur escaped with difficulty and without a single
attendant[1345] into the fort. The conspirators plundered his camp and
withdrew to Qarā-tīgīn. He was in no position to oppose them, left a few
men in Ḥiṣār and went to Mīrzā Khān in Qūndūz.
After he left, Ḥiṣār endured a desolating famine, a phenomenal snowfall
and the ravages of the Mughūls. `Ubaid Khān avenged Bābur on the horde;
hearing of their excesses, he encamped outside the position they had
taken up in Wakhsh defended by river, hills and snow, waited till a road
thawed, then fell upon them and avenged the year's misery they had
inflicted on the Ḥiṣārīs. Ḥaidar says of them that it was their villainy
lost Ḥiṣār to Bābur and gained it for the Aūzbeg.[1346]
These Mughūls had for chiefs men who when Sa`īd went to Andijān, elected
to stay with Bābur. One of the three named by Ḥaidar was Ayūb _Begchīk_.
He repented his disloyalty; when he lay dying some two years later (920
AH.) in Yāngī-ḥiṣār, he told Sa`īd Khān who visited him, that what was
"lacerating his bowels and killing him with remorse", was his
faithlessness to Bābur in Ḥiṣār, the oath he had broken at the
instigation of those "hogs and bears", the Mughūl chiefs (T.R. p. 315).
In this year but before the Mughūl treachery to Bābur, Ḥaidar left him,
starting in Rajab (Sep.-Oct.) to Sa`id in Andijān and thus making a
beginning of his 19 years spell of service.
919 AH.-MARCH 9TH 1513 TO FEB. 26TH 1514 AD.
Bābur may have spent this year in Khishm (Ḥ.S. iii, 372). During two or
three months of it, he had one of the Shāh's retainers in his service,
Khwāja Kamālu'd-dīn Maḥmūd, who had fled from Ghaj-davān to Balkh, heard
there that the Balkhīs favoured an Aūzbeg chief whose coming was
announced, and therefore went to Bābur. In Jumāda 11 (August), hearing
that the Aūzbeg sultan had left Balkh, he returned there but was not
admitted because the Balkhīs feared reprisals for their welcome to the
Aūzbeg, a fear which may indicate that he had taken some considerable
reinforcement to Bābur. He went on into Khurāsān and was there killed;
Balkh was recaptured for the Shāh by Deo Sulṯān, a removal from Aūzbeg
possession which helps to explain how Bābur came to be there in 923 AH.
920 AH.—FEB. 26TH 1514 TO FEB. 15TH 1515 AD.
Ḥaidar writes of Bābur as though he were in Qūndūz this year (TR. p.
263), says that he suffered the greatest misery and want, bore it with
his accustomed courtesy and patience but, at last, despairing of success
in recovering Ḥiṣār, went back to Kābul. Now it seems to be that he made
the stay in Khwāst to which he refers later (f. 241_b_) and during which
his daughter Gul-rang was born, as Gul-badan's chronicle allows known.
It was at the end of the year, after the privation of winter therefore,
that he reached Kābul. When he re-occupied Samarkand in 917 AH., he had
given Kābul to his half-brother Nāṣir Mīrzā; the Mīrzā received him now
with warm welcome and protestations of devotion and respect, spoke of
having guarded Kābul for him and asked permission to return to his own
old fief Ghaznī. His behaviour made a deep impression on Bābur; it would
be felt as a humane touch on the sore of failure.
921 AH.—FEB. 15TH 1515 TO FEB. 5TH 1516 AD.
_a. Rebellion of chiefs in Ghaznī._
Nāṣir Mīrzā died shortly after (_dar hamān ayyām_) his return to Ghaznī.
Disputes then arose amongst the various commanders who were in Ghaznī;
Sherīm T̤aghāī was one of them and the main strength of the tumult was
given by the Mughūls. Many others were however involved in it, even such
an old servant as Bābā of Pashāghar taking part (f. 234_b_; T.R. p.
356). Ḥaidar did not know precisely the cause of the dispute, or shew
why it should have turned against Bābur, since he attributes it to
possession taken by Satan of the brains of the chiefs and a consequent
access of vain-glory and wickedness. Possibly some question of
succession to Nāṣir arose. Dost Beg distinguished himself in the regular
battle which ensued; Qāsim Beg's son Qaṃbar-i-`alī hurried down from
Qūndūz and also did his good part to win it for Bābur. Many of the
rioters were killed, others fled to Kāshghar. Sherīm T̤aghāī was one of
the latter; as Sa`īd Khān gave him no welcome, he could not stay there;
he fell back on the much injured Bābur who, says Ḥaidar, showed him his
usual benevolence, turned his eyes from his offences and looked only at
his past services until he died shortly afterwards (T.R. p. 357).[1347]
922 AH.—FEB. 5TH 1516 TO JAN. 24TH 1517 AD.
This year may have been spent in and near Kābul in the quiet promoted by
the dispersion of the Mughūls.
In this year was born Bābur's son Muḥammad known as _`Askarī_from his
being born in camp. He was the son of Gulrukh _Begchīk_ and full-brother
of Kāmrān.
923 AH.—JAN. 24TH 1517 TO JAN. 13TH 1518 AD.
_a. Bābur visits Balkh._
Khwānd-amīr is the authority for the little that is known of Bābur's
action in this year (Ḥ.S. iii, 367 _et seq._). It is connected with the
doings of Badī`u'z-zamān _Bāī-qarā's_ son Muḥammad-i-zamān. This Mīrzā
had had great wanderings, during a part of which Khwānd-amīr was with
him. In 920 AH. he was in Shāh Ismā`īl's service and in Balkh, but was
not able to keep it. Bābur invited him to Kābul,—the date of invitation
will have been later therefore than Bābur's return there at the end of
920 AH. The Mīrzā was on his way but was dissuaded from going into Kābul
by Mahdī Khwāja and went instead into Ghurjistān. Bābur was angered by
his non-arrival and pursued him in order to punish him but did not
succeed in reaching Ghurjistān and went back to Kābul by way of
Fīrūz-koh and Ghūr. The Mīrzā was captured eventually and sent to Kābul.
Bābur treated him with kindness, after a few months gave him his
daughter Ma`ṣūma in marriage, and sent him to Balkh. He appears to have
been still in Balkh when Khwānd-amīr was writing of the above
occurrences in 929 AH. The marriage took place either at the end of 923
or beginning of 924 AH. The Mīrzā was then 21, Ma`ṣūma 9; she almost
certainly did not then go to Balkh. At some time in 923 AH. Bābur is
said by Khwānd-amīr to have visited that town.[1348]
_b. Attempt on Qandahār._
In this year Bābur marched for Qandahār but the move ended peacefully,
because a way was opened for gifts and terms by an illness which befell
him when he was near the town.
The _Tārīkh-i-sind_ gives what purports to be Shāh Beg's explanation of
Bābur's repeated attempts on Qandahār. He said these had been made and
would be made because Bābur had not forgiven Muqīm for taking Kābul 14
years earlier from the Tīmūrid `Abdu'r-razzāq; that this had brought him
to Qandahār in 913 AH., this had made him then take away Māhchuchak,
Muqīm's daughter; that there were now (923 AH.) many unemployed Mīrzās
in Kābul for whom posts could not be found in regions where the Persians
and Aūzbegs were dominant; that an outlet for their ambitions and for
Bābur's own would be sought against the weaker opponent he himself was.
Bābur's decision to attack in this year is said to have been taken while
Shāh Beg was still a prisoner of Shāh Ismā`īl in the Harāt country; he
must have been released meantime by the admirable patience of his slave
Saṃbhal.
924 AH.—JAN. 13TH 1518 TO JAN. 3RD 1519 AD.
In this year Shāh Beg's son Shāh Ḥasan came to Bābur after quarrel with
his father. He stayed some two years, and during that time was married
to Khalīfa's daughter Gul-barg (Rose-leaf). His return to Qandahār will
have taken place shortly before Bābur's campaign of 926 A.H. against it,
a renewed effort which resulted in possession on Shawwāl 13th 928 AH.
(Sep. 6th 1522 AD.).[1349]
In this year began the campaign in the north-east territories of Kābul,
an account of which is carried on in the diary of 925 AH. It would seem
that in the present year Chaghān-sarāī was captured, and also the
fortress at the head of the valley of Bābā-qarā, belonging to
Ḥaidar-i-`alī _Bajaurī_ (f. 216_b_).[1350]
925 AH.-JAN. 3RD TO DEC. 23RD 1519 AD.[1351]
(_a. Bābur takes the fort of Bajaur._)
(_Jan. 3rd_) On Monday[1352] the first day of the month of Muḥarram,
there was a violent earthquake in the lower part of the dale (_julga_)
of Chandāwal,[1353] which lasted nearly half an astronomical hour.
(_Jan. 4th_) Marching at dawn from that camp with the intention of
attacking the fort of Bajaur,[1354] we dismounted near it and sent a
trusty man of the Dilazāk[1355] Afghāns to advise its sulṯān[1356] and
people to take up a position of service (_qullūq_) and surrender the
fort. Not accepting this counsel, that stupid and ill-fated band sent
back a wild answer, where-upon the army was ordered to make ready
mantelets, ladders and other appliances for taking a fort. For this
purpose a day's (_Jan. 5th_) halt was made on that same ground.
(_Jan. 6th_) On Thursday the 4th of Muḥarram, orders were given that the
army should put on mail, arm and get to horse;[1357] that the left wing
should move swiftly to the upper side of the fort, cross the water at
the water-entry,[1358] and dismount on the [Sidenote: Fol. 217.] north
side of the fort; that the centre, not taking the way across the water,
should dismount in the rough, up-and-down land to the north-west of the
fort; and that the right should dismount to the west of the lower gate.
While the begs of the left under Dost Beg were dismounting, after
crossing the water, a hundred to a hundred and fifty men on foot came
out of the fort, shooting arrows. The begs, shooting in their turn,
advanced till they had forced those men back to the foot of the
ramparts, Mullā `Abdu'l-malūk of Khwāst, like a madman,[1359] going up
right under them on his horse. There and then the fort would have been
taken if the ladders and mantelets had been ready, and if it had not
been so late in the day. Mullā Tirik-i-`alī[1360] and a servant of
Tīngrī-bīrdī crossed swords with the enemy; each overcame his man, cut
off and brought in his head; for this each was promised a reward.
As the Bajaurīs had never before seen matchlocks (_tufang_) they at
first took no care about them, indeed they made fun when they heard the
report and answered it by unseemly gestures. On that day[1361] Ustād
`Alī-qulī shot at and brought down five men with his matchlock; Walī the
Treasurer, for his part, brought down two; other matchlockmen were also
very active in firing and did well, shooting through shield, through
cuirass, through _kusarū_,[1362] and bringing down one man after
another. Perhaps 7, 8, or 10 Bajaurīs had fallen to the matchlock-fire
(_ẓarb_) before night. After that it so became that not a head could be
put out because of the fire. The order [Sidenote: Fol. 217b.] was given,
"It is night; let the army retire, and at dawn, if the appliances are