[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Mughals (1526–1857)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal) › [Bābur (1526–1530)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur) › [Bāburnāma](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama) › [The Babur-nama in English (A. S. Beveridge)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge) › 903.4 # The Memoirs of Bābur 903.4 The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 903.4 - **Language:** English ### [903.4.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4.1) Such letters! so anxious, so beseeching, coming from my mothers, that is from my own and hers, Aīsān-daulat Begīm, and from my teacher and spiritual guide, that is, Khwāja-i-maulānā-i-qāẓī, with what heart would a man not move? We left Samarkand for Andijān on a Saturday in Rajab (Feb.-March), when I had ruled 100 days in the town. It was \[Sidenote: Fol. 53b.\] Saturday again when we reached Khujand and on that day a person brought news from Andijān, that seven days before, that is on the very day we had left Samarkand, \`Alī-dost T̤aghāī had surrendered Andijān. These are the particulars;—The servant of Aūzūn Ḥasan who, after seeing me, was allowed to leave, had gone to Andijān and there said, 'The \_pādshāh\_ cannot speak and they are dropping water into his mouth with cotton.' Having gone and made these assertions in the ordinary way, he took oath in \`Alī-dost T̤aghāī's presence. \`Alī-dost T̤aghāī was in the Khākān Gate. Becoming without footing through this matter, he invited the opposite party into the fort, made covenant and treaty with them, and surrendered Andijān. Of provisions and of fighting men, there was no lack whatever; the starting point of the surrender was the cowardice of that false and faithless manikin; what was told him, he made a pretext to put himself in the right. ### [903.4.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4.2) When the enemy, after taking possession of Andijān, heard of my arrival in Khujand, they martyred Khwāja-i-maulānā-i-qāẓī by hanging him, with dishonour, in the Gate of the citadel. \[Sidenote: Fol. 54.\] He had come to be known as Khwāja-maulānā-i-qāẓī but his own name was \`Abdu'l-lāh. On his father's side, his line went back to Shaikh Burhānu'd-dīn \`Alī \_Qīlīch\_, on his mother's to Sl. Aīlīk \_Māẓī\_. This family had come to be the Religious Guides (\_muqtadā\_) and pontiff (\_Shaikhu'l-islām\_) and Judge (\_qāẓī\_) in the Farghāna country.\[417\] He was a disciple of his Highness \`Ubaidu'l-lāh (\_Aḥrārī\_) and from him had his upbringing. I have no doubt he was a saint (\_walī\_); what better witnesses to his sanctity than the fact that within a short time, no sign or trace remained of those active for his death? He was a wonderful man; it was not in him to be afraid; in no other man was seen such courage as his. This quality is a further witness to his sanctity. Other men, however bold, have anxieties and tremours; he had none. When they had killed him, they seized and plundered those connected with him, retainers and servants, tribesmen and followers. ### [903.4.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4.3) In anxiety for Andijān, we had given Samarkand out of our hands; then heard we had lost Andijān. It was like the saying, 'In ignorance, made to leave this place, shut out from that' (\_Ghafil az īn jā rānda, az ān jā mānda\_). It was very hard and vexing to me; for why? never since I had ruled, had I been cut \[Sidenote: Fol. 54b.\] off like this from my retainers and my country; never since I had known myself, had I known such annoyance and such hardship. (\_f. Bābur's action from Khujand as his base.\_) On our arrival in Khujand, certain hypocrites, not enduring to see Khalīfa in my Gate, had so wrought on Muḥammad Ḥusain Mīrzā \_Dūghlāt\_ and others that he was dismissed towards Tāshkīnt. To Tāshkīnt also Qāsim Beg \_Qūchīn\_ had been sent earlier, in order to ask The Khān's help for a move on Andijān. The Khān consented to give it and came himself by way of the Ahangarān Dale,\[418\] to the foot of the Kīndīrlīk Pass.\[419\] There I went also, from Khujand, and saw my Khān dādā.\[420\] We then crossed the pass and halted on the Akhsī side. The enemy for their part, gathered their men and went to Akhsī. ### [903.4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4.4) Just at that time, the people in Pāp\[421\] sent me word they had made fast the fort but, owing to something misleading in The Khān's advance, the enemy stormed and took it. Though The Khān had other good qualities and was in other ways businesslike, he was much without merit as a soldier and commander. Just when matters were at the point that if he made one more march, it was most probable the country would be had without fighting, at such a time! he gave ear to what the enemy said with alloy of deceit, spoke of peace and, as his messengers, sent them Khwāja Abū'l-makāram and his own \[Sidenote: Fol. 55.\] Lord of the Gate, Beg \_Tilba\_ (Fool), \_Taṃbal's\_ elder brother. To save themselves those others (\_i.e.\_ Ḥasan and Taṃbal) mixed something true with what they fabled and agreed to give gifts and bribes either to The Khān or to his intermediaries. With this, The Khān retired. ### [903.4.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4.5) As the families of most of my begs and household and braves were in Andijān, 7 or 800 of the great and lesser begs and bare braves, left us in despair of our taking the place. Of the begs were \`Alī-darwesh Beg, \`Alī-mazīd \_Qūchīn\_, Muḥammad Bāqir Beg, Shaikh \`Abdu'l-lāh, Lord of the Gate and Mīrīm \_Lāgharī\_. Of men choosing exile and hardship with me, there may have been, of good and bad, between 200 and 300. Of begs there were Qāsim \_Qūchīn\_ Beg, Wais \_Lāgharī\_ Beg, Ibrāhīm \_Sārū Mīnglīgh\_ Beg, Shīrīm T̤aghāī, Sayyidī Qarā Beg; and of my household, Mīr Shāh \_Qūchīn\_, Sayyid Qāsim \_Jalāīr\_, Lord of the Gate, Qāsim-\`ajab, \`Alī-dost T̤aghāī's (son) Muḥammad-dost, Muḥammad-\`alī \_Mubashir\_,\[422\] Khudāī-bīrdī \_Tūghchī Mughūl\_, Yārīk T̤aghāī, Bābā \`Alī's (son) Bābā Qulī, Pīr Wais, Shaikh Wais, \[Sidenote: Fol. 55b.\] Yār-\`alī \_Balāl\_,\[423\] Qāsim \_Mīr Akhwūr\_ (Chief Equerry) and Ḥaidar \_Rikābdār\_ (stirrup-holder). It came very hard on me; I could not help crying a good deal. Back I went to Khujand and thither they sent me my mother and my grandmother and the families of some of the men with me. ### [903.4.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4.6) That Ramẓān (April-May) we spent in Khujand, then mounted for Samarkand. We had already sent to ask The Khān's help; he assigned, to act with us against Samarkand, his son, Sl. Muḥammad (Sulṯānīm) Khānika and (his son's guardian) Aḥmad Beg with 4 or 5000 men and rode himself as far as Aūrā-tīpā. There I saw him and from there went on by way of Yār-yīlāq, past the Būrka-yīlāq Fort, the head-quarters of the sub-governor (\_dārogha\_) of the district. Sl. Muḥammad Sulṯān and Aḥmad Beg, riding light and by another road, got to Yār-yīlāq first but on their hearing that Shaibānī Khān was raiding Shīrāz and thereabouts, turned back. There was no help for it! Back I too had to go. Again I went to Khujand! ### [903.4.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4.7) As there was in me ambition for rule and desire of conquest, I did not sit at gaze when once or twice an affair had made no progress. Now I myself, thinking to make another move for \[Sidenote: Fol. 56.\] Andijān, went to ask The Khān's help. Over and above this, it was seven or eight years since I had seen Shāh Begīm\[424\] and other relations; they also were seen under the same pretext. After a few days, The Khān appointed Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusain (\_Dūghlāt\_) and Ayūb \_Begchīk\_ and Jān-ḥasan \_Bārīn\_ with 7 or 8000 men to help us. With this help we started, rode light, through Khujand without a halt, left Kand-i-badām on the left and so to Nasūkh, 9 or 10 \_yīghāch\_ of road beyond Khujand and 3 \_yīghāch\_ (12-18 m.) from Kand-i-badām, there set our ladders up and took the fort. It was the melon season; one kind grown here, known as Ismā\`īl Shaikhī, has a yellow rind, feels like shagreen leather, has seeds like an apple's and flesh four fingers thick. It is a wonderfully delicate melon; no other such grows thereabout. Next day the Mughūl begs represented to me, 'Our fighting men are few; to what would holding this one fort lead on?' In truth they were right; of what use was it to make that fort fast and stay there? Back once more to Khujand! (\_f. Affairs of Khusrau Shāh and the Tīmūrid Mīrzās\_.)\[425\] ### [903.4.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4.8) This year Khusrau Shāh, taking Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā with him, led his army (from Qūndūz) to Chaghānīān and with false and treacherous intent, sent this message to Ḥiṣār for Sl. Mas\`ūd Mīrzā, 'Come, betake yourself to Samarkand; if \[Sidenote: Fol. 56b.\] Samarkand is taken, one Mīrzā may seat himself there, the other in Ḥiṣār.' Just at the time, the Mīrzā's begs and household were displeased with him, because he had shewn excessive favour to his father-in-law, Shaikh \`Abdu'l-lāh \_Barlās\_ who from Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā had gone to him. Small district though Ḥiṣār is, the Mīrzā had made the Shaikh's allowance 1,000 \_tūmāns\_ of \_fulūs\_\[426\] and had given him the whole of Khutlān in which were the holdings of many of the Mīrzā's begs and household. All this Shaikh \`Abdu'l-lāh had; he and his sons took also in whole and in part, the control of the Mīrzā's gate. Those angered began, one after the other, to desert to Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā. ### [903.4.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4.9) By those words of false alloy, having put Sl. Mas\`ūd Mīrzā off his guard, Khusrau Shāh and Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā moved light out of Chaghānīān, surrounded Ḥiṣār and, at beat of morning-drum, took possession of it. Sl. Mas\`ūd Mīrzā was in Daulat Sarāī, a house his father had built in the suburbs. Not being able to get into the fort, he drew off towards Khutlān with Shaikh \`Abu'l-lāh \_Barlās\_, parted from him half-way, crossed the river at the Aūbāj ferry and betook himself to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā. Khusrau Shāh, having taken Ḥiṣār, set Bāī-sunghar \[Sidenote: Fol. 57.\] Mīrzā on the throne, gave Khutlān to his own younger brother, Walī and rode a few days later, to lay siege to Balkh where, with many of his father's begs, was Ibrāhīm Ḥusain Mīrzā (\_Bāī-qarā\_). He sent Naẕar \_Bahādur\_, his chief retainer, on in advance with 3 or 400 men to near Balkh, and himself taking Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā with him, followed and laid the siege. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.903.4) · Pramāṇa