The Institutes of Akbar 227: 6. Mirza’ Ibrahim, son of Mirza Sulaiman (No. 5.)
The Áín i Akbari (Blochmann, Jarrett) 227
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6. Mirza’ Ibrahim, son of Mirza Sulaiman (No. 5.)
227.1
Mirza Sulaiman was born in 920, and died at Lahor in 997. He is generally called Wali-i-Badakhshan. As grandson of Abu Sa’id Mirza, he is the sixth descendant from Timur. Abu Sa’id killed Sultan Muhammad of Badakhshan, the last of a series of kings who traced their descent to Alexander the Great, and took possession of Badakhshan, which after his death fell to his son, Sultan Mahmud, who had three sons, Baysanghar Mirza, ’Ali Mirza, Khan Mirza. When Mahmud died, Amir Khusrau Khan, one of his nobles, blinded Baysanghar, killed the second prince, and reigned as usurper. He submitted to Babar in 910. When Babar took Qandahar, in 913, from Shah Beg Arghun, he sent Khan Mirza as governor to Badakhshan. Mirza Sulaiman is the son of this Khan Mirza.
227.2
After the death of Khan Mirza, Badakhshan was governed for Babar by Prince Humayun, Sultan Uwais (Mirza Sulaiman’s father-in-law), Prince Hindal, and lastly, by Mirza Sulaiman, who held Badakhshan till 17 Jumada III, 948, when he had to surrender himself and his son, Mirza Ibrahim, to Prince Kamran. They were released by Humayun in 952, and took again possession of Badakhshan. When Humayun had taken Kabul, he made war upon and defeated Mirza Sulaiman who once in possession of his country, had refused to submit; but when the return of Kamran from Sind obliged Humayun to go to Kabul, he reinstated the Mirza, who held Badakhshan till 983. Bent on making conquests, he invaded in 967 Balkh, but had to return. His son, Mirza Ibrahim, was killed in battle. In the eighth year when Mirzá Muhammad Hakim’s (Akbar’s brother) mother had been killed by Sháh Abul Ma’álí, Mirzá S. went to Kábul, and had Abul Ma’álí hanged; he then married his own daughter to M. M. Hakim, and appointed Uméd ’Alí, a Badakhshán noble, M. M. Hakim’s Vakíl (970). But M. M. Hakím did not go on well with Mirzá Sulaimán, who returned next year to Kábul with hostile intentions; but M. M. Hakim fled and asked Akbar for assistance, so that Mirzá S., though he had taken Jalálábád, had to return to Badakhshán. He returned to Kábul in 973, when Akbar’s troops had left that country, but retreated on being promised tribute. Mirzá Sulaimán’s wife was Khurram Begum, of the Qibcháq tribe.
227.3
She was clever and had her husband so much in her power, that he did nothing without her advice. Her enemy was Muhtarim Khánum, the widow of Prince Kámrán. M. Sulaimán wanted to marry her; but Khurram Begum got her married, against her will, to Mirzá Ibráhím, by whom she had a son, Mirzá Sháhrukh (No. 7). When Mirzá Ibráhím fell in the war with Balkh, Khurram Begum wanted to send the Khánum to her father, Sháh Muhammad of Káshghar; but she refused to go. As soon as Sháhrukh had grown up, his mother and some Badakhshí nobles excited him to rebel against his grandfather M. Sulaimán. This he did, alternately rebelling and again making peace. Khurram Begum then died. Sháhrukh took away those parts of Badakhshán which his father had held, and found so many adherents, that M. Sulaimán, pretending to go on a pilgrimage to Makkah, left Badakhshán for Kábul, and crossing the Níláb went to India (983). Khán Jahán, governor of the Panjáb, received orders to invade Badakhshán, but was suddenly ordered to go to Bengal, as Mun’im Khán had died and Mirzá Sulaimán did not care for the governorship of Bengal, which Akbar had given him. M. Sulaimán then went to Ismá’íl II. of Persia. When the death of that monarch deprived him of the assistance which he had just received, he went to Muzaffar Husain Mirzá (No. 8) at Qandahár, and then to M. M. Hakim at Kábul.
227.4
Not succeeding in raising disturbances in Kábul, he made for the frontier of Badakhshán, and luckily finding some adherents, he managed to get from his grandson the territory between Táliqán and the Hindú Kush. Soon after Muhtarim Khánum died. Being again pressed by Sháhrukh, M. Sulaimán applied for help to ’Abdullah Khán Uzbak, king of Túrán, who had long wished to annex Badakhshán. He invaded and took the country in 992; Sháhrukh fled to Hindústán, and M. Sulaimán to Kábul. As he could not recover Badakhshán, and rendered destitute by the death of M. M. Hakím, he followed the example of his grandson, and repaired to the court of Akbar who made him a Commander of six thousand. A few years later, he died at Láhor, at the age of seventy-seven.