Muntakhab al-tawarikh 65.5
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 65.5
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65.5.1
Verse. Never in the garden of Faith has a blade fulfilled its promise, Nor has a shaft aimed at Heaven failed to strike the mark. The tailor of Fate has never clothed any man in a garment which it has not afterwards torn from him. The Age has never given any coin which it has not changed. The Time has never played any piece without practising deception with it. Whom has the Heaven placed in safety beneath the Sun, That it has not made short-lived like the shining dawn? Khāqānī, cast dust into the eyes of the world, For it has caused thee pain in the eyes and has given thee no remedy. Maulana Qasim Kahi wrote this: Verse. Kamran, than whom no man has been found more fitted for sovereignty, Went from Kabul to the Ka‘bah, and there committed his soul to God, and his body to the dust. Kahi spake this as a tarikh to commemorate his death, Padshah Kamran died at the Ka'bah. And the poet Waisi wrote: Verse. Shah Kamran the renowned Khusru, Who in majesty raised his head to Kaiwan. Faithfully served the holy temple four years And entirely freed his heart from worldly bonds, After performing his fourth pilgrimage In pilgrim garb, he yielded up his soul to his Lord. One night as Wais was holden with sleep, He visited him and called him towards himself, And said, “If they ask thee concerning my death Reply, “The pardoned Shah remained in Makka.”
65.5.2
Mirza Kamran was as a king, brave and ambitious, liberal and good-natured, sound of religion and clear of faith. He used always to associate with the ‘Ulama and learned doctors. His poems are well-known. At one time he held such strong views of probity that he gave orders to exterminate grapes from his kingdom, but afterwards became such a slave to wine that he was not ashamed of the after effects of debauch; eventually he left the world penitent and devout. All’s well that ends well. This event took place in the year 964 H. Mirza ‘Askari, after Qaracha Khan was slain in the last battle before Kabul, fell a prisoner into the hands of Humayun’s soldiery, and Jalalu-d-Din Mahmud Diwan conveyed him to Badakhshan and made him over to Mirza Suleiman. He was kept in confinement for some time, and then was released, and Mirza Suleiman despatched him to Balkh, by which route he purposed journeying to the two sacred cities. When he reached a valley which lies between Sham and the sacred city of Makka, without accomplishing his object he hastened from that desert to the true Ka‘bah which is the bourn of all mankind. The following is the tarikh of that event:— ‘Askari padshah-i daryadil.’ Verse. Why dost thou soil thy fingers with the blood of the world? For honey is oft mingled with deadly poison.
65.5.3
454. The end of Mirza Hindal was on this wise, that after Mirza Kamran had suffered defeat in the final engagement, and had taken refuge with the Afghans, and Haji Muhammad Khan Kuki was executed on account of his numerous misdeeds, one night Mirza Kamran made a night attack upon the camp. By chance that night the dart of death struck Mirza Hindal in a vital spot, and he drank the draught of martyrdom. This event took place in the year 958 H. and Shahkhun was found to give the date. Verse When Fate made such a night attack with the forces of the world That the zenith became red like the twilight from bloodshed, Hindal the world conqueror left the world, And abandoned the world to Shah Humayun, The young plant like stature of that shapely palm tree Was like a lamp to the sleeping apartment of the sky Wisdom sought for a tarikh of his death, I said, Alas! a lamp has been extinguished by reason of a night attack. Mirza Amini also wrote the following— Shah Hindal the cypress of the rose garden of beauty, When he left this garden for that of Paradise, The wailing ring dove uttered this tarikh, “A cypress has gone from the garden of glory.” And Maulana Hasan ‘Ali wrote Verse Hindal Muhammad Shah of auspicious title Suddenly was martyred by Fate in the heart of the night, Since a night assault caused his martyrdom, Seek the tarikh of his martyrdom in shabhhun.
65.5.4
Humayun bestowed the horses and retinue of Mirza Hindal upon the young Prince, the asylum of the world, and confirmed to them Ghaznin with its dependencies as grants. The Afghans could no longer protect Mirza Kamran, and it so happened that Mirza went to Islem Shah; in the meanwhile the hidden purposes of Heaven were made manifest, so that after hearing the tidings of the death of Islem Shah, and of the occurrence of extreme confusion and turmoil between the Afghans of Hindustan and the tribal chiefs, Humayun definitely determined upon the attempt of the conquest of Hindustan. In the meantime the lovers of contumacy, that is to say, the envious and riotous, so distorted the appearance of the sincere loyalty of Bairam Khan, in the clear mirror of the mind of Humayun, that it was inverted and he was represented by them as hostile. Accordingly an attack was ordered in the direction of Qandahar. Bairam Khan came out in person to receive Humayun and with all ceremony offered due service. Thereupon the disloyalty of his traducers became apparent. On this occasion Humayun was furnished, by the good offices of Bairam Khan, with the opportunity of meeting that Scion of the Walis, the offspring of the Saints, the seal of the Shaikhs of the Naqshbandi sect, Maulana Zainu-d-Din Mahmud Kamangar. The following is a fuller account:—
65.5.5
The aforesaid Maulavi was from Bahda, which is a village of the dependencies of Khurasan, and had attained to the companionship of many of the Shaikhs, may God sanctify their spirits, especially Maulavi Makhdumi ‘Arif Jami, and Maulavi ‘Abdu-l-Ghafur Lari, may God sanctify their spirits, who supported themselves by giving instruction and making illustrations, and Bairam Khan having opened tutorial relations with him, used to go to take lessons from him, and now and then when he was reading Yusuf and Zulaikha and other books, they used to say, “ Oh, Bairam what is your wish ? You yourself are as Yusuf and Zulaikha in the world.” And Humayun having ordered a banquet in honour of the sacred illuminated spirit of the asylum of the seal of prophecy, may the blessing and peace of God be upon him, invited the Akhund, and with his own hands took the ewer while Bairam Khan took the basin, intending to pour the water over his hands, seeing this the Akhund indicated Mir Habibu-llah, the grandson of Mir Saiyyid Jamalu-d-Din the traditionist, and said, “Do you not know who that person is?” Humayun thereupon perforce carried the ewer to the Mir, who, with the utmost confusion, poured half of the entire contents of the ewer over his hands, after which the Akhund without scruple washed his hands, to their heart’s content.
65.5.6
At this time Humayun enquired, “How much water is enjoined by the Sunnat to be poured over the hands?” They replied, “so much as is necessary to clean the hands;” then first Bairam poured water over the hands of the remainder of the assembly, and was followed in this service by Husain Khan the relation of the Mahdi, son of Qasim Khan. At last the food was eaten, and Humayun found very great delight in their society, and was much benefited thereby. Afterwards he sent a piece of coined gold by the hand of Bairam Khan, saying, ‘This is a present.’ Inasmuch as it was his custom not to take a present from anyone, after great deliberation he accepted it, with excessive reluctance and disgust, and in return for it sent into the presence of the king several bows of his own fashioning, with something over and above (the value of the gold) saying, “Presents must be given on both sides.”
65.5.7
The story goes that one day Bairam Khan caused a garment to be made of handsome Kashmir shawls, and brought it to him. He took it in his hand and praised it, saying, “What a valuable thing this is!” Bairam Khan said, “As it is a suitable garment for a darvesh, I have brought it as an offering for you.” He thereupon made a sign with two of his fingers, as much as to say I have two of them, come give this one to some one more deserving of it than I. Many miraculous acts are related of him. Some few of these Shaikh the grandson of Maulānā Mu‘īn Wā‘iẓ, who by the order of the Khalīfah of the time was for some time Qāzī of Lāhor, wrote in a separate treatise: among them this is written, that when archery practice was going on, he used in opposition to his usual habits to come every day to the butts, and give instruction in archery. The youths used to urge and incite Bairām Khān to practise archery, saying that it would surely be useful to him some day. As a fact, the very first defeat of the Afghāns occurred in the fight at Māchīwāra, when the victory was entirely gained by the archers and in all probability that eagerness and instigation had this very end in view.
65.5.8
In that collection of stories also is the following, that when Bairām Khān, after making over Qandahār to Bahādur Khān the brother of ‘Alī Qulī Khān Sīstānī, came to Kābul, he appointed on his own part a tyrannical Turkoman, so that the people groaned under his oppressive hand, and made many complaints to the Akhūnd, till he became ill as they desired, and they enjoyed a few days’ respite from his oppression, and used to bring tidings of him every day to the assembly of the Akhūnd. At last one day, as one of them was saying “He has risen from his bed,” the Akhūnd also, looking him in the face, said angrily, “Perhaps he may rise on the morrow of the resurrection.” Three or four days afterwards he again fell ill, and removed the disgrace of his tyranny from the world. It is a saying of theirs that the Turk when sleeping is an angel, but when he sleeps the sleep of death he is superior to the archangels. I saw a tyrant sleeping at mid-day I said, this is a calamity; it is best that sleep should take him And that man who is better when sleeping than when waking For such an evil liver death were preferable.
65.5.9
Humayun, at the time of his return, had some intention of taking Qandahar from Bairam Khan and giving it to Mun'im Khan. Mun'im Khan, however, represented that now that the conquest of Hindustan was on the tapis a change of governors would be a degree of dissension in the army, and it would be better to wait till after conquering Hindustan, and then to act as circumstances might demand. Accordingly Qandahar was confirmed to Bairam Khan, and Zamindawar to Bahadur Khan. Then coming to Kabul he prepared his army with transport and commissariat, and in Zi-l-Hijjah 961 H. set out from Kabul to march against Hindustan. And the following was written which gives the date in two ways.