The Memoirs of Bābur 899.2
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 899.2
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899.2.1
Again there is Kāsān, rather a small township to the north of Akhsī. From Kāsān the Akhsī water comes in the same way as the Andijān water comes from Aūsh. Kāsān has excellent air and beautiful little gardens (_bāghcha_). As these gardens all lie along the bed of the torrent (_sā'ī_) people call them the "fine front of the coat."[91] Between Kāsānīs and Aūshīs there is rivalry about the beauty and climate of their townships. In the mountains round Farghāna are excellent summer-pastures (_yīlāq_). There, and nowhere else, the _tabalghū_[92]grows, a tree (_yīghāch_) with red bark; they make staves of it; they [Sidenote: Fol. 5b.] make bird-cages of it; they scrape it into arrows;[93] it is an excellent wood (_yīghāch_) and is carried as a rarity[94] to distant places. Some books write that the mandrake[95] is found in these mountains but for this long time past nothing has been heard of it. A plant called _Āyīq aūtī_[96] and having the qualities of the mandrake (_mihr-giyāh_), is heard of in Yītī-kīnt;[97] it seems to be the mandrake (_mihr-giyāh_) the people there call by this name (_i.e._ _āyīq aūtī_). There are turquoise and iron mines in these mountains. If people do justly, three or four thousand men[98] may be maintained by the revenues of Farghāna. (_b. Historical narrative resumed._)[99]
899.2.2
As `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā was a ruler of high ambition and great pretension, he was always bent on conquest. On several occasions he led an army against Samarkand; sometimes he was beaten, sometimes retired against his will.[100] More than once he asked his father-in-law into the country, that is to say, my grandfather, Yūnas Khān, the then Khān of the Mughūls in the camping ground (_yūrt_) of his ancestor, Chaghatāī Khān, the second son of Chīngīz Khān. Each time the Mīrzā brought The Khān into the Farghāna country he gave him lands, but, partly owing to his misconduct, partly to the thwarting of the [Sidenote: Fol. 6.] Mughūls,[101] things did not go as he wished and Yūnas Khān, not being able to remain, went out again into Mughūlistān. When the Mīrzā last brought The Khān in, he was in possession of Tāshkīnt, which in books they write Shash, and sometimes Chāch, whence the term, a Chāchī, bow.[102] He gave it to The Khān, and from that date (890AH.-1485AD.) down to 908AH. (1503AD.) it and the Shāhrukhiya country were held by the Chaghatāī Khāns.
899.2.3
At this date (_i.e._, 899AH.-1494AD.) the Mughūl Khānship was in Sl. Maḥ=mūd Khān, Yūnas Khān's younger son and a half-brother of my mother. As he and `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's elder brother, the then ruler of Samarkand, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā were offended by the Mīrzā's behaviour, they came to an agreement together; Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā had already given a daughter to Sl. Maḥmūd Khān;[103] both now led their armies against `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā, the first advancing along the south of the Khujand Water, the second along its north. Meantime a strange event occurred. It has been mentioned [Sidenote: Fol. 6b] that the fort of Akhsī is situated above a deep ravine;[104] along this ravine stand the palace buildings, and from it, on Monday, Ramẓān 4, (June 8th.) `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā flew, with his pigeons and their house, and became a falcon.[105] He was 39 (lunar) years old, having been born in Samarkand, in 860AH. (1456AD.) He was Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's fourth son,[106] being younger than Sl. Aḥmad M. and Sl. Muḥammad M. and Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā. His father, Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā, was the son of Sl. Muḥammad Mīrzā, son of Tīmūr Beg's third son, Mīrān-shāh M. and was younger than `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā, (the elder) and Jahāngīr M. but older than Shāhrukh Mīrzā. _c. `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's country._
899.2.4
His father first gave him Kābul and, with Bābā-i-Kābulī[107] for his guardian, had allowed him to set out, but recalled him from the Tamarisk Valley[108] to Samarkand, on account of the Mīrzās' Circumcision Feast. When the Feast was over, he gave him Andijān with the appropriateness that Tīmūr Beg had given Farghāna (Andijān) to his son, the elder `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā. This done, he sent him off with Khudāī-bīrdī _Tūghchī Tīmūr-tāsh_[109] for his guardian. _d. His appearance and characteristics._ He was a short and stout, round-bearded and fleshy-faced [Sidenote: Fol. 7.] person.[110] He used to wear his tunic so very tight that to fasten the strings he had to draw his belly in and, if he let himself out after tying them, they often tore away. He was not choice in dress or food. He wound his turban in a fold (_dastar-pech_); all turbans were in four folds (_chār-pech_) in those days; people wore them without twisting and let the ends hang down.[111] In the heats and except in his Court, he generally wore the Mughūl cap. _e. His qualities and habits._
899.2.5
He was a true believer (_Ḥanafī maẕhablīk_) and pure in the Faith, not neglecting the Five Prayers and, his life through, making up his Omissions.[112] He read the Qur'ān very frequently and was a disciple of his Highness Khwāja `Ubaidu'l-lāh (_Aḥrārī_) who honoured him by visits and even called him son. His current readings[113] were the two Quintets and the _Mas̤nawī_;[114] of histories he read chiefly the _Shāh-nāma_. He had a poetic nature, but no taste for composing verses. He was so just that when he heard of a caravan returning from Khitāī as overwhelmed by snow in the mountains of Eastern Andijān,[115] and that of its thousand heads of houses (_awīlūq_) two only had escaped, he sent his overseers to take charge of all goods and, though no heirs were [Sidenote: Fol. 7b.] near and though he was in want himself, summoned the heirs from Khurāsān and Samarkand, and in the course of a year or two had made over to them all their property safe and sound. He was very generous; in truth, his character rose altogether to the height of generosity. He was affable, eloquent and sweet-spoken, daring and bold. Twice out-distancing all his braves,[116] he got to work with his own sword, once at the Gate of Akhsī, once at the Gate of Shāhrukhiya. A middling archer, he was strong in the fist,—not a man but fell to his blow. Through his ambition, peace was exchanged often for war, friendliness for hostility.
899.2.6
In his early days he was a great drinker, later on used to have a party once or twice a week. He was good company, on occasions reciting verses admirably. Towards the last he rather preferred intoxicating confects[117] and, under their sway, used to lose his head. His disposition[118] was amorous, and he bore many a lover's mark.[119] He played draughts a good deal, sometimes even threw the dice. _f. His battles and encounters._ He fought three ranged battles, the first with Yūnas Khān, [Sidenote: Fol. 8.] on the Saiḥūn, north of Andijān, at the Goat-leap,[120] a village so-called because near it the foot-hills so narrow the flow of the water that people say goats leap across.[121] There he was beaten and made prisoner. Yūnas Khān for his part did well by him and gave him leave to go to his own district (Andijān). This fight having been at that place, the Battle of the Goat-leap became a date in those parts. His second battle was fought on the Urūs,[122] in Turkistān, with Aūzbegs returning from a raid near Samarkand. He crossed the river on the ice, gave them a good beating, separated off all their prisoners and booty and, without coveting a single thing for himself, gave everything back to its owners. His third battle he fought with (his brother) Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā at a place between Shāhrukhiya and Aūrā-tīpā, named Khwāṣ.[123] Here he was beaten. _g. His country._
899.2.7
The Farghāna country his father had given him; Tāshkīnt and Sairām, his elder brother, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā gave, and they were in his possession for a time; Shāhrukhiya he took by a ruse and held awhile. Later on, Tāshkīnt and Shāhrukhiya passed out of his hands; there then remained the Farghāna country and Khujand,—some do not include Khujand in [Sidenote: Fol. 8b.] Farghāna,—and Aūrā-tīpā, of which the original name was Aūrūshnā and which some call Aūrūsh. In Aūrā-tīpā, at the time Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā went to Tāshkīnt against the Mughūls, and was beaten on the Chīr[124] (893AH.-1488AD.) was Ḥafiẓ Beg _Dūldāī_; he made it over to `Umar Shaikh M. and the Mīrzā held it from that time forth. _h. His children._ Three of his sons and five of his daughters grew up. I, Z̤ahīru'd-dīn Muḥammad Bābur,[125] was his eldest son; my mother was Qūtlūq-nigār Khānīm. Jahāngīr Mīrzā was his second son, two years younger than I; his mother, Fāṯima-sulṯān by name, was of the Mughūl _tūmān_-begs.[126] Nāṣir Mīrzā was his third son; his mother was an Andijānī, a mistress,[127] named Umīd. He was four years younger than I.
899.2.8
`Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's eldest daughter was Khān-zāda Begīm,[128] my full sister, five years older than I. The second time I took Samarkand (905AH.-1500AD.), spite of defeat at Sar-i-pul,[129] I went back and held it through a five months' siege, but as no sort of help or reinforcement came from any beg or ruler thereabouts, I left it in despair and got away; in that throneless time (_fatrat_) Khān-zāda Begīm fell[130] to Muḥammad _Shaibānī_ Khān. She had one child by him, a pleasant boy,[131] [Sidenote: Fol. 9.] named Khurram Shāh. The Balkh country was given to him; he went to God's mercy a few years after the death of his father (916AH.-1510AD.). Khān-zāda Begīm was in Merv when Shāh Ismā`īl (_Ṣafawī_) defeated the Aūzbegs near that town (916AH.-1510AD.); for my sake he treated her well, giving her a sufficient escort to Qūndūz where she rejoined me. We had been apart for some ten years; when Muḥammadī _kūkūldāsh_ and I went to see her, neither she nor those about her knew us, although I spoke. They recognized us after a time.