The Memoirs of Bābur 903.3.1

903.3.1

Samarkand has good _tūmāns_. One is Soghd with its dependencies. Its head Yār-yīlāq, its foot Bukhārā, there may be not one single _yīghāch_ of earth without its village and its cultivated lands. So famous is it that the saying attributed to Tīmūr Beg, 'I have a garden 30 _yīghāch_ long,[408] must have been spoken of Soghd. Another _tūmān_ is Shāvdār (var. Shādwār), an excellent one adjoining the town-suburbs. On one side it has the range (Aītmāk Dābān), lying between Samarkand and [Sidenote: Fol. 50.] Shahr-i-sabz, on the skirts of which are many of its villages. On the other side is the Kohik Water (_i.e._ the Dar-i-gham canal). There it lies! an excellent _tūmān_, with fine air, full of beauty, abounding in waters, its good things cheap. Observers of Egypt and Syria have not pointed out its match. Though Samarkand has other _tūmāns_, none rank with those enumerated; with so much, enough has been said. Tīmūr Beg gave the government of Samarkand to his eldest son, Jahāngīr Mīrzā (in 776 AH.-1375 AD.); when Jahāngīr Mīrzā died (805 AH.-1403 AD.), he gave it to the Mīrzā's eldest son, Muḥammad Sulṯān-i-jahāngīr; when Muḥammad Sulṯān Mīrzā died, it went to Shāh-rukh Mīrzā, Tīmūr Beg's youngest son. Shāh-rukh Mīrzā gave the whole of Mā warā'u'n-nahr (in 872 AH.-1467 AD.) to his eldest son, Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā. From him his own son, `Abdu'l-laṯīf Mīrzā took it, (853 AH.-1449 AD.), for the sake of this five days' fleeting world martyring a father so full of years and knowledge.