The Memoirs of Bābur 900
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 900
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Contents
900.1.1
900 AH.-OCT. 2ND. 1494 TO SEP. 21ST. 1495 AD.[232] This year Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā sent an envoy, named `Abdu'l-qadūs Beg,[233] to bring me a gift from the wedding he had made with splendid festivity for his eldest son, Mas`ūd Mīrzā with (Ṣāliḥa-sulṯān), the Fair Begīm, the second daughter of his elder brother, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā. They had sent gold and silver almonds and pistachios. There must have been relationship between this envoy and Ḥasan-i-yaq`ūb, and on its account he will have been the man sent to make Ḥasan-i-yaq`ūb, by fair promises, look towards Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā. Ḥasan-i-yaq`ūb returned him a smooth answer, made indeed as though won over to his side, and gave him leave to go. Five or six months later, his manners changed entirely; he began to behave ill to those about me and to others, and he carried matters so far that he would have dismissed me in order to put Jahāngīr Mīrzā in my place. Moreover his conversation with the whole body of begs and soldiers was not what should be; every-one came to know what was in his mind. Khwāja-i-Qāzī and (Sayyid) Qāsim _Qūchīn_ and `Alī-dost T̤aghāī met other well-wishers of mine in the presence of my grandmother, Āīsān-daulat Begīm and decided to give quietus to Ḥasan-i-yaq`ūb's disloyalty by his deposition.
900.1.2
Few amongst women will have been my grandmother's equals for judgment and counsel; she was very wise and far-sighted and most affairs of mine were carried through under her advice. She and my mother were (living) in the Gate-house of the outer fort;[234] Ḥasan-i-yaq`ūb was in the citadel. When I went to the citadel, in pursuance of our decision, he had ridden out, presumably for hawking, and as soon as he had [Sidenote: Fol. 25.] our news, went off from where he was towards Samarkand. The begs and others in sympathy with him,[235] were arrested; one was Muḥammad Bāqir Beg; Sl. Maḥmud _Dūldāī_, Sl. Muḥammad _Dūldāī's_ father, was another; there were several more; to some leave was given to go for Samarkand. The Andijān Government and control of my Gate were settled on (Sayyid) Qāsim _Qūchīn_. A few days after Ḥasan-i-yaq`ūb reached Kand-i-badām on the Samarkand road, he went to near the Khūqān sub-division (_aūrchīn_) with ill-intent on Akhsī. Hearing of it, we sent several begs and braves to oppose him; they, as they went, detached a scouting party ahead; he, hearing this, moved against the detachment, surrounded it in its night-quarters[236] and poured flights of arrows (_shība_) in on it. In the darkness of the night an arrow (_aūq_), shot by one of his own men, hit him just (_aūq_) in the vent (_qāchār_) and before he could take vent (_qāchār_),[237] he became the captive of his own act. "If you have done ill, keep not an easy mind, For retribution is Nature's law."[238]
900.1.3
This year I began to abstain from all doubtful food, my obedience extended even to the knife, the spoon and the table-cloth;[239] also the after-midnight Prayer (_taḥajjud_) was [Sidenote: Fol. 25b.] less neglected. (_a. Death of Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā._) In the month of the latter Rabī` (January 1495 AD.), Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā was confronted by violent illness and in six days, passed from the world. He was 43 (lunar) years old. _b. His birth and lineage._ He was born in 857 AH. (1453 AD.), was Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's third son and the full-brother of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā.[240] _c. His appearance and characteristics._
900.1.4
He was a short, stout, sparse-bearded and somewhat ill-shaped person. His manners and his qualities were good, his rules and methods of business excellent; he was well-versed in accounts, not a _dinār_ or a _dirhām_[241] of revenue was spent without his knowledge. The pay of his servants was never disallowed. His assemblies, his gifts, his open table, were all good. Everything of his was orderly and well-arranged;[242] no soldier or peasant could deviate in the slightest from any plan of his. Formerly he must have been hard set (_qātīrār_) on hawking but latterly he very frequently hunted driven game.[243] He carried violence and vice to frantic excess, was a constant wine-bibber and kept many catamites. If anywhere in his territory, there was a handsome boy, he used, by whatever means, to have him brought for a catamite; of his begs' sons and of his sons' begs' sons he made catamites; and laid command for this service on [Sidenote: Fol. 26.] his very foster brothers and on their own brothers. So common in his day was that vile practice, that no person was without his catamite; to keep one was thought a merit, not to keep one, a defect. Through his infamous violence and vice, his sons died in the day of their strength (_tamām juwān_).
900.1.5
He had a taste for poetry and put a _dīwān_[244] together but his verse is flat and insipid,—not to compose is better than to compose verse such as his. He was not firm in the Faith and held his Highness Khwāja `Ubaidu'l-lāh (_Aḥrārī_) in slight esteem. He had no heart (_yūruk_) and was somewhat scant in modesty,—several of his impudent buffoons used to do their filthy and abominable acts in his full Court, in all men's sight. He spoke badly, there was no understanding him at first. _d. His battles._ He fought two battles, both with Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā (_Bāīqarā_). The first was in Astarābād; here he was defeated. The second was at Chīkman (Sarāī),[245] near Andikhūd; here also he was defeated. He went twice to Kāfiristān, on the [Sidenote: Fol. 26b.] south of Badakhshān, and made Holy War; for this reason they wrote him Sl. Maḥmūd _Ghāzī_ in the headings of his public papers. _e. His countries._
900.1.6
Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā gave him Astarābād.[246] After the `Irāq disaster (_i.e._, his father's death,) he went into Khurāsān. At that time, Qaṃbar-`alī Beg, the governor of Ḥiṣār, by Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's orders, had mobilized the Hindūstān[247] army and was following him into `Irāq; he joined Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā in Khurāsān but the Khurāsānīs, hearing of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's approach, rose suddenly and drove them out of the country. On this Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā went to his elder brother, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā in Samarkand. A few months later Sayyid Badr and Khusrau Shāh and some braves under Aḥmad _Mushtāq_[248] took him and fled to Qaṃbar-`alī in Ḥiṣār. From that time forth, Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā possessed the countries lying south of Quhqa (Quhlugha) and the Kohtin Range as far as the Hindū-kush Mountains, such as Tīrmīẕ, Chaghānīān, Ḥiṣār, Khutlān, Qūndūz and Badakhshān. He also held Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's lands, after his brother's death. _f. His children._ He had five sons and eleven daughters.
900.1.7
Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā was his eldest son; his mother was Khān-zāda [Sidenote: Fol 27.] Begīm, a daughter of the Great Mīr of Tīrmīẕ. Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā was another; his mother was Pasha (or Pāshā) Begīm. Sl. `Alī Mīrzā was another; his mother was an Aūzbeg, a concubine called Zuhra Begī Āghā. Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā was another; his mother was Khān-zāda Begīm, a grand-daughter of the Great Mīr of Tīrmīẕ; he went to God's mercy in his father's life-time, at the age of 13. Sl. Wais Mīrzā (Mīrzā Khān) was another; his mother, Sulṯān-nigār Khānīm was a daughter of Yūnas Khān and was a younger (half-) sister of my mother. The affairs of these four Mīrzās will be written of in this history under the years of their occurrence. Of Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā's daughters, three were by the same mother as Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā. One of these, Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā's senior, Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā made to go out to Malik-i-muḥammad Mīrzā, the son of his paternal uncle, Minūchihr Mīrzā.[249] * * * * * Five other daughters were by Khān-zāda Begīm, the grand-daughter of the Great Mīr of Tīrmīẕ. The oldest of these, (Khān-zāda Begīm)[250] was given, after her father's death, to Abā-bikr [Sidenote: Fol. 27b.] (_Dūghlāt_) _Kāshgharī_. The second was Bega Begīm. When Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā besieged Ḥiṣār (901 AH.), he took her for Ḥaidar Mīrzā, his son by Pāyanda Begīm, Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's daughter, and having done so, rose from before the place.[251] The third daughter was Āq (Fair) Begīm;
900.1.8
the fourth[252]—,was betrothed to Jahāngīr Mīrzā (_aet._ 5, _circa_ 895 AH.) at the time his father, `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā sent him to help Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā with the Andijān army, against Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, then attacking Qūndūz.[253] In 910 AH. (1504 AD.) when Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_[254] waited on me on the bank of the Amū (Oxus), these (last-named two) Begīms were with their mothers in Tīrmīẕ and joined me then with Bāqī's family. When we reached Kahmard, Jahāngīr Mīrzā took —-- Begīm; one little daughter was born; she now[255] is in the Badakhshān country with her grandmother. The fifth daughter was Zainab-sulṯān Begīm; under my mother's insistence, I took her at the time of the capture of Kābul (910 AH.-Oct. 1504 AD.). She did not become very congenial; two or three years later, she left the world, through small-pox. Another daughter was Makhdūm-sulṯān Begīm, Sl. `Alī Mīrzā's full-sister; she is now in the Badakhshān country. Two others of his daughters, Rajab-sulṯān and Muḥibb-sulṯān, were by mistresses (_ghūnchachī_).
900.2.1
_g. His ladies_ (_khwātīnlār_) _and concubines_ (_sarārī_). His chief wife, Khān-zāda Begīm, was a daughter of the [Sidenote: Fol. 28.] Great Mīr of Tirmīẕ; he had great affection for her and must have mourned her bitterly; she was the mother of Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā. Later on, he took her brother's daughter, also called Khān-zāda Begīm, a grand-daughter of the Great Mīr of Tīrmīẕ. She became the mother of five of his daughters and one of his sons. Pasha (or Pāshā) Begīm was another wife, a daughter of `Alī-shukr Beg, a Turkmān Beg of the Black Sheep Bahārlū Aīmāq.[256] She had been the wife of Jahān-shāh (_Barānī_) of the Black Sheep Turkmāns. After Aūzūn (Long) Ḥasan Beg of the White Sheep had taken Āẕar-bāījān and `Irāq from the sons of this Jahān-shāh Mīrzā (872 AH.-1467 AD.), `Alī-shukr Beg's sons went with four or five thousand heads-of-houses of the Black Sheep Turkmāns to serve Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā and after the Mīrzā's defeat (873 AH. by Aūzūn Ḥasan), came down to these countries and took service with Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā. This happened after Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā came to Ḥiṣār from Samarkand, and then it was he took Pasha Begīm. She became the mother of one of his sons and three of his daughters. Sulṯān-nigār Khānīm was another of his ladies; her descent has been mentioned already in the account of the (Chaghatāī) Khāns. [Sidenote: Fol. 28b.]
900.2.2
He had many concubines and mistresses. His most honoured concubine (_mu`atabar ghūma_) was Zuhra Begī Āghā; she was taken in his father's life-time and became the mother of one son and one daughter. He had many mistresses and, as has been said, two of his daughters were by two of them. _h. His amirs._
900.2.3
Khusrau Shāh was of the Turkistānī Qīpchāqs. He had been in the intimate service of the Tarkhān begs, indeed had been a catamite. Later on he became a retainer of Mazīd Beg (Tarkhān) _Arghūn_ who favoured him in all things. He was favoured by Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā on account of services done by him when, after the `Irāq disaster, he joined the Mīrzā on his way to Khurāsān. He waxed very great in his latter days; his retainers, under Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā, were a clear five or six thousand. Not only Badakhshān but the whole country from the Amū to the Hindū-kush Mountains depended on him and he devoured its whole revenue (_darobast yīr īdī_). His open table was good, so too his open hand; though he was a rough getter,[257] what he got, he spent liberally. He waxed exceeding great after Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā's death, in whose sons' time his retainers approached 20,000. Although he prayed and abstained from forbidden aliments, yet was he black-souled and vicious, [Sidenote: Fol. 29.] dunder-headed and senseless, disloyal and a traitor to his salt. For the sake of this fleeting, five-days world,[258] he blinded one of his benefactor's sons and murdered another. A sinner before God, reprobate to His creatures, he has earned curse and execration till the very verge of Resurrection. For this world's sake he did his evil deeds and yet, with lands so broad and with such hosts of armed retainers, he had not pluck to stand up to a hen. An account of him will come into this history.
900.2.4
Pīr-i-muḥammad _Aīlchī-būghā[259] Qūchīn_ was another. In Hazārāspī's fight[260] he got in one challenge with his fists in Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's presence at the Gate of Balkh. He was a brave man, continuously serving the Mīrzā (Maḥmūd) and guiding him by his counsel. Out of rivalry to Khusrau Shāh, he made a night-attack when the Mīrzā was besieging Qūndūz, on Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, with few men, without arming[261] and without plan; he could do nothing; what was there he could do against such and so large a force? He was pursued, threw himself into the river and was drowned. Ayūb (_Begchīk Mughūl_)[262] was another. He had served in Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's Khurāsān Cadet Corps, a brave man, Bāīsunghar Mīrzā's guardian. He was choice in dress and food; a jester and talkative, nicknamed Impudence, perhaps because the Mīrzā called him so. [Sidenote: Fol. 29b.]
900.2.5
Walī was another, the younger, full-brother of Khusrau Shāh. He kept his retainers well. He it was brought about the blinding of Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā and the murder of Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā. He had an ill-word for every-one and was an evil-tongued, foul-mouthed, self-pleasing and dull-witted mannikin. He approved of no-one but himself. When I went from the Qūndūz country to near Dūshī (910 AH.-1503 AD.), separated Khusrau Shāh from his following and dismissed him, this person (_i.e._, Walī) had come to Andar-āb and Sīr-āb, also in fear of the Aūzbegs. The Aīmāqs of those parts beat and robbed him[263] then, having let me know, came on to Kābul. Walī went to Shaibānī Khān who had his head struck off in the town of Samarkand. Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh _Barlās_[264] was another; he had to wife one of the daughters of Shāh Sulṯān Muḥammad (_Badakhshī_) _i.e._, the maternal aunt of Abā-bikr Mīrzā (_Mīrān-shāhī_) and of Sl. Maḥmūd Khān. He wore his tunic narrow and _pur shaqq_[265]; he was a kindly well-bred man.
900.2.6
Maḥmūd _Barlās_ of the Barlāses of Nūndāk (Badakhshān) was another. He had been a beg also of Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā and had surrendered Karmān to him when the Mīrzā took the `Irāq countries. When Abā-bikr Mīrzā (_Mīrān-shāhī_) came [Sidenote: Fol. 30.] against Ḥiṣār with Mazīd Beg Tarkhān and the Black Sheep Turkmāns, and Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā went off to his elder brother, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā in Samarkand, Maḥmūd _Barlās_ did not surrender Ḥiṣār but held out manfully.[266] He was a poet and put a _dīwān_ together. (_i. Historical narrative resumed_). When Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā died, Khusrau Shāh kept the event concealed and laid a long hand on the treasure. But how could such news be hidden? It spread through the town at once. That was a festive day for the Samarkand families; soldier and peasant, they uprose in tumult against Khusrau Shāh. Aḥmad Ḥājī Beg and the Tarkhānī begs put the rising down and turned Khusrau Shāh out of the town with an escort for Ḥiṣār. As Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā himself after giving Ḥiṣār to Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā and Bukhārā to Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā, had dismissed both to their governments, neither was present when he died. The Ḥiṣār and Samarkand begs, after turning Khusrau Shāh out, agreed to send for Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā from Bukhārā, brought him to Samarkand and seated him on the throne. When he thus became supreme (_pādshāh_), he was 18 (lunar) years old.
900.2.7
At this crisis, Sl. Maḥmūd Khān (_Chaghatāī_), acting on the [Sidenote: Fol. 30b.] word of Junaid _Barlās_ and of some of the notables of Samarkand, led his army out to near Kān-bāī with desire to take that town. Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā, on his side, marched out in force. They fought near Kān-bāī. Ḥaidar _Kūkūldāsh_, the main pillar of the Mughūl army, led the Mughūl van. He and all his men dismounted and were pouring in flights of arrows (_shība_) when a large body of the mailed braves of Ḥiṣār and Samarkand made an impetuous charge and straightway laid them under their horses' feet. Their leader taken, the Mughūl army was put to rout without more fighting. Masses (_qālīn_) of Mughūls were wiped out; so many were beheaded in Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā's presence that his tent was three times shifted because of the number of the dead. At this same crisis, Ibrāhīm _Sārū_ entered the fort of Asfara, there read Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā's name in the _Khuṯba_ and took up a position of hostility to me. (_Author's note._) Ibrāhīm _Sārū_ is of the Mīnglīgh people;[267] he had served my father in various ways from his childhood but later on had been dismissed for some fault.
900.2.8
[Sidenote: Fol. 31.] The army rode out to crush this rebellion in the month of Sha'bān (May) and by the end of it, had dismounted round Asfara. Our braves in the wantonness of enterprise, on the very day of arrival, took the new wall[268] that was in building outside the fort. That day Sayyid Qāsim, Lord of my Gate, out-stripped the rest and got in with his sword; Sl. Aḥmad _Taṃbal_ and Muḥammad-dost T̤aghāī got theirs in also but Sayyid Qāsim won the Champion's Portion. He took it in Shāhrukhiya when I went to see my mother's brother, Sl. Maḥmūd Khān. (_Author's note._) The Championship Portion[269] is an ancient usage of the Mughūl horde. Whoever outdistanced his tribe and got in with his own sword, took the portion at every feast and entertainment. My guardian, Khudāī-bīrdī Beg died in that first day's fighting, struck by a cross-bow arrow. As the assault was made without armour, several bare braves (_yīkīt yīlāng_)[270] perished and many were wounded. One of Ibrāhīm _Sārū's_ cross-bowmen was an excellent shot; his equal had never been seen; he it was hit most of those wounded. When Asfara had been taken, he entered my service.
900.2.9
As the siege drew on, orders were given to construct head-strikes[271] in two or three places, to run mines and to make every [Sidenote: Fol. 31b.] effort to prepare appliances for taking the fort. The siege lasted 40 days; at last Ibrāhīm _Sārū_ had no resource but, through the mediation of Khwāja Moulānā-i-qāẓī, to elect to serve me. In the month of Shawwāl (June 1495 A.D.) he came out, with his sword and quiver hanging from his neck, waited on me and surrendered the fort.
900.3
Khujand for a considerable time had been dependent on `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's Court (_dīwān_) but of late had looked towards Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā on account of the disturbance in the Farghāna government during the interregnum.[272] As the opportunity offered, a move against it also was now made. Mīr Mughūl's father, `Abdu'l-wahhāb _Shaghāwal_[273] was in it; he surrendered without making any difficulty at once on our arrival.
Just then Sl. Maḥmūd Khān was in Shāhrukhiya. It has been said already that when Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā came into Andijān (899 AH.), he also came and that he laid siege to Akhsī. It occurred to me that if since I was so close, I went and waited on him, he being, as it were, my father and my elder brother, and if bye-gone resentments were laid aside, it would be good hearing and seeing for far and near. So said, I went.
I waited on The Khān in the garden Ḥaidar _Kūkūldāsh_ had made outside Shāhrukhiya. He was seated in a large four-doored [Sidenote: Fol. 32.] tent set up in the middle of it. Having entered the tent, I knelt three times,[274] he for his part, rising to do me honour. We looked one another in the eyes;[275] and he returned to his seat. After I had kneeled, he called me to his side and shewed me much affection and friendliness. Two or three days later, I set off for Akhsī and Andijān by the Kīndīrlīk Pass.[276] At Akhsī I made the circuit of my Father's tomb. I left at the hour of the Friday Prayer (_i.e._, about midday) and reached Andijān, by the Band-i-sālār Road between the Evening and Bedtime Prayers. This road _i.e._ the Band-i-sālār, people call a nine _yīghāch_ road.[277]
One of the tribes of the wilds of Andijān is the Jīgrāk[278] a numerous people of five or six thousand households, dwelling in the mountains between Kāshghar and Farghāna. They have many horses and sheep and also numbers of yāks (_qūtās_), these hill-people keeping yāks instead of common cattle. As their mountains are border-fastnesses, they have a fashion of not paying tribute. An army was now sent against them under (Sayyid) Qāsim Beg in order that out of the tribute taken from them something might reach the soldiers. He took about 20,000 of their sheep and between 1000 and 1500 of their horses and shared all out to the men.
After its return from the Jīgrāk, the army set out for Aūrā-tīpā. [Sidenote: Fol. 34.] Formerly this was held by `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā but it had gone out of hand in the year of his death and Sl. `Alī Mīrzā was now in it on behalf of his elder brother, Bāīsunghar Mīrzā. When Sl. `Alī Mīrzā heard of our coming, he went off himself to the Macha hill-country, leaving his guardian, Shaikh Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_ behind. From half-way between Khujand and Aūrā-tīpā, Khalīfa[279] was sent as envoy to Shaikh Ẕū'n-nūn but that senseless mannikin, instead of giving him a plain answer, laid hands on him and ordered him to death. For Khalīfa to die cannot have been the Divine will; he escaped and came to me two or three days later, stripped bare and having suffered a hundred _tūmāns_ (1,000,000) of hardships and fatigues. We went almost to Aūrā-tīpā but as, winter being near, people had carried away their corn and forage, after a few days we turned back for Andijān. After our retirement, The Khān's men moved on the place when the Aūrā-tīpā person[280] unable to make a stand, surrendered and came out. The Khān then gave it to Muḥammad Ḥusain _Kūrkān Dūghlāt_ and in his hands it remained till 908 AH. (1503).[281]